How much of it is Attention Deficit Disorder, and how much of it is the frenetic life that we are sold as “normal”? How much of it needs medication, and how much of it needs self-discipline?

How can we possibly try to focus on anything with so many distractions? TV on all the time. Music blaring in every store we go to. Earbuds in, cutting out actual reality, only to go home to watch “reality” on TV. We are told we need to buy this new thing, in order to save money. We are told we need to buy this other, newest, hottest thing in order to fit in, to be cool. We are told we need to wear this makeup to look natural.

How many phone numbers can you remember? Recall just ten years ago, you had to know the numbers of your friends. You didn’t have them stored in your smartphone, ready to dial at the push of a button.

Our new technology makes our lives easier, but makes our brains worse.

Strip it all away. Drop the broadcast TV. You’ll save money and your mind. You’ll find you have more time to live your own life, free of the siren song of the commercials and the game shows. Limit your time on the internet. Set a timer, get an uncomfortable chair, have someone rescue you if you are on longer than 30 minutes. Do you really need to read about which friend has a migraine or a sinus headache today? Perhaps that friend needs to consult a doctor rather than social networking.

I think the upsurge of ADD is a symptom, rather than a disease. It is a disease, in the truest sense, though. It is a dis-ease, a lack of ease. It is trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. We aren’t meant to live this fast, this crazy. We’ve been trying to make ourselves fit something that isn’t healthy. We’ve been trying to adapt ourselves to a reality that isn’t real.

We’ve forgotten how to grow our own food and how to cook it. Everything is prepackaged, including our lives. We’ve forgotten the simple pleasures of making things ourselves, with our own hands. We’ve gotten out of the habit of exercising as a way of life.

We’re paying for all this convenience with our minds and our health.

We don’t need 5 hour energy drinks. We need to get a proper amount of sleep.
We don’t need to hear about the latest scandal in Hollywood. We need to spend time with our friends.

It is time to slow down, take a step back, and reconnect with what we really need. Analyze everything. If it isn’t nurturing or necessary, drop it. This includes relationships, institutions, what you eat and drink, what you read, everything you consume or do.