As a Life Coach I have conversed with hundreds of people, one-on-one over the years during coaching sessions and I have heard them say on more occasions than I can count ‘I have ADD or ADHD!’
I have always been fascinated with the sudden arising out of nowhere of diseases and illnesses in our society. Not there yesterday, now diagnosed, here, talked about and feared today.
Such is the case with Attention Deficit Disorder and its cousin Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
I grew up in the 1960s and the 1970s. I am a baby boomer. When I was a child, teenager and finally an adult no one ever talked about not being able to focus. There were judgments and labeling of individuals as being ‘lazy,’ or ‘unmotivated,’ or a ‘procrastinator.’ I never heard the terms ADD and ADHD used until the last decade. Did ADD and ADHD simply descend upon us? Are they really diseases? Or are they something else? I indeed believe, no, let me rephrase this, I know they are ‘something else!’
I know that one person’s inability to focus, to be motivated, to take action and not procrastinate, to think and act with clarity, is not an illness. These are symptoms of our experiencing toxic environments. Yes, ADD and ADHD are symptoms of an organism, a human organism, living in and experiencing a toxic environment.
This toxic environment is experienced by most of us as children. The truth is that almost all of us are products of what we call dysfunctional households and upbringings. The result for us as adults, is not living and experiencing Life as it was intended to be. Life, in its purest and only form is composed of unconditional love, joy, inspiration, enthusiasm, creativity and expansion. So then, how can any of us say, without hesitation, that we live our own life in its purest form?
Science has proven that as children we exist in a hypnotic state. In other words, everyone and everything we are exposed to is stored into our subconscious minds through the age of six. We literally believe everything we are told, we see and experience. The result is the life you are living right now, if unchecked and unexamined, is likely based on beliefs you formed and accepted by the age of six.
The results of this hypnotic state are your current level of success, your level of self-esteem, your level of self-confidence, your openness to giving and receiving love and money and sharing your talents. The current state of your life is a direct result of all your yesterdays. All of your yesterdays were predetermined as a young child.
So, where does ADD and ADHD fit into the scheme of what I am writing about? Quite simply, they are symptomatic of a person, who, as a child living in a dysfunctional environment, became disconnected from Life. Life is reflected by our true selves. Recall that I earlier listed the components of Life as unconditional love, joy, inspiration, enthusiasm, creativity and expansion. If you cannot define yourself by these traits, conditions and characteristics, then you are, by some degree, experiencing a spiritual disconnection to yourself and the world.
Interestingly enough, I have found that clients who claim they are suffering from ADD and ADHD typically have similar beliefs: they feel undeserving and unworthy of being happy and successful, and most disheartening, is they feel unworthy of love.
Anyone who feels undeserving, unworthy and unlovable lives by a specific set of dysfunctional rules that he or she unconsciously adopted and accepted as ‘truth’ in his or her mind at a very young age. These rules dominate and control thoughts, beliefs, habits and behaviors over one’s lifetime. If unchecked, the results in one or all areas of a person’s life will be less than satisfactory. These areas, which Chris and I break down into 5 categories are: Financial, Career, Relationships, Physical and Emotional Health and Spirituality.
My view is that both ADD and ADHD are diagnoses the medical field has given to an individual when in fact, he is really experiencing a spiritual disconnection. Let us look at the symptoms of these so-called illnesses. Some of the more predominant symptoms I have encountered with clients over the years are the inability to focus, complete tasks, get easily distracted, chaos, go at warp speed then ‘crash,’ procrastination. None of these symptoms create happy results for the person who experiences them.
Now, it can be said that there have been people who have been symptomatic of a spiritual disconnection for thousands of years. Not feeling good about oneself is not a concept that arose out of thin air during the last several decades. However, what has arose over the last several decades, are technologies that tremendously enhance the seemingly subtle symptoms most of us experienced by feeling disconnected. Technology has become the breeding ground for what doctors call ADD and ADHD and here is how and why it is such fertile ground for exaggerating and exacerbating dysfunctional behavior.
As I stated earlier, I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. I also am a product of a dysfunctional family. I bless this family and all of the experiences I encountered because without the dysfunction, I could have never awakened and reconnected myself to who I truly am. During this time however, I, as a child and teenager, had very little diversion from a technological perspective. During this time, we had phones with no answering machines. We had television. As I recall, growing up in New York City, we only had seven channels to choose from. And by the way, they all went ‘off the air’ at 2 AM. There were no cell phones, no computers, no iPhones, no iPads, no text messaging. Some of us, even back in the day, were challenged with being focused, completing tasks, being hyperactive, being chaotic and erratic with our behavior and procrastination. All symptoms of ADD and ADHD. And through it all, we thrived, lived and prospered.
Fast forward to today. The opportunity for diversions has grown by leaps and bounds. These diversions keep us from becoming acquainted with our glorious selves. There is not one moment in any 24 hour period, that we cannot find a diversion that takes us out of the game of life. It is this external over-stimulation that is the cause for acute cases of what are called ADD and ADHD. We can now preoccupy ourselves so thoroughly and so completely that we never have to deal with ‘me and my life.’
There is a ‘silver lining’ in all this chaos. Within the addictive symptoms of being connected to the over-stimulation of modern technology, I have witnessed the beginnings of an awakening! For within the mechanics of the Universe there are always opposites. With chaos, there will eventually be order. I am witnessing it with my clients. They are becoming aware that the symptoms they are experiencing are not just labels and diagnoses like ADD, ADHD, and Bipolar Disorder. They are realizing that something is not quite ‘right’ with their lives and they want to do something about it. They are physically, and more so, emotionally exhausted and have little joy, love and happiness to show for it. They are ready to look at why they ‘do’ or ‘do not do’ what they do. They are ready to consider that ADD and ADHD is a cry from within themselves to release the pain from the past and stop using the self-imposed diversions and limitations of chaos, lack of focus and drive, and procrastination to control their life. They are also willing to re-evaluate and re-assess the role of technologies in their life.
Friends, technology is marvelous! Through technology I have the ability to reach you. I am in Pennsylvania. You may be around the corner or on the other side of the world. How awesome is that? However, if technology has become your ‘addiction’ and has compounded the fact that you may be looking for ways to avoid dealing with the barriers that are preventing you from living a wonderful life, having loving relationships, a fulfilling career, good health and financial prosperity, I ask you to please stop! Stop and consider that it is time to slow down, stop running, sit down and ask yourself: ‘If I continue to ‘do’ or ‘not do’ whatever it is I am doing or not doing, will I create the kind of life I want?’ Most of you will answer ‘no.’
If you have been diagnosed as someone with ADD or ADHD, please consider that these labels are not who you are. Be open to giving up identifying with these labels. You are a spiritual being having a human experience. Your natural state is peace, joy, happiness and love. Anything less is an indication that it may be an appropriate time to look within you for guidance. It may feel scary, and truthfully, at times it is; however, I can state unequivocally from personal experience and as a Life Coach, that you will be quite happy with the end result.
For your consideration: what appears to be ADD and ADHD may very well be your soul crying out for you to finally express your own creativity and brilliance that has been ‘bottled up’ for way too long!
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