Driven to Distraction #5

In the end of the book I learned about the process towards people defining if they have ADD and how they come to these conclusions. The interesting part of it all is there is not just one certain test that everyone can take to determine if they have this learning disability as there are several steps to take to come to these conclusions. This was alluded to by Edward Hallowell when he said, "There is no definitive test for ADD, no blood test or electroencephalogram reading, or CAT scan or PET scan or X ray, no pathognomonic neurological finding or psychological testing score"(195). This is very intriguing because there is a 4-step process in finding these determinations for certain people. It starts with seeking help from a professional in this field, then you review your history to areas where there can be signs to having symptoms of ADD, 3rd you consider all the possibilities that are signs from this history, and lastly proceed with some psychological testing. In my process my parents noticed some signs of struggles in some of my school work and through my life which led them to send me to a professional to do these tests. It was a brutal process where I had to take several tests pertaining to my attention span, including areas where I struggled in including reading comprehension to define why I had these struggles. After all the testing was done we sat down with my parents where the professional discussed my scores with my parents and how she drew my conclusion that I had this learning disability, partly due to the fact that I couldn't completely focus during stages of the tests. This issue is very interesting to me because I didn't really know much about it all until last year when I went through this whole test. I knew that my brother had ADD as well, but didn't fully understand what it meant. I am glad that I read this book on this commonly known learning disability and I think that many more people need to begin to take some time to learn about this issue that millions of people in the world have because it is something that most people will eventually come across and it will be better if they understand all about it to give them more understanding to where these people are coming from and with some of the things they have to say.

Driven to Distraction #4

As I have continued to read this book I have found so many similarities to these situations occurring with kids and their families through the different short stories to my life. ADD can have many affects on families which can lead to several arguments that are created stemming from this learning disability. One quote that really seemed to stick with me as they gave a concrete example of ADD stating, "You don't mean to do the things you do do, and you don't do the things you mean to do"(127). I found this quote very powerful to me because I feel the same way as I do some things I don't mean to do which can lead to arguments with my friends and family and then think to myself why I did them. With ADD it may cause people to say some things they never mean to say, but have trouble in some situations as you can't take back what you say. This can cause people to be irrational in some situations and will start may arguments which can be very bad for friends and families. When kids with ADD are never diagnosed are off their medicine it will cause them to act in these types of ways and can move families into different directions as it could build them stronger by working through the problems together, or detrimental when arguments are blown up which lead to many issues in the family. The issue is that relationships among close ones can be impacted negatively to those with ADD if kids don't get help with this problem.

Driven to Distraction #3

In the previous chapters I discussed how it was an issue that so many people are undiagnosed with ADD and how it can affect them in their adult lives. As I was to read more of the book and learn more about people with ADD and the way it affects their lives I found another issue behind this problem. Some parents may not test their kids for it which can affect them negatively, but even worse parents can blame their kids for many things that they have no control over since they have ADD but the parents are unaware as many of these children are undiagnosed. A personal story from a girl named Sarah from Tennessee was accused by her father as he is was described, "a woman who was told from an early age by her father that she had no sense than a jay-bird and that her main problem was that she was lazy"(94). It was very unfortunate for Sarah because as she was being accused by her father of being lazy, unorganized, and was blaming her for her struggles in school and for having difficulties with other things in life. Sarah was later diagnosed with ADD and began to take medicine to focus on certain tasks to help her accomplish them at an efficient rate. Her family found vast improvements in her life and her dad finally realized that it really wasn't all her fault that she was struggling in all these areas. This is such an issue because parents could be accusing their kids of certain things because they have trouble in these areas. Since many kids have these learning disabilities but the parents don't know about it, it causes them to blame their children for many things that are almost out of their control. Ever since I have been on my medicine I have been a much more productive student with my work and have been able to accomplish my assignments earlier with better quality. There are so many cases like this and getting medicine for children with these learning disabilities will only help them in their schoolwork.

