Adult ADD/ADHD: How Long Have You Been Trying To “Settle Down”?

Many people wonder what’s wrong with their children when they can’t seem to concentrate on one form of play for very long, when they won’t stop talking for what seems hours on endless hours, or how about when they won’t sit still in school?

The medical community has evaluated these symptoms and, in conjunction with other quirky behaviors that appear before these kids are seven years old, has christened this attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Both types of the disorder are similar, but some with the ADD variation do not have the problems associated with those of ADHD.

What doctors weren’t prepared to find was that 30 –50 percent of those children wouldn’t grow out of their symptoms. Then they discovered adult ADD/ADHD. So, grown people began to rummage the Internet looking for symptoms to see if their lives had been affected by ADD/ADHD and once they determined that they fit the profile, they wanted to learn how to control the disease.

Adult ADD/ADHD expert and hypnotherapist, Tellman Knudson said, “Once you realize that your ADD/ADHD symptoms can be your advantage, you have made the most important decision right there: to stop seeing yourself as a victim of ADD/ADHD symptoms, and see yourself as a person with amazing potential for success in anything you do.”

These are some of the symptoms doctors have pinpointed as indicative of attention deficit disorder:

·You fail to pay attention to details or are careless in your work.
·You can’t sustain your attention on any one subject for very long.
·People accuse you of not listening
·You never seem to follow through with any task you assume because you’re always starting new ones that you’ll never finish.
·“Organization” is a word that you don’t quite comprehend.
·You hate anything that requires sustained mental effort.
·You lose things all the time.
·Distraction is your middle name.
·You forget a lot.

Doctors say that you must have exhibited at least six of these symptoms over a sustained period (at least six months or more), and that the effect has to be serious enough to have put a damper on every part of your life.

Knudson said, “The question is figuring out how to find out what effect ADD/ADHD has on your life and then turning it around and really leveraging that ability that you already have, even though you might not realize it.”

Hyperactivity is the component that turns attention deficit into attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Subjects with only attention deficit are regarded as ADD, not ADHD. Here are some hyperactivity symptoms:

·You squirm if you have to be seated very long and your hands or legs might be moving.
·You often leave your seat in a formal seating situation.
·You have feelings of restlessness.
·You can’t relax quietly or be laid-back in social situations.
·You talk a lot.
·You blurt out answers and don’t think about what you say. Your words are often offensive to others.
·You’re impatient.
·People accuse you of butting into conversations.

Again, six of these symptoms have to be serious enough to have caused trouble in your life for six or more months or more in order to be diagnosed with adult ADHD.

But there is help, and some of it can quite natural, without the need for drugs that can be habit forming. “That’s why we advocate natural ways of dealing with ADD/ADHD,” Knudson said. “Often when people learn our methods, they can actually forget the drugs and go on with their lives in a new state of confidence and an awareness of their heightened abilities.”

Find out more about this way of dealing with ADD/ADHD and take the "ADD Test" at InstantADDSuccess (http://instantaddsuccess.com), a site that Knudson founded with nationally known speaker, Stephanie Frank, author of "The Accidental Millionaire." Both Knudson and Frank have been diagnosed with ADHD and consistently strive to educate and support other people with ADD/ADHD, a "disorder" that they have actually turned into an advantage.