[geeks] its full of stars...

[Beth Roberts]

There's ADD, and then there's ADD...

What I'm getting at is that humans and especially human minds are really odd
complex things, and ADD in one person may be quite different from that in
another person, though still both can be reasonably said to have ADD.

Ok, yeah, that should be obvious.

The point is that I just wanted to state there is a *huge* difference
between thinks-differently ADD and cannot-behave ADD. I have seen some of
the latter up close in the past year, and it *ain't* pretty.

$boyfriend[-1] has a daughter, Brianna, age 7, who was seriously affected by
ADD, specifically ADHD. She took Ritalin, and if her dose was late, you
could REALLY tell.

She became not just obnoxious, but flamingly annoying. She'd be in your
face, jump around, do anything at all just to piss you off and get a rise
out of you, it was truly bizarre. She wasn't stupid, she wasn't evil, she
just clearly had something wrong in her head. Nevertheless, it was a royal
pain in the ass just to be in her presence when she wasn't controlled by her
meds.

That said, one day I was playing Cathedral with her, one of my favorite
games. Something amazing happened. As we played, she suggested new rules.
The new rules she suggested were *brilliant* ways of evening the game so
that a skilled player like me could play fairly against an opponent who was
younger/new to the game. I was slack-jawed with astonishment. (and I still
am - she's a smart kid with great aptitude in and love of art, and I hope
she goes far).

I only know one person my age who has confirmed ADD, and he is/was
remarkable for the fact that he *never stopped moving*. He'd pace back and
forth while standing up in his cubicle at $ork[-3]. And, for what it's
worth, he is/was brilliant, and socially well-adjusted (imho).

There's a whole spectrum - it's a lot more complex than it seems at first
glance. It's really interesting, actually, and reveals a bit about this
monstrously complex thing we call the human mind.

Even so, I think it's scandalous how in schools nowadays they take any
restless child and demand that the parents throw Ritalin at them. What utter
bullshit. Yes, there *are* children who need it (like Brianna). But many of
the others would be just fine with a bit of reasonable discipline and a cool
playground to run around on to let off steam a few times during the day.

-Beth, who has "Playground Designer" listed as her dream job