Attention Deficit Disorder an Otherness in America ADD and how it makes the people who have it social outcasts.

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Attention Deficit Disorder an Otherness in America

People that suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) are usually considered to be lazy, stupid, and/or unable to learn. Society looks down on people who suffer moderate to severe levels of ADD (Cooley 1998). Even though Attention Deficit Disorder with (ADHD) or without hyperactivity is defined as an imbalance of the brain's ability to manufacture specific chemicals on demand, societal acceptance that the disorder is a real hard sell to the "normals" (Phelan 1996). The terms different, odd-man-out, weird, out of sync, misfit, lazy, stupid, and did you take your medicine today are only a few of the words and phrases used by adults in charge to describe children and adults suffering from attention deficit disorder (Kelly and Ramundo 1997). People sometimes do things to others who are different that turn out to be mean spirited and hurtful to the recipient (Phelan 1996).

These kinds of attacks are usually a result of a lack of understanding of the "otherness" but are still harmful to the individual (Cooley 1998).

ADD has certainly been embedded (just not known as ADD all of the time) in western cultures and is evident by the extensive list of

accomplished individuals who have either been diagnosed or have traits

associated with ADD, as described in the literature of their time. (ADDhelp.com, 2002).

People lucky enough to make such a notable list of successful

individuals include Lewis Carol, Walt Disney (fired from a newspaper for not having good ideas), Albert Einstein, (neither spoke until the age of 4 nor read before the age of 7), Thomas A. Edison ( told he was too stupid to learn anything), Abraham Lincoln (entered the Black Hawk Wars as an officer and come out as a private), Sir Isaac Newton (grades in elementary school...