ABOUT Alphabet Disorders

Alphabet City/Alphabet Soup

by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
In support of the ADD Basics Series

Phillip Martin, artist/educator

Welcome to my clubhouse!

Looking through The ADD Lens™ means so-much-more than looking at ADD itself!

Whenever I use “ADD” or “EFD,” know that I am talking to ALL of the members of a neurodiverse community of individuals who struggle with executive functioning deficits

You’ll often hear me refer
to these struggles as
Attentional Spectrum Disorders.

What I’m actually talking about are individuals who experience “deficits,” in the Executive Functioning mechanism (relative to the so-called “neurotypical” population).

These “brain glitches” produce dysregulations in one or more areas:

• MOOD – how they feel emotionally and how well they are able to weather emotional storms
• AFFECT – how they seem from the outside, including affect regulation ability, and
• COGNITION – how they “attend,” decide, remember & recall, and stay on track as they work through the many tasks of daily living.

• At one end of the spectrum are those who, diagnosed or not, have been card-carrying club members since early childhood.

• At the other end are individuals who got their membership cards rather suddenly, as the result of brain injury of one sort or another – or because it came along with a condition of another sort or a side-effect of medication for something else.

• Somewhere in the middle are those who “age-in.”
  (Click on Types of Attentional Deficits for more about this)

Clear as mud?

Remember – links on this site are dark grey to reduce distraction potential while you’re reading.
They turn red on mouseover. Hold before clicking for a window with more info

No Letter Left Behind

I include ALL of ADD’s EFD relatives, friends and neighbors in my widely cast net, even the distant ones: the comorbid disorders, the look-alike disorders and conditions, and the acquired deficits, temporary or permanent.

I even include a few distant cousins twice removed, that might not seem to deserve an invitation to the Alphabet Soup kitchen, until you think about it — for example:
(check for links below – hover before clicking for what’s there)

• chemo-brain
• menopause brain fog
• age-related cognitive decline
• cognitive irregularities as the result of the Diabetic glucose fluctuations
• Traumatic Brain Injury due to accidents or sports-related concussions
• Acquired Brain Injury due to strokes, medication, etc.
• Fibromyalgia
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Cerebral Palsy
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Auditory Processing Disorder
• and many, many others who no longer can – or never could – make the neuro “typical” advice work for them

Why “Alphabet” disorders?

There is a long list of brain-based disorders that are accompanied by difficulties with the volitional regulation of many of the processes of higher-order cognitive control.

A great many of them are referred to by acronyms, officially or by nickname – OCD, ODD, SPD, ASD, PDA, PDD, MDD, MS, TBI, ABI, EFD, PTSD, APD, etc. – alphabet disorders!

Anyone who is on medication that creates brain-fog is welcome at my table as well.

It’s gonna’ be a GREAT Thanksgiving when we all gather to celebrate the fact that we’ve all finally learned “How to drive the very brains we were born with, even if they’ve taken a few hits in the meantime!”™

(Click on What ARE Executive functions? for an explanation what’s involved –
compiled from some of the experts in the field).

I’m a coach not a doctor

• I am not tasked with performing a cracker-jack differential diagnosis.

• A member of The Club myself, my focus has always been on explaining what’s behind the behaviors, as I offer you the fruits of my 25 years of experience learning how to work around items that don’t work for US the way they they seem to work for “everybody else.”

• While I do encourage anyone struggling to pursue an accurate diagnosis for a great many reasons, I don’t think its necessary for me to split diagnostic hairs to offer help.

So when I use the terms “ADD” (Attention Deficit Disorder) or EFD (Executive Functioning Disorder) – I am INCLUDING any of the other “alphabet” disorders that struggle with the regulation of areas of executive functioning that characterize diagnostic “ADHD” — and everybody else who wants to learn how to drive their very very own brains any time the “standard” advice falls flat.

Keep that in mind as you read the articles here on ADDandSoMuchMore.com

They LIKE me, they really like me . . .
(to misquote Sally Field’s Academy Award acceptance speech many years ago)

Take a look below at a recent comment from a PDA advocate – the mother of a child with diagnostic Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome – on the autistic spectrum. She also has a son diagnosed with ASD “The disorder formerly referred to as Asperger’s” (before the DSM-5 Caucus decided, for some bizarre reason, that LESS specificity would be useful as they enfolded it into the widely-cast Autism net)

See her Related Content link below, as you join us in a little prayer that the DSM caucus comes to its senses and puts Asperger’s back IN when it comes time to publish version-6. MEANWHILE, we’ll have to rely on each other for specific help and information.

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“I love this blog, even though my area of interest is ASD and PDA your posts are also highly relevant for me. ADD often travels with ASD and so I can see so many similarities, perhaps they are all part of one big family !!!
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Here’s another from Edie Flickenger’s BrainInjurySelfRehabilitation blog – an excellent TBI resource, linked in a number of places in this article.  Her comment introduced a reblog of one of the articles here.

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There are many articles at addandsomuchmore.com that are helpful to TBI.
Take some time to enjoy the articles and leave comments.
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Maybe YOU will find some help here on ADDandSoMuchMore.com too.
That’s why I blog — please help me spread the word that this information is available.

Be sure to remember to cite the source, and include and a link to ADDandSoMuchMore if you use any of the content here on your blogs, or as client resources (especially important for content I have written for inclusion in an upcoming book, or portions of my Speaker’s content).

Even though the entire blog is covered by copyright, you may freely share for any usage that does NOT include print publication, conference presentations, trainings, or inclusion in any format you get paid for.  (In that case, written permission must be requested and received, and you might have to share some of your shekels – only fair, right?)

My publishers might not be so laissez-faire about legal recourse, so don’t drop out attribution or permission, ok?

IN ANY CASE, stay tuned. There’s a lot to know and a lot more to come.

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If you’d like some one-on-one (couples or group) coaching help with anything that came up while you were reading this article (either for your own life, that of a loved one, or as coaching skills development), scroll down to click the Brain-based Coaching Link below, with a contact form at the bottom, or click the E-me link <—here (or on the menubar at the top of every page). I’ll get back to you ASAP (accent on the “P”ossible!)
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Alphabet Basics on ADDandSoMuchMore.com

• When you are New to ADD (or to this blog — in the Brain Transplant Series)
• Variations on ADD/ADHD (also in the Brain Transplant Series – adds content to this article)

Articles that explain some basic brain-based concepts

• A Little ADD Lens™ Background
• Alphabet Soup
• TYPES of Attentional Deficits
• Symptoms of Attentional Struggles
• The Link between Attention and Action
• Brain Waves, Scans and ATTENTION
• The Dynamics of Attending
• What ARE Executive Functions?
• Zebras, Hoofbeats & Dr. House — Differential diagnosis
• Distinguishing Can’t from Won’t
• ABOUT Impulsivity
• Working with Impulsivity
• ABOUT Distractions
• The Nine Challenges: What Are They?
• Non-Profit Supporting Fractured Sleep Clocks

A Bit of HELP Getting Things Done

• ABOUT Activation
• Procrastination — Activation vs. Motivation
• The Link between Procrastination & Task Anxiety
• Task Anxiety Awareness (if you’re ready to DO something about it)
• The Procrastination Puzzle & the ADD Brain-style
• Transition Tamer™ – 1st of a series that reframes “procrastination”

A bit of help getting ORGANIZED to get things done

• ADD & Organized? – Organization for ADDers is NOT Pipe Dream
• Organization & Task Completion
• Ten ADD Organizing Principles
• Priorities-101:Yes means No
• Finishing what you Start

Related Articles ’round the ‘net
(check for other links in the “bullets” outlining other alphabet disorders above)

• What is Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome?
• TBI Recovery Tools (brokenbrilliant.wordpress.com)
• Simple tips for brain and spinal cord injury, illness, injury, aging, children, adults, everyone … Questions to ask your healthcare professionals (braininjuryselfrecovery.com)
• Low doses of marijuana component can protect brain against injury (thcfinder.com)
• PTSD Linked to Diabetes Risk, Study (counselheal.com)
• “How to Cure Type 2 Diabetes” or so some people claim (runningwithoutsugar.wordpress.com)
• ABOUT the Circadian Sleep Disorders Network (delayed2sleep) TONS about chronos
• Adults with ADHD: Some kids never outgrow their struggle to concentrate (tauntongazette.com)
• Adding Letters To The Alphabet Soup (littlefallofrain.wordpress.com)
• Understanding Seasonal Affective Disorder Treatment Options (depression.answers.com)
• How to Prevent Bipolar Disorder (casapalmera.com) – how to mitigate the “effects of,” btw
• Chemo Brain engaged (unluckyhope.wordpress.com)
• Vagus Nerve Disorders

BY THE WAY: I revisit all my content periodically to update links — when you link back, like, follow or comment, you STAY on the page. When you do not, you run a high risk of getting replaced by a site with a more generous come-from.