Would you consider ADD a disability?

[jcd11235 0]

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I disagree with some of the usage of the meds as Adderall is only like 1 mg away from being meth.

Adderall is amphetamine salts. No matter how much one takes, it is not meth. While both are stimulants, their chemical makeup is different.

Adderall can be very effective for treating ADHD.

To the OP:

It depends on the context. In some contexts, ADHD can be a disability. In other contexts, it can be little more than a personality characteristic.

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[dmcoco84 4]

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It depends on the context. In some contexts, ADHD can be a disability. In other contexts, it can be little more than a personality characteristic.

Care to elaborate?

D

[jcd11235 0]

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It depends on the context. In some contexts, ADHD can be a disability. In other contexts, it can be little more than a personality characteristic.

Care to elaborate?

D

A couple examples:

Sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture, ADHD is very much a disability. It can be very difficult, sometimes virtually impossible, to stay focused.

On the other hand, when participating in a brainstorming session, the same tendency for the mind to wander on tangents can actually be helpful in terms of coming up with creative ideas, thinking outside the box (to use an overused cliche).

Also, when there is a strong interest in something, ADHD sufferers can sometimes find themselves intensely focused for relatively long periods of time when given the opportunity to work/play/do research in that particular field.

Disclaimer: I'm a formally diagnosed ADHD sufferer.

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[dmcoco84 4]

Example 1: Agreed, but nothing is impossible. One thing that helped me focus and channel my energy and need to constantly be moving when seated, rubbing stones. It helped control fidgeting and other problems cause by medication. May not work for everyone but there are many different things that can be done for a variety of associated problems. Same as figuring out the best way a person is able to learn and retain information, as i talked about previously. As well as taking more breaks. To this day, when studying, i often do not study for more than 20 minutes without taking at least a 5 minute break.

Example 2: Ahhhhhhhhhh, not so much. When the PFC is not functioning properly, during concentration activities; attention span, perseverance and critical thinking are drastically diminished. Because of this, when the mind wanders, it wanders away from the activity at hand to more stimulating thoughts, like skydiving. It does not help you to elaborate, think outside the box or increase creativity... it hinders it, cause you're not even able to focus on basic aspects of the activity. And secondly, children with add/adhd tend to have difficulty with flexibility and often have enormous difficulty working with others.

Example 3: Not unless the activity is psycostimulating or the individual has an increased or overactive cingulate (extreme overactivity - OCD) where they get stuck on thoughts or behaviors. As talked about above, student skydivers learning dive flows or packing. Both very interesting to a new skydiver, but anything that requires concentration that is not psycostimulating will decrease functionality.

D

[dmcoco84 4]

Phew… I passed. That sure was stressful. All right, I’m working on it. I’m pretty busy this month so its gonna take some time to go through the two books to find the data I need to fully respond, but I WILL respond.

In the mean time, I’m curious. Of everything that has been posted, you have only objected to one thing I said, though its pretty much a sub-topic. So do you agree with all the information I have put forward about ADD/ADHD?

Coco

[ASTKU 1]

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In the mean time, I’m curious. Of everything that has been posted, you have only objected to one thing I said, though its pretty much a sub-topic. So do you agree with all the information I have put forward about ADD/ADHD?

you are pretty ridiculous

[xtravrtsoul 0]

dmcoco84~Wow thank you for all the explanation of ADD. I have done a lot of research since my son and I were both diagnosed. But you explained it the best and I thank you for that. :) It explains a lot more and answered along with validates my, as I call it spontaneous mind, brain function. Funny I got more information from you and books than I have with doctors. Hmm. No meds here but I have definitely learned to live with it and adapt to my own brain. Now trying to help my son too, at least for him to understand it better.

You create life, life does not create you.

[virgin-burner 1]

so you cure depression with going skydiving!? you've never suffered depression then; and you know very little about AD(H)D..

if you want to mock people, go play in the bonfire or SC..

i hope you never get to suffer major depression, as you're very likely to "opt out", since its so easy to do..

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[ASTKU 1]

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so you cure depression with going skydiving!? you've never suffered depression then; and you know very little about AD(H)D..

