The New York Times published an article entitled “A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.” in Sunday’s paper that is incredibly compelling and spot-on in terms of what the A.D.H.D./A.D.D. epidemic in this country is really about.
The problem isn’t A.D.D.: The problem is boredom, stagnation, lack of any creative or physical outlet. In schools, they’ve cut art, they’ve truncated recess and the gym schedule—gym isn’t even mandatory anymore. They’ve cut all of the healthy outlets for children.
The other thing that’s changed is that children, instead of playing outside after sitting all day at school, are going home and playing video games. They are at a desk doing hours of homework. They are at the computer. They are sitting.
By and large, what children need is more activity, not drugs. Children need a minimum of one hour of exercise each day, but they are not getting the physical and creative outlets that they should.
What’s the result of that? Something that looks like A.D.D.
It’s the same thing with adults—with increased commutes, longer workdays, multi-tasking, you have all of this stress and people then think “well I just can’t focus.” Well, it’s not A.D.D., they’re just overwhelmed. And they need exercise. It doesn’t require legalized speed. Then you find that these people end up on multiple medications: a sleeping medication, an anxiety medication, an endless array of unnecessary drugs.
Further reading on the subject from The New York Times:
