Cluttering And ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) Or AD/HD
ADD or Attention Deficit Disorder (now more correctly called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is often a big component of cluttering in kids. ADD or AD/HD (equally correctly written as ADHD), kids need different motivation and coping skills that can be taught.
“The most common cause of hyperactivity, distractibility, and/or impulsivity with children, adolescents and adults is anxiety. When you are anxious, you cannot sit still or pay attention.” – Dr. Larry Silver in Dr. Larry Silver’s Advice to Parents on ADHD.
“What is most important to understand about ADHD children is not simply that they move about too much – it is that they behave too much. … Their behavior occurs too quickly, too forcefully, and too easily in situations where other children would have been more inhibited.” – Russell A. Barkley, Ph.D., author of Taking Charge Of ADHD, a psychologist and past president of the Attention Deficit Disorder Association.
Do you have a kid who’s got you running around like chicken missing a head? Does Dennis The Menace seem like a model child to you? Did your sweet darling just ask Aunt Millie (the rich one) why she’s so fat – and smells so bad? Does your kid constantly forget his homework, books and lose stuff in general? You might want to read this chapter, when you have the time, that is.
Before we go any farther, let’s try to clarify the alphabet soup used in talking about this disorder and the use of the terms ADD and AD/HD (the acronym with the “/” is the currently accepted way of referring to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, though you often see ADHD without a slash). A good definition comes from Peter Jaska, PhD. in a Menninger Clinic interview at http://www.add.org/content/interview/peter.htm. “The medical diagnosis is ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Some people use ADD to mean ADHD without the hyperactive component, however ADD is not an ‘official’ medical diagnosis. Also many people use ADD as a more generic term, to mean all types of ADHD. So yes, I agree, it can get confusing sometimes!!”
Just to confuse you more, Dr. Barkley says that children without the hyperactivity component are actually, “lethargic, sluggish or slow moving, compared to other children.” His book, Taking Charge Of ADHD, should be recommended reading for any parent who wants to know more. It’s factual, readable and addresses the needs of the parents as well as the children. Since it has sound parenting advice for all children, read it even if your children aren’t AD/HD candidates. Cluttering kids and adults so often have some of the characteristic behaviors of people with ADD that his recommendations can help anyone.
This is an important and complicated subject. I could not address it completely in one chapter. While I feel it necessary to impart some brief overview of AD/HD, for the most part, I’m only going to discuss those issues that apply to cluttering and decluttering. There are plenty of good books written on this and they are listed in the bibliography.
Maybe We All Have A Little ADD?
Most clutterers think they have AD/HD. Most of us don’t, but we have a lot in common with folks who do. The good news about this is that the techniques that help AD/HD kids live in a “normal” world help cluttering kids and adults to declutter. ADD (without the hyperactivity aspect) is an exaggeration of tendencies we all have: easily bored or distracted, risk-taking, impulsiveness, not paying attention to details, losing things, speaking without thinking and so on. How many of you have gotten in trouble with your boss, spouse or a cop from the last trait? Or any of them?
Did you ever forget an assignment at work, or turn in a report you thought was great but you missed a tiny detail, like basing everything on 2,000 units of widgets instead of 200,000? If so, welcome to the world of an AD/HD kid, but magnify it by 1,000 (or maybe it’s 100,000) times. It’s no wonder they’re frustrated. People notice their mistakes and comment on them far more often than they do on what they do right. You’d be frustrated if you were in their shoes too.
Whether you, your children or your spouse have AD/HD, you’ll probably recognize some of the symptoms in yourself or your kids and be able to use the solutions in your own family.
An interesting observation about a commonality between AD/HD kids and clutterers in general came from Kim Arrington Cooper, M.Ed., a therapist who’s worked with lots of AD/HD kids. “Most AD/HD kids are night owls, but they need less sleep.” Most clutterers are night owls too. The world discriminates against night people and the world discriminates against AD/HD kids. We both get called lazy, when in fact, we’re just being true to our natures.
It’s A Controversial Condition
Want to make messing with a hornet’s nest seem like a lazy summer pastime? Mention AD/HD the next time you’re lucky enough to escape to an adult gathering. If you really want to have fun, bring it up on a late-night radio talk show. People are strongly either “fur or agin” this disorder.
AD/HD is controversial.. Dr. Terrence Early, M.D., a psychiatrist who works with AD/HD children and adults explained the reasons for the controversy succinctly in an interview...
“Some diseases are due to a qualitative difference that is either there or isn't (like dead heart tissue following an myocardial infarction), but others are differences in the amount of something (like blood pressure, attention, blood sugar). When a disease is due to a difference in quantity, rather than quality, there is a cutoff established to define the point at which you define a disease (like diastolic blood pressure > 90, blood sugar >110, or degree of attention dysfunction). The cutoff is usually the point at which the variation in the parameter exceeds the point at which symptoms or disability occurs”
There are some people who even doubt the existence of AD/HD as a medical disorder, but since there’s so much evidence for it that they seem to be barking up the wrong tree. The general consensus of those who know is that it is more often under-diagnosed than over-diagnosed.
What Is AD/HD?
Do your kids start to clean up their room, but get distracted and “forget” what they were supposed to be doing? Do they start a project, whether cleaning, decluttering or schoolwork, and not finish it because they went for a swim in the eddies of related projects they encountered? Do they just burn with activity and cause disruptions in public, home and school? Do they seem to blurt out what’s on their minds without taking the time to think? These could be symptoms of AD/HD. Only your physician knows for sure. If your child is diagnosed with AD/HD, look on the bright side. It just means that he marches to the tune of a different drummer. The other side of this coin is that they’re intuitive and very imaginative. They’re likely to “know” the solution to something in a flash of inspiration, while the rest of us plod along trying to figure it out.
The highest estimate I could find of children with AD/HD was ten-percent, with about five-percent being an average consensus. Thus, there is at least a ninety percent chance that your child doesn’t have AD/HD. But, this chapter is here because we can all learn from their special ways of coping.
Often, a teacher or counselor at school will suggest your child be tested for AD/HD. To find out, your doctor will have to rule out a lot of other possible reasons for your child’s attentional difficulties. The only way to know for sure is to have a series of tests done by a competent psychiatrist who specializes in AD/HD.
Rewards Work Better Than Punishment
“Another thing I have found helpful