The Pain from ADHD,"the language of the heart" by Dr.Gabor Mate

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...In one form or another,

it (ADHD) has been recognized in North America since 1902;

its present pharmacologic treatment with psychostimulants was pioneered more than six decades ago.

The names given to it and its exact descriptions have gone through several mutations.

Its current definition is given in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,

scripture and encyclopedia of the American Psychiatric Association.

The DSM IV defines attention deficit disorder by its external features,

not by its emotional meaning in the lives of individual human beings.

It commits the faux pas of calling these external observations symptoms,

whereas that word in medical language denotes a patient's own felt experience.

External observations,

no matter how acute,

are signs.

A head ache is a symptom.

A chest sound registered by the doctor's stethoscope is a sign.

A cough is both a symptom and a sign.

The DSM speaks the language of signs because the worldview of conventional medicine is unfamiliar with the language of the heart.

As the UCLA child psychiatrist Daniel J. Siegel has said,

"The DSM is concerned with categories,

not with pain."


ADD has much to do with pain,

present in every one of the adults and children who have come to me for assessment. -Dr.Gabor Mate Scattered Minds, P.8.

I like this paragraph because it helps me put into perspective the effects of ADHD.

Verses causation.

This thread is about the emotional pain people suffer/suffering from having ADHD.

And what we can do about that pain.

Thoughts?

GBYR









.....

[stoph276]

I think that self medication happens alot. It just makes it go away for a while.

[Peripheral]

Originally Posted by stoph276

I think that self medication happens alot. It just makes it go away for a while.

Thanks stoph276

I agree.

It is interesting that addictions are not always a physical dependency on a substance,

but psychological as well as physical.

Example,

some people become addicted to gambling, sex, helping others before helping them selves, workaholics, etc

I'm addicted to everything.

All Addictions are anesthetics.

They separate us from the distress in our consciousness.

We throw off our familiar and tired consciousness to assume another mind state we find more comfortable,

at least temporarily.

Desperate to be out of our mind and unaware,

we surrender to the addiction,

to be lulled into a walking sleep. -Dr.Mate, Scattered Minds, P.297