Type III depressions involve a third neurotransmitter, dopamine. Dopamine has a lot of different functions in a lot of different places in the brain. Parkinson’s disease, the movement disorder, and schizophrenia both involve dopamine neurons. Dopamine is also affected in people who are addicted to pleasurable substances such as nicotine, marijuana,

J. was a rather bright kid with ADD. He was smart enough never to be recognized as having ADD, but he got a lot of negative feedback from his parents and teachers for his inconsistencies. He was a competitive person and, in order to perform well, he developed a rather harsh attitude with himself: He learned to suppress or ignore his discomforts and

relative underactivity of inhibitory centers in the front of the brain. This means that people with ADD who need to focus on an attentionally demanding task may have difficulty turning off or preventing the activation of competing areas of the brain.

Probably one of the more interesting and consistent phenomena I have observed in the hundreds of people with ADD I have known is an almost reverential attitude toward genuine friendship. People with ADD are among the most loyal and dedicated friends imaginable. Perhaps because they so often feel misunderstood and rejected, when they do feel

If the disorder is less severe, we get three other sorts of splits: (1) between left-brain reasoning and the control of emotions, (2) between left-brain reasoning and the control of behavior, and (3) between left-brain reasoning and the control of sensation.

Healing the Divided Self

The Watkins define an ego state as “an organized system of behavior and experience whose elements are bound together by some common principle, and which is separated from other such states by a boundary that is more or less permeable.”

Splits between reason and behavior can involve addictions (drugs, alcohol, sex, or gambling) or unreliability (procrastination or disorganization).

The left brain is the captain, charting the course, deploying resources, arranging for the training of his men. The crew executes the captain’s commands, often performing functions that the captain himself cannot perform. There are many ways in which such an arrangement can work. Ideally, the captain consults the crew, gets their invaluable