The Garden of Education

What is ADD?

Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD/ADHD, is a psychological term currently applied to anyone who meets the DSM IV diagnostic criteria for impulsivity, hyperactivity and/or inattention.  The diagnostic criteria are subjective and include behavior which might be caused by a wide variety of factors, ranging from brain defects to allergies to giftedness.  ADD, as currently defined, is a highly subjective description, not a specific disease. 

Confusion and controversy is caused by the tendency of some mental health professionals to assume that everyone diagnosed with ADD has some mysterious, irreversible brain defect.  This assumption has its roots in the very first group of severely ADD people ever studied, who suffered from encephalitis, or a swelling of the brain.  We also have learned that birth defects and brain injury from toxic chemicals such as lead often cause ADD.  However, over the last several decades the ADD diagnostic criteria have been so broadened as to include many people with no brain defects at all. Experts in the fields of temperament and creativity have objected that perfectly healthy people are being classified as disordered.  Huge numbers of these new types of people being added to the diagnostic pot have changed the way ADD is viewed in some circles, including people like Thom Hartmann, who popularized the idea of ADDers being "Hunters in a Farmer's World".  On the other hand, many argue that such people aren't ADD in the first place.  Both may be correct.  This website was started with the first viewpoint in mind (hence the title), but as time passes I find myself more likely to just say that many so-called ADD people are simply not ADD in the classic sense.