ADD At The Outer Limits Of The Twilight Zone

Imagine beginning life
with an injury to the frontal lobes
of your brain that has severed understanding
from response and judgement from accomplishment.
This area is the determinator of executive functioning which
manages the active or working memory required to organize and
execute tasks while regulating control over speech and thought,
inhibition and distraction, and
impulsivity due to inattention.

It also maintains awareness
of presence in surroundings
in order to focus thought upon a
specific action for the situation at hand.
Impaired executive functioning, hyperactivity,
restlessness, distractibility, inattention and impulsiveness
combine to mismatch appropriate action to a given situation.
ADHD ban be considered a disorder of performance in choice:
That of doing what one knows rather than knowing what to do.
Thus, the individual with ADHD may know how to act but might
not act in settings where such events have positive outcomes.
Timing and timeliness of behavior in ADHD is disrupted more
than is the basic knowledge or skill about that behavior.
The individual’s inability to organize behavior both
within and over time boundaries is the precise

disability due to the disorder.
Deficits in verbal working
memory create problems
with major activities
in life that have
more to do
with not
using
what is
known at
critical points
of engagement than
with not knowing what to do.

Tapping knowledge garnered during life,
impulsive responses to immediate events
must be prevented in order to allow the
Executive Functions to interpret
information and direct a more
appropriate response
to any given
situation.
ADHD,
simply put,
is the abnormal
disconnection from

time and the timing of action.
ADHD interferes with Executive Functioning
which is situated within the brain's frontal lobes.
The Executive Functions control, among other things,
active memory needed to remember scheduled activities,
performance tuning and organization that effectively and
properly accomplishes what needs doing when and how;
keep track of time while focusing awareness of
place and surroundings, assessment and
consequence of the activity and the
priority given for action with
flexibility to allow for
various situations.

They are also
required for
the ability
to judge
what is
right
and
correct
instead of
wrong or “stupid.”
The executive functions
in the frontal lobes of the
brain are thought to be linked to the
rest of the brain by way of the prefrontal cortex;
the part of the brain involved in active memory with
the limbic system, which controls basic emotions of
fear, anger, and pleasure, playing an integral
role in forming long-term memories.
The nucleus accumbens is part of
the brain that is involved in
the internal reward
system and allows
the feeling of
pleasure,
success,

or accomplishment in
response to certain stimuli.
Many of these interconnections
travel via dopaminergic pathways.
For example, cocaine and amphetamines
act directly on this part of the brain to stimulate
dopamine release, giving users a euphoric feeling.
Researchers have found and identified
alterations in the dopaminergic and
adrenergic pathways of
individuals with ADHD.
In particular, areas
of the prefrontal
cortex appear
to be the
most
affected.
Dopamine
and norepinephrine
are neurotransmitters
playing an important role
in the function of the brain.

The uptake transporters for dopamine and
norepinephrine are overly active and clear
these neurotransmitters from the synapse
a lot faster than in normal individuals.
This is thought to increase delays
in processing, diminish working
memory, and affect clarity.
Stimulants, such as
methylphenidate
and amphetamine act
on these neurons to increase
the availability of dopamine and
norepinephrine for neurotransmission.
They correct the problem with the "wiring".
Hitting the nut on the head with the hammer,
this describes the riddle of perplexity and mystery
confounding the unfortunate sufferer who has ADHD.
Inability to organize behavior within periods of time
is just one devastating consequence of the disorder.
ADHD is to time what nearsightedness is to spatial
vision; it creates a temporal myopia in which the
individual’s behavior is governed even more
than normal by events close to or within
the temporal now and immediate
context rather than by internal
information that pertains to
longer-term, future events.

From
your disconnected
executive functioning
are born compulsion, lack of
concentration and focus, uncontrollable
distraction by irrelevant sights and sounds
while drifting about in daydreams unawares;
posessing inadequate listening skills or ability to
complete tasks and overlook important details
constantly and without any awareness of
these confounding aspects of your behavior.
Now imagine being brought into this world by a
psychologically maladjusted nurturer predisposed in
temperament to anger over insignificancies that produce
frequent rages of sadistic lust deviously veiled from others.

