Read You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!: The Classic Self-Help Book for Adults With Attention Deficit Disorder for Free Online Page B

inefficient. With an impaired regulatory system, an ADDer may have wildly fluctuating behaviors from day to day or evenminute to minute. He may also have academic problems caused by erratic attention and information processing.
    The Wandering Mind Syndrome
    Most of us have minds that wander hither and yon. We daydream and drift among loosely and tenuously connected thoughts. As our own thoughts intrude, we change the subject and interrupt with irrelevant comments.
    Regardless of the “why” of distractibility, thebehaviors associated with it are often mistaken for rudeness or eccentricity. The wandering mind syndrome, like all ADD differences, has its pluses and minuses.
    On the minus side, an ADDer might engage in mental free flight when he should be working. Bosses regard his partially finished reports and unreturned phone calls as evidence of incompetence or a poor attitude. In conversations he maylisten with one ear but continue on some level to follow his own train of thought. It’s obvious to his boss or friend that he isn’t all there . His seeming uninterest doesn’t win friends or influence people!
    On the plus side, he can use his wandering mind to notice things others miss and make new and interesting connections between ideas. His creative mind can roam beyond convention into imaginationand possibilities.
    If an ADDer can learn to control his wandering thoughts and capitalize on their richness, he can discover a valuable asset. Think about the stereotype of the absentminded professor or the talented artist who has incredible gifts but stumbles alongtrying to manage the practical details of life. We don’t believe this stereotype is merely a myth. If we were to survey individualsin creative professions, we feel sure we would find a disproportionate number of ADD adults.
    One-Channel Operational System
    Most of us are equal opportunity attenders. We give everything and anything the opportunity to grab our attention! An ineffective filtering system makes us vulnerable to distracting stimuli in the environment and in our minds and bodies.
    It’s hard to get things done whenyou keep thinking about and responding to so many different things. The quality of the work you do manage to accomplish is often marginal because your focus is interrupted so much. Although some ADDers are able to juggle several things at once, many find this difficult, if not impossible.
    To accomplish anything, many of us have to operate on only one channel. Let’s use the metaphor of channelson a radio to understand the dynamics of one-channel operation.
    During a drive through the mountains, you may have to simultaneously listen to several stations as they fade in and out. You may spend a lot of time hitting the scan button, which is supposed to bring in the strongest channel. No sooner do you happily start singing along with your favorite song than it fades out as a stronger signaltakes over your radio.
    The normal brain doesn’t seem to have trouble with channel selection. When a non-ADDer prepares dinner, he selects the food channel. He can attend to this strong signal and cook the food without burning it. At the same time, his brain scans and locates other strong signals that bring in important information. He monitors the children channel and switches to it when a siblingargument arises.
    An ability to tune in several channels simultaneously is useful and essential. The radio in the ADD brain, however, seems tohave a malfunctioning scan button that won’t let him switch channels efficiently. Rather than pulling in the strong signal, it pulls in every channel within a thousand-mile radius! He keeps losing track of the channel he’s listening to.
    For many of us,the solution is to turn off the scan button. It’s the only way to prevent the weak channels from interfering with our attention to the one we’re trying to listen to. So we stay tuned in to only one channel. If we dare switch to the children channel, the pork chops become