It can be done, this whole management of ADHD and ADD without the use of medication. If you have the precursory chemical and/or behavioral makeup for either, you have likely coped for many years with the struggle of focus, focus, focus, listen, store, recall, etc. I am amazed at what I have been able to accomplish in my life prior to my diagnosis.
That being said, I still think if one goes to a doctor who is a specialist in a field, and you DON’T walk out of there with a diagnosis in their field of practice, that doctor isn’t doing very well in general. That may explain why I took my wife to the doctor last week and now I have a pap smear in April, but anyway…
This was a great LifeHacker article wherein the author stated their ability to manage ADHD while in school, and I can see how it would fit very well into the real world. Not that school isn’t real, it’s just not reality. Wait until those “Tiger Kids” start hitting the job market, with their Valedictorian status, and their ability to play 3 instruments and speak 4 languages and completely deny all levels of social leisure. Nobody wants to work with a person who can’t chill the hell out for 10seconds.
There are many silos of diagnoses for ADD, btw. I can focus on something I am interested in for long periods of time, including writing. For some people it may be gardening, but not plumbing repair, nor dryer vent-cleaning. So, what, that person has ADD, right? Do we have to focus on everything all the time? Maybe all I needed to get over my intellectual inferiority complex in high school was a tap on the shoulder in Trigonometry class, and somebody to tell me;
“Hey man, you’re sitting between 2 of the hottest girls in school, an hour before lunch, and you lifted weights 30min ago. You shouldn’t be interested in graphing cos t any more than you’re interested in wearing a high-top fade. Chill. Get Kristie’s number and chill.”
With all of science working as hard as it has, there has yet to be a pharamceutical breakthrough that makes boring people more interesting.
Geoff Lott - Comedy And More 