To cause harm is to injure or cause evil.
Harm is delivered on routes that
converge in central locations;
the intersections of;
hurt to impair,
bruising around damage,
mangle or maim, molest into ruin,
maltreat, abuse, and traumatize
until shattered and crippled.
Oh, you can skate through
kindergarden, first, even
second grades
practically
unscathed.

But
once
reading and
arithmetic begin
to get serious, you’ve
lost the ability to keep
your head under the radar,
and the coming of hell into
your world looms synergistic
in menace at each passing day.
Once upon a time, way back in
the dark shadows of the 1960’s,
grown-ups were delivering to me
stern sermons and dire warnings to
fill in the empty space of my mind.
Short, ignorant, and condescendingly
spoken adages devoid of sensitivities:
You’re no different than ‘anyone else’ is.
If you weren’t so lazy and tried harder, you
could accomplish all ‘they’ achieve and more.
Stop daydreaming and work hard like ‘they’ do.
You should be an ‘A’ student, just like ‘everyone’.
What’s wrong with you that you never play with
any of those “other” kids on the block?
You’re nothing but a loser who can’t
make any friends or act normal
like ‘all those kids’ outside do.
You live alone in your own
empty dream-world
like a doofus while
‘others’ do their
homework right
every night and
‘they all’ get
along fine
together.

It must be
too much effort
for an idiot like you to
even learn what ‘they’ do
so you can fit in with ‘them.’
You could be the same or better
than “everyone” else, except you
refuse to even try because you're lazy,
dumb, and too busy daydreaming to ever
pay attention to anything at home or in school.
You've now become a useless slob, complete goon,
a sap and moron, chump and sad sack, nitwit and idiot,
simpleton, boob, a dimwitted dope and dumbbell, lunkhead,
both blockhead and airhead, a bonehead, fathead, dolt and clod,
dunderhead, idiot, nincompoop, numskull, lummox, oaf, dunce, imbecile,
lamebrain, halfwit, twit, buffoon, loony sucker, ninny, and log-headed lout.
It took many years for me to realize those same admonitions were spoken to
many millions of ‘others’ who also were no different than ‘anybody’ but
could become more like ‘them’ if they would just apply themselves
hard enough to become as good as ‘everyone else.’

All those years they suffered miserably under
ceaseless emotional torment and non-stop
physical maltreatment under guise of
love and bizarre nurturing by their
own sadistically-inclined mentors,
I believed I lived alone in hell.
It has become very well-known
in recent years that I had plenty
of help rowing the River Styx.
In fact, millions upon millions
of children continue to grow
up fractured within a tilted
world where majorities
of adults in positions
of responsibility
haven’t the guts
or wherewithal
to effect essential
changes necessary for
humanity’s future existence.
Indeed, the number of ‘others’ and
‘everyone else’ increases every single day,
infecting mankind with these cancerous plagues
known to ‘all the rest of us’ as ADHD, major depressive
disorder {from severe maltreatment bequeathed to children
becoming legacies of PTSD} and disquieting thought occupied
by dread and terrors of death and dying, instead of life and living.
There is one remedy that works to normalize Executive Function.
Stimulant drugs temporarily relieve the exasperating symptoms.
There is no cure as of yet, but therapies are being explored.
No matter how great an effort a patient makes in therapy,
comprised of external cues to mark time and timeliness,
quality of life improvements are the only current goal.

Crescent Moon Howling exists to spread light over
darkness and help displace despair about the
future with attainable hope rising in the
dawn of each new day starting
and by chronicling The Fool’s
journey through life in quest
of a reasonable degree of
happiness and meaning.
Remember ‘serious’ is a
grievous enemy but if we can
overcome ‘serious’ life will reveal
the joys always on offer, though we may
have been unable to experience it in the past.
Humor must be sought after and captured at any cost
for to grin heartfelt smiles while chuckling, perhaps into
wholehearted, unstoppable laughter is especially far more
potent medicine than any doctor could ever prescribe for life!