A Splintered Mind

Update 2016: This article was featured in my book "Saying NO to Suicide" Part 1 | Part 2 Some people have asked me how I manage depression without medication. Please keep in mind that medication is not the answer for everybody. Some people either can't afford medications or are hypersensitive to them, which is the case with me. I can't take any medication without worrying about side effects. So today let's get down and dirty. This will be a little lengthy, but I'll list ten steps I might take on any particular day to shake off the black beastie. My challenge today is to make you smile about depression. I may have just conceded defeat with that last sentence, but I'll make the attempt anyway. Since anybody can make up a list and put it on the web, let's make this real. I'll take an actual bout of depression and chart how I dealt with it. It is 5:30pm and I hear the lilting voice of my wife as she comes home. Instead of happiness I have an instan...

While I'm finishing up the illustrations for my double sized column for this week I wanted to pass along some warnings from the FDA. If you've followed my blog for a while you know that I stand against medications as a first line of attack for treating neurological problems. I see them as rife with side-effects and a poor substitute for coping strategies. This attitude doesn't make me popular. I'd wager that a more popular pro-meds stance would help me retain higher readership around here. Some could argue that my lack of a medical or psychological degree makes me ill-qualified for passing out advice of any kind concerning meds, and I would agree with them to a certain extent. If you really do read my column you know that I don't carelessly tell people to stop taking their meds. I simply encourage them to be careful. What I can offer with absolute certainty is my life as a worse case scenario. My experience with meds has always been filled with almost every biz...

This week was going to be a departure from my usual Adult ADHD topics. I was going to cover my session Monday with my Cognitive Behavior Therapist . Some people had expressed interest in what that was all about. Too bad I forgot to go . Let's see. I had the reminder phone call from the secretary. I had my PDA set to beep at me. There were no scheduling conflicts. Kids were picked up on time. So what happened? Well, I got caught up helping my kids and didn't have my PDA by my side 1 . Out of earshot, out of mind . But my humiliation makes great grist for a column on easy distractibility , the mainstay of the AD/HD mind. Coincidentally, the very next criteria Hallowell and Ratey list for Adult ADHD is this very topic . As evidence that at least one of them has Adult ADHD , Hallowell and Ratey list the most commonly known attributes of ADHD as number eight, somewhere after pathological boredom and bad breath . 8. Easy distractibility, trouble focusing at...

Last week's column didn't strike a chord in as many people as others I've written. I can only think that is a good thing . There is hope for the survival of the species. We can't all live like maniacs at the far edge, dangling off cliffs, betting the house on a football game, juggling machetes , etc...but would you be surprised to learn that all that high stimulation activity is a subset of something you probably CAN relate to? The seventh symptom in Hallowell and Ratey's Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults is: 7. An intolerance of boredom. A corollary of number 6 . Actually, the person with ADD seldom feels bored. This is because the millisecond he senses boredom, he swings into action and finds something new; he changes the channel. If there is one aspect of AD/HD I wish people who don't have it could fully understand it is the intolerance of boredom . One of the loudest complaints I have heard from people who don't have AD/HD ...

I realize this post will be far off the beaten path but I hope you'll humor me. I came across the most wonderful comic today when exploring Russell Stutler's website . It is called "A Strange Wind Blowing" He captured that wonderful nostalgic feeling I used to get on a blustery day. Remember how it felt to have the wind give you the feeling you could fly when you were a child? We were so light a strong wind could move us. Dreams of flying were natural. When I was a young boy I didn't just wish to fly when the wind was particularly gusty. I actively tried to fly. Even long past when I knew that I couldn't fly I would let the wind flap my clothes and I would imagine flying. Sometime in my life I forgot about flying, even in my dreams. Instead, I dreamed of falling and being chased 1 . When I was awake this morning at 5am I wasn't thinking about flying then, either. A cold front had moved in overnight and the wind was howling and beating at my windows. I ...

The number six symptom in Hallowell and Ratey's Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults is a need for high stimulation. 6. A frequent search for high stimulation. The Adult with ADD is always on the lookout for something novel, something engaging, something in the outside world that can catch up with the whirlwind that's rushing inside. My mother tells of a story where my late brother, Ryan, created a new sport one day. It involved BMX bikes and trampolines. Now, one thing you have to understand about Utah is that a family is not a real family unless there is a trampoline in their backyard. It is that important. When a neighbor moved away and left their trampoline behind, my children could finally hold their heads up high in school even though the trampoline wasn't large enough to bounce two hyperactive chinchillas on. You would think with access to a full olympic sized trampoline my brother and his friend would have been content. B...

Tired of putting your employees to sleep when you need them attentive? Have your family meetings been running on and on pointlessly? Do people dread your phone calls because they don't have an hour to waste? If so, you may be interested in this book by Milo O. Frank. It's not new. In fact, it's been in publication for twenty years. However, the lack of modern jargon and references to archaic business apparatuses don't take away from the salient points Frank has to make about communication. Terribly thin at 120 pages, you could almost polish it off during lunch break. The book is padded with anecdotal stories to prove Frank's points. I found the interjection of anecdotal stories interruptive, but without them "30 Seconds" would have been more of a pamphlet than a book. I should warn you that the book is very sales and business centric, but the principals covered can be applied to other arenas in life. Some points may seem self-evident, but then again if ...