A Professional Driver’s Guide To Understanding ADD (Mental Health Matters)
By: Lawerence Trayno
When Mike Johnson first realized something wasn’t right, he was halfway through his regular Chicago to Dallas route. The veteran driver had always struggled with paperwork and maintaining focus during long stretches, but he never understood why—until his ADD diagnosis changed everything. “Learning about ADD wasn’t just about understanding my challenges,” Mike shares, “it was about discovering how God had uniquely wired my brain.”
Attention and focus are not just job requirements for professional and commercial truck drivers—they are essential safety tools that protect you and others on the road. While many exceptional drivers have successfully managed their ADD, understanding and addressing this condition is crucial for your safety and career success.
The term attention deficit disorder was coined in the 1970s; only recently has this genetic neurological syndrome been identified and diagnosed within adult populations. Since ADD was mistakenly thought to exclusively afflict only children, this was an extraordinary mental health breakthrough for adults who were previously collectively labeled as lazy, stupid, and oftentimes crazy, according to Harvard Medical School medical editor and author of Confronting Adult ADHD, Martin H. Teicher, MD, PhD. If you have ADD as a professional driver, you are brilliant, creative, and in great company with such historical people like Albert Einstein, George Patton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Socrates, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The starting point for confirming a positive diagnosis includes an evaluation by a doctor or mental health professional. Since a concise definition of ADD does not exist, reliance on symptom descriptions is necessary to come up with a diagnosis. It’s important for the patient to share a detailed personal and medical history. This will allow the medical professional to align that history with the generally accepted symptoms of this condition.
The questions that may be asked are similar to the following:
- Was I a procrastinator, restless, easily distracted, and struggling to stay organized as a student?
- Do I struggle to hold a job, follow through, become easily bored, or repeatedly make careless, detail-related mistakes?
- Do I often break promises and arrive late for deliveries, commitments, and meetings?
- Do I occasionally say things without thinking and oftentimes get reprimanded for the inappropriateness of my remarks?
- Do I have a family history of impulsive, addictive, destructive behavior, including depression, PTSD, drug abuse, alcoholism, anger, and dissatisfaction, often resulting in a never-ending search for ways to change how I feel?
Stay tuned for the next two issues to continue learning about this condition and how it affects the trucking community.
