Are We a Nation of 'Pseudo-ADD' Sufferers?

June 13, 2005 — -- Americans often have hundreds of television channels to choose from, and high-speed Internet access, e-mail and personal digital assistants keeping them connected -- but if you are so "connected" that you're beginning to feel rather disconnected, you may not be alone, some mental health experts say.

We are becoming a nation of attention deficit disorder sufferers, says Dr. John Ratey, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the author of "Delivered from Distraction."

"We value not spending much time thinking about one thing," Ratey says. "These are hallmark symptoms of people with what we call pseudo-ADD."

Hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents have received a clinical ADD diagnosis for an inability to focus and concentrate in school. But what about the non-medical problem of "cultural" ADD?

Being able to multi-task effectively is a prized quality in our society. Take Eileen O'Connor, a former ABC News producer and now a wife, mother of five, law student and non-profit executive. She feels like being able to multi-task is the only way to cram all she needs to do into her hectic days.

"I would go to class, listen to the lecture and on one [computer] screen be taking notes," O'Connor says. "And on another screen, I was on my e-mail, actually e-mailing [my kids] or people in the office."

But Ratey argues that multi-tasking is not as efficient as we might think.

"The brain is not riveted, it's not focused," he says. "You're seeing a lot more noise in the brain. You're using more of your brain to try and pay attention."

One recent study showed that workers don't spend more than three minutes on any given task, and they're usually interrupted every two minutes.

Other research said it takes a person 50 percent longer to complete two tasks done simultaneously than if they were done separately.

In other words, asking your brain to keep hitting pause and play doesn't save time.