When we talk about changing the environment, it’s not just the physical environment, it’s the emotional surroundings as well. Rearing children in an emotionally hostile world does not breed successful and productive adults.
I have deliberately used the word pragmatic in this heading. Pragmatic means practical as opposed to idealistic, in other words, there is little emotion in the situation being described.
In an ideal world we would be able to eat anything we wanted, talk to anyone when we wanted, and so on. Point is, it’s difficult enough having ADHD without being barred from eating foods we like and that have agreeable textures, and being forced to eat foods that we abhor and nearly make us puke from the texture.
These are not arbitrary taste and tactile dislikes, these are real issues, that cause severe distress. ADDers are usually fussy eaters in terms of what they put in the mouths, they will eat most foods.
Food on the plate causes some fussiness - the different foods should not touch each other, and please don´t put the gravy over the rice.
There are analogies to this food thing and ADHD. We will eat tomato sauce for instance, but refuse tomatoes in a salad.
The issue is the texture, not the taste. Being forced to eat a food that cause texture issues is senseless - no matter what you do, it won´t change.
Print Edition is long since sold out, the revised pdf version available soon
I have been coaching people with ADHD for 20-plus years, and I know that they either have lots of money or hardly any.
