Does everyone in the developed countries suffer from ADD?

Watching friends, neighbors, strangers arrive in Nicaragua, we watch a predictable process. First, the frantic pace and exhaustion of travel has to unwind a bit. We all know that travel is very hard work these days. You rush, you wait, you are herded, you are disappointed, you are food and sleep deprived, you have to obey irrational regulations. (taking off your shoes, harmful xray machines run by untrained low pay employees,) everything costs more than you expected.  That kind of stuff. I can't decide whether 'developed' countries are worse than 'under-developed' ones. Both present their own set of horrors.

After the travel fatigue wears off, everyone seems to have 'the list'. We need to change $, we need to buy sun block, we need to check our email! Then the magic starts to happen. The traveler starts to realize that they can do that tomorrow or the next day or that it doesn't matter at all. Things either happen or they don't and they world doesn't fall apart. In fact, it starts to make human sense. Without the aggravation, work, challenge, danger, responsibility of having a car, life is easier. You start to factor in the time it takes to walk, then the time it takes to eat out or collect and cook food.

For me, if I can do one errand, (get a set of keys made), get three meals, go have a swim, and hang out with friends, I consider it an amazing day. Add another errand like buying a fan, an extension cord and getting it home, and Oh my God, the pressure! I remember vaguely the days before I came of having a million errands, racing around in the car, having appointments, obligations, checking all the time the phone, the computer, the mail, the messages.

With the joy of being able to be outside all day, even while inside, with food vendors coming to the door, with the ease of using taxis for the few times you can't or don't feel like walking, life seems to get more and more human scale. For many of us this is vacation, But for many of us this is a reminder of times past, when life was slower, less frantic, more relaxed. It is a reminder of a time when no one gets pissed if you don't answer the phone or reply to an email regardless of what you are doing. It is a reminder of a time when families sat around at night and chatted.

I am not judging that one is better than the other, I am just observing that most people who come here don't even realize until they have been here a bit how very ADD their life at home has become, how much pressure and stress is normal. How lucky we are to get a break.