Is This ADD or Something Else?

[Anonymous]

I can’t follow or remember a hand or foot movement. If someone shows me a dance step or a hand movement say like a karate move I can’t do it. Very embarrassing. I have read that people with ADD can do Karate or Tia chi. I can’t do that. Do I also have another type of learning disability?

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[Anonymous]

I’m not an expert, so I can’t really say. I know that learning a specialized task like playing a musical instrument or juggling requires a level of commitment that some people with ADHD just don’t have. It’s not that they’re lazy or uncoordinated – it’s just that after the novelty wears off, they quickly become bored with the repetitive nature of the task.

I know that for me, meditation is difficult as (A) the mind soon becomes filled with random thoughts and ( the impatient and impulsive nature of ADHD makes me want to run off and do something else.

So really, only a professional (a specialist, not a family doctor) can tell you if it is so or not. But if you haven’t done so already, you might try the virtual self test on this site and see what it tells you. Again, it’s not a substitute for a real doctor, but it might answer some questions you’re having.

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[Anonymous]

I actually have a similar issue. I have never been able to perform any type choreography whatsoever. even after a lot of practice and effort. probably not a ADHD thing. just a people with no rhythm thing

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[billd]

shoe – I’ve tried dancing lessons in the past. The more complex the dance, forget it. I can’t get it – can’t follow along and can’t recall sequences to do them later. My wife wanted us to do line dancing. I tried- wow, how embarrassing – after 2 or 3 moves, I was lost.

Check out the info on ADHD – failure to recall sequences of events, short term memory, etc. Did some research and it shows how I’m able to do complex technical things, but not able to explain them to anyone else. Years later my accomplishments seem foreign – as if someone else did them. I don’t recall how I did them, at times, don’t recall doing them at all.

ADHD in my case. That’s not a diagnosis – but it is often connected with ADHD.

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[Geoduck]

sounds like some sort of visual disconnect to me. Do you have any other disabilities or disorders?

I had a boyfriend that had some sort of audio processing problem (I don’t remember the exact name). He had to tape record lectures so he could play them over and over until it sunk in. It kind of had the appearance of inattentiveness, but really, it just took a few repetitions for things to sink in. I wonder if there’s a visual version of that disorder.

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[Anonymous]

Here is a couple of quotes I got from the internet. Seems to fit.

Difficulty sequencing and following directions: Weak past and future concepts, everything is in the NOW! With a process involving 3 or 4 steps the ADD adult may easily miss or forget all but the first and last step.

ADD people are kin-esthetic learners . . those who learn much more by experience. Those with ADD are trainable, not educable. The difference is that the Educable person is someone you can tell something to and they learn it after only one or two times. The trainable person is one that learns after much repeatability.

Boy does this make me feel like a dummy. No wonder people get frustrated with us. Looks like we are not trying. But we are.

Thanks Billd for your input, I thought this problem was something other than Add. Looks like some kind of malfunction within the ADD brain. What I don’t understand is why do only some of us have this problem will others with ADD do not. Really would like to know the answer to that.

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[billd]

One example that’s “out there” a lot is that of sending the add child to clean their desk.

And in the end, the phone gets reprogrammed with only numbers to video game stores, but the desk is not cleaned.

And they can’t recall why the phone ended up getting reprogrammed and the desk isn’t cleaned – but they were busy the whole time – literally doing one thing after another, but can’t recall what, or the steps it took to get to the phone reprogramming.

Lack of ability to hold the numbers of steps in the short term memory, so only parts of it gets saved.

It’s embarrassing as @#$% at work – and causes TROUBLE – and ends up getting disciplinary action – example happened to me today in a meeting of all IT staff……..

Everyone discusses things going on that the rest of the group should know about, list what’s happening or going on, etc.

Comes my turn I can only think of 1 or 2 things I’ve done today, but I was busy as heck all morning. Just can’t recall what it was! If at the end of the day or end of the week I’m asked “what have you been working on – I might recall the last thing I did, maybe a couple of other things but that’s it – so I look lazy, like I’m not busy enough, not doing enough, so I keep getting MORE work sent my way.

Yes, that’s ADHD – that same sort of issue shows up in list after list.

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[quizzical]

I really struggle with steps, choreography, anything involving quickly distinguishing right from left, that sort of thing. Right now I’m taking Tae Kwon Do and while I can usually mirror the instructor’s movements when the whole class is following allong, occasionally I have to switch my arms around.

It’s when I have to then perform the moves on my own, that’s when the comedy really begins….

One of the first things my husband (non ADD-er) notices is whether someone is right- or left-handed, yet I had to read that that Paul McCartney was left-handed in a book because I never noticed in all the footage and photographs that he was playing left-handed, even while all the other guys had their guitars going the other way!

I recently read that there are some new studies that show measurable differences in motor skills in children with ADHD. While the study focused on hand movements, I was especially intrigued by the finding that activities that require independent movement of both hands are particularly difficult for ADHD kids. All I can think is, add in two feet and of course you’re going to have problems! Might explain why I’m such a lousy piano player, despite years of lessons!

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[Tiddler]

All above make sense to me. I’d also add that ADHD can coincide with dyspraxia. Mary Colley, who set up DANDA, a support group for neurodiverse adults in England, had ADHD and dyspraxia – diagnosed in her 40s. She was an amazing woman.

