Overfocusing: Cognitive Inflexibility and the Cingulate Gyrus
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 64 Comments
Stubborn? or Stuck!!
by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie, CTP, CMC, ACT, MCC, SCAC
A bit of Review to Catch You Up
As I said in the previous article entitled ODD & Oppositional Rising: Most of us know somebody who seems to have an argument for just about everything — somebody who almost always has to “go through NO to get to yes.”
I likened those individuals to old television sets with stuck channel changers (way back before the days of remote controls).
Almost ALL of us, I added, ADD or not, have a small — perfectly “normal” — part of our personalities that balks unless a task or idea is totally appealing in the moment we are “supposed” to take it on.
We don’t WANT to change the channel — we want things to keep on being the way we thought they were going to be – NOW!
ADD and Oppositional Rising
A subset of those who qualify for an ADD diagnosis seems, a bit more than average, to struggle with changing that channel. (be sure to click ODD and Oppositional Rising for more on the concept)
A subset of individuals who do NOT qualify for an ADD diagnosis struggle similarly.
- ADD or NOT, these individuals are not diagnosically Oppositional Defiant [ODD], but it can try your patience mightily to work and live with these guys.
- In the previous article, I explained why I referred to that change-averse group as being at the effect of ODD Rising.
In THIS article, we’re going to take a look at what being “stuck” looks like, and to begin to look at what has to happen in our brain to be ready-willing-and-ABLE to “change our minds,” which is not too very different (in concept) from changing a channel on an old television set.
