hyperfocus
BEST OF THE BLOGS
NEWS
Worried About My ADHD Son
“I stood guard over my son in the museum,
and I felt another mother
watching me, wondering
why I was so vigilant
when my son was ‘fine.’ I
blurted out, ‘He was just
diagnosed with ADHD and
we’re all working really hard.’ She smiled and
said, ‘He really is fine.’ He was fine, of course.
And one day soon I will be, too.”
—Samantha Hines
“Different Drummer” Blogger
Losing It—This Time My Wallet
“I ripped my apartment apart looking for my
wallet. I checked my old
bureau. I checked my
new bureau. I checked
under the couch cushions.
I checked in the car. I
checked in my pants. I
checked in my new bureau and I checked in
my pants again. All the while my fifth-grader
was complaining how late I was making her.”
—Douglas Cootey
“Family Guy” Blogger
Chew on This
KIDS AND ADULTS WHO CHE W gum can focus longer on tasks that require continuous monitoring,
according to a study in the British Journal
of Psychology.
“It’s been well established that chewing
gum can improve concentration in visual
memory tasks,” says Kate Morgan, author
of the study and a researcher at Cardiff
University, in Wales. This study focused
on an audio task that involved short-term
memory recall to see whether chewing
gum would improve concentration in the latter stages of a task.
The results showed that participants who chewed
gum had quicker reaction times and more accurate
results as they completed the final stages of an
extended task, compared with those who didn’t.
The study reinforces the conclusions of Roland
Rotz, Ph.D., and Sarah Wright in their book Fidget to
Focus, which indicate that repetitive sensory-motor
activities, like tapping one’s foot, increase attention.
Spring Romance?
“There are the signs and signals andpossibilities of spring, and the budding of a
possible romance. I’m pinching myself as a
warning not to get too excited, to take things
slow. I’ve been here before and usually it
starts with fireworks and ends with a crash
landing.”
—Jane D., “ADHD & the City” Blogger
20
Percentage
of people
diagnosed
with ADHD
who also
suffer from
bipolar or
mood
disorders
Follow the stories from here on
ADDitudeMag.com/adhdblogs.
Childhood Obesity
and ADHD
HIGH-FAT DIE TS MAY BE A FACTOR IN THE increasing rates of ADHD diagnoses in children. A recent University of Illinois study found that diets
rich in fat and high in calories affect dopamine metabolism
in the brains of juvenile mice. The dopamine dysfunction
triggered anxious behaviors and learning deficiencies.
Says Gregory Freund, M.D., a professor at University of Illinois College of
Although the mice grew out of these
behaviors, Freund hypothesizes that a high-
fat diet could cause memory disorders in a
child who is genetically or environmentally
susceptible to them.
OVERHEARD in the Parents of ADHD Children Group on
ADDConnect.com
“My son is a sweet, caring, polite boy, but to interrupt him when he’s hyperfocusing causes daily arguments. I want to help him change gears without his going into fits of anger and yelling.”
