Organizing Solutions

i was in barnes & noble the other day hoping to find some books geared to helping people with ADHD get through post-secondary school. it seems though that virtually every book about ADHD spends the first half defining the disorder and talking about symptoms. when every single book starts with that, it gets very redundant very quickly, and leaves very little space for new material in each book.

after grabbing a stack of a dozen books about ADHD, i walked out with two books, once i realized that the majority of the books had only 20-50 pages of unique material. one of the books is specifically about ADHD and school (College Confidence with ADD by Michael Sandler), which i'm hoping to at least skim through before classes start in 2.5 weeks. the other, Organizing Solutions for People with Attention Deficit Disorder by Susan Pinsky, is a general organization book geared more toward the home.

The layout of Organizing Solutions resembles a magazine, having glossy pages with lots of images and little text. the layout simplifies finding ideas and makes it particularly easy for those with ADHD or other learning disabilities to find tips quickly without getting lost in a jumble of text. it has sections covering each room of the house plus ideas of how to handle specific items or tasks that occur in those rooms (paying bills, folding laundry, etc.). as a basic intro for those who have not figured out how to organize many parts of their homes, or certain areas in particular, this could be a helpful book. but, for me, the flaws outnumber it's usefulness.

Pinsky spends too much time arguing for efficiency at the cost of beauty and frugality, which essentially means you need to have some money to implement her ideas. yardwork a hassle? hire someone. can't get your room organized? buy more furniture. there are a lot of helpful tips, but the wastefulness ("it is quicker and more efficient to use paper plates as your "china" of choice at everything but your most formal meals.") was too much for me to handle. in talking about efficiency, she frequently suggests using open shelves and open storage bins so it's easier to just toss (or, to use her term, "wing") things into the containers instead of wasting time with doors and lids. the problem with that system that she never addresses is how to handle the amount of dust that will get on everything and inside those containers, creating a new problem altogether (but i guess you just hire a housekeeper to handle that, as she suggests hiring one to clean other parts of the house).

if you're having trouble getting a particular part of the house organized, skim through that section of the book (they're nicely labeled and color coded) at a bookstore or library to get some ideas, but leave the book behind.

mental illness

so i was thinking about my last post where i commented on the book, Darkness is My Only Companion by Kathryn Greene-McCreight. in thinking about it, i got to wondering how many people would just ignore that post, or skim it, or not pay much attention simply because of the fact that most people - especially within the church - don't see the need to enter into a conversation about mental illness. i think books such as the one by Greene-McCreight are necessary within the church, but i fear the fact that topics like this are ignored.

so i thought it may be helpful to put things in perspective. according to the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), here's a little info on mental illness in the u.s.:

• about 1 in 4 (26.2%, or approximately 57.7 million adults in the u.s.) adults suffer from a diagnosable mental illness in a given year
• mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the u.s. for ages 15-44
• 45% with any mental disorder meet the criteria for two or more disorders at the same time
• mental illness accounts for over 15% of the burden of disease in the u.s. (more than the burden caused by all cancers)
• nearly 10% of adults suffer from a mood disorder (i.e. depression, bipolar disorder, etc.) in a given year
• more than 90% of people who kill themselves have a diagnosable mental disorder, and over 32,000 people committed suicide in 2004
• 40 million american adults have anxiety disorders in a given year

i'm not saying that this means everyone has to read this particular book. i just think that with statistics like these, where a quarter of the adult population (mind you, none of these numbers included children) is suffering from mental illness, that we can't just ignore it all.

these numbers mean that every one of us, whether we know it or not, comes into contact with someone who is mentally ill on a daily basis. these numbers mean that a quarter of the people in our churches may be suffering from a mental illness.

for some, this may sound scary. the words "mental illness" conjure up thoughts of scenes from one flew over the cuckoo's nest or something. this fear is based on the stigma that still surrounds mental illness. but these numbers include mood and anxiety disorders, and other things that are very common, like adhd. these aren't numbers to scare us away from the mentally ill, but ones that will hopefully move us away from the stigma and into conversation and healing.

whether the diagnosis is depression or schizophrenia, there is still a great amount of suffering for the patient, their family and others in their support system. and i know there are those who don't really believe in the reality of mental illness, they think that they are all caused by a person's sin, or that people should just be able to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and be okay or something. but those beliefs just aren't true.

maybe i'll take some time in future posts to talk about the reality of mental illness, or how to spot when someone may be struggling, or ways to help or something. but for now, i just wanted to begin the conversation with simply some numbers that may help people think twice before ignoring the reality of the amount of people suffering.

