Overwhelming Simplicity

Everyone is ADD!  To a point!

For better or worse “You’re so ADD!” has entered the popular vernacular.  Nowadays it’s used any time anyone is slightly overwhelmed or confused or forgetful or hyper.  Whereas the overwhelm and distractibility of ADHD/ADD is ongoing, frequent, and in more than one area of life.  (Hey we’re all a bit overwhelmed when we’re riding The Mighty Mindbuster at a Theme Park—It’s when you’re sitting in a small, quiet public park and you’re overwhelmed that it’s a problem.)

But people keep saying, “You are so ADD” because we are totally overwhelmed with information, input, noise, distractions and urgent messages…

If you strolled up Yonge Street in Toronto for a mile or two, you would pass a lot of people. You would encounter more strangers than a farmer from a couple of centuries ago might meet in a decade on his farm and in the small town he lives near.  
Every face you pass is being judged by your brain—Threat?  Danger?  Fight or Flight?  Sexy?  Scary?… All this going on constantly as you carry on a conversation with the people you’re walking with… or the person at the other end of your cell phone signal.

And if someone coming the other way is out of control, say on drugs, your brain instantly identifies the threat and you are pulled away from your phone conversation and present to the danger… “Fight?  Flight?  Walk around?  Avoid?  Don’t make eye contact?”

All this going on while music pours out of stores, signs flash, cars honk, construction cranes rattle and clang… The world is overwhelming.  Constantly.  And we add to it, turning on music or the TV, whenever there is a moment’s silence.

Interesting that this summer, when my son went away with his group of twenty friends for their annual weekend up north, something remarkable happened.  Usually everyone brings music.  And they set it up at the campsite, playing all day… and small arguments erupt over what song is next, and “I can’t stand that band,” or “We’ve had enough slash metal.” 
Nothing serious, just low-grade annoying, ticked off, frustration that fills the day.  And if you let it, ruins the day.
This year, no one thought to bring a Boom Box.  So while everyone had music they wanted to pump out into the hinterlands there was no way of getting it off the CD’s and I-Pods turn it into sound waves.

So it was quiet.

There were no arguments.

It was easy to hear each other.

People talked, and could hear conversations across the campfire and join in. Rather than try and lip read over Black Eyed Peas. (And hey, I love the Black Eyed Peas.)

No one walked away on their own because the song that was on made them irritable…

They even got to hear the sounds of nature.

It was, to quote my son, “Awesome.”

They’re now thinking of banning music on the weekends.

And actually being able to connect with each other and talk.  Which was the whole point of getting together.

Sometimes ADDers can focus better if there is a distraction like a TV or whatever in the BG.  But it has to be something we choose.  The same music or TV coming from next door is annoying.  Why?  Dunno.

But sometimes quiet is good.  It actually leads to calm.

And overwhelm is sometimes a choice.  The trick is to realize that despite what we’ve been told by advertisers, marketers and people eager to make a buck, simplicity is not the same as being deprived or shortchanged or hard-done-by.

Simplicity.

The nice thing about it is… it’s fairly simple.  And involves less work, less stress and less to worry about.