Feeling loved?

I was doing some research online tonight and ran into an interesting little article -- "How do you know if you are loved?" I'm like one of the people in the article in that I get reassurance from physical contact and affection. It's hard for me to only hear that someone cares about me, but to have restrained contact. This might have more to do with a slew of recent circumstances though -- I tend to also value highly someone taking time to spend with me as well as trying to understand (or when appropriate help) me, perhaps more so than physical contact. Hmm... nope. Physical contact =).

It's strange -- I intuitively knew about such differences and how they affect communication. It's even something I've emphasized on repeated occasions when advising or counseling others. Never thought about this specifically before though, nor about my own predispositions oddly enough.

Another interesting article I ran across -- a human gene study validates that a gene associated with ADHD was an advantage for humans 10-40,000 years ago, lending a lot of credence to Thom Hartmann's Hunter/Farmer hypothesis of the disorder. Here's a good blurb on it, and the full article.

I actually wrote quite a bit about this idea in a research paper a few years back (for a rhetoric class -- don't ask). Basically I argued that the primary trait of ADHD, while often causing considerable problems, may actually be not only a good thing for individuals, but perhaps also necessary for society to survive/progress. If you just want to skip ahead to that part, it's under the "ADHD: A good thing?" section. [05:46]