Is ADHD a Product of the Modern World?

It’s not, but sometimes I think it is, at least partially.

Maybe Leonardo da Vinci had ADHD, maybe Albert Einstein had it and maybe Genghis Khan had it too. I don’t know if they did, but if they did it didn’t stop them from reaching greatness and changing the world. When I think about it, I realize that they were special people and maybe they didn’t have ADHD, perhaps they were exactly what they were: extremely intelligent, had wonderful talents and they were especially innovative and creative. We remember and admire them for the great people they were, the great things they accomplished and yet, we do not always seriously consider their time and place in history, regarding pace.

The time available to do something today is incomparable to the time that was available to do something only half a century ago, much less hundreds of years. What did you do today or just yesterday? How many things did you accomplish? How many places did you visit? Who did you call and who did you forget to call?

In any given day you have more to think about, concern yourself with and get done than nearly any great and accomplished person from history. And yet, we remember less and less of what we actual do on any given day. We have been taught to consider what others did their whole life from another time and place, when things were slower, more deliberate and more thought-out. That’s an important aspect the history books typically leave out. Some of us tend to think people from the past, who accomplished so much, must have had ADHD because we identify life then with life now, but what if it’s more a matter of they had more time.

In the past, when the day was over, a person could sit down, perhaps in front of an open fireplace, put their feet up and think about that one special thing they got done that day and find peace within to savor it, making it last – they had time to think about tomorrow, tomorrow.

If you’re old enough, maybe you remember when you could spend all day Saturday, playing outside? Not a care in the world, just played to your heart’s content. Those days are passing into oblivion for children in today’s world. The kids who can’t keep up, I am sure they will be called something. Evolution takes time, but that’s because evolution is out of humanity’s control, therefore, it must be disordered. Right. As if. Maybe the volcano in Iceland, spewing ash throughout the skies over Europe and has kept aircraft grounded for a week, is just a warning to humanity to slow down, wherever you are going will wait.

Do you still remember what the first thing was that you did this morning? If so, can you remember the third, fourth or maybe ninth? If you’re like most of us, you’ve already forgotten half of what you did and are working on a plan on what to accomplish tomorrow, much less how. If your day is just starting, think back to yesterday, go ahead and give it a shot, I will wait.   

ADHD is a real, of that there is no doubt, but here’s my point:

Take a break once in a while and give yourself some credit, that’s all I am say’n. You’ve done a lot, you’re doing a lot and you deserve some credit every once in a while. 

You’re pretty darn awesome, after all!

~Bryan

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