CHAT: ADD (was Re: CHAT: "boredom" (was Words for "Boredom")

In a message dated 06/18/2002 08.55.29 AM, smithma@UCLA.EDU writes:

>ADD isn't all that new. My uncle was diagnosed with it back in the
>early 70s. I think its just got to be better known, or perhaps it got to
>be a "trendy" diagnosis.
    ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) is a very broad diagnosis nowadays.
When I was a young "Wild Child," a certain type of it was called
"hyperactivity."
    When the new ADD acronym came into being, my dad was not at all thrilled.
Very drily, he says that it should be more accurately SOS for "Sensory
Overload Syndrome" based on both my mother's medical analysis and my dad's
intense observations of my reactions to sensory stimuli and diet as well as
my emotional responses and intellectual development.

    Decades before these questions were being seriously asked, my mother
wanted to get such data like:
        - the numbers of children with "hyperactivity" who were born Cesarean
Section & how many were born and raised in lower-class socio-economic
environments
        - the numbers of juvenile delinquents with "hyperactivity"
        - the numbers of people in prison who who are/were diagnosed with
"hyperactivity."

    But since my mother had or made some key enemies within "the Medical
Establishment," she never got to pursue research on her "pet project." (Back
then she called me "pet" ... IIRC a very British endearment).

Hanuman Zhang /'hanuma~n  dZahN/
Avatar of Sun WuKong, a.k.a. "Monkey," a.k.a. "TricksterGod of Chinese Boxers"

~ om hung hanumatay rudratmakai hung phat ~
    mantra to Hanuman the Hindu Monkey TricksterGod

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