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.