Expert: Sharon Crandall - 8/27/2004

Question
I am recalling a conversation that I had with a woman about 8 months ago. She said something to the effect of how people often confused ADD with Bipolar.  My doctor says that I have rapid cycling bipolar and that has been the thing that he has used to explain why I can't sleep at night. For the insomnia, he has given me an antipsychotic medication (Seroquel) which works like a dream. One thing that we have never gotten around to medicating (and likely won't since I am now in China) is my inability to make my fingers do very delicate motor tasks, such as playing piano.

A typical practice session for me may not be as fruitful as it is for others because while I am pressing the keys other thoughts are running through my head. And sometimes I can accomplish the tasks that I want to, but not reliably. So, for example, if I play through four measures and play it perfectly, I may come back to that same piece an hour later and not be able to play the four measures perfectly. Another issue is typing. Lots of backing up and correcting mistakes, though I've been typing since high school (ten years gone now) and should be able to do this with no mistakes.

Are such motor skill impairments part of ADD (in an adult)?

Moreover, what is your knolwedge about patients motor skill improvement when on amphetamines? This is said knowing that for any psychiatric disorder, there are a finite number of drugs that can be used (Antipsychotics, antiseizures, antidepressants, anxiolytics, and lithium).

Or could it be that I just have poor motor skills and that's the end of that? (If a person is put on amphetamines, he is more likely to be able NOT to sleep. I don't see that being a useful remedy to any problems that I have.)

Answer
Dear Lemas,

Much of your question is out of my expertise because I work with traits such as Oral Memory, Visual Memory, Wide Tolerance which causes a person to be spacy, etc.  The traits have the gift side and also the challenge.  It sounds like more is going on in your brain than traits but this is the way I look at it.  

If the brain is not working propertly how different is that than the kidneys or thyroid or some other organ.  Medical doctors only treat the symptoms so I feel we should all be responsible to find out how to improve our health, and thus improve the function of all our organs.

There is a product called beCalm'd that you should be able to find on the internet that has specific ingredients to feed the brain.  I know of one person with bipolar who was helped with this product.

The other thing is that you may be using the wrong hand.  Hold a tube up to your eye and see which eye you use.  Which side of your body is larger?  One foot, one hand, etc. will be a bit larger.  If you are right eyed you should be right handed.  Sometimes people even train the wrong eye, however, so whichever side is larger would be your dominant side.

Why do I bring this up?  Because it greatly affects learning plus eye and hand co-ordination.  It can even cause speech impediments.  So, if you are using the wrong hand it could affect your piano playing, memory, concentration, creativity, etc.

No matter what you do, stick with playing the piano because it uses both sides of the brain and helps develop it.  There is a website called Brain Connection that might have some exercises on it and if you type in exercises for brain function or something similar there are websites that have exercises to help the brain function correctly and in balance.

I do not know how medication affects the brain but there are side affects to all medications.  I would do every thing I could healthwise plus do brain exercises and see if that would help.


Another thing that might help you is that many who I have seen who have been diagnosed as bipolar have many trait mood swings.  Half your body is influenced genetically by your father's side of the family and the other half by your mother's side.  This means that you can have two different measurements, which causes mood swings because you have innate feelings to behave and feel one way and then when it switches to the other side, you feel inclined differently.

Look at your face.  Do you see differences such as one eye sitting closer to the center of the bridge of the nose than the other, one eye higher than the other, one eye slanting downward and one even or upward? If you divide your face in two marking a line in the center of the bridge of your nose, is the width different through the eye area?  Does one ear sit higher than another or does one ear sit closer to the back of your head than the other?

These are only a few of the traits that can cause a range of emotions and behavior tendencies.

This is a fascinating subject and influences our behavior so much.  I used to have tremendous mood swings that were caused by traits and could not be explained by physical problems.  It was such a relief for me to learn about Personality Science and how to learn how to work with and control mood swings.

If you have poor motor skills I am betting that you could be using the wrong hand.  If you feel that is so, write with the correct hand every night for at least fifteen minutes to a half hour so that you can get the dominant side of your brain working better.  Use the correct hand in everything you can.

If this is not the problem then did you crawl and creep as a child?  Were you kept from really exploring and feeling and touching  all sorts of materials, textures and objects?  This is why exercises are so important because it can help for you to go back and program your brain the way it should have been programmed in the first place.

Well, I do hope this helps.  Feel free to respond with comments and more questions. I am very curious to see if you might be using the wrong hand and if you have differences in your traits from one side to the other.

I do have a website that tells more about this science.  It is personalityconsultant dot com.  I spell it out because I don't know if web addresses come through on these email answers.  Let me hear from you.

Sharon Crandall
Your Personality Consultant