Is ADD considered "disabled"??

[pyke 0]

I'm aware of Attention Deficit Disorder being considered a "learning disability" among children, but is it considered a disability with respect to skydiving, and elsewhere?

I understand that it might not be looked at as a true DIS-ability, but I feel I've been able to accomplish a lot within my life while never realizing I was afflicted with it. Now, it helps explain a lot about my personality, past relationships, and struggles through all of my education.

Anyway - my reason for asking is knowing whether or not possible future participation in "disabled" skydiving events would nullify the occasion.

Kahurangi e Mahearangi,
Kiwi, RB #926, AFF-I, FAA Snr. Rigger, RN/BSN/Paramedic

[lawrocket 3]

ADD is not a "disability." In fact, the prevailing opinion is that ADD or ADHD (from which I greatly suffer) is not even a learning disability.

ADD or ADHD is merely a condition. It's not faulty wiring, or the inability to properly function. It's typically simply a lowered amount of checmicals in the brain.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[swoosh 0]

I don't think I've ever met a skydiver who wasn't ADD. Ever sit for two days with em and wait for the sun to come out??

The Sky is NOT the Limit, the Dirt Is!!

[dbattman 0]

Well, I've always considered 'ADD' to be

uh,


um,


could you repeat the question?

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

[sneaky 0]

ADD is a great gift and er....well....

wanna go for a bike ride ?

[Laurel 0]

My humble opinion would be "no." I have ADD, but I don't consider it a disability, just annoying.

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PMS#28, Pelogrande Rodriguez#1074
My Pink M

[Dougiefresh 0]

No, ADD is not a disability, in skydiving or otherwise. I don't know about you, but I NEVER have trouble concentrating when I'm jumping. As a matter of fact, it's one of the few things I CAN concentrate on for hours on end. I have to take ritalin if I'm going to be working at a desk, but it's a non-issue as soon as I wake up on the weekend and see blue sky.

Maybe that's because skydiving is my passion, and not what I do to pay the bills...

I think I just found a cure for ADD! Expensive, but worth it...

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. --Douglas Adams

[crzjp20 0]

i am dyslexic and i dont concider myself disabled... so no i would not concider ADD a disability

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Fear is not a confession of weakness, it is an oportunity for courage.

[gmanpilot 0]

Maybe, ADD is considered a disability if it substantially limits a major life activity, such as the ability to walk, see, hear. talk, breathe, learn or work.

_________________________________________
-There's always free cheese in a mouse trap.

[skydiver30960 0]

I consider my ADD disabled when I forget to turn it on.

Oh wait, that's my AAD.

Now to answer the question. I was a Ritalin child, and while I can (in hindsight) see how it affected my schoolwork and whatnot, I would never have considered myself disabled, with or without the drug. There wasn't anything I couldn't do, it just helped me do some things a bit better.

Elvisio "no longer on the little white pills" rodriguez

[soilman 0]

"ADD or ADHD is merely a condition. It's not faulty wiring, or the inability to properly function. It's typically simply a lowered amount of checmicals in the brain."

It may truly be a condition. And the condition in some cases may be a result of lowered amounts of chemicals in the brain -- but I don't think there is any really convincing evidence for that, I think that this is more conjecture, and perhaps a "promising hypothesis," than it is actual scientifically proven theory. And it would not be impossible for different people to have an attention deficit in one or more situation for different reasons than each other, would it?

It very well may be due to brain chemicals, in some people who appear to have it, but until there is more evidence I remain skeptical. I think this "brain chemical" theory exists more because it serves as political justification for treating people who seem to exhibit ADD, with chemicals, drugs, than because it has been proven by real science.

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Animal husbandry may not be necessary. We can maintain soil quality, for plant husbandry, with green manures and cover crops.

[soilman 0]

As far as ADD is simply seeming to have more trouble paying attention, than most people seem to have, then it is definitly a disability to one extent or another. The question that, it seems to me, ought to be asked, is when does a lesser ability become so much less that it is a "disability" rather than a difference within the range of normalcy.

This is real hard to pin down. I would not be surprised if DSM guidlines on the subject may be be sufficiently vague that they allow diagnosticians to ascribe ADD to anyone that they wish to ascribe it to. This clearly seems to be the case with certain other "mental disorders." If you really want to be diagnosed with, for example, schizophrenia, or depression, you don't have to do too much psychiatrist-shopping to find a psychiatrist who will ascribe it to you. Same with ADD. Whether it is truly a disability, is another question.