Definitions of depression =
noun: sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy


I don't know who you are but I am sure MOST people in the world have felt depressed some day in their lives based on that definition, CORRECT??

I definitely have felt sad feeling of gloom and inadequacy. And believe it or not on the days that I am going skydiving I normally don't have those feelings. WEIRD, huh????

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i hope you never get to suffer major depression, as you're very likely to "opt out", since its so easy to do..

Hey, thanks buddy. But you don't have to worry cause if I can continue to skydive often the only major depression I'll suffer is if I didn't open either parachute....

[virgin-burner 1]

so, you have to look up what "depression" is in the dictionary!? wow..

you're full of it!

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[ASTKU 1]

Excellent come-back by the "virgin-burner"

[half-a-greek 0]

I've been officially diagnosed with ADD. I learned to skydive, drive a car and tie my shoes with out any problems...

As far as skydiving goes, practice practice practice!!! It's the same for everyone. get into a routine when your at the DZ. Make a mental checklist, or if your ADD doesn't cooperate with that, make a real one.

Get into a habit and form a routine, muscle memory is the biggest.

Good luck!

[Ashkit 0]

This was the most informative replies yet!!

Whether you think you can or can't
either way you're right!

[Ion01 1]

Why not make a check list, lamitate it, and check each item off with a dry erase marker as you get ready. Don't get on the plane until every item has a check on it.
I don't have AAD but I do this with my large rc plane. It has to be assembled and there are items that must be check regularly for maintenance purposes as well as standard check such as if the elevators are moving the correct direction and such. There is a lot to remember and I forgot some things such as a bolt or something a couple times. It didn't cause a catastrophy but it sure worried me when I found out. I also use a check list for astrophotography. There is a lot of equipment to bring and a lot invovled in the setup and if you miss one setting or something you waiste hours of photos only to find they are crap once you get home and download and process them on the computer. A check list is simple but it works.

[gimpboogie 0]

interesting thread.

My son was "officially" dx'd with ADHD, and Aspergers syndrome (we all got that- LOL not just him-the whole family is autistic--another topic-did I Say I didnt have ADHD?)....

He was 'perfect' on his 'practice' math tests as long as he was allowed to move (in his case0 cartwheels around a round table produced 100% test scores )
while ';forced' to sit down his school tests came back with F's.

Somehow, us being a 'different' type of family, homeschooling was a good answer to that, and my kids both shared a lot of experiences that never 'pin pointed' them as having "problems" with one thing or another-bottom line we learned to work around the way each kid learned, not trying to force them to learn the way a teacher chose to teach (yes I know in a classroom setting you cant teach everyone individually).

Now to skydiving.
He did his 1st dive (q tandem) last summer and after it said "holy f*ck! 60 seconds feels like 4!"

Interestingly, another tandem on the same load said his 60 seconds felt like an hour.....

My son (to this day) doesnt tie his shoe laces- knots seem to work fine
(he said he cant concentrate on packing past the 1st step-because he also started to focus on the details of the container)
BUT he played video game 'mario world' at 24 months, and finished the whole game in 3 weeks while standing on his head
(the only way he ever 'sat still' -try to make him sit and he fled-he ONLY stayed still while in a headstand-yes I have photos of him standing on his head at 18 months)...

wether this is meaningful or NOT, I'm tossing it out there...
perception seems to be 'altered' for my son.
He literally couldn't concentrate unless he was allowed to be upside down (vestibular stimulation) -thus the backflips during tests.
He swung on gymnasts rings in the hallway to spell, as well as to dictate essays.
He tried to put the wooden toddler puzzles together by placing all the pieces upside down in their correct slots....

while skydiving during his tandem0he remembers MOST the seconds during his exit-when he was flipped upside down (how does his brain translate he is upside down IF he has never been in FF before and doesnt have a reference point to relate to yet-I can comprehend if he had been diving for a while, and could easily 'recognize' hes upside down...
it only came to light when he was watching the video and started to dictate his thoughts as he was in the backloops, but once he was falling stable he doesnt remember what happened-and ffelt that perhaps nothing happened except 'time went on' without him noticing it).

why did I bring it up?

