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percentage of ADDers.
    Environmental Toxins
    There is ongoing debate about an increase in the numbers of children newly diagnosed with ADD. Since definitions of ADD have changed over time, particularly regarding hyperactivity, it’s difficult to analyze this increase. Some argue that the incidence hasn’t increased but that improved diagnostic methods have identified children with more subtle forms of the disorder.
    Others speculatethat environmental toxins play a role. It is undoubtedly true that environmental hazards are threatening our health. One-third of children with lead poisoning have symptoms of ADD. The role of other pollutants in causing or exacerbating ADD is a big question mark. It’s reasonable to suspect that they might play a part, as other substances do, in various patterns of neurological damage.
    Food Stuff
    Have you seen the cartoon illustrating a mother in the grocery store with her hyperactive child? While he runs up and down the aisles, she reads the label on a box that promises: “This cereal will take the hyperactivity right out of them!” If only that were true.
    Scientific studies have not backed up the claim that sugar causes hyperactivity. This may be a puzzling statement for parents who directlyobserve the unfortunate results of their child’s sugar binge. Scientific studies aside, if sugar seems to make your symptoms worse, it makes sense to eliminate it from your diet. Pediatrician and allergist Dr. Benjamin Feingold developed a special diet to eliminate food additives and salicylates. This diet did seem to relieve the symptoms in about 5 percent of ADD children. It is likely thatthere is a subgroup of ADDers who are sensitive to certain food substances.
    Other Medical Issues
    Some medical conditions create symptoms that look very much like ADD. A few examples are thyroid conditions, fibromyalgia and allergies. To make matters even more complicated, ADDerscan have both ADD and one or more other problems that muddy the diagnostic picture. Fibromyalgia, for example, seemsto travel along with ADD in many cases. It produces a syndrome that includes muscle pain as well as mental fogginess. Allergies can also interfere with mental functioning. A person with an overactive thyroid can be hard to distinguish from the hyperactive ADDult.
    The question to ask in these cases is not which one of the issues is causing the problem, but how to work with both in a way that maximizesfunctioning. For some people, taking care of the thyroid imbalance, for example, may be all the treatment that is needed.
    Information Explosion
    Some believe that the psychological hazards of our increasingly complex society contribute to the higher incidence of ADD. In his book Future Shock , Alvin Toffler predicted that dire psychological consequences would result from the rapid changes in modernsociety.
    The theory of information explosion has validity. Many people regarded as entirely normal in a simpler society could become overwhelmed by the demands of a fast-paced, complex one. This doesn’t mean that the psychological hazards cause ADD. It does seem logical, however, that they could make the symptoms more noticeable and disabling.
    Just a Bad Apple
    We doubt that anyone is doingresearch on this popular, unscientific theory! It goes like this: The erratic behavior of ADD children and adults is intentional, maliciously planned misbehavior.
    This variation on the theory of blame is based on the assumption that an ADDer can control his behavior but chooses not to. Of course, these theorists don’t have ADD and don’t have a clue as to what it’s like to live with the disorder.
    As an ADD adult, you didn’t ask to be born this way, but you do need to work hard to shoot holes in this theory. Using your disorder as an excuse for irresponsible behavior doesn’t help your personal growth and gives the Bad Apple theorists ammunition. All of us need to develop strategies to manage our symptoms, but we need to do it with