Coaching and training often bring us in close contact with people who have (or think they have) Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  For nearly 25 years, our analysis in Neuro-Semantics is this— People are more likely to have intention deficit rather than attention deficit.  True ADD is based on a brain deficiency and that is actually rare.

What we usually call ADD is simply the lack of wanting to do whatever one has attention deficient about.  The child does not want to study grammar or math.  The adult does not want to read up on self-help or pay attention to a conversation that seems irrelevant.  So test it.  Ask about what the child or the adult can pay attention to, focus on, and get completely absorbed in.  “What do you love?”  “What do you find most engaging?  Video-games, baseball, sports cars, etc.?”  If there is even one place in life where a person can stay focused— then that person does not have attention deficient disorder.  Instead that person suffers from a lack of interest.

Recently, in the March/April 2020 edition of Psychotherapy Networker, Edward Hallowell, a Harvard Medical School faculty member for 21 years was interviewed in an article titled, “A Vast Difference: Depathologizing ADHD.”  He has written the book, Driven to Distraction and he believes that ADHD is “a blessing rather than a curse.”  He also does not think that the problem is attention deficit.

“… the deficit disorder model is simply inaccurate.  This is not a deficit of attention at all.  It’s an abundance of attention.  The problem is controlling it.”

He described the brain of high energy people as “having a Ferrari engine for a brain with bicycle brakes.”  ADHD is a combination of distractability, impulsivity, and restlessness.  It is power without control.  Talk about a reframe!  Power without control.  And if that’s what it is, the solution is to “add control” so that the power can be directed and focused.

“The flip side of distractibility is curiosity, which is a tremendously powerful force.  The flip side of implusivity is creativity.  What is creativity but impulsivity gone right?  You don’t plan for creative ideas; they just pop.  They come with disinhibition.  So they depend on having brakes that aren’t too strong.” (p. 60)

Here are some more reframes.  ADD is impulsivity which is the basis of creativity, “creativity is impulsivity gone right.”  This provides a positive spin on what is commonly labeled a problem and something bad.  But that does not help.  Labeling is often just a more sophisticated form of name-calling which is a cognitive distortion.  And this is probably the case with most cases of ADHD.   Labeling invites a person to adopt a negative self-identity which only complicates the problem as it layers another level of negative framing over the experience.

“What kid wants to be told he has Attention Deficit Hyperativity Disorder? … It’s pathologizing, stimgmatizing…”

So how can you handle ADHD?  The article by Dr Edward Hallowell focuses on education, on helping people understand the actual structure of what we call attention deficient.

“It begins with education, with reframing.  It also begins with wanting to understand it. … It’s about finding the right places for people to thrive, which involves trial and error. … Physical exercise helps a lot, as do sleep, nutrition, coaching, and understanding the components of executive functioning.”

It is very, very rare for a person to actually have a brain disorder that involves attention deficient.  Ninety-five percent of the time the problem is a lack of intention— the person has not set his or her intentions on the values of a given experience.  And as a Meta-Coach you can resolve this by repeatedly running the Intentionality Pattern with a person.  Run it repeatedly until the person builds up a set of energized intentions and aligns his attentions so that they serve his intentions.  You can also run the Empowerment Pattern so that the person takes ownership of her mental and emotional powers and her verbal and behavioral powers.

ADD and/or ADHD does not have to be a curse.  It can be transformed into a blessing —power under control, attention driven by intention and when you have that, you can then direct the person to put it into use and develop one or more “genius” states wherein that person has all of his or her resources available for living life at its fullest.  Do that as a Meta-Coach and you are on your way to change the world one conversation at a time.

教練和培訓經常讓我們與患有(或認為患有)注意力缺陷障礙(ADD)或注意力缺陷多動障礙(ADHD)的人有密切接觸。近25年來，我們在神經語義學上的分析是這樣的 – 人更有可能有意向缺陷而不是注意力缺陷。真正的注意力缺陷障礙是由大腦缺陷引起的，這實際上很罕見。

我們通常所說的注意力缺陷障礙僅僅是缺乏想要做一個人注意力不足的事情。孩子不想學習語法或數學。成年人不願意閱讀自我成長的書籍，也不願意關注無關緊要的對話。測試看看。問問孩子或大人可以注意什麼，關注什麼，並完全投入其中。「你喜歡什麼？」「你覺得最吸引人的是什麼？電玩、棒球、跑車等等？」如果生活中有一個地方可以讓人保持注意力集中，那麼這個人就沒有注意力缺陷障礙。相反，這個人缺乏的是興趣。

最近，在2020年3月/ 4月版的心理治療網絡工作者中，一位在哈佛醫學院任教21年的教師，愛德華·哈洛威爾 （Edward Hallowell），在一篇題為「一個巨大的差異：消除多動症」的文章中接受了采訪。他寫了一本書，《分心不是我的錯》 （Driven to Distraction）。他相信多動症是「福而非詛咒」。他也不認為問題出在注意缺陷上。

「…這個缺陷障礙模型是不准確的。這根本不是注意力的缺失。這是一種充裕的關注力。問題是如何控制它。」

他將高能量人的大腦描述為「有一個法拉利發動機與自行車剎車的大腦」。多動症是注意力分散、沖動和不安的綜合症狀。它是一種無法控制的力量。多棒的換框！無法控制的力量。如果是這樣的話，解決辦法就是「增加控制」，這樣力量就可以被定向和集中。

「注意力分散的另一面是好奇心，這是一種非常強大的力量。沖動力的另一面是創造力。創造力如果不是正確方向的沖動力，是什麼呢？創造性的想法不是被規劃出來的，它們是冒出來的。它們跳脫出來的。所以它們依靠的是不太強大的剎車。」（第60頁）

這裡有一些更多的換框。多動症是沖動力，這是創造力的基礎，「創造力是正確方向的沖動力。」這為通常被認為是問題或壞事的事情提供了一個正面的解釋。但這無濟於事。標簽通常只是一種更復雜的標示形式，是一種認知扭曲。這可能是大多數多動症的情況。貼標簽會讓一個人接受負面的自我認同，這只會使問題變得更加復雜，因為它會在體驗上形成另一層負面框架。

「哪個孩子想被告知他患有注意力缺陷多動障礙？…這是病態化、烙印化……」

那麼如何處理多動症呢？愛德華·哈洛韋爾（Edward Hallowell）博士的這篇文章關注的是教育，幫助大家了解我們所說的注意力缺陷的真正結構。

「它從教育開始，從換框開始。它也從想要理解它開始…這是關於找到適合人成長的地方，其中包括嘗試和錯誤……體育鍛煉很有幫助，睡眠、營養、教練以及理解執行功能的成分也很有幫助。」

一個人真的要有涉及注意力缺乏症的大腦障礙，是非常非常罕見的。95%的情況下，問題是出在缺乏意向，這個人沒有把他的意向建立在某個體驗的價值上。作為大成教練，你可以通過執行意向力模式來解決這個問題。反復進行，直到這個人建立起一套充滿能量的意向，並調整他的注意力，以便服務於他的意向。你也可以執行賦予力量模式，這樣，這個人就擁有了他的心思力和情感力量、語言力和行為力。

過動症不一定是一種詛咒。它可以被轉化為祝福 – 它是可控的力量，由意向驅動的注意力，當你有了它，你就可以指引這個人把它投入使用，並發展一個或多種天才狀態，在這個狀態下，這個人擁有他的所有資源，使生活達到最充分的狀態。