An actual physical casualty from ADHD

[Anonymous]

Sad but true, right after this happened (and the excrutiating pain subsided) I thought “I have to post this”.

I am currently practicing the whole ‘use your non dominant hand’ exercise that was suggested a few months back. The catch is that it is NOT intentional. I can not use my left (dominant) hand because I burnt the holy heck out of it last night.

What did I do, you wonder. I touched a PIPING HOT muffler on a lawnmower. I knew that I shouldn’t. I didn’t even mean to. I was attempting to adjust the blade on my lawnmower because it did not get my front yard “putting green” short, as I prefer it. I got the one side down fairly easy, but the other side would not adjust, and I became impatient in oh, about 5 seconds so instead of finessing it down, I completely and totally inadvertantly reached my hand down and GRABBED THE @$!#%!# MUFFLER! It is by the grace of God and the first aid of a kindly neighbor that I am not in the ER being prepped for skin grafts, but I spent the entire night being ‘right handed’ because my left hand was in such pain until the burn cream took effect.

Was it ‘me or ADHD’? I actually call it a full on ‘dumbass attack’, but either way I had to share.

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[quizzical]

OUCH!!! Feel better soon! (((hugs)))

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[Anonymous]

Thank you sooo much! My neighbor had some Silvadine (sp?) and that made a world of difference, but my empathy for people who have really severe burns has multiplied tenfold! It was so painful I wanted to cry and vomit at the same time!! Now I can’t feel anything. My fingers feel like I have bandaids on them, but I don’t. My neighbor asked me “why did you DO that?” I said “I truly wish I could tell you.” As soon as my hand went there, I knew it wasn’t a good idea, it was like watching myself make the biggest mistake of my day!

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[nellie]

EEek just reading this is making me cringe Steffie! How are you doing now? Hopefully no scaring?

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[Anonymous]

It is has been two weeks, I hope it is all better now

ADHD increases the risk for car accidents!

I’m still waffling back and forth whether or not I have this, but I have now totaled two cars due to daydreaming on the road. When I was 17, I blew through a stop sign like it did not exist. luckily that car was built for safety and I was T-boned on the other side.

Just this December, I blew through a red light in the same kind of haze. (no cell phone, no fiddling with stuff, no passenger, and of course no substances). However, this time I was off-T-boned (would have died if it was straight on) in a tiny car, with higher speeds, and on the drivers’ side. I am very grateful that the other driver was not injured for my terrible mistake (except emotionally..he kept asking me why..and i had no answer. he almost wanted to believe I was drunk or on my cellphone). (I have really good recovery since then but) My pelvis was broken in 4 places, I had to get emergency surgery with a titanium rod placed, i was in a wheelchair for 2 months…etc… all for musing about life while behind the wheel .

Even if I don’t have ADHD, I am definitely known for “spacing out”, so this would still apply.

so frightening..because I know I have a focus problem of some kind and before the accident I would stare at lights and repeat the colors over and over again in my head to make sure I got it, so I don’t know how to be safer to prevent this from happening again.

sorry for the negativity . brought up a tender subject.

some friends are telling me that I am trying to force myself into this label for simple answers to why this wreck happened and why I can’t achieve the level of work productivity I need to. why I am a domestic disaster..etc.

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[Anonymous]

Some friends, indeed! Don’t listen to them.

I witnessed an accident yesterday, two cars head-on, one turning left and the other trying to turn right, just past an intersection, on a Friday afternoon when people were tearing around town trying to get home or to the cottage. Friday afternoons are a good time to stay off the roads for ADDers! They were both trying to beat the oncoming traffic and were not paying attention to each other. Who knows if they were distracted by other things like cellphones, children in the back, etc. Both should be charged with careless driving as I had to slam on my brakes in wet weather to avoid plowing into them. I didn’t see it coming, my husband saw it. Put the hazards on, ran out with my cellphone, when I saw both drivers and occupants were ok, I went over to the driver’s little girl (about 7) who had been placed standing by herself at the side of the road and comforted her until her dad came back for her. She was scared to death. For the rest of the day and evening, I was really careful driving and noticed many people doing the same thing, charging through intersections, pulling out of parking lots like their hair was on fire, etc.

I put my fingers on the stove top earlier this year to check whether or not it was hot, believe it or not (my husband forgets to turn the elements off and when he does, they are still hot for some time).

You could see grill marks on my fingers from the coils. Ran to the bathroom and started running cold water from the tap on them. I had some arnica pills and arnica cream and took the arnica pills and applied the arnica cream (the skin wasn’t broken). Then I started to focus my attention on the pain (it was pretty intense at times), imagining that healing energy was flowing into that area. I had the “bandaids-without-bandaids” feeling too. I kept up the arnica all day and night (following the directions) and applied arnica cream whenever I could.

After 1 day there were no marks and I was fine. I guess it wasn’t as bad a burn as steffie’s situation, but the combination of arnica pills & arnica cream and visualization really helped.

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[Anonymous]

I truly need internet at home!!!

My hand is doing tons better! No scarring, had some pretty heinous callouses for a minute but they went away. I was lucky, but that seems to tie into my life theory “It could always be worse”, I have gotten myself into some scrapes from daydreaming, wandering off, etc…

I’ve always been prone to daydreaming, so much so that my mom held my hands in crowds until I was fifteen and only stopped because I BEGGED her “Mom, I’m a sophomore in highschool, the madness has GOT to end,” but after losing me at a McDonalds and watching as I almost got hit on A1A in Florida, she kept a tight grip on me. the meds I take now help a lot but my impatience factor, or do they call it ‘impulsivity’ still leaves a bit to be desired.

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[billd]

Accidents and speeding tickets – I’ve paid my share into the government coffers.

Accidents I can remember:

Falling on a ladder, my knee hit a rung, bent the aluminum rung, cracked my kneecap down the middle

Nearly took off my forefinger and thumb on my left hand in a table saw (I’m left handed and I KNOW BETTER than to hold the piece only 1/2″ from the saw)

Smacked myself in the head with a crowbar leaving a heck of a bump and huge gash.

Smacked myself in the face with a planter marker – luckily I was wearing glasses.

Fallen so many times on ice, etc. – it’s a wonder I’ve got bones left.

Lifted a pool cover reel with my left arm extended, palm up (doctors will know what happened next) SNAP – tore bicep loose from bone.

I’d had my new truck less than a year and was in 4 accidents with it ( 1 was not my fault, but you know how THAT looked)

Ran into the front my my truck with my VW Rabbit, they were 4 feet from each other in the driveway and I sat down to start it – forgetting to depress the clutch first……..

Broken toes at least 3 times walking into things.

And yes, I’ve done the lawnmower muffler thing, too – although thankfully NOT to that extent – OUCH!! that hurts just thinking about it. What was my excuse – I did, after all, run a small engine repair shop for a while! DUH – mechanic, degree, know better?

Yeah, I DO know better, but applying that, there’s the trick.

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