The post on supersonic hearing got me thinking...what if I were deaf? Would I be able to focus without having competing auditory stimuli? Blind people generally are more aware of their auditory surroundings, due to the fact that they must compensate for lack of visual stimuli. Perhaps the overly-attended-to auditory stimuli in some ADD people is in conflict with the information coming into the visual cortex.

Despite the fact that I am a singer, I don't normally listen to music. I find it distracts me. I WAS able to do graphic design and listen to classical music (only music without words), but I was not able to write advertising copy and listen to music at the same time.

Does anyone see a correlation? Maybe I'd be rid of ADD if I were deaf :)

-Jonathan

does anyone know anyone who is adhd and also deaf?

Hmm...good question. I'm googled and found that there are deaf children with ADD. But, I doubt Hellen Keller had ADD; after all, she was only left with five senses. Perhaps my symptoms would be much less if I were deaf. Interestingly enough, I was deaf for the first nine months of my life and used to read lips.

-Jonathan

I think that if I was deaf I would still be bad at focusing and concentrating, even though I wont be able to hear things around me I will still see alot of things that will distract me.

I would also get distracted by my own mind, my thoughts are most distracting :) and I think if I was suddenly deaf, I would be left with just my thoughts and that would drive me insane!

I am hard of hearing (Vietnam) and wear hearing aids in both ears. I thought that this was a handicap, but, it turns out that is a real plus (at times) for me as an ADHD person.

When I need to focus on a speaker I turn my hearing aids up. They are directional, so I get the most input from straight ahead. However, when I don't want to be "Driven to Distraction" by all the extraneous noise and input around me, I just turn them off. Actually, they are pretty good hearing protectors. I wish I had my hearing aids when I was younger!. I wonder if earplugs would work for the non-hearing impaired? Has anyone tried them? Larry

I wonder if earplugs would work for the non-hearing impaired? Has anyone tried them?

I use ear plugs often at work. I often listen to music with a head set at the same time (turning the music up loud enough for the music to somewhat overcome the effects of the ear plugs). I think that it works quite well, beyond that the ear plugs are irritating and painful after a period of time. I could use a lighter set of plugs, but then the effectiveness is usually reduced.

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i'm sorry.....but are people starting to think that making themselves deaf would cure add? cause you know that is bordering on extreme and in my opinion not the best thing to think about, i mean deaf people don't have alot of fun with deafness, think about it for a bit, having something that makes you different from others isn't necessary a bad thing, if you grew up with it, it was part of a driving force that evolved your personality into what it is today and this isn't just about "i can't concerntrate, i'm serverely impulsive so much so that i've crashed my car" admittedly thats kinda definately on the bad side of things, but there are alternatives, take public transport (although i am aware that american public transport isn't that great) or something like that to get around that problem, like it or not, if you take away something that you've compensated for your entire life you'll find it differcult and will most likely miss it, you can't keep looking for quick fixes to yourself, it doesn't work that way, if you start down that road you won't be happy, everyone has differculties be it physical or mental in a way everyone is made up of what can be seen as bad things, i mean i know a guy who is divisional director of a medium sized company, he earns alot of money, but because he has so much responsibility the stress is starting to effect him, he smokes and eats unhealthily, (he also has some traits of ocd but thats for another conversation) it's starting to affect his heart, but when he was younger he wanted nothing more than to have a good family and to have lots of money and be important, he's successfully done that, so now what?, thats his life long goals completed there, what does he do?, he looks for other things to do big projects that take alot of time to complete but are rewarding, this of course equals more stress, he's always trying to be the best, always trying to be reliable but he can't see the downside no matter who tries to show him, he's damaging himself, he's in his late 30's and although he's young he's starting to have heart problems, but yet he's still looking for the fix that will make things better, more projects to complete, more people to help, more extensions to build to make his house better, under more and more stress.

thats the problem with people in general, sure we can improve ourselves, but if we keep thinking that we can just constantly do things to fix things we will never have the disapline we need to complete things that take alot of time to fix, bruce almighty, butterfly effect, click, liar liar, what do these films have in common? in all of them, they were constantly trying to make things better be it themselves or others, looking for the perfect solution to the problems that they see, i suppose i've wandered alot from what i've tried to say, also may have gone way too much into this but i hope the message that i'm trying to put forward is clear, a search for solutions to every problem that exists is always worth while to a point, think about society as it stands today, think of every invention thats been created and every problem that has come with them, i suppose what i'm trying to say for every solution comes a problem, you just need to think about the problems that would come with the solution thoroughly before you take the steps your so willing to take.

cherish and embrace the good things that you have before you look at the bad

something that people often do the other way around....

oh well, each to themselves i guess

i've rambled enough for now, back to work for me ;)

later people

I can only stand ear plugs for a short time and on rare occasions I could not stand to wear them all the time because they "bother me" the feeling of them in my ears in itself can become a distraction.

I can wear head phones for a while as they fit around my ears but even after an hour or so they feel heavy.

I am visually impaired btw I was born that way extreme near sidedness runs in my family. Most people in my family also have good hearing but not necessarily sensitive hearing like I have.

I have noticed that those with ADD have at least one "acute sense", those that do not have acute hearing have acute sense of smell or feeling ECT……

Oh, heh...I thought you said ADDer's were better off dead.