I was at a movie last weekend and during the previews a movie coming out March 18th was featured, it’s called Limitless. The movie tag line is “What If A Pill Could Make You Rich And Powerful?” Some big names that are staring in it are Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks and Robert DeNiro.
The story centers on a down-and-out writer who gets his hands on a top-secret pharmaceutical drug that makes one smarter. He experiences sudden financial and social success but soon discovers that the drug has lethal and lasting side effects. The preview asks “we only access 20% of our brain, what if we could access all of it?” As I watched the preview the way the movie was promoted was centered on the fact that a drug could make you the best person you are capable of being, the best possible you. It kind of reminded me of ADD/ADHD medications and how they are sometimes promoted as being the answer to everything. Don’t get me wrong, medications have their place and can be beneficial, however they can also be over prescribed and positioned as the answer.
With ADD/ADHD there is no magic pill, it takes a lot more effort like research, coaching, self growth, acquiring new skills and is a constant learning process. Thus, the name of my ADD blog Pills Don’t Teach Skills. There is no magic pill to cure ADD or ADHD, but we do have the tools to learn to help correct and manage it…….so, in many ways we are limitless.
It seemed to me that the pill actually made him ADHD but without that pesky inconsistency of focus issue. I often see that the youth I work with are very much like the main character is when he is on his drug, but only for 10-15 minutes at a time. I try to help the kids I work with to use that ability to break their life into intervals of 10-15 intense minutes of powerful focus and then take a break. We also practice meditation to increase their length of focus.
I use the character in this film, and his metamorphosis to describe how I experience severe fog-clarity swings that I experience. What happens to the character in the movie is very very close to what I experience. The child like amazement when the focus narrows or is pulled in TIGHT and powerfully! The frustration when the fog hits….
I have tried all the standard drugs; the do little/nothing. I get the “Limitless” like clarity when certain musical pieces reach a crescendo (nessum dorma….especially when its Pavarotti; some Mozart)…but its fleeting. I **WISH** it could last 24 hours! I believe it is a curse to be of a higher order of intelligence (145 IQ) yet frustratingly unable to channel it for more than brief periods of time. I would have tried the pill…I can see why it would be addicting; FOCUS is addicting, not the med that gets you there.
I agree I am addicted to the focus. Unfortunately, nothing gets me there like when I first took dex. Adderall not viable. So off to concerta we go…..hoping that my natural personality remains.