Define Crazy!

[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

Before I got a reliable diagnosis, I’d often wonder if I was a bit crazy. Especially when I did something impulsive.

I definitely suspected I was different. In fact, the universe seemed to constantly hurl that message as me.

Once I had a proper diagnosis, I became a bit more understanding and sympathetic and forgiving about myself. It ranged from from “At least now I know why I’m weird.” to, “Wow, I’m weird and I like it.”

But crazy?

Well, hmm. Define crazy.

Abnormal? Define normal!!

We live on a planet where in some places women get paid more than teachers to slide naked up and down a pole in a strip club, while in other parts of the planet a woman can be whipped for showing her hair in public.

We live on a planet were a wedding between two members of the Royal Family, an institution everyone agrees is obsolete in this day and age, may bring in more financial benefit and recognition to London than it will get hosting the 2012 Olympic Games.

We live on a planet where in some places decent, caring, empathetic kind people are reading labels on pet food containers to find out if it’s nutritious, while in another part of the planet children are forced to pick through garbage dumps for food and drink water from ditches.

There are places where beauty involves wide hips, narrow hips, thin eyebrows, thick eyebrows, large breasts, small breasts, pale skin, a deep tan, straight hair, wavy hair, corn rows or dyed hair.

We live in a world where pretty much everyone agrees that if someone invaded their home and ordered them to do things at gunpoint, they would strongly resist, and yet we all pretty much send our soldiers into other countries with guns to order people to do what we want and accept what we believe.

We live in a world where people spend an inordinate amount of their waking hours complaining about the weather, as if somehow that is going to have any impact on anything, anywhere.

We live in a world where we have access to more knowledge in a few seconds from the internet than the best minds in the world had less than 50 years ago, and yet we complain if our devices take 20 seconds to boot up.

We live in a world where people wake up in their air conditioned houses, get into their air conditioned cars to their air conditioned workplaces, then grab dinner at an air conditioned restaurant before going through an air conditioned mall to their air conditioned gym… so they can have a sauna. Then they sit in the sauna bitching about the price of gas and electricity and energy.

We have professional athletes who train and master their skills to the peak of perfection, and then are flustered if they can’t find the lucky feather they carry in their pocket when they are in the playoffs.

We live on a planet where people think the Toronto Maple Leafs are rebuilding and they have a shot at the playoffs next year.

We’re crazy?

You’re crazy?

Define crazy.

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[Wgreen]

Ahem…. not EVERYBODY thinks monarchy is obsolete. There was an article in “Le Figaro” just a few days ago about the several monarchist parties in France. Many Japanese seem to love their emperor. There is a Russian Monarchist Movement, and even a Monarchist League of Canada! And that’s just for starters.

You just think they’re all… CRAZY!!

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

Exactly! Ha ha! Bwah, ha ha ha! Reminds me of a skit we did in one of our last History Bites specials. According to a famous historian, the Royalty of Europe were so inbred by the year 1802 that the monarch in almost every major country was certifiably insane. So we did a speed dating skit, with a dozen loopy kings and queens.

And the same thing happened long ago with the Egyptian Pharoahs and Pharoah-ettes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLgZcynWeVQ

The actor is the amazing Peter Oldring. Hair and makeup by the equally amazing Sue Upton.

Makes me laugh.

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[Anonymous]

OK, I’m weighing in on this (go ahead Rick, crack one),

Normality must be qualified by the words- functional impairment- which then defines a problem

So it is not normality we seek but functioning and even that is relative. I had a patient who believed he was not functioning because he hadn’t gone to Harvard! Turns out that his entire family were Harvard trained judges, doctors etc. One might arguably say that they were not functioning in THAT family.

Crazy-now that is a cruel word and when loosely applied it makes mental health seem like a bad thing.

Immature- that is another tough word which creates an immediate reaction of childishness as in:

http://totallyadd.com/immature/

Words can be very painful weapons. However, as Rick suggests, being able to laugh at words takes away their fear. Humor is the ultimate shield.

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[Anonymous]

well i was most fortunate to have a wise grandmother who told me (many, many) years ago” “we’re all effin nuts.” it has certainly kept things in perspective for me all these years.

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[Anonymous]

The definitions of normal bring to mind the dialog from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:”

“…we have normality, I repeat we have normality.” She turned her microphone off — then turned it back on, with a slight smile and continued: “Anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem.”

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[Wgreen]

Remember, in the 1950s, “crazy” was slang for “cool!”

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[Anonymous]

Maybe for some the word “crazy” holds ill feelings and visions of people gone mad, but to me crazy has always been a good thing. I have known a lot of “crazy” people in my life and they were all amazing. Just because most of society frowns on some activity, doesn’t understand something or doesn’t have the courage to try something doesn’t mean it’s crazy. It is the herd mentality taking over and people are sheep in general, so if you’re the black sheep the rest of the flock is going to label you and shun you because they don’t understand you.

Crazy people are not to be shunned, but revered in the highest regard for their courage to do something different without a single thought to what you might think of them. If it is normal to you, is it really crazy?

One of my favorite quotes applies here…

“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”

—Henry David Thoreau, Walden

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[Anonymous]

amen, mindtorque, amen.

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[Robbo]

Wow freakin E woweee!

It’s official, in my mind, [a strange place indeed] I now dub this the very best web site I have ever been to. Now Imagine how many sites a person like me, {we’ll get to that, the who is me thing] me is VERY frreakin complicated. I used to have an enormous web site, Rob’z Zone, It’s all saved, I took it down about 8 or 9 years ago. It was just a fun place to make freaky backgrounds and a little bit of wacky graphics. Sorta wanted to bring it back up for years, and a few days ago I finally did. [Decide] I haven’t actually done anything but write the first ummm. article… Rant. something. A lot of words all grouped together.

I wish I could speed read, I might start praying for a 26 hour day, no 28 hour day, ImAgine!

Is it okay to copy n paste, then print the first post from Rick, five months ago and give it to a few of my friends? I’ll be putting it on my wall for sure. But I guess what a really want to know is this. Hey Rick, what do you want me to label it as? besides your name, what do you want printed under it? I promise to never sell it. I don’t know where to find the key code to print a circle with a little c, I can’t think of where, mmmmm actually the though of finding that on the Internet would steal so much time from me that I may not be able to get anything else done. ( now I’m editing/proofreading, and realized I could just take a picture of the screen and print the picture, Can I do that Rick?)

I want to tell everyone here, and I’ve been reading tons and today watched the video of Greg LaMond tell my story. oops I want to tell every person here how much I appreciate all that they have shared. This site is so dang awesome. To me it’sa matter of preference. I like to be creative with my spelling. I just thought that up. I’m glad I’m writing it. I’m really on to something here, huh?

I tride, LOL, that was misspelled on purpose. Goofy huh? ****Chucl;in lak crazy**** To run a search on the five stages of acceptance, but clicked on the five stages of grief cuz it was easier. Wow. ADHD ain’t cancer. {I have an insanely awful story about someone addidentally telling me