Driven to Distraction #2

With Attention Deficit Disorder being very common for many children as certain aspects in which the way the act can be hints to if they have ADD, parents have to take the extra step to find out if their children really have it. Obviously some cases are much more severe than others and are easier to detect, but some people may not want to get tested for it because they may think they don't have it. The most evident area to find whether kids make a stronger case to having a diagnosis of ADD is through schoolwork. This was found in my personal experiences with my test scores where my parents had to question some things about me and this was an eye opener as Edward Hallowell relayed to in this book when he said, "The most reliable diagnostic tool is the individuals history as elicited from the child, parents, and, very importantly from teacher reports" (42). School can be a great indicator as the teachers are able to notice trends in their students to areas they struggle and where they do well, evidently giving clues to a possible learning disability. The biggest issue with this is the amount of people that are undiagnosed. It can have a negative effect on their lifestyle as Hallowell said, "There are a great many adults out there in the world with undiagnosed ADD who think of themselves in all sorts of unnecessary negative terms. They may have fast-track hyper kinetic personalities, be impatient, restless, impulsive, often intuitive and creative but unable to follow through, frequently unable to linger long enough to develop a stable intimate relationship" (52). There are social and personal problems that can affect these adults in a negative manner and prevent them from being able to act on the same level as others. I guess I can say there are some positives as well with a broadened imagination as these individuals will be more creative. I am not sure to what extent it has on them, but this could be either a good or bad thing for some people. Overall it is a major problem that so many people are still undiagnosed today because there are so many negative impacts it can have of their lifestyles and they should to their best to make a change by getting tested.

Driven to Distraction #1

For my book this semester I have been reading Driven to Distraction by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey a book about Attention Deficit Disorder and how to recognize and deal with it from childhood throughout the rest of people's lives. This was an intriguing issue that I wanted to read more about on because as I did not discover until my junior year in high school that I had ADD I wanted to see how parents deal with their kids in recognizing potentials kids of having it and how they deal with it. This disorder is one of the most common disabilities in the entire world and the most amazing this about it is that so many people do not realize that they have it because they are never once in their lives tested for it. Hallowell alluded to this when defining ADD as he said, "Many of the symptoms of ADD are so common to us all that for the term ADD to have specific meaning, rather than just be a scientific-sounding label for the complex lives we lead, we need to define the syndrome carefully. The best way to understand what ADD is and what it is not is to see how it affects the lives of people who have it" (3). The fact that ADD is so common many people don't realize that it could be affecting their lives in some ways and there are ways to fix it, but since there are not scientific labels for it, that is the reason so many don't realize they have it. For me I have always been able to get all my work done on time, but throughout my high school career I have procrastinated constantly and have seen drops in my grades due to poor grades on my final tests. These final tests were always a challenge for me and that was one of the reasons why I got tested on top of the fact that it took me a while to finish up tests, in hopes of maybe getting extended time for my ACT. I was diagnosed with ADD, but didn't havethe credentials to get extended time for the ACT. I have been taking medicine ever since and it has definitely made a significant positive difference helping me concentrate in class and be a much more effective student.

Gambling #4

Today I read through two of my last sources of this project and learned about some of the negative factors of gambling and its relation to the economy and how different types of gambling are available in all states. When I think of gambling I just think of Las Vegas people going to the casino playing blackjack, roulette, craps, and other games. The lottery that is legal in all states in the U.S. is another form of gambling that can be seen on a smaller sector. Gambling is a form of putting money into an investment where no one knows the outcome of it. This fits the lottery as people put wages into the lottery with uncertainty if they will win the big jackpot gambling their money away to this industry. There are so many negative aspects to gambling as some critics from ABC-CLIO talked about gambling saying, "it is immoral, it destroys families, attracts crime, and leads to addiction, infidelity, and bankruptcy. Some critics also argue that gambling addiction can even be responsible for divorces and suicides." With all these factors in the air when gambling is involved, this industry can do nothing but hurt the economy. People argue that this industry actually helps the economy because it creates more jobs, and gives the government more money to invest in necessary areas. This will not be an industry that creates more jobs, it actually loses jobs as people get addicted to the game and let it take over their lives which can lead to them losing their jobs and money. The money that these citizens are losing in the casinos or through the lottery are losing the money that they would spend on necessities such as clothes, household goods, and food. It is more important to maintain an economic strength in these areas because they are the industries keeping the economy alive, while gambling is moving the economy in the opposite direction. The negative aspects completely outweigh the positive ones of gambling so that is why I am a firm believer that they should not make it legal to gambling in Chicago is it will hurt our economy overall.

