Even the expression ADHD is annoying to me. I always ask myself why any intelligent person would say that someone who is high energy is attention deficit…that’s like saying that someone who is tall is short, or someone who is a Native American is European.

One of the gifts of humanity is being supercharged. I was once asked by a yoga instructor if I “liked being hyperactive” and I laughed and said, “yes!” I mean wouldn’t anyone like to simply never run out of energy? Wouldn’t most people like feeling that they had delicious miles to go…and rarely if ever feel tired…and even then, when drained of their last strength – regroup in five minutes and have more energy to go for another several hours or days…

About one in thirty people is supercharged or hyperactive. A hyperactive person has been endowed by their creator to face a 33 world in a 45 or 78 format. (That’s a phonograph record comparison.) A hyperactive person can and usually does twice the work of anyone else in half the time. We are made to move faster and think faster than regular people. It’s a gift…annoying to many others, but none the less a fabulous gift.

And we really do think differently than other people. Most people think linearly…this than that…takes them a while to get where they’re going.  Hyperactives think like an explosion; all their information is suspended in their brain, and when they want something they grab it fast, line it up and make a neat package in record speed.

A hyperactive will do everything fast…sleep, eat, run, work, read, write, play sports…because it’s more comfortable than what we consider “slug mode.” Waiting for the world to catch up is a liability of hyperactivity. It’s about as scintillating as watching grass grow…

There are two kinds of hyperactives – directed and non directed. When a hyperactive does not have a family or parents who are willing to form him, he has no place to put his energy, his skills, his desire to move, accomplish and do. He is a whirling dervish of movement that often finds discomfort in the world around him, because he’s got all this motion that has not been directed, and that’s the fault of the parent. Parents are the primary educators of children, and when they have a hyperactive child, their responsibility is to direct that child in an appropriate manner and form him or her.

Much to the discredit of the psychology world, not all poorly behaved children are hyperactive, and few hyperactives are poorly behaved when you give them direction, and when the parent makes demands and holds them to a formative agenda. Is that tough? Of course, but it’s the challenge of rearing a hyperactive. It’s the work that MUST be done.

And cruelly, and much too often, a child who is pathetically poorly behaved is labeled “hyperactive,” because a doctor does not understand exactly what hyperactivity really is. It’s a personality type not a mental illness. Of course there are many slow moving and slow thinking people out there who are annoyed by and can’t understand anyone who works, thinks, and produces circles around them. Jealousy rears it’s snake like head and labels these achievers as mentally ill. High energy people are often the enemy of “slug mode” simply because slow movers can’t quite figure out why it is that the hyperactive never gets tired. It must be infuriating!

When you look at history, you can see the hyperactive emerge: St. Paul, Alexander the Great, Columbus, Theodore Roosevelt…were all obviously hyperactive. Look at their writing, their life stories, their tireless agendas.

I hear a lot about medicating the hyperactive to make him more equal to his peers, and this usually causes me to ask, “Would you medicate an artist so the artist couldn’t draw anymore? Would you medicate a genius so he couldn’t think anymore? Then why would you want to repress the natural energy of someone?”

The answer, of course, is simple. “Yes, I want to medicate my hyperactive child because I can’t keep up with him and don’t want to try.”

The next question I want to ask is, “Do you know why you have a hyperactive child?” The answer is: Hyperactivity is a family trait. One hyperactive married to a non-hyperactive will produce many hyperactives – 4/4 in my family. Half of the children of two hyperactives will be hyperactive. So if hyperactivity is not one of your attributes, your child is probably not hyperactive, no matter how badly behaved he is.

Some of the early signs of hyperactivity in children are, excessive crying, early crawling, talking and walking, food bolting and excessive eating, sleeping with eyes open, an ability to do things very early – like toilet training and making their own lunch at eighteen months. Interestingly enough, many hyperactives are addicted to oranges.

Rearing a hyperactive child should be a pleasure, but I’m speaking from the hyperactive side of the counter. I am, my four children are, and my husband is not. I loved the excitement of children who always tried to excel, to accomplish, to reach higher and higher for their accomplishments. The motto for a hyperactive is, “let’s see what I can do…” and the possibilities are like their thinking pattern…explosive.

So back to the initial ADHD title…the very idea that someone who is directed and supercharged is not paying attention is ludicrous…that’s like saying dogs don’t hear well….sheesh!