英语翻译

英语翻译
AN EPINEMIC OF ATTENTION DEFICIT
DR.EDWARD HALLOWELL,A PSYCHIATRIST in Sudbury,Massachusetts has seen the fallout of multitasking mania:it walks through his door five days a week.Over the past decade,he says he has seen a tenfold rise in the number of patients showing up with symptoms that closely resemble those of attention-deficit disorder (ADD),but of a work-induced variety.“They complained that they were more irritable than they wanted to be,” he says.“Their productivity was declining.They couldn’t get organized.They were making decisions in black-and-white,shoot-form-the-hip ways rather than giving things adequate thought,all because they felt pressured to get things done quickly.” But Hallowell,and ADD expert and co-author of several best-selling books on the subject,including 1994’s Driven to Distraction,noticed something different about his new cases.Unlike patients with typical ADD,which persists no matter the setting,the new patients felt frantic only in certain situations-mainly in the workplace or,for at-home moms while managing the home front.
In a Harvard Business Review article last January,Hallowell gave the condition a name:attention-deficit trait,or ADT.He explains that ADT takes hold when we got so overloaded with incoming message and competing tasks that we are unable to prioritize.The result is not only distractibility,impulsiveness and haste but also feelings of guilt and inadequacy.“People think it’s their fault that they’re falling behind,” he says.“They think they have to sleep less and work harder and stay later at the office,which only makes it worse because they’re not taking care of their brain by getting enough sleep.” How common is this phenomenon?“It’s rampant,” says Hallowell,who believes that corporate downsizing and job insecurity contribute to the problem.“When I give lectures around the country,there’s always instant identification with what I’m saying.People in the audience immediately say,‘Oh yes,that’s me,’ or ‘My whole office is like that.’ ”