Consider the brain. Our most important and by far most complex organ. Without it, we would not be able to do anything at all; nor would we have a personality. It completely defines who we are. It endows us with whatever potential talents we have, and it determines the things we will forever be less adept at. No two persons are completely alike, and no two brains are configured exactly the same.

By some accident of nature, my brain turned out to be highly specialized for the task of analysis. In addition, the rest of my nervous system is equally specialized in gathering information for my brain to analyze. This allows me to work in my chosen field with great efficiency and amazing concentration.

A side effect of how my nervous system was grown is that it never really stops doing its thing - there's constant gathering of information and analysis going on, even if the target subject may sometimes be very trivial. This heightened sensitivity means that any form of sensory input seems to affect me much more strongly than it does most other people. This makes it difficult to weed out input before it enters the analytical process, since it is the analysis itself that allows me to understand and categorize the ongoing situation. In a reasonably peaceful environment, I am much more aware of every little thing that's going on than most other people, which means that I am also better prepared to take action if a sudden need emerges. However, it also means that if there's too much sensory input, my brain tends to suffer from information overload. There is simply insufficient time and processing power to adequately understand the situation, and there is a very real possibility that the information I happen to process is not the information that really matters.

Needless to say, reaching this limit can be a depressing experience. Even more tragic is the fact that social situations, where a large group of people is gathered, tend to invite such meltdowns, since there are often multiple conversations going on, and I will inevitably try to follow every single one of them while at the same time relate what is said and the facial expressions and emotions of the speakers to my own experiences and beliefs. Even when being alone with a single person, the conversation will often trigger an internal avalanche of related thoughts and memories that all have to be combined, analyzed, understood and categorized, resulting in significant delays from questions are asked until I am able to answer coherently.

What I have described to you is what medical professionals have coined Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD. Tersely put, ADD is mainly an impaired ability to choose between competing stimuli. Having been categorized as a disorder, pharmaceutical companies have of course developed drugs to treat this ailment. The drugs help patients narrow their focus in environments with large amounts of concurrent information. Several different types of ADD drugs are marketed today, each with their own target group and unique side effects. But what if you don't like taking drugs? Can someone with ADD live a meaningful and productive life in today's fast-paced society?

I think so. Personally, I am very fortunate to be in a situation that allows me to adapt my life to the unusual way my brain works. I'm a software engineer and work from home, connected to the resources I need to manage and maintain at my employer's facilities via the Internet. This removes me from noisy office environments and minimizes the amount of distraction from the tasks I must perform.
I use tools such as ad blockers, which allow me to read important web pages without being bombarded with blinking text and animated banners.
I also prefer recreational activities that have a certain technical aspect to them, allowing my brain to enter into the hyper-focusing "zone" and happily analyze away while I'm enjoying myself.
The social aspect of my life is brought to a manageable level by having a very close circle of a few very good friends who accept and deal constructively with these quirks of mine. Understandably, I am very grateful for knowing such people.

This is all very good, but ultimately, you have to ask yourself the question "why bother?" Why not swallow the pill, bitter as it may seem, and get it over with?
Call it rage against the commercial machine, if you will. I have always been somewhat of an iconoclast, and so I ask the equally reasonable question, "why should I adapt to a society that doesn't even try to accommodate my special needs?" If I can function and live my life reasonably happily as I am, without having to depreciate my own nature, that is more important to me than cramming myself into this badly tailored suit, this commercial nightmare, which our society encourages its citizens to value above their own emotional health. I simply exercise my right to choose which aspects of society I am willing to adhere to the rules of, and thus participate in - because I can.