G. Frank Lawlis - Sex and ADD or ADHD

Interesting article from the blogs at Psychology Today.

Redefining Stress

How to train your brain to conquer anxiety and depression

by G. Frank Lawlis

Sex and ADD or ADHD

Sex life with ADD can be good or bad.

The last blog entry I posted related some important issues about the challenges (or advantages) of sex and the nature of the ADD or ADHD brain dynamics. I have been asked some very thought-provoking questions, but I feel I need to address one now: The observation with opposite conclusions. Assuming he/she was a professional and using patients' reports instead of direct observation, the person commented that the individuals worked with reported with reported that they "disassociated" from the activities and dreaded the activity. I don't mind people disagreeing with me, otherwise I would not be in this business, but it worried me that somebody was being misled by information about this field. Since the huge majority of AD(H)D is still being done by a sample of some leading questions instead of anchoring the diagnosis and treatment on objective and functional measurements, there are many readers who read AD(H)D and lack of concentration as the same. Actually those symptoms pertain to about 90 percent of all diagnoses in the DSM-IV.

This response puzzled me and made me wonder what kinds of people he/she was placing the old ADD label on. "Disassociation" in psychological terms usually related to anxiety reactions in which the person escapes into another reality or another personality as a defensive mechanism to a threat. Granted, we have found in our clinic an error rate of 67 percent of misdiagnosis of ADD in which anxiety was found to be the primary cause for inattention and lack of concentration. After all, confusion, inattention and lack of concentration are major symptoms of anxiety, but if you ever observed anyone with high anxiety who was administered one of the stimulants, such as Adderall or Ritalin, you will notice how really panic stricken they get and how destructive those medications can be. The brain signatures are opposite one another. ADD is a sluggish brain (frontal lobe) while anxiety is an over-reactive brain.

So it might make sense that when a person who is easily traumatized he or she might go into a state of disassociation from fear, as in the case of PTSD or trauma. In which case, we are not talking the same language or experience anymore.

On the other hand, as I tried to explain, when a person with the sluggish brain of ADD (ADHD) goes into a state of low energy or enthusiasm, it is probably more a state of boredom or switch in attention. The sex life of this brain signature can be very creative and spontaneous; otherwise, there is the tendency to become interested in something else. For that reason, you should never leave the television set on or e-mail on during this time, especially for those football fans during the Super Bowl play-offs. In fact, you might just want to give up for the whole week.

This tendency brings me to the point of "stimulus-control." The ADD dynamic usually relates to creativity and impulsiveness, but this does not mean that you don't have to plan some of the spontaneity. Things can get out of hand without some control, which is why there are a lot of divorces caused by loss of boundaries, due to "spontaneity." This is not considered lightly because there have been comments regarding this major concern.

But it also means there should be some planning for controlling a person's focus. Usually this is done with smells (flowers and candle), sounds (music and words), kinesthetic cues (touching and holding) and many other factors that can be learned over time.

It can be a life mission.

Tags: Psychology, brain, mind, sex, G. Frank Lawlis, Sex and ADD or ADHD, psychology today