Posted by garnet71 on May 24, 2009, at 10:04:16
This site is really cool, not from a doctor or professional, but has some interesting stuff ADDers can identify with, like differences in cognition. There's some stuff on that site about ADD people being misdiagnosed for bipolar; if you are having trouble with your meds but never diagnosed ADD, you might want to read thru this site. It also describes the diff. between rapid or unfocused thought of mania/hypomania, and rapid/unfocused thought of ADD....or something like that.
http://www.borntoexplore.org/addexp~1.htm
I never heard of this before, Divergent/Lateral thinking, but when I read this, i though omg that's me! It explains why I had sooo much trouble doing a thesis, which is sort of the opposite of "branching out", where you have to focus in, narrow down-convergence..and lateral thinking where i can't do "steps" for anything but intuitively find answers... I don't know if this as actually attributed to ADD or if it attributed more to being left handed or what, though when I asked my PDoc about ADD, he was carefully listening and I was talking just like that celery story, and he didn't even look at the ADD questionaire, but listened to how I was describing my symptoms and said yeah, you defintely have ADD......and his primary focus seemed to be not the symptoms I was telling him about, but at the end of our conversation, he identified how I was talking like in that celery story....but i was relieved to see there is a label for this type of thinking. I always felt out of place in classes and sometimes at work for thinking like this, though I've also substantially benefited at times with problem solving. The celery thing, that's me 24 hours a day...lol. And how I ramble all the time..lol
Divergent and Lateral Thinkers
These terms are useful for confusing your friends. Divergent thinking is a creative style of thinking. Instead of coming to a point or a close, your thoughts tend to branch out, constantly exploring new avenues. These avenues may take you well into the ozone. Divergent thinking leads to creativity. Convergent thinking leads to getting things done.
Convergent thinking: I need to make supper, but I don't have any celery. I'll go to the store and buy some.
Divergent thinking. I need to make supper, but I don't have any - look a bird - celery. Actually, I had some yesterday, but I ate it all with peanut butter. Why did I do that? The peanut butter was good though, and it was that all natural kind. Surprised me. I thought it would taste terrible. I should try some other all natural products. Like those cookies I saw in the store last time. They were sweetened with molasses. I wonder if molasses is just as bad as sugar. Maybe there's a website about that, perhaps if I searched under hypoglycemia or diabetes. While I'm here, I'll check my email. Oh look, a letter from Ann! Wow, she want's to go to Lilith Fair with me. Alright! I should get some CDs from the Lilith Fair artists so I know what they're singing. Good idea, I'm going to the music store right now. Wait, but I'm hungry, what do we have to eat! Oh yeah, no celery...
Lateral thinking is similar to divergent thinking. The idea is that most people think in a sequential or serial manner. Step one, step two, step three. Lateral thinkers don't do that, and find serial thinking dry and boring. Lateral thinkers are intuitive and often come up with answers without knowing how they got the answer. Serial thinkers can explain each step they took to arrive at the answer.
Both divergent and lateral thinking are associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, while convergent and serial thinking are associated with the left hemisphere. This is why creative people are more likely to exhibit mixed or right brain dominance than the general population.
poster:garnet71
thread:897385
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/neuro/20090129/msgs/897385.html