Gambling #3

In my research today I focused on the state of Illinois and the new laws to allow gambling throughout the state and the different perspectives of the citizens living in the area through a few articles from the Chicago Tribune. In the first article I read they talked about how McHenry county was allowing gambling in their area, and initially they were completely against the idea because of the concerns of gambling addiction problems that would occur to the people in the area. In essence they thought about gambling and how other areas are allowing it and making a ton of money off of it so there is no reason why they shouldn't make it legal in their area. Surprisingly this article did not really highlight the positive reasoning's behind why they would make it legal in their county other than they will generate more revenue to give themselves more spending money. In the second article I read from the Tribune, I was able to read up on the voters in the state and their opinions on gambling being allowed in the state. The citizens were torn between allowing it, having no opinion, and making illegal in the state, but the highest percentages where people opposing it as 48% opposed it, 29% favored, and 23% had no opinion. People are clearly opposed to this because it really has negative impacts on people and their families.Therese Hendrix, a 39-year-old poll respondent from Lansing was strongly opposed to it as she said, "Gambling destroys families and people's lives and I don't think it really increases revenue for the state like manufacturing or other types of jobs would". Seeing all the different statistics within state citizens being opposed to allowing gambling in different areas of the state and how it could impact their voting for state mayor, showed this issue can really impact people's lives. Before my research I was sort of in between to rather I was in favor or opposed to making gambling legal in the state of Illinois, but after my third day of research, reading these articles today I've realized that we do not need this in our state as it will only be causing problems to peoples lives.  

Gambling #2

In today's research I read through one my sources in depth from Gale Virtual Library about all the background behind gambling and the lottery. Within this database it linked me up to another article that was very interesting about a personal story from Tony McDew where gambling took over his life. McDew was a technician who was doing pretty well bringing in income, but he always felt that he needed to make more money to buy things for his girlfriend and have more spending money. This was when he turned to gambling as another hopeful source of income. As he first experienced playing on the slot machines he made some money, hearing the lights go off and goes spill down into his pocket. This glimpse of victory was only a bad turning point in his life as Tony became very addicted to this game and didn't want to stop playing. McDew never had any drug problems, but he explained the exhilaration of winning by saying, "it's like you're getting high" and this addictive lifestyle took over for him. He even went far enough to compare himself to a crack addict cause it was something he couldn't stop. He kept losing thousands of dollars playing these games and he had to make excuses to his wife as if he was jumped and robbed and that's why he never had any money as he was taking his paychecks straight to the casinos. Overall he lost over $35,000 and he is a prime example of the basis of the pathological gamblers he get addictive to this game and take a very negative turn in their lives. Though this billion dollar industry is helping the government in some ways with having more spending money, it is ruining the lives of many citizens lives in terms not allowing them to consume in the economy.

Gambling Post #1

Today I searched through several different databases to learn more about my topic of gambling and all the places it impacts from the people to the government. Overall I gathered together six sources today from many websites from the library subscription database to other great sources such as CNN and the Chicago Tribune. One of the websites that was very insightful to me was ABC-CLIO which talked about the economic side of gambling. The gambling industry is one of the most profitable business areas in the entire world and it is intriguing to see if this business will help or hurt the economy. It could go either way because on one side of it, the government will be able to generate billions of dollars in revenue and then they are free to spend it on necessary things that will help the country out. On the other side of it, the consumers will be losing so much money from the addicting game and then the consumers will not have money to spend within the market of the economy making the economies profits lower. Through ABC-CLIO they took the approach that this industry actually helps out the economy as more money comes into the economy instead of it staying with their consumers and allows the government to spend money of necessary things such as construction and maintaining parks. This sources believes that if there is more money in the government, they will have more money to build necessary things, that will help generate more jobs in these areas. This is just the beginning of my research, but the facts and analysis I learned from this one article has not swayed me to believe that gambling actually does help out the economy as a whole.