MAYBE some of it HAS some importance for skydivers diagnoised with ADHD.
Perhaps there IS some vestibular stimulation issues others experience as well (the occupational therapist called my son's 'style' "sensory seeking" while my daugther was exactly the opposite-sensory avoidant-she will sit still for hours until her body parts fall asleep, wake up and try to wake her up).

Sensory seeking....
skydiving seems to be sensory stimulating, and perhaps POTENTIALLY-just the environment such a person could focus deeply in??
like someone said, they felt overfussed while skydiving.
The details my son would relate about his backflip moents of the dive take up more time to explain then the rest of his 60 sec. FF took (he literally said "i dont remember what happened after that except my shirt collar was hurting my chin"...hhmm... debrief that dive!)

So I gues my point is,

yes ADHD CAN BE disabling (needing to do backflips to finish math tests might pose an 'accessibility issue' in school)...

while as he himself said,
ADHD can be a gift.
He fees he has the ability to hyperfocus on things his friends do not notice (perhaps because they are too focussed on my son performing backflips while dictating code for his newest hack?)


AND as such, each person MUST DEVELOP their own coping methods.
Skydiving isn't going to change for the person,
the person needs to develop the skills to dive.
As for all of us, the same method may not work but the suggestions of task lists are not a bad idea for anyone ADHD or not- especially in earlier stages of skydiving.

I needed to do that-and still use these lists as a back up measure -when entering a new stage in diving.


I literally wrote out each task from packing, to gear checks, to dirt diving tasks and laminated them.
Each card is seperately accessible, and I flip through them still (with well over 2 yrs of skydiving and BASE I am perhaps allowing my [diagnosed] OCD get a hold but I don't think it is harming my jumping-only helping.

In the end=we as people need to learn to use whata we got to its benefits.
If there is processing, stimulation, or accessibility issues within sections of our braIns, fine-lets see what we can use to compensate-or what tools we can develop to deal with it.

My task lists are not anything I am ashamed of, and if I use them all my life-I am possibly safer then if I was to omit them.

Relying on a 'comforting' presence?
perhaps-(that of the task lists) but is that a bad thing?
does all that info HAVE to reside solely in my brain, or is it OK that I trust it is in there, while recheck it against my task lists?

Yes I do dive without pulling out these laminated sheets for each dive.
No I do not start a diving day without looking at my task lists.

Even still, I can relate two situations where I forgot two things that could have meant a possible 'oops' moment.
1) while on a static line I forgot to check if my static line was secured to the plane one time-and the JM actually asked me if I had noticed that he had forgotten to secure my static line until it was my turn to go to the door (when he noticed it).. no I Had not noticed-but after that each time I made a point of pulling on it before the plane left the ground... NO it's not techincally 'my problem' while in static line-but ultimately it IS my problem- ALL my gear is my problem to check-and that static line was a part of my gear at that time.

the 2nd time was not taking my seat belt off at 1000f.
I noticed that at 5,000f when I was getting ready to go to the door.
Not terrible-but had there been an emergency on board and pilot tells us all to get out, my body would of been a hinderance to others as well as myself in getting out the door (I was almost always situated closest to the door in the Caravan because of the 'mobility issues' in getting to the door-even when I get out top floor I sit closer to the door then others-'the gimp seat' :) )
Neither of those situations caused a problem, but either could of been one under the right circumstances.
Neither were a result of ADHD (I'm not dx'd with it, and dont think I have it-I feel very much the opposite)...

but both situations which I could relate as possible for my son-forgetting the 'little things' while focussing on something in the future (the jump).

Yah, I'm verbose-sorry...
hope it made sense to another brain asides from my own

To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

[d16842 0]

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Oh come on. Take it easy. Yes, I didn't do any research but shouldn't I still be able to voice my opinion??
And I don't have the attention span nor do I care enough to read books or check any of your links on this subject(which I didn't)....

Well, Its been fun. Try to relax a little and don't get so worked up. I truly believe that you know what you are talking about and its been fun and interesting reading your responses. I haven't laughed like this in a day or so.

Gotta get back to the grind, PEACE

Gee... And I thought rec.skydiving was dead. Hell it just moved.

Tom B