Tips for ADD college students?

[The David]

I read the article '10 tips for college students' and was very intrigued by it. While I consider myself an 'above average student' in the sense that my college GPA is 3.6, I struggle immensely with concentration, time management, and learning speed. This has followed me all through life, but I've only finished two semesters of formal schooling, so it's really just surfacing now. I can't imagine being able to handle much more than 17 hours, and getting all As is hard enough with just 15 hours. I am also a perfectionist who hasn't entirely forgiven myself for this.

You've mentioned many times that you are a fast learner. How do you think the lessons you learned in college could apply to someone like me?

[Zukin]

Fish oil helped improve my attention and focus. Here are some resources about fish oil improving ADHD:

Fish Oil for ADHD?

Children with ADHD benefited from 15-week course of fish oil and primrose oil

(and no, I'm not selling fish oil. I just talk about it a lot because it helped me so much.)

[actualize81]

Hi man,

Just wanted to refer you to an article that I wrote about Depression. I know you're not depressed, but I was a social worker with kids who had ADHD. Difficulty concentrating, racing mind sometimes. Drugs are not the answer unfortunately.. I'd advice you to check out this article about excitatory symptoms as ways the body is trying to release toxins from repressed emotion. It was absolutely fascinating and it's helped me quite a bit.. Here is the link, possibly try it, and see what happens....

A Cure for Depression | Jumping Ship Happens

[escapee]

Our brain is made mainly of fats and has a ratio of 1 (omega 3) : 1 ( omega 6) . So I think it's very important to take both at the same time.

The reason why Fish oil appeared to work for many trials is because the people were already deficient in both the unadulterated and unprocessed fatty acids eating a bat diet. So when you have one useful fatty acid introduced to the body system . Your brain is going to love it but the queston remains - Is this the optimal choice ( esp for organs, muscle and skin which demand more N-6) ?

The fatty brain
The Human Brain - Fats

The membranes of neurons – the specialized brain cells that communicate with each other – are composed of a thin double-layer of fatty acid molecules. Fatty acids are what dietary fats are composed of. When you digest the fat in your food, it is broken down into fatty acid molecules of various lengths. Your brain then uses these for raw materials to assemble the special types of fat it incorporates into its cell membranes.

In a Canadian study of human breast milk, trans fatty acids (TFAs) averaged 7.2% of the total fatty acids. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils were determined to be the major source of these unnatural fats. Also, levels of LA (linoleic) and ALA were inversely related to the total TFAs, indicating that the elevation of TFAs in Canadian human milk is at the expense of essential omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.3

Do u see how bad is it to have 'experts' warning us on popular press about the danger of fats without differentiating the good and bad one ?

The ultimate brain blocker : Trans fats
The Human Brain - Fats

Trans fatty acids found in foods like french fries, margarine, potato chips and anything else with partially hydrogenated oil disrupt communication in your brain. Trans fatty acids are rarely found in nature and are mostly man made.

Studies show that the trans fatty acids we eat do get incorporated into brain cell membranes, including the myelin sheath that insulates neurons. They replace the natural DHA in the membrane, which affects the electrical activity of the neuron.
Trans fatty acid molecules disrupt communication, setting the stage for cellular degeneration and diminished mental performance.

• “Influence of omega-3 fatty acids on the prostaglandin-metabolism in healthy volunteers … synergistic effect of n-6 and n-3 fatty acids at low doses which is greater than the effect of high doses of n-3 fatty acids alone.” Prostaglandins in the Cardiovascular System, 1992.

Landmarks in Nutrition & Health

[The David]

I just bought 400 fish oil capsules (enough to know if they will work or not). What are the best ways to get Omega-6?

Edit: I actually found out the other day that I am severely depressed and have been for quite some time. A little later I found out the reason. I'm already feeling a little better (after adding a lot of caffeine to that, I'm actually feeling a little bit high). But the ADHD is still a bit of a problem and I would like to work on it.

[escapee]

Most of the nuts and seeds ( except flax ) have more Omega 6 than Omega 3
. I think it's better to have organic and unprocessed whole food as the base and then if necessary to consider additional supplement from healthy source ( Cold press and organic ).

The reason why you do not want to rely your Omega 6 on supermarket vegetable oil ?

It just doesn't work ( you body will not want it ) due to heavy processing. There was even an experiment to show that when a damaged and alduterated omega 6 ( like trans fat ) oil is introduced to the system . THe cholesterol esterifies with Oleic acid ( Non essential omega 9 from Olive oil ) and even saturated fats synthesized from dietary carbohydrate intead of the versatile unadulterated Omega 6 .