I might add that, psychiatrist have, for the most part, not really been interested in truth. They have been interested in nomenclature and labelling. Every person has unique problems in living. Trying to find categories to put people in, without knowing whether people who fall in the same category, can be helped in the same way -- seems to make helping them harder, not easier. It is very possible that 2 people could have trouble paying attention for 2 entirely different reasons. Therefor I don't think that categorizing them as having ADD, I don't think "knowing" that they both "had ADD," would help a therapist to help them. But i'm going off on a tangent. Sorry. Hmm, maybe I have "going off on a tangent disorder." Yea, that's the ticket.

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Animal husbandry may not be necessary. We can maintain soil quality, for plant husbandry, with green manures and cover crops.

[lawrocket 3]

Well, I'll give a little background on myself in this department. I was diagnosed with ADHD at age 7. That was 24 years ago, back before "ADHD" was haut couture. My neurologist, Dr. Zyke, stated that on a scale of 1-10, I was an 11. He said I was simply the most ADHD person he'd ever seen. In fact, I think he published an article on me.

What could he do? He prescribed me medication. Not Ritalin. Desoxyn, an oral form of crystal methamphetamine.

The stuff worked like a charm. Brilliantly. Of course, insurance companies stopped paying for desoxyn because it was being abused as a diet pill. The only other effect besides calming me down to a manageable level was I was one skinny kid.

So I guess my "promising hypothesis" was related more to my own personal anecdotal evidence. I felt different on the medication. When I was on and when I was off were different feelings. Eventually, I grew to recognize how I felt on the medication versus off the meds. Over the years, I began to train myself to act like I did when I was on medication, even when I was not.

I guess I'm not one of those guys who resents beign put on meds. I am extremely glad that there was a medical explanation and solution for what was going on with me. The shit I did as a kid was not normal "boys will be boys" stuff. It was evidence of something seriously wrong, and the meds helped me.

I haven't been on meds for 14 years. I self medicate with large amounts of coffee, which calms me down. Coffee shouldn't calm a person down, should it? There is some sort of perversion in my system that causes this effect.

If my treatment was the result of "political justification" and I am a form of political prisoner, well then chain me to the god-damned wall and book me a ticket to a Siberian stalag.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[soilman 0]

OK lawrocket.

I am not saying that these drugs should never be used. I am just saying that specific differences in brain chemsistry should not be touted as something that we know, for sure, exists, and are specifically responsible for specific behavior or specific feelings. We have long used drugs without knowing why they work, and I am not against their careful use without knowing why they work. I think we should say that we "speculate that they may compensate for brain chemical differences." But doctors are leading people to think that they know that they compensate for brain chemical differences, and even suggesting that they know which chemicals, or which receptors at least, when in many cases, they really don't. In quite a number of "disorders" there seems to be enough evidence -- such as opioid receptors, serontonin reuptake receptors and a few more. In many cases we know which receptors the drugs affect which receptors, but we don't know for sure that the people that an inbalance is causing the behavior or feelings.

For example I know that Nexium affects the acid-pump receptors that cause production of stomach acid, and that by taking Nexium, I don't perceive stomach problems any more, from my stomach ulcers. But we should not jump to the conclusion that I have an abnormality in my own stomach pump chemistry, that causes excess acidity, and erodes my stomach lining. It could be that my stomach lining is eroded by a viral or bacterial infection, and acid only causes the erosions to hurt, rather than is the primary cause of the erosion. And in fact, for many years it was erroneously assumed that stomach ulcers were caused by excess acid production caused by "stress." Now we know that helicobactor infections contribute to development of the ulcers.

We even have tests for the presence of a helicobacter infection (tho it can't tell if the infection is current or past). And the treatment is still acid pump blockers. But we shouldn't assume that the problem is an acid pump abnormality, without specific tests to show they are functioning abnormality. Indeed, the root cause in many cases seems to be helicobactor, and acid production may, or may not, actually be normal.

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Animal husbandry may not be necessary. We can maintain soil quality, for plant husbandry, with green manures and cover crops.