News For Thought

Hopefully a reoccurring post with interesting newspaper articles.

I do not have ADD linked with any other disorder. But, because I would like this to be a resource for other people, and because ADD is often linked with anxiety and depression, and because of the recent events at Virginia Tech, I wanted to provide links to two articles that I thought were interesting approaches to mental health.

First from the New York Times, a story about the woman who started the mental health awareness group, Active Minds, after her brother committed suicide while on leave from college.

And, from the Washington Post an Op-Ed that I link to because of the questions of stigma that it brings up, about the panel being formed in the wake of Virginia Tech.

"A Man Walks Down the Street, He Says, Why Am I Short Of Attention? Got A Short Little Span of Attention" - Music and ADD

A while back, the New York Times ran an article about the dangers of multi-tasking. I thought it was ridiculous at the time and I still think it is silly. It contains "news" such as "The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car."

I can't imagine that even people without ADD actually think their attention is equally shared among things like talking on the phone and paying attention to the road. It didn't strike me as something scientists needed to study.

But I have been thinking a lot about this line in the article: "Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions — most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows — hamper performance."

I listen to music with lyrics while studying and writing papers. I have been trying to writing papers in a quiet library recently, and it has been a disaster. One of the things about ADD is that people with ADD are more likely to seek out distractions or get distracted by things that are available and interesting but is not the task at hand (O.K. that's essentially a working definition of ADD). For me, that manifests itself as a lot of time on the Internet. (Case and point this blog). But when I am listening to music with lyrics,--I try to choose songs whose lyrics I already know so I won't spend time trying to figure out the lyrics--I am less likely to get distracted by all out time wasters like Internet or random walks. I type more quickly and am more focused. It's choosing the lesser evil and I think it works.

Lyrics in the Title from Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" click play below to hear the song (with a weird video).

Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
Uploaded by manon42

Jealousy

The worst part about knowing this is fixable is knowing that there are people who can do their work without getting distracted.

Comic Relief

An occasional post of comic strips that make you say "Haha. I do that," or make you realize it could be worse.

UPDATE 06/27: The comic got take down from its host site, so bear with me while I figure out what to do. Sorry.

UPDATE: 08/19: I found it but now the other comic is down. I think I will have to give up on posting comics for a while.