Balance really is the key to life. Balance your life, your career, your significant other, and your children. Balance your attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. We're at our most successful and most functional when we have achieved the best balance of things. Today, I'd like to talk about how things get out of balance in the first place for those of us with adult ADHD. At least, this is how I view how our scales tip to and fro'.
Symptoms of ADHD
I have spent the last 20 minutes unsuccessfully researching adult ADHD, using my library's medical journal archive and then, I did a plain Internet search. These are two of my least favorite things to do. I currently have no way to make it more enjoyable, but I bet you anything I'll come up with something useful by the end of this post. Please, read, learn and see thinking out loud happen in a blog post.
Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - it's what I have and it's what you either have or think you have, or what your loved one has or you think your loved one has. And, guess what? It can't be cured. And guess what else? That's okay. Also, you might ask, "Why can't it be fixed? And, if it can't be fixed, what the heck can you do about it?" The following is my argument for how best to approach the treatment and post-diagnosis-life of adult ADHD.
It's the start of the year, and many of us with adult ADHD resolve to getting organized. I'm making resolutions myself and, fingers crossed, I'm going to keep many of them. Being disorganized really puts a cramp in my studying and my life, though. I think, if I had to pick, getting organized and staying that way is something that would help me learn and focus better - which will lead to being more successful. But, how can getting organized work with adult ADHD?
Do you have a bully inside your own head? Many adults with ADHD do. You know what I mean, those negative thoughts that keep putting you down and killing your self-esteem and self-confidence.
Making sure not to minimize the bullying that goes on between people, I have to wonder, where is the program for the internal bullying that goes on in our own heads?
In my program, there are a lot of lectures and a lot of labs. For lectures, we're sitting quietly listening to a teacher and in labs we're talking with our partners/groups about movements and techniques. I had the opportunity to do a few lab activities in the past few weeks for my neuro-muscular course that tested my senses and my ability to adapt to their age-related changes. Because I always look at experiences though my Adult ADHD lens, these labs were no different.
Mom, can I have the keys to go meet Cheryl at the mall?”
“Dad, I just need the car for about an hour so I can take my friends to get some ice-cream.”
“Mom, it’s so hot out! Can I just drive to the pool?”
Not only do adults often drive more in the summer, particularly on highways while on vacation, but teens who are no longer confined to the school setting often drive more as well.
If you are an adult with ADHD or have a teen diagnosed with ADD, extra caution may be needed.
Hello all, I'm writing this post on a Sunday evening after I caught myself several times being super-duper ADHD - I could not stayed focused! It was a studying and cleaning day for me and I was having trouble studying and cleaning today. The studying was freaking me out because one lecture was taking me over an hour (which just about never happens for me) and the cleaning ... yikes, the cleaning ...
I had some time to kill between class and my train home on Friday and I spent it watching youtube videos. A waste of time, you say? Nay! I watched videos about Adult ADHD and one in particular by Dr. Russell Barkley about the fact that Adult ADHD is NOT a gift. But, Dr. Barkley, we've been told for so long that ADHD isn't only a bunch of junk that makes it hard for us to focus, but it's something that helps us to be more creative and really good and different things. What is the meaning of this?
Paul made an appointment with me and arrived with a concern: “My wife keeps telling me I have ADHD because I am always misplacing things, forgetting what she says, and running late - even to work. But I have never been hyperactive, so can she still be right?”
A week later, I met Jennifer upset with what her doctor had told her. “He said I have ADHD, but I know I don’t! I am very low energy, and my biggest problem is procrastination. I have ADD, not ADHD.”
Is it ADHD? Is it ADD? What’s the difference?