1.12.11 MDHD - Mindfulness Deficit HyperHypo-activity Disorder and the Suffering Well.
The syndrome of ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is well known to many and gets much press. It is very prevalent often improperly diagnosed and treated. Even with all we know about this disorder it is still overly diagnosed, misdiagnosed and under diagnosed by very competent health care professionals. There are many reasons for this which I have discussed elsewhere, but one reason is that both patient and professional may be suffering from a even more prevalent problem, perhaps a new Disorder which I call MDHD, or Mindfulness Deficit HyperHypo-activity Disorder.
ADHD’s core problem is a deficit in paying attention and concentration, in three major ways, 1. being initially attentive, 2. being able to sustain attention , 3. and then regulate and control attention and concentration. Two additional secondary problems are often associated with this diagnosis that of over activity or hyper activity, though this may show itself just with an inner sense of restlessness sometimes of the body, but sometimes only with the mind, a mind restlessness, a need for the body and or the mind to move around, and because of these two issues poor concentration and excessive body or mind movement, the third core symptom of impulsivity occurs. Impulsivity means doing things without sufficiently thinking about the consequences that might be short term or long term. The impulsivity leads to problems cognitively making the wrong thinking choices, behaviorally the mind-body makes the wrong move literally, and socially, making the wrong social moves. In classical non complicated ADHD the treatment is often a medication when the symptoms are severe , with remarkable results with improvement in all core problems. In these cases it is more if not mostly neurology , a deficit in brain neurochemistry, that is easily fixed with the right medication approach.
The proposed diagnosis of MDHD unlike ADHD is not primarily a neurochemistry problem, but a problem of the mind, a complex psychological issue, that has its cause and treatment in fixing the underlying mind issues and resultant conditioned habits. The treatment is one of mental understanding and training..
Mindfulness Deficit Hyper/Hypo-activity Disorder core problems are lack of awareness and mis readings of reality, with a mind moving too fast or two slow that is not be in sync with the wave like nature of reality, and alternating impulsivity[ too little thinking and letting go to soon] and compulsivity[ too much thinking and holding on or not letting go soon enough].
Mindfulness Deficits lead to lack of awareness of the reality of a situation, and leads to distortions, denial and distractions from the reality we need to survive and be happy and healthy. It makes us slaves to thinking and emotional reactions, and to past conditioning and future expectations and fantasies not based on reality, therefore not in our best or others short and long term best interests. Lack of mindfulness makes our minds work too fast or too slow, that lead to alternating impulsivity and compulsivity. The emotional reactivity leads to major and minor mood swings, rather than being able to accept reality in an even minded manner. It causes us to be self centered, selfish, unhappy wanting more and more, as we avoid necessary pains and negativities, that we need to endure and learn from to survive and to be happy, and cause us to ignore the neutral leading to unnecessary boredom and stagnation, and a lack of creativity and finding new ideas and stuff in the old and the boring and the neutral.
As much as thinking is necessary and helps us, and should be our servant, it often becomes our master and changes reality by denying it, distorting it, and allowing us to be distracted. When we are out of touch with reality and not riding the wave or reality accurately, without distraction we will never be as healthy, happy and wise as we should and can be. We are not aware that thinking and its driving emotions is the master and controlling us sometimes in a bad way because it is miss reading, or ignoring or distracting us from the real reality of living situations.
Mindfulness makes everything better, the positives become more pleasurable, the negatives have less suffering, and the neutral rather than boring becomes interesting, somtimes entertaining and full of new knowledge, if explored with minfulness.
What is mindfulness? It is the that initial present moment of reality experienced and allowed without our thinking changing it.
Mindfulness is the present moment and then the moment by moment awareness of reality, accepting it for what it really is and then allowing its wave like nature to unfold and be experienced by feeling and sensing without being changed by thinking processes.
It is a basic pre cognitive, that is pre thinking mental function that we all have and use all the time. Before we think about anything, we first just become aware of it without prejudice, or pre judgment, we just accept it and allow it to be as it is meant to be in reality, before we change it with our thinking processes. A sound is just a sound, a smell is just a smell, a thought or feeling is just a thought or feeling, a body sensation is just a sensation, these things are just what they are not modified by thinking or feeling or the past or the future.
Mindfulness experiences a thing as it really is in reality before thought changes it by comparing with the past, or the future, or changes it based on the emotional charge we are feeling, making it better than it is, if it evokes good feelings, and making it worse than it is, if it evokes bad feelings.
Are thinking mind in addition ignores reality experience if it evokes little , or no feeling or neutral feelings. So our thinking doing mind based on the feeling response and past experience and future experience changes and or ignores big junks or reality most without our awareness, very quickly and over and over. It causes to deny reality, or distort it or to be distracted from a reality by something else.
Remember mindfulness make everything better, more pleasure in the positive, less suffering in the negative, and the neutral become less boring and interesting.
Enjoy more, suffer less, and never be bored are the fruits of mindfulness.
When mindfulness is sustained it leads to unconditional happiness and the wisdom that helps and heals.
How to recognize deficits of mindfulness and how to become more mindful will be discussed next.