The ADD Experience

Interview with Thom Hartmann by Janie Bowman

You've spoken about ADD to many diverse groups around the world. Compared to a few years ago, what's currently foremost in people's minds about this topic?

I think that most people are moving away from the shock of, "Oh, there's this thing called ADD, and it's a brain disease, and my kid's got it (or me or my spouse, etc.)." They are now re-evaluating the entire message.  "What the heck is this thing called ADD, anyway?" is what most people seem to be asking now. After the NIMH, National Institute of Mental Health, PET scan seemed to "prove" that ADD brains were different, Dr. Zametkin re-did the study with his ADD subjects medicated to relative "normalcy" and discovered, to his shock, that the PET scans hadn't changed. Now everybody is having to re-think this. Clearly it's not something simple, not something purely chemical, or probably not even only one thing. And so this is what people are pondering: "What's beyond the ADD diagnosis?  What is this really? And where do we go from here?"

Why is ADD such an important issue?

It's an important issue for two reasons, in my opinion. The first is that many people have lived a pained or difficult life and never known why, and the concept of ADD gives them insight. It's tremendously liberating and empowering, unless they hear the message from somebody with a vested interest in making them think that ADD means they're defective, broken, disordered, and in need of  drugs or that person's services for the rest of their lives. And, second, I think it's important because it provides us with a context in which to view, overall, how our social and educational institutions are structured. If an ADD child fails in one school setting, but thrives in another (without meds), then where is the "disorder"?  I believe that many people and professionals are now beginning to look at our institutions and view them as being at least part of the problem, and that's a good thing, in my view. So, in that context, the whole idea of ADD can be an agent of social revolution, and that's important.

What sparked your interest in ADD, which ultimately led to four books, a forum on CompuServe, and a newsletter?

My initial interest in ADD came when my son, Justin, then 13, was diagnosed. The psychologist told him that he had a brain disorder, which I thought was a pretty wretched label for any child to have to bear. So I started out looking for a better metaphor, which led me to the Hunter-Farmers paradigm. This paradigm, it turns out, may actually be good science. I essentially wrote my first book, Attention Deficit Disorder:A Different Perception, to my son and had no idea it would explode as it has, turning into a bestseller. But that created demand for more books, for the forum and the newsletter (which we're stopping publication of in a few months).

Let's briefly discuss your first book, Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception, which has sold close to 100,000 copies. In this book, you introduce the "Hunter-Farmer" theory and encourage people to use the more positive word "Hunter" instead of "disordered." You state, "Labels are powerful things. They create for us paradigms through which we see ourselves, the world, and our place in it. For children, applying a label that says `you have a deficit and a disorder' may be more destructive than useful." Would you elaborate on the "Hunter-Farmer" theory?

ADD, I argued in that first book (and later ones, too), may be something that was once an adaptive psychological and physiological mechanism that provided our hunter/gatherer ancestors with an edge over the world in which they lived. For example:

Their distractibility was actually a continual scan for danger or opportunity in the world of the forest or savannah;

Their sense of doom was a hypervigilance that protected them from predators or warriors;

Their impulsivity eliminated the problem of indecisiveness which could cause them to miss out on a meal when they were doing a task and something edible ran by;

Their seeking out sensation and risk facilitated their hunt, leading them into areas where food could be found (along with the other predators also attracted by that food).

I originally proposed the Hunter/Farmer model of ADD merely as a paradigm, an empowering story that children or adults could tell themselves about who they are and where they came from that would be less offensive than a medical model that says, "You're mentally disordered." Over the years since I first proposed it, however, a number of scientists have come forth with evidence that there may actually be some (perhaps even much) truth to the notion that ADD is a vestigial survival mechanism handed down to us from our ancestors.

Think Fast! The ADD Experience is an anthology based on information from the ADD Forum on CompuServe. What prompted you to edit a book of such magnitude?

It seemed like a good idea, as there was such an extraordinary breadth and depth of information on the forum, and it was only accessible to the few million people with CompuServe memberships. Compiling the knowledge and experiences from eighty individuals and professionals into one volume gives you an in-depth, concise look at the diversity of ADD.

Let's move to a topic of concern for parents of ADD children: education. Can educators view ADD as anything other than a disorder, when the focus of special education as it currently stands is often more on a child's weaknesses instead of  his strengths?

