Inside the mind of Glenn Beck - One ADHD sufferer analyzes another
It’s very important to remember in this society that…oh look, cookies!
And here we have a type of phrase commonly used as an example of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The truth is that ADHD goes deeper than just routine attention lapses.
I myself have the condition without the hyperactivity component. but most medical articles on the subject lump them both together. As I watch Glenn Beck, I can’t help but feel I have a particular insight into the man that others lack.
Describing ADHD is tough, but I’ll use a simple analogy to start: If a normal car drives down a road at a 65 miles per hour, a car with ADD would be traveling twice as fast, constantly shift gears and most likely make frequent lane changes. It might even get off at one exit only to hop back on a few exits later.
You might notice Glenn Beck will jump from subject A to subject B to subject C and back to subject A, all in the course of a few moments.
The ADHD mind is constantly crying for stimulus. I read a book awhile back that said people with ADHD love big cities. That makes perfect sense because there are plenty of lights, noise, people and billboards to keep them constantly engaged.
My wife often comments about how I have a terrible time sitting still with nothing to do. I always have to be doing something. Reading a magazine or newspaper, playing a video game, watching TV, fiddling with a pen. I always need something to keep my mind occupied or I start to get frustrated and fidgety.
Remind you of anyone? If you’ve ever watched Beck’s show, you’ll rarely notice him ever doing nothing or sitting still. His hands are moving, he’s holding up books or articles, he’s writing on his blackboards. All because his mind craves stimuli.
One intriguing effect of ADHD is that a lot of people with the condition are exceptionally creative. In my research for this post, I came across a pretty obvious explanation for the connection: If an ADHD person cannot find enough stimuli around to satisfy him or her, then they start making up their own stimuli. They daydream, they talk to themselves, they pretend to be places and people they are not. Their mind is constantly running, running, like an engine with an unlimited tank of gas.
Another offshoot of the creativity thing I’ve noticed is I often over-analyze situations and get too wrapped up in what ifs. Suddenly I take a single event and transform to become part of a huge plot.
Here’s a good example: I am doing a transaction at work and forget to do something my bosses want done on every sale. I start to get afraid because I believe this is what could happen: The customer will realize I forgot something and call the company to complain, my boss will find out and fire me not just because of what I forgot, but because he also has a grudge against me. I will lose my job and be stuck on unemployment and my lights will be turned off and my home will be foreclosed on and I will be stuck begging on the street.
Obviously this scenario above is a classic example of a worst case. Chances are the customer won’t notice and even if they do and say something to my boss, I won’t be fired, at worst I will be written up and life goes on.
But my mind needs stimuli, that’s why I concoct the crazy story. It gives me something to latch on to, something to occupy me. An internal creative outlet of sorts.
I find it is easy for me to not only make connections between persons and events that have none, but to also come up with realistic, logical reasoning why my theories are likely true and why I should be worried.
Most ADHD people are pretty smart. Makes sense if you think about it. We crave stimulus so we are constantly reading books and magazines, watching documentaries, doing sudoku and other puzzles, researching whatever on the internet.
Our minds perceive reality differently in a lot of respects from those who don’t have the condition. When looking at Beck through this lens, it’s easy for me to see what his motivations are and where some his ideas come from.
And I hope, after reading this, it might be a little easier for you too.