Head in the Clouds

Paying Attention to Paying Attention

There’s something hard for me about making the switch from a lively, even cluttered, brain to a quiet brain. Some fear of emptiness or boredom. It’s one reason I’ve gone years at a time without meditating, even though I thought it would be helpful to me. And even though I knew from experience that I enjoy what it feels like to meditate—once I actually get started.

Over the years, as I didn’t meditate, I kept reading about the benefits of meditation. Research suggests it might help prevent heart disease, reduce anxiety, ease arthritis pain, and even diminish perimenopause symptoms—all pertinent for me. I listened to people, too, and heard all about how meditation helped them be more patient, more understanding, more peaceful. 

Then I read about a study out of UCLA. It’s small, but it suggests that meditation might help with the core issues of ADD itself. A type of meditation called mindfulness meditation “improves your ability to control your attention,” says psychiatrist Lidia Zylowska in an interview with ADDitude magazine. “In other words, it teaches you to pay attention to paying attention. Mindful awareness can also make people more aware of their emotional state, so they won’t react impulsively.”

I also read a summary of the UCLA study on the blog SharpBrains, which I highly recommend. “Mindfulness meditation,” writes psychologist David Rabiner, “can be thought of as a type of attention/cognitive exercise program that is focused on improving self-regulation.”

All this made sense to me. “Now,” I was thinking, “I really have to start meditating.” But how do you meditate if you have ADD? If you have trouble sitting still or reining in your thoughts or fitting in a shower once in a while?

Finally, though, I am meditating regularly. It’s not some pure, perfect, time-consuming practice. But it’s a practice. Here’s what’s helped:

• I’ve set my goal really small: meditate at least three minutes a day most days. I usually end up doing more. In fact, the more I practice, the longer I can meditate. (I hear that's why they call it a meditation practice.)
• I track meditation along with the other exercises I do—from hiking to thumb bends—filling in one square in a table with green and the number of minutes every time I meditate.
• I’ve been using online guided meditations to create structure for myself. When a voice guides me, I’m able to stay focused in a way that’s hard for me on my own.

I’ve set up a page on this blog with links to short online guided meditations, a bunch of them, all free. If you’re challenged when it comes to quieting mind or body but want to meditate, check them out. Bookmark the page if you find it helpful. I’ve also put a link to the page on the right-hand sidebar of this blog.

One more thing I’ve realized—I tend to get tired of the same old same old, and guided meditations are no exception. I’ll keep adding to the list, and please feel free to share your own finds by commenting at the bottom of the list. Thanks!

What helps you meditate? Feel free to comment below.

My next post will be about teaching meditation to children.

For more on the UCLA research, visit UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center.

One more study: Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania examined “how meditation may modify the three subcomponents of attention, including the ability to prioritize and manage tasks and goals, the ability to voluntarily focus on specific information and the ability to stay alert to the environment,” according to a summary of the study in Science Daily. “Researchers found that even for those new to the practice, meditation enhanced performance and the ability to focus attention. Performance-based measures of cognitive function demonstrated improvements in a matter of weeks.” 

ADD Documentary Available Online Today

Just watched a short documentary about adult ADD by a couple of Canadian comedians. It's fast-moving, funny, and touching and includes plenty of interviews with experts and people with ADD. It's called ADD and Loving It, and it's available to watch free online—but only through today, and I'm not sure what time today. It's about 43 minutes long.

To find out how to view the film in the future, check out  the filmmakers' website, which looks to be a fun and informative destination in and of itself, or the film's Facebook page.

Heck Yes!

Derek Sivers—the founder of CD Baby—has a great idea for people who "often over-commit or feel too scattered." (Sound familiar?) When it comes to decision making, he suggests, forget yes or no. Instead, make it HELL YEAH! or no. Feel the difference?

HELL YEAH! it's worth reading Sivers's blog post about this: "No More Yes. It's Either HELL YEAH! or No." I'm definitely going to be trying out this tool. Maybe it'll even help me with this problem. Or maybe not ...

Thanks to @EricHamm for tweeting about this.

Wrightslaw on the Twice-Exceptional Child

A couple of law professors, Pete and Pam Wright, have a website called Wrightslaw, about special-education law and advocacy for children with disabilities. Looks like a helpful site in general, including on legal issues surrounding ADD. But thanks to @JenLaviano on Twitter for tweeting about a new page on the site, about twice-exceptional students. Lots of good links there!

In case you haven’t heard the term twice exceptional, here’s how the Wrights define it: “Twice-exceptional children are gifted children of above average abilities who have special educational needs—AD/HD, learning disabilities, Asperger Syndrome, etc. Because their giftedness can mask their special needs and their special needs can hide their giftedness, they are often labeled as ‘lazy’ and ‘unmotivated.’"

Wrightslaw could be a good springboard for learning more.

It's Complicated Redux

What are the potential consequences of taking ADD medications over the long run, from childhood into adulthood? Might taking meds facilitate the normal development of the cerebral cortex in children with ADD? But might those same meds also make people more susceptible to depression, anxiety, and cognitive deficits? Psychiatrist Edmund S. Higgins explores the research in a July 2009 article in Scientific American Mind.

On the one hand, says Higgins,

the pills can improve attention, concentration and productivity and also suppress impulsive behavior, producing significant improvements in some people's lives. Severe inattention and impulsivity put individuals at risk for substance abuse, unemployment, crime and car accidents. Thus, appropriate medication might keep a person out of prison, away from addictive drugs or in a job.

On the other hand, says Higgins, the benefits of the meds—from staying out of prison to being able to focus on schoolwork—could come at a cost: 

With the expanded and extended use of stimulants comes mounting concern that the drugs might take a toll on the brain over the long run. Indeed, a smattering of recent studies, most of them involving animals, hint that stimulants could alter the structure and function of the brain in ways that may depress mood, boost anxiety and, contrary to their short-term effects, lead to cognitive deficits.

Don't let the opening anecdote of the article stop you; I'm not sure it really illustrates what Higgins is talking about. I started wondering, Don’t tests like the ones he may have performed yield a fair number of false negatives? And did Higgins listen—really listen—to the boy and his mother about the boy’s difficulties? (Of course, he may well have.)

I also wondered if using the term “relaxation of official criteria” dismisses the possibility that diagnostic criteria could evolve over time to be more helpful. Such “relaxation” might reflect an increased understanding of real differences in how ADD presents—for example, in girls, women, and adults.

Higgins also refers to a “lower tolerance in society for mild behavioral or cognitive problems.” But what about when you thwart and frustrate yourself, never mind what society thinks? When some of your ADD traits keep you from achieving your own goals? I’m not arguing that meds are the answer, just that it’s important not to minimize people’s individual struggles, even if those people aren’t causing big problems for society.

Despite my quibbles about some of Higgins’s wording, his article is a great overview of the possible risks and benefits of long-term medication for ADD, with summaries of interesting studies. It’s well worth the read.

For more on the complexity of medication for ADD, see a previous post, "It’s Complicated.”

Back to Basics

"Some time ago," a friend e-mailed me, "I read an article on ADD, but I can't find it." How appropriate!

"However," she continued, "I took some notes." Those notes were so succinct and at the same time so all-encompassing that I got her permission to reprint them here. In her words:

[The article] said ADD people need

1. Structure.
2. Meditation.
3. Aerobic exercise.
4. Diet—less carbos.
5. Follow your heart—need passion and interest.
6. Neurotransmitter activity—need stimulation.
7. Recognize there is struggle to shift gears.

That about sums it up! Seven good reminders for us all ...