{"id":2224,"date":"2014-11-25T05:22:22","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T05:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/meditation-cure-adhd\/"},"modified":"2014-11-25T05:22:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T05:22:22","slug":"meditation-cure-adhd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meditationmag.com\/blog\/meditation-cure-adhd\/","title":{"rendered":"Cure ADHD with Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cure ADD\/ADHD with Meditation<\/h2>\n

Meditation is a brain-exercise that is good for\u00a0a lot of things<\/a>. Ultimately, it is designed to make you happy & successful in life, as well as making you completely impervious to suffering and unhappiness. It also happens to obliterate all kinds of \u201cmental disorders\u201d along the way. Lucky for Little Timmy and his Teachers, ADD \/ ADHD is the first to fall. Here\u2019s how it works.<\/span><\/p>\n

How Does Meditation Cure ADD \/ ADHD?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meditation is, simply put, an exercise for the brain. It is nothing more than that (it has nothing to do with religion or philosophy; if you are concerned about this,\u00a0click here<\/a>). Meditation is intended to develop \u201cdeep states of concentration\u201d (known in the east as \u201csamadhi\u201d) by developing the brain\u2019s ability to pay attention.<\/p>\n

In many of the articles I’ve written on the subject, I use the words \u201cAttention Control Muscles\u201d to try to communicate the way that meditation actually works on your brain.<\/p>\n

When you challenge a muscle, it grows, and gets stronger. We are used to this concept in relation to our bodies, since it\u2019s easy to see the physical effects of going to the gym.<\/p>\n

Our brains grow in a similar way to our muscles. When you use a certain part of your brain, it actually grows larger and stronger. When you don\u2019t use that part of your brain, it grows smaller and weaker. This process is called \u201cNeuroplasticity,\u201d and is a well-documented phenomenon.<\/p>\n

The part of your brain that Meditation Techniques exercise is the \u201cAttention Control Center\u201d in your brain. Meditation does this by challenging you to perform some very intense, attention-oriented tasks. There are four \u201cparts\u201d to your attention process that are challenged by the meditation exercise; these are what I call the \u201cAttention Control Muscles.\u201d Here they are, in order of depth:<\/p>\n

The brain\u2019s abilities to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. be consciously aware of where its attention is focused at any given moment<\/li>\n
  2. consciously choose an object on which to focus its attention<\/li>\n
  3. hold its attention on one object for an extended period of time<\/li>\n
  4. notice, but not be distracted by, other phenomena while maintaining full attention on one object<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In other words:<\/p>\n

    1. Mindfulness (an abiding \u201cAttention Awareness\u201d)
    \n2. Focus-Selecting Muscle
    \n3. Focus-Holding Muscle
    \n4. Concentration + Peripheral Awareness<\/p>\n

    Meditation cures ADD \/ ADHD by strengthening these attention control muscles. It\u2019s actually a very simple and obvious thing, once you understand how meditation works. Click here to\u00a0learn how to meditate<\/a>, or here to\u00a0read more about how meditation works<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    What Causes ADD \/ ADHD, anyway?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    ADD \/ ADHD is caused by an inability to control the attention.<\/p>\n

    Our current western psychiatric paradigm has got it wrong. When someone can\u2019t seem to focus on the things he wants to focus on, we say that he has an \u201cattention deficit,\u201d meaning he doesn\u2019t have\u00a0enough<\/em>\u00a0attention. This is not the case.<\/p>\n

    In fact, people with ADD \/ ADHD often have even more mental energy than people without; it just happens to be flying all over the place. The word \u201cconcentration\u201d means \u201cto bring or come to a common center.\u201d The thing that differentiates between someone with ADD \/ ADHD and a \u201cfocused\u201d person is that the \u201cfocused\u201d person has the ability to concentrate his attention into one focal point. This is not a function of \u201cnot having enough attention,\u201d this is a function of developing the ability to control it.<\/p>\n

    The only way to truly cure ADD \/ ADHD at its source is to develop the brain\u2019s ability to control the attention. Exercising the Attention Control Muscles is the natural way to do this.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s why Meditation works better than Medication.<\/p>\n

    Meditation vs. Medication<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Meditation is an exercise for the brain\u2019s Attention Control Muscles, which allows a person to focus his mental energy in the manner of his own choosing.<\/p>\n

    Medications like Adderall and Ritalin, on the other hand, simply increase the amount of mental energy. They flood the brain with dopamine, a neurotransmitter that carries electrical signals from one brain-cell to another. This is a terrible way to treat ADD \/ ADHD.<\/p>\n

    Imagine that your mind is a laser beam. If the laser is focused on a small enough point, it can burn a hole through the wall. People with ADD \/ ADHD simply don\u2019t know how to focus the laser. The laser beam is too wide, and the spot is too big on the wall. The light is too \u201cspread-out.\u201d<\/p>\n

    So the ADD \/ ADHD laser operator has two choices: either (a) learn how to turn the dial and focus the laser, or (b) plug the laser into a higher-voltage electrical outlet than it was designed to be used with. Which of those sounds like a better idea to you?<\/p>\n

    When you take drugs like Adderall, Ritalin, cocaine, and crystal meth, you\u2019re overloading your brain with much more electricity than it was designed to handle.<\/p>\n

    In the case of the laser, if you plug it into an electrical source that it was not designed to handle, the machine may explode. In the case of your brain\u2026 well, just look at the big red warning signs on the bottle!<\/p>\n

    Oh yeah, that\u2019s right, they don\u2019t have warnings. How about that? I guess the government just \u201ctrusts\u201d the drug companies when they say they don\u2019t need big scary warnings on the labels.<\/p>\n

    Well, let\u2019s take a look at some of the \u201cside effects\u201d listed on the Adderall page of the\u00a0US National Institute of Health website<\/a>.<\/p>\n