[taylor]

I had ADD and took Ritalin for a while, but later got off of that stuff and cured it without any pills.

How did I do it?
1. I meditated.
2. I got focused on what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do.

For me, my ADD came down to two things: fear of boredom and an anxiety for the future. I can still go into that state even now of just letting the mind wander wherever it wants. My mind will naturally do this, unless I consciously direct it where I want. I can direct the mind easily as long as I have 'space' to do it in. If I'm pulled in a million directions and am worried about a bunch of issues, I have to settle those issues first before I can really focus the mind.

I recommend writing down all of the things you think you need to think about, and then journaling about them until you reach a decision. Also, get down all of your projects down on paper, and be able to rely it, that you will do those tasks later. This is part of David Allen's GTD (Getting Things Done) which I recommend. This allows me to focus on the one thing I'm actually doing instead of worrying about all the stuff I need to do later. David Allen comes from a martial arts background and one of the goals of his system is to give you "a mind like water."

I meditate because it's the opposite of the ADD state. ADD wants to do something, do this, be distracted, be entertained, run away from boredom, etc. In meditation you accept boredom, you sit with boredom, you allow yourself to do nothing, be distracted by nothing, be entertained by nothing. This gives me lots of mental space, which I can then fill with accounting, finance, biology, etc. The mind wants to think. If all it can get is accounting, it will take accounting and enjoy it. But if it can get to think about whatever it wants, it will take the most interesting thing it can remember in the moment, regardless of if you're trying to study or not.

Some other things I stopped doing during this time were: I quit playing constant video games, I stopped watching more than an hour of TV a day, and I threw out a lot of stuff to get my room clean and organized. My room right now looks almost like a zendo.

I didn't set out to cure ADD, I just wanted to get clear about my life, and I found that after I answered all of those background questions, and just sat and let the silly thoughts fizzle out, that not only did I have great clarity and peace of mind, but my ADD vanished.

Today I got up at 5am, looked over my semester goals, wrote out my daily goals, visualized my day, exercised, meditated, studied an hour, prayed and got ready. This whole routine adds so much clarity and mental space. It also gets me in a great mood of smoothly accomplishing things.

Another great device for me is a simple kitchen timer. I wrote out my morning routine in a spiral with time limits on every action. So I wake up, hit the alarm, go to the open spiral and set my alarm and do the activity. Instead of getting sidetracked with making my goals perfect or thinking over something else besides what I'm doing, I keep a good tempo going. Set timer, do activity. Next. Set timer, do activity. Next. etc. I don't have time to suffer from perfectionism.

Good luck, you might give some of this a try. Or you could always pull an 'Overwhelming Force".

[Chado2423]

That was an interesting article... and having had been diagnosed with Severe Depressive Disorder myself... I must say that the theory of repressed anger is a part of the picture. There are more feelings however than repressed anger, it is merely a quotient in the overall paradigm. In your article you suggest ways to deal with the anger and to release its tension, however what is often forgotten is the ability to seek out solutions to the cause of that anger in the first place. I know that anger is part of the story, but it certainly isn't the only cause of depression; other such causes are feelings of insecurity, longing, sadness (usually in the form of grief)... There really is a multitude of feelings going on at once... and yes bio-chemistry is affected but it certainly isn't the cause. Negative thinking may be employed, but not always. Instead it may not be negative thinking, but simply indecision. Repressed anger does exist in depression, because your mind relates one sensation to another... in other words if you are depressed and feeling lonely, you relate mentally to all or many of the times you felt lonely. I am not disagreeing with anger being present, but it certainly alone isn't the cause as you theorize. Anger is just one piece out of the puzzle.

[Amethyst]

I just had to reply to this. I was diagnosed with ADD when I was a senior in highschool. I'd had the symptoms all my life. Mainly my problem is that I couldn't make my mind focus on anything I wanted. People who have never had ADD just don't understand that no matter how much will power a person has, an ADD brain does not focus on command. I tried all kinds of brute force myself, and nothing seemed to work.

After I left college I heard about this class called the Silva Mind Control Method. I took it from Janie Dolechek in Oklahoma City. Everything changed for me. I learned how to really focus my mind and now my learning capacity is amazing. I couldn't express to you how much my life completely changed after taking that class. I could write a book about it. It was a four day class and it's sort of like self hypnosis but different.

There are various books on the method, and you can get the classes on tape if you can't find a class in your area, but you should take a class if you can. It was the best investment I have ever made.

The Silva Method

Amazon.com: The Silva Mind Control Method: Books: Jose Silva

There used to be a message board on their page where you could ask questions to graduates and instructors but I can't seem to find it anymore. Bummer