There’s an ad for ADHD(1) where a young person is caught just staring blankly out the window. The ad says, or implies, this is a serious mental disorder.
Bull! It’s called day dreaming and it’s a very, very important part of the functioning of the human mind.
Now, perhaps, if the person in question is found this way many times every day it might be a situation to inquire into… and it might not. It might simply be that this person has something serious on his mind — yes, that can happen even to children. In case you’ve forgotten, childhood can be a place of Many Big Worries.
Some of the smartest, most creative people in history spent oodles of time just “staring out windows.” Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein to name just two.
Day dreaming is normal, healthy and even to be encouraged — in proper mix with contributing to the family chores, running and jumping, dancing lessons and homework: they’re all, daydreaming included, equally important.(2)
Try de-emphasizing the phone / tablet / computer and see if any “odd behavior” clears up.(3)
It’s also been demonstrated over and over again — in study after ignored study — that 3 servings of vegetables a day clears up many a case of ADHD / Hyperactivity.(4)
Please! Don’t believe everything (in fact, anything) you see in a commercial without some serious corroboration, and even then be skeptical. Anything that has serious money behind it should automatically be suspect, at least in this society, this culture… this time and place of the Human Race.(5)
Now, then… I was thinking about something, while staring out a window; let me get back to that. Probably it’s my next article trying to happen. 🙂
(1) Do we advertise disorders now? That’s disgusting, actually, and demonstrates clearly how much “modern medicine” (for lack of a better term) is focused on disease and dysfunction, where it ought to be focused on health. The more you focus on disease the more disease you will have. Examine the history of the “War on Cancer” vs cancer rates in America during the same years. Or D.A.R.E. vs drug usage “in the target group.” Same story. You get what you focus on, no matter what the top of your mind thinks you really want. You want a healthy nation? Focus on HEALTH! Where are the commercials advocating exercise and fresh vegetables and daily doses of Vitamin-C ? There’s a respiratory pandemic raging right now, and not a single mention in the media about your daily Vitamin-C intake. Huh? But you can’t patent Vitamin-C, can you? Where’re the nation’s programs to eliminate all car exhaust, which is far more toxic and incredibly more pervasive than the occasional whiff of cigarette smoke? I could go on and on, here… Trust me.
(2) I should also add “socializing” as incredibly important, except that children these days don’t actually socialize. They “text” instead. This slows down or cripples development of recognizable social skills, small talk skills, and even alters the development of the brain, since the primary emphasis on language skills is now non-verbal. But it’s so totally pervasive and taken so, so, so much as normal that I won’t bother mentioning real socializing versus this [probably!] destructive virtual socialization. Then again, it might be the next major “leap” in Human social / cultural development. Insufficient data… but is worrisome.
(3) Parental controls on most devices these days (phones, tablets, laptops, desktops — Windows, Chromebooks and Apples) allow you do many things, such as ban certain websites, turn off internet access during certain hours, etc. Don’t get carried away though — children do need to learn how to one day behave like adults. That takes practice at a time when it’s still safe to make mistakes. Let them make some mistakes, just not any serious ones. That’s your job; their’s is exploring everything they can. It’s up to you, the Adult in the Room, to find the healthy balance point.
(4) Fresh vegetables have also been demonstrated on occasion to repair seriously angry adult minds, even to “cure” psychosis (documented!), and to help a career criminal stay out of trouble next time, and so on. The problem, I gather, though is that Big Pharma can’t put a patent on a carrot.
(5) Please, I am not saying that everything that makes Big Money is evil or out to getcha. I am not saying that at all. However, if you’d like the Real Secret to Joy and Happiness, just click here and have your credit card standing by. Better yet, cash only, small bills.