ADD & Famous
Many of the traits and symptoms of ADHD can also become strengths, under the right situation or context. Here you’ll find adults who have overcome their ADHD and succeeded.
Immature
November 20, 2009
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Well done. You sure had him in the crushing grip of logic. I had to clean coffee off my monitor that I blew out my nose when you made your final point.
I have found a job where my ADD is a positive thing. I am a school bus driver. I drive the short bus, and it is the behavior disorder route. The boys on my bus (no girls) have been expelled from their schools for “bad behavior”. However, both parents and teachers have given my manager feedback saying that I am the best driver these students have ever had. When I arrive at the school with them, they are in a frame of mind to learn. The teachers have told me that before I got the route, it would take about forty-five minutes to an hour to calm them down to where they could start teaching them.
I know that a bad driving record is normal for ADD, but I don’t fit the mold there. I have a clean record back to my 16th birthday, and I’m in my late 40s now. More near misses than I care to remember, but I’ve never actually hit anything nor have I gotten a ticket.
I just feel awake and alert when I’m driving, especially the bus that is full of other people’s kids. There is so much going on, and it is never the same thing twice in a row. Even the student who I call “Ticket Boy” changes daily. A ticket is a write-up for bad behavior and it has severe consequences for them in the classroom. I try to do everything I can to avoid writing them up. Also, it is paperwork and I really suck at getting it filled out completely and correctly.
Ha ha, I love this. Before I knew I had ADD I kinda struggled with that, everyone was growing up while I still don’t know how to act in a professional environment. I really try!
Larynxa you make me laugh! Every time! Except when you’re not being funny. Which is good, right? Morris Dancing always made me laugh. The name, not the dancing. Well, both actually.
I love this video. One of my enduring childhood memories is that of being told that I ‘don’t act my age’ which when I was younger was a real insult and now that I have just had yet another birthday (where DO they come from, I just had one the other day!) and after a rather late in life realisation that I have some form of ADD it is now a huge relief to know that I get some
time back! wha hoo whoot whoot
@Larynxa I am laughing out loud at the Morris dance story. I’m not sure how many folks even know what Morris dancing is, but I do, and your story’s HILARIOUS!
Meanwhile, Rick’s response reminds me of a gaff (or what is?) that I made during an incredibly rough business meeting. I was asked to give a presentation of my work thus far to a client (with really deep pockets!). As I regard a presentation as a “performance” I was unconcerned that it would be me and a half dozen executives in a conference room.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be an ambush with one man in particular repeatedly asking question after question which I explained–as professionally, maturely and appropriately as possible–could not be answered by me because I lacked the information and professional expertise. We kept going ’round and ’round and we’d reached a point where I was struggling not to burst into tears of frustration or hurl myself across the conference table and choke the man.
The troublesome man interrupted himself, “I can’t believe you just rolled your eyes at me!”
*sigh* Yes. Although I’d managed not to burst into tears or to hurl myself across the table, I couldn’t contain my eyes. I let them roll in response to the umteenth verbal attack.
I appologized, “I’m terribly sorry. I supposed I’ve spent too much time with my daughters (I hoped a little levity would help). I don’t approve of them rolling their eyes; I’m sorry I wasn’t able to control myself. I am feeling frustrated…(and tried to offer further clarification).”
The meeting eventually ended. Afterwards, the organizer (who had invited me and told me to prepare for a presentation–not an ambush) tried to appolozie for the behavior of the troublesome man. Just then, one of the folks who’d been on the meeting (and I thought was on the “other side”) walked by and said, “I can’t believe you didn’t roll your eyes sooner.”
So, maybe there’s a time and place for a little immaturity!
When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
– C.S. Lewis
This video gets stuck at the 46 second mark
All this would explain why I feel like I’m still in my 20s (28.7, actually), and why nobody can believe I’m actually 41. Being plumptious helps too. Or, as my mother puts it, “You can’t get wrinkles on a balloon”.
It would also explain why, when I took a Rorschact Test, I saw animals in every single image. The psychologist said that it shows that my socio-emotional age is considerably younger than my physical age. (Well, duh!)
Somewhere, I have a Red Green T-shirt that says, “I may grow older, but I can remain immature forever”, or words to that effect. I can’t remember where I put the shirt. I’ve also encountered a variation, which is, “You may grow older, but with comedy you can stay immature forever.” That works for me too.
As for karaoke bars, I’ve been to enough of them to come up with a formula. Namely, “Talent is generally in inverse proportion to enthusiasm. The ratio is increased when alcohol is involved.” (I’m not sure if “ratio” was the right terminology there. I suck at math.) I came up with this formula because (1) I’m the exception to the rule, and (2) I stick to Shirley Temples, Diet Cokes, and Club Sodas With Lemon, so I’m sober enough to observe all this and retain (some of) what I see.
The only time I ever got drunk is referred to amongst my friends and family as “The Night of the Morris-Dance of the Foul Socks”. It involved a day walking around in thick socks and heavy snow boots, the parental units’ being late meeting me and my brother for dinner at Ed’s Warehouse on my birthday, copious glasses of “liquid candy” (Bailey’s), the legendary “Wall of Chamber Pots” in the basement of the restaurant, a very giggly car ride to my parents’ place (Who knew the lights along the DVP were so hilarious?), the removal of the aforementioned snow boots, and an ill-advised comment from my father (to wit, “Holy Christ! What died in here???”), to which I responded by doffing my foul socks and waving them in the air as I Morris-Danced through my parents’ kitchen.
Having sunk to such depths of depravity, I have avoided alcohol ever since…apart from a shot of Bailey’s at midnight on New Year’s Eve, and the occasional spoonful of it in a glass of iced coffee.
Dear Farty farty,
Thank you for speaking up, rather than being silent but deadly.
The fidgeting that kids do is something we tend to grow out of as ADHD adults.
Mostly, anyway.
You should see me pace when I’m on an exciting phone call.
The point is that when it’s a boring speaker, everyone fidgets. It’s when I’m fidgeting during an interesting speaker, and tuning out even though I’m interested. That’s an impairment to me.
B.T.W., I had decided that the difference between being youthful and open in a child-like state of curiosity… as opposed to being immature and childishly annoying … is whether my wife is smiling or not.
Oh, my mind is jumping! There’s a great phrase, “Dance like no one is watching.” Love that!
By adulthood we have actually forgotten what it’s like to get up and just cut loose.
Go to a Kareoke Bar. See how many people have to get drunk before they can get up there and let loose. Too bad! They’re so blotto they miss the pleasure of just letting go! So even when they’ve done it they don’t know how much fun it is.
Dear Dr. J. how do you measure maturity? Is it how long you can sit without fidgetting while listening to a boring speaker? If that is the case then I know a lot of imature teachers. To be fair as a teacher I have had to listen to my fair share of dual and pointless speakers on PD days. I don’t think I would be fidgetting if you and Mr. Rick did a interesting and meaningful presentation about ADD.
As for you Mr. Rick your actions in this video were childish and foolish. If you ever do some thing like this again I will tell my Mommy and Santa, STAMP IT!
Yours Truly
Wayne Farty Farty McFarlane