ADD and Me: Good News, Bad News

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Update (November 21, 2010)
More specifically, I've been diagnosed with ADHD-inattentive. (November 11, 2010)

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As I mentioned before, I've been diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD. (October 8, 2010) It's a sort of good news / bad news situation.

On the 'good news' side, I've now got a name for the way I am - in at least one respect. That's handy, since I can now focus on finding resources that show how to deal with being ADD. Happily, some resources acknowledge that it's something that can affect adults, too.

On the 'bad news' side, there's now fairly clear and objective evidence that there's actually something wrong with the way my brain processes information. Or, at least, something that's distinctly off the 50th percentile.

Yes, This Diagnosis Bothers Me

One thing I've noticed since last Friday, when I got the news, is that I seem to be bothered by the ADD diagnosis.

It's not that I don't believe it. Like I wrote before, ADD was near the top of the list in likely (or least-unlikely) explanations for the way I react. And explains the way I'll ricochet from one topic to another while talking or writing.

My wife suggested that I'm bothered because that diagnosis is (more) evidence that I'm not perfect. She's probably right.

Does that mean that I'll deny that I'm ADD?

Not likely. There's too much evidence supporting the diagnosis.

Does this mean that, if yet another medication is prescribed, I'll refuse to comply with the label instructions?

Not at all likely. I've seen too many consequences of people not taking prescribed medications.

But that doesn't mean that I'm happy - or comfortable - with the situation.

ADD? It Could be a Lot Worse

Compared to all the things that can go wrong with the central nervous system, ADD is a comparatively minor issue. Even better: from what I've read so far, it looks like if medications for ADD may not slow me down.

Actually, there's some indication that my decades-old habit of drinking a quart or so of coffee a day may have been a sort of self-medication.

Which brings me to the subject of stimulants, the frontal cortex, and too many topics for one post.

Time to quit writing.

Related posts:

• "Attention Deficit Disorder, Catholicism, and Looking Sandbagged"
  (October 8, 2010)
• "Twitter, Gallbladders, the Catholic Church, and Me"
  (September 18, 2010)
  Particularly
  • There's Nice and Normal - And There's Me
• "Aspergers, Meditation, Tolerance and a Loud Pump"
  (September 3, 2010)
• "Time in a Garden"
  (May 6, 2010)
• "Prayer, Medicine and Trusting God"
  (March 4, 2010)
• "Medication for Depression? Yeah: The Catholic Church is Okay With That"
  (February 25, 2010)

Background:

• From the Catechism of the Catholic Church
  • Original sin
    (Catechism, 407)
  The way of perfection and the Cross (Catechism, 2015)
  • inner conversion, accountability, and responsibility
    (Catechism, 1888)
  • Humanity's fall, God, and redemption
    (Catechism, 410)
  • "In the image of God," sin, death, and salvation
    (Catechism, 705)
  • Sin, pain, toil, and God's mercy
    (Catechism, 1609)
  • Prayer, restoration, and God
    (Catechism, 2568)
• "Memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes"
  Homily by Cardinal Javier Lozano Barrigán, XIV World Day of the Sick, Solemn Eucharistic Concelebration in the Cathedral of Adelaide, Australia, via Vatican.va (February 11, 2006)
• "Address of His Holiness John Paul II to the Tribunal of the Roman Rota"
  Vatican.va (February 10, 1995)