Sydney Lang

10-18-17

 

Paragraph Revision:

Cleaning up a ‘Wordy’ Document

 

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Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or ADD and ADHD for short, can both benefit a young individual’s mind and be detrimental to it. With the presence of the conditions of ADD and ADHD, these both contribute to strengthening young minds as these mental conditions promote frequent distraction and the inability to remain concentrated for long periods of time. For example, Anderson mentioned how the individual benefits within the working environment as culture has “forced us into a kind of elective ADHD”(Anderson 5). This ‘elective form’ of ADHD strengthens the growing individual’s mind as they are learning to perform in a manner that benefits them the most, especially within a working environment. Ultimately every individual is working towards success and that often correlates to being successful within whatever job they currently obtain or are striving to achieve. The ability to thrive in working environments with this ‘elective form’ could put them ahead of other candidates, and could benefit them by getting them the job over another individual that does not share these ADHD qualities within the working environment. On the contrary, this ADD and ADHD also weakens the individual’s mindset as ADD/ADHD creates individuals that do not have the mental patience for the time to complete their thoughts, or listen to others convey theirs to them. As Restak mentioned in his essay Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era, “You must learn to rapidly process information, function amidst surroundings your parents would have described as “chaotic,” always remain prepared to rapidly shift from one activity to another, and redirect your attention among competing tasks without becoming bogged down or losing time,” all of these urgent tasks were once defined as being ‘chaotic’ but are now simply expected of individuals in the workspace. This chaotic nature could result in raised stress for those that are not as equipped as naturally for ADD and ADHD-like behavior. This behavior could be severely detrimental to those that have strengths in focusing on one task or on the task at hand, causing these individuals to fall behind. Both of these ideas working together come to show how ADD and ADHD is present in today’s environments and how they can both benefit and be detrimental to those whose minds are learning and growing.

 

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Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or ADD and ADHD for short, can both benefit a young individual’s mind and be detrimental to it. With the presence of ADD and ADHD, they contribute to strengthening young minds. As these mental conditions promote frequent distraction and the inability to remain concentrated for long periods of time, they teeter between being beneficial or detrimental to the young mind. For example, Sam Anderson, a writer for New York Times Magazine,  mentioned how the individual benefits within the working environment as culture has “forced us into a kind of elective ADHD”(Anderson 5). This ‘elective form’ of ADHD strengthens the growing individual’s mind as they are learning to properly perform. This prepares them for working environments. The ability to thrive in working environments with this ‘elective form’ could put them ahead of other candidates by getting them the job over another individual that does not share these ADHD qualities. On the contrary, ADD and ADHD weakens the young mind’s mindset as ADD/ADHD creates individuals that do not have the mental patience to complete their thoughts, or listen to others convey theirs. As Richard Restak, a neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, author and professor, mentioned in his essay Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era, “You must learn to rapidly process information, function amidst surroundings your parents would have described as “chaotic,” always remain prepared to rapidly shift from one activity to another, and redirect your attention among competing tasks without becoming bogged down or losing time.” These urgent tasks were once defined as ‘chaotic’ but are now expected of individuals in the workspace. This chaotic nature could result in increased stress for those that are not equipped naturally with ADD or ADHD-like behavior. This behavior could be severely detrimental to those that have strengths in focusing causing these individuals to be at an unnatural disadvantage. Both of these ideas working together come to show how ADD and ADHD is present in today’s environments and how they can both benefit and be detrimental to those whose minds are learning and growing.