The default brain network and ADD

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http://blog.plantpoisonsandrottenstuff. ... k-and-add/

I thought this was very interesting and quite positive. I'm guessing some of you will find it interesting too. Read, and perhaps discuss.

I particularly like the author's description of some of the benefits of an overactive 'Default Brain Network'. I have some of the same abilities, but I'd never realized I did those things better than other people.

I just skimmed it but bookmarked it for later. It looks interesting . ADD for me is like one part of my brain keeps interrupting the other part. Like my default brain and active brain are on at the same time and competing.

Good read.

That's exactly what it felt like for the short time I was on Risperidone. I found it absolutely intolerable.



I love the way she words that, its a great question, and one that I can easily relate to. For me, its like my consciousness is constantly buzzing and overflowing with information, memories, associations, ideas, and realizations. It doesn't turn off, ever, and any chance word, image or sound, ect.. only adds to the already torrent river. This, I would suppose, partially accounts for why I have such difficultly with novel tasks, holding down jobs, and following conversations.

Interesting read

Interesting...music has the opposite effect on me sometimes. I find it actually helps me to concentrate--my unsubstantiated theory is that my brain has a very high bandwidth and by tying up more of that bandwidth with something expected and ordered, but that still offers stimulation, I can decrease the bandwidth given over to daydreaming and I can focus on the road (or whatever task I have to attend to) better than I would otherwise.

About actually stopping thinking...I was actually thinking about that today. There is only ONE place where it ever happens, and just briefly and with great effort. There's a spot on the interstate here where it takes a sharp turn--but people typically go WAY over the speed limit (i.e. 75 in a 55 or worse) and if you don't keep up, you'll make what is already an unsafe situation worse. I usually go around this with music, and for just a brief moment as I round the curve, music blasting, feeling how my body is set and watching the road, I can actually hold my thoughts silent for that brief 30 seconds.

That is literally the ONLY time that happens to me, in that intense situation.

Very, very late at night, I've intentionally gone to even higher speeds when no one else is around, and on a few rare occasions managed to hit 90. I think that part of why I did this was exactly because it gave me a few seconds of silence.

But for the most part, I like all the activity in my head. It may be annoying when I try to count stuff, or things like that, but it wouldn't be me without it.

Last edited by SoSayWeAll on 08 Jul 2010, 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think of it like this. Playing music is like giving the cranky toddler part of my brain something to play with.

Best way of dealing with it is like that. Focusing on doing something methodically. I've done that at when working all my life, if i had not i would never gotten anything done.




Haha, i can read a section of text maby 2-3 times before i stop dreaming away. Reading or watching TV for me is like surfing the internet, i never know where i end up.




Same here, its like they don't think and all they want is the money that goes with the job. As Will Ferrel joked about in "You're welcome America" (the Bush Satire standup):