This is a conundrum. The schools as they're currently set up, by and large, are not appropriate for the learning styles of ADD children. And so in order for ADD kids to succeed, a "non-normal" or "special" learning environment must be created.  Alternative, Charter, Waldor and Montessori schools all seem to be very viable alternatives, but these are generally more expensive because they are not part of the mainstream school system. So, in that context, it's probably useful to keep the label "disorder" attached to ADD so it can be used as a lever to legally force schools to educate these "attentionally different" children I've met many teachers, by the way, who don't view ADD children as disordered, and some who are very, very successful with them. Oddly, it has always seemed to me that most of these "successful with ADD kids" teachers are ADD themselves.

In recent months, ADD has been portrayed negatively by the media, mostly denying its existence by explaining it away as poor parenting. Additionally, Ritalin has also taken a media "hit." Looking back, we shudder at what ADD used to be called: "minimal brain dysfunction." Looking toward the 21st century, what is the future of "attention deficit disorder," as a diagnosis and a label?

Well, one of the certainties of life in America is that when there's a huge fad and bandwagon, there'll be a backlash. Look at repressed memories of abuse, or chronic fatigue syndrome, for example. So it's not surprising that for every person who sees an explosion of ADD there'd be a contrarian saying, "No, it can't be." But I don't think it's that black and white, on either side of the argument.

Certainly there are some people for whom ADD is a disorder. You can find them living under bridges or in jails. And for them, keeping this diagnostic category and having appropriate medications is reasonable if not necessary.

But I've come to believe that many if not most of the kids being labeled and medicated with/for ADD don't really have a mental illness worthy of a "disorder" classification in the DSM.  For them, I agree with Harvard psychiatrist Edward Hallowell that a better term is "attentionally inconsistent." They face challenges and difficulties, certainly; but I think it's still an open question as to whether the best solution is to medicate 20% of the kids in a school (as is the case in some school districts) or to change the way the school teaches. This is a topic that's worthy of debate. As much as I cringe when I hear individuals like Rush Limbaugh confidently proclaim that there's no such thing as ADD, I still think it's important that the issue be presented as a discussion and debate, rather than as something that's a certainty, with Ritalin or other absolutes as the only solution.

ADD adults and careers: any helpful suggestions?

Sure. Find a job with lots of excitement, variety and change, and with a lot of external structure. In these types of jobs you'll find many ADD people: cops, emergency medical technicians, emergency room doctors and other personnel, pilots, consultants, freelance writers, investigative reporters. The list goes on and on. Sales is also hot for people with ADD.

What has been your most satisfying opportunity to help ADD people?

When I give a speech on ADD and afterwards people come up and tell me that they now have hope, I feel energized. That was my whole issue with the first book, with Justin: that before any sort of therapy can work, be it drugs, psychotherapy, learning new skills, or whatever, people must first have hope.  As I travel around the world discussing ADD, I've met so many people who've had the hope beat out of them by dependency-creating "professionals" or pseudo-therapeutic "support groups," that they've just given up. So when people tell me I've given them hope, I feel that my presence on earth has been justified.

One final question: Is there another book in progress? If so, how will it differ from your previous books and other books on the market?

Yes, there’s another ADD book that’ll be out this next winter titled Beyond ADD: Hunting for Reasons in the Past and the Future, which addresses some of the issues Imentioned earlier. And I’m now working on a book about Herr Mueller and his thoughts on spirituality, which is in some ways very similar because so many ADD people I meet have a strong spiritual component to their lives, even if they wouldn’t call it that. My working title for the book is The, Unfolding World, although we’ll probably change it. It’ll be out in the spring of 1997.

Thom Hartmann, an international entrepreneur and noted author and speaker, is the former executive director of a residential treatment facility for abused and emotionally disturbed children. He is the father of an ADD child, the founder of the ADD Forum on CompuServe and author of three books on Attention Deficit Disorder: Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception, Focus Your Energy: Hunting for Success in Business with Attention Deficit Disorder and ADD Success Stories: A Guide to Fulfillment for Families with Attention Deficit Disorder. Thom Hartmann is also the editor, with Janie Bowman and Susan Burgess, of the new ADD anthology, Think Fast! The ADD Experience.

This interview is an excerpt originally printed in the Spring 1996 issue of the ADD Connection, published by the Oympia Chapter, LDA of Washington.

Note: Thom’s book on Herr Mueller is titled The Prophet’s Way.

Thom’s Website