Reply To: What do you all think about Mark Patey?

[Scattybird]

There’s a whole industry out there aimed at ripping us off. By ‘us’ I mean everyone.  If someone sells a bit of rope and calls it a dog lead they can charge four times the price for it. It’s all about hitting the market and capitalising on what makes someone tick.

There are a lot of people out there who, for whatever reason, are looking for answers – to how they can succeed in their job, in their personal lives, in their happiness. Those people are the so called linear thinkers as well as others who are less linear. Just look at the number of self-help books that are available. There are so many that it makes economic sense to focus on particular groups – e.g. women going through the menopause, people with particular ‘conditions’.

People who are (or have) ADHD are a bit like the dog-owners. They are a target group and an obvious one if we believe that more and more people are being diagnosed. If we consist of around 5%-10% of the population we amount to a lot of people……and the chances are, we are looking for help. If we can’t afford meds and a counsellor then we might be able to afford a few dollars here and there for motivational ‘stuff’.

So I am usually very suspicious and cynical about most of this kind of stuff. On saying that, sometimes things resonate. There is a short ‘Crusher’ video on YouTube about labelling things – it’s a very simple message, but it’s one I try to use to stay on task. Another one (and I can’t remember where I read it) is to adopt the technique that Raymond Chandler used. Apparently he used to allocate himself 4 hours a day for writing his books. But he found it hard to get started, so he made a rule. The rule was he sat at his desk and told himself he didn’t have to write, but he could not do anything else in that time. Boredom presumably kicked in because he wrote. Of course I break the rule and play on the internet but that’s another issue….but maybe not, it’s an example of not being able to get started when others can.

I am a bit oppositional – I can’t do things when told and it really annoys me when people know better than me about how to motivate me. But I also know that I need to be motivated and sometimes nothing at all works, but other times some things do. I want to be a more ‘effective’ person and am willing to listen to what people say in case something works.

I think there is room for different styles of help. I have no idea about Mark Patey – I still haven’t investigated his site so none of this is a comment about him.

However, when I look around at what other resources are out there, I feel grateful we are sitting on TADD.

 

 

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