Dear Reader:

From the previous post/ from the book, paraphrased with quotes: 1) Will Power does not control our emotions, we can not will ourselves to feel this and to not feel that. We cannot stop feeling depressed by.. cheering up, or stop feeling anxious by..  sucking it up, 2) ADD “is a syndrome not of attention deficit but of attention inconsistency“- often spaced out/ tuned out, inattentive, but sometimes very, very focused (hyper focused) (*A not very related advice: Attack/ judge Problems, not People).

My comments from the previous post, rephrased: (1) Children always suffer in some ways because of an aggressive parent: some are genetically predisposed perhaps to develop tics (Tourette’s Disorder), others are predisposed perhaps to develop schizophrenia. Many lose their ability to pay attention (ADD) as a result of parental aggression,  but every child gets damaged by parental aggression in one way or another, usually in multiple ways, (2) Everything we experience is physical, including the emotional and the mental: it’s just that the physical phenomena involved in the emotional and mental are not detectable by a medical diagnostic tool such as a blood test or an X-Ray.

Before I get back to the book, I want to address ADD and Learning Disabilities: the two involve deficits in executive functions ( the ability to focus, to pay attention, to engage with a task, to follow instructions, working memory, mentally flexible/ seeing the bigger picture vs black-and-white, rigid thinking).

On Learning Disabilities from Wikipedia: “a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information.. some people can be more accurately described as having a “learning difference”, thus avoiding any misconception of being disabled…  People with learning disabilities generally have intelligence that is average or higher… The effects of having a learning disability or learning difference are not limited to educational outcomes: individuals with learning disabilities may experience social problems as well. Neuropsychological differences can affect the accurate perception of social cues with peers…

“Learning disabilities fall into broad categories based on the four stages of information processing used in learning: input, integration, storage, and output. Many learning disabilities are a compilation of a few types of abnormalities occurring at the same time, as well as with social difficulties and emotional or behavioral disorders. Input- This is the information perceived through the senses, such as visual and auditory perception. Difficulties with visual perception can cause problems with recognizing the shape, position, or size of items seen… Difficulties with auditory perception can make it difficult to screen out competing sounds in order to focus on one of them…  Integration– This is the stage during which perceived input is interpreted, categorized, placed in a sequence, or related to previous learning… unable to put the facts together to see the ‘big picture.’… Storage– Problems with memory can occur with short-term or working memory, or with long-term memory. Most memory difficulties occur with one’s short-term memory, which can make it difficult to learn new material without more repetitions than usual…  Output– Information comes out of the brain either through words, that is, language output, or through muscle activity, such as gesturing, writing or drawing. Difficulties with language output can create problems with spoken language… (to)  put the thoughts into words before we speak… Difficulties with motor abilities can cause problems with gross and fine motor skills. People with gross motor difficulties may be clumsy, that is, they may be prone to stumbling, falling, or bumping into things…

“Reading disorder is the most common learning disability. Of all students with specific learning disabilities, 70–80% have deficits in reading… A reading disability can affect any part of the reading process, including difficulty with accurate or fluent word recognition, or both”.

I suffer from learning disabilities in all the above quoted forms. It is clear to me (and this is true in regard to many if not most mental diagnoses), that ADD and Learning Disabilities are two separate diagnoses but they are not two separate conditions. The two are one condition that has been academically divided into two for .. academic reasons, insurance reasons and therapeutic reasons.

Back to the book: “Since ADD affects all areas of cognition, it will exacerbate any learning disability“- my comment: the two are the same condition; the separation of ADD and Learning Disabilities is an academic exercise. Within a person’s flesh and blood brain- it is the SAME condition.

I skipped and read a bit more here and there from this book and I find it useless, and especially frustrating for a person who fits either the diagnosis of ADD or learning disabilities. It is not written with the ADD-reader in mind (making information simple and easy to follow, minimizing details and case studies.. and number of pages: the useful information in these 355 pages of this book would have made a good 2-10 pages read, says I).

anita