Even Many Professionals have trouble Understanding Current ADD/ADHD Clinical Terminology. For example: "impulsivity."

THE CLINICAL TERMINOLOGY OF ADD/ADHD BRAIN CHEMISTRY IS STILL CONFUSING.

ADD/ADHD is defined in the DSM-IV as hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity. But what do these terms mean in terms of everyday brain behaviors?

For example, the ADD/ADHD behavioral characteristic, "hyperactivity," is not best described as the almost constant motion of a "Dennis the Menace." Rather, certainly in teenagers and adults, it is most commonly squirming and being fidgety.

"Inattention" is not the inability to pay attention to anything. It means inattention for boring tasks. There is a lot of variability in the expression of this ADD/ADHD behavioral characteristic because what is boring to one individual often is not boring to another. It can be eye-opening to see an ADD/ADHD teenager concentrate on English homework for five minutes, put down the book, then stay focused on a computer game for three hours.

Other terms used to describe ADD/ADHD behavioral characteristics also are vague and confusing. For example, "waking slowly in the morning" does not mean that it takes hours to wake nor does it mean that one cannot get out of bed quickly in the morning. It means that coming awake is slower then it should be.

"Difficulty falling asleep at night" does not mean never falling asleep but rather taking hours to let go of being awake before sleep happens.

Diagnostically important as it is, the ADD/ADHD term "impulsivity" is often inaccurately described even by health professionals. Let's pause and check out how impulsive ADD/ADHD individuals behave and what they do to deserve this labeling?

Impulsivity is a "kid's" word. When applied to ADD/ADHD teenagers and adults, the DSM-IV gives examples of impulsivity that best apply to children including "often blurts out" or "often has difficulty wait one's turn," or "often interrupts or intrudes on others." These descriptive terms apply poorly to ADD/ADHD teenagers and adults who are impulsive because, with maturity, individuals are usually socialized and do not express their impulsivity in these ways.

How, then, is impulsivity expressed in teenagers and adults? Let's start with correcting the common, erroneous misunderstanding of impulsivity. The child who runs into the street without looking and thinking about oncoming cars is not not thinking, a belief commonly expressed even in the medical literature. This child is thinking but not about the task at hand because he or she is thinking about other matters. Impulsivity should be thought of as not paying proper attention to the task at hand because a multitude of thoughts race through the mind displacing, so to speak, thoughts about the immediate task at hand. In ADD/ADHD terms, the impulsive mind is a hyperactive mind (analogous to the hyperactive body).

In ADD/ADHD teenagers and adults, a hyperactive mind can be very creative. But, for too many, it is a cause of mental disorganization and confusion. For example, think of the ADD/ADHD teenager who starts to pick up his or her bedroom but thinks of a million other things to do and never finishes the task. These teenagers may be too mature to blurt out answers in the classroom, as children often do, but when they find magazines laying around they are likely to stop and read them rather than put them in a storage bin and get on with tasks such as cleaning up the room or homework that they should be doing. Similarly, when they come upon a game, they are likely to play it rather than store it away for use at another time. In the end, the room does not get picked up and valuable hours have been fretted away.