A Librarian’s Guide to ADHD Resources Online

Celebrate ADHD Awareness Month in October

Anthony Aycock

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Photo by Matthew Ball on Unsplash

“I wish monkeys could Skype. Maybe someday.”

“Do you know if the hotel is pager-friendly?”

“Tigers love pepper. They hate cinnamon.”

“Four of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Las Vegas, looking for strippers and cocaine.”

“I can’t believe my daddy is dead. I can think of so many people I would rather have died first, like my mother.”

What do these sentences have in common? They’re all Alan-isms — words uttered by that unlikeliest of philosophers, Alan Garner, the bearded man-child played by Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover and its sequels. He is loyal and kind, and more than a little outlandish.

Also, as the second and third movies confirm, Alan takes ADHD medicine.

We tend to think of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a condition that affects children, but adults can have it too — 8 to 9 million of them, according to WebMD. Studies suggest that less than 20% of adults affected know they have ADHD, and only a fourth of those receive treatment for it. Most of them aren’t as off the chain as Alan, but that doesn’t mean their lives are untroubled.

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