Good morning, folks! I am Jin with Morning Mindfulness Podcast. I hope you are doing great wherever you are! Let’s breathe and smile.

Today I will touch a very sensitive and controversial topic. So if you are politically correct, turn this recording off right now. Or proceed at your own risk. All right?

We will talk about ADD.

Convenience of ADHD, to be exact

Yes, it is growing.
My opinion, humble but accurate, is that ADD is one of the most heavily abused diagnoses.

When I was growing up in Europe, we did not have this problem. But we also did not have 500 channels on TV. We had 2, or 3 if we were lucky. Internet did not exist, and definition of playstation was the same as outside playground. I grew up reading books, good old printed books I still like reading today.

Look what happens now. Hundreds of cable channels, almost unlimited growing information on the internet, available on the smart phone. People look at their phones several times a minute. No wonder that this constantly changing images in front of our eyes have such a hypnotic effect on us.

When people run, as an exercise, it is not recommended to stop abruptly. We need a cool down period. What happens if a child who is so used to flipping the channels or surfing the internet, comes to school where he has to sit quietly in the class? The mind is so used to changing the image all the time, so the kid cannot keep attention on one subject. Then they call it ADD. Doctors prescribe the pill, and parents accept their fate and start feeding these pills to a kid, not even thinking that the problem originated in their house. I told you I was going to step on somebody’s toes.

My friends, I know there are cases that have to be treated. I am not a psychiatrist to diagnose or suggest. So don’t take it as a medical advice. But I would suggest to look at some alternative methods, like mindfulness meditation that makes its way into schools. I think it has a tremendous potential to cure our society from this self-imposed disorder. Think about that.

Are we still friends? Hope we are.
Thanks for tuning in! Now let’s breathe and smile. I will talk to you next time.

PEACE!
Jin

Listen to other Morning Mindfulness Podcast episodes here