(*statistics taken from NIMH)

current reads / ADD & ministry

i finally finished the half dozen books on ADD that i bought right around the time i was diagnosed a month or so ago. it's quite relieving to finally have a better understanding of so many of the struggles i've faced in life.

the last two i read were good books.

the first of those was ADD Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life by Kolberg and Nadeau. there wasn't a ton of stuff in there that i haven't tried that seems particularly helpful. but the book was well laid out for someone with ADD and easy to follow. at some point i might try to implement at least a couple of their ideas, but i'm not feeling ready for that yet.

the latter of the two was Scattered by Gabor Mate. it was an excellent book that while speaking specifically about ADD managed to seem more like a book on attachment than anything else. it was theoretical yet practical, and something i'll find helpful not only now, but in the future when Jak and i are raising kids.

i think that the only other book i've finished since i last posted on what i've been reading has been Experiential Storytelling by Miller. it's a book about relearning how to communicate in our culture so as to be able to present the biblical story in way that it can be heard. he explains how preaching as we know it is something that came about with the reformation and as such has only been around for about five hundred years, during the days of the Enlightenment and through modernity. now, that we've entered a postmodern and post-literate period, we have to learn to preach through other means. so he offers experiential storytelling as an answer. experiential storytelling, as he explains it, involves people, involves the senses, includes the location, and allows people to use their imaginations, their minds, while trusting in God to draw people towards him. it's a short book (under 150pp), so i just read it this afternoon. it was interesting, and certainly has things i would love to work with whenever Jak and i are doing youth ministry again.

current reads / ADD

i'm going to use some of this space to write about books i read. if nothing else, it'll remind me about what i thought of those books when i later come across them on my bookshelves and wonder if i've even read them or not.

unfortunately, my newest reads are certainly nothing exciting or recommendable (is that even a word?). the thing is, i've gone through a recent transformation of sorts. within the last few weeks, after years of inattention, distraction, forgetfulness, and more, i finally received the label of ADD (those of you who know me won't be surprised by that). now mind you, i'm not a big fan of psychiatric diagnostic labels. in fact, i often believe that the best use of the dsm-iv (the psychiatric diagnostic bible) would be as either fire starter in the winter, or to build low-income homes using copies of the dsm instead of concrete blocks.

but, for me, this label has allowed me to understand so many aspects of myself that have frustrated me for years. it gives me a direction to move in so that i can find ways to move beyond the disabling features that this disorder creates in my life. i see this, and the various disorders i've been labeled with, as challenges that i have to work through to create some order in my life.

so the transformational moments for me have come through understanding (largely thanks to two of my recent reads, Dr. Ned Hallowell's books Driven to Distraction, and Delivered from Distraction), as well as a week-long trial of Ritalin. no, i don't want to remain medicated, but it's nice to at least know that it is possible for me to function more normally in this world. now i just need to figure out how to do that without drugs.

therefore, all i've read for the past two weeks have been a small pile of ADD books. the two listed above, which i recommend; the original edition of You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!, which compared to Hallowell's books was quite a drag; Finding Your Focus: Practical Strategies for the Everyday Challenges Facing Adults with ADD, which had absolutely no new information, at least nothing that wasn't already covered in Lazy, Stupid or Crazy. i'm halfway through ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life, which so far seems like the most helpful of this bunch. i think i have two more to go in my little pile. then i'll be able to move onto a new subject for a few weeks.