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[billd]

>>yet I had to read that that Paul McCartney was left-handed in a book because I never noticed in all the footage and photographs that he was playing left-handed, even while all the other guys had their guitars going the other way!<<

Funny, same here! I bought a book about him – had all their albums, even the photos, etc of the day and never noted that.

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[Anonymous]

I recall when I was very young that the teacher was having us run in a circle and every now and then she’d tell us to do something like “jump” or “hop on one foot.” Then she told us all to “skip!” I had no idea what that meant, but instead of stopping and saying “I don’t know what that is” I did what any ADHD kid would do and faked it. The teacher continued the exercise and sent me home with a note that said something to the extent that there was something very wrong with me as I could not skip. (this was many years before ADHD existed as a diagnosis)

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[Anonymous]

@shoe same here. I dropped out of football (a sport I love) because I couldn’t remember the right blocking or evading technique. I hated the weight room because I could never get the form right. I still regret not “trying harder.”

It was only a couple of years ago that someone explained to me what muscle memory was. I always thought practice was a waste of time, but apparently not. (That’s not to say you’re not trying hard enough–just that practice is not useless).

I think there’s a few ADHD traits that could contribute:

• inability to keep with a boring task (if repetition is the key to muscle memory, we left our keys at home.
• lack of self-awareness (ADHD sometimes comes with a host of self-monitoring issues, like stimulus thresholds for over or under sensitivity to pain; lack of body awareness; and an inability to connect cause and effect).
• restlessness
• lack of inhibition (we tend to not filter out the wrong answers, which means we’re constantly “trying” different ways to solve the problem. Precise motions are not made for this.)

I’m sure there’s more, but for me, I’d say ADHD is at the root. There may be something else, too, but it would seem to be aggravated by ADHD.

You might want to try to make a game out of it. I had physical therapy for a rotator cuff a few years ago. Doing the exercises wrong was painful. I looked into it, and Wii and Playstation 3 have some exercise programs that can monitor movements and ding you when you get it wrong. They use them for troops returning home who need to re-learn certain physical motions.

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[Anonymous]

pete-puma its interesting you brought up the wii game. I have heard that it has games that teach one how to balance. I once had a try on a neuro feedback machine to help me raise my brain frequency by doing various game exercises. Was doing rather poorly, then I had the bright idea: what would happen if I tried to balance a pole on the end of my finger. I tried it, and what do you know my brain wave frequency shot right up. It goes to show that you don’t need any high tech machine to teach one how to raise their brain wave frequency.

I have read that ADD people are almost constantly at, or near the theta brain frequency when they try to concentrate. This is just above the sleep state. With the normal person when they concentrate the brain wave frequency increases into the alpha or beta range, but when the ADD person tries to concentrate they just produce more theta waves, and this why it so difficult for us to concentrate. I am wondering if one could learn how to raise their brain wave frequency by practicing balancing exercises on the wii machine. I am also wondering if one practised it every day they would eventually learn how to do this at will, and perhaps break out of theta wave frequency state. I really would like to get some feedback on this idea. It would be great if we could get an experts opinion but that is unlikely to happen. Anyway what do you people think? Is this a nutty idea or not? Maybe we should start a new thread on this subject.

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[billd]

shoe – I have meniere’s – it’s a problem of the middle ear impacting balance among other things, and I get dizzy easily.

Things that “trigger” it include shopping – going into a LARGE store, and walking down the end aisle and scanning down the aisles looking into them when looking for something. Say I want the bread aisle – I walk along the end looking into each as I walk quickly through the store. BAD idea.

Moving eyes left to right quickly. Had this last week when in the sleep study they did a “wire check” they had me do eye movements. I was laying down and dizzy as hell after 5 left to right quick eye movements.

Nodding, turning quickly, STRESS, all can trigger it.

So I went to an ENT type doctor. He sent me to a therapist who helped me with exercises designed to take me to the brink and back.

The exercises included balancing and other movements. One was standing on a platform that was pivoted in the middle. It would rock in any direction. I had to balance it – and the computer scored me and helped by showing a box on the screen that moved as the platform did. I was to keep that box in the middle of the screen, then practice moving it to other targets on the screen while on this platform.

To shorten this already long ADHD ramble – practice and taking me to the brink of total collapse of dizziness for 2 sessions a week for a couple of months helped to “control” the symptoms. It retrained my brain to realize that some sensations should not trigger “I’m getting dizzy and sick” alert circuits.

I can now walk through a store and not get dizzy or sick – at least on most days. Too quickly, or under the right conditions it still happens – but I’m more in control of it now.

So I guess I’m stating that I believe there are TIMES when the brain can re-learn, or compensate. Can it for ADHD? Maybe, maybe not. If there’s damage, I think so, but if the parts are just failing, I have my doubts…………… but i’m no doctor.

Do you have anything to lose by trying other than time?

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[quizzical]

@shoe – Very intriguing!

I think there’s mention of some sort of balancing exercises in Ed Hallowell’s book Delivered From Distraction – can’t be specific because the book’s upstairs and I need to go eat my breakfast but maybe later I’ll go find it and re-read that section.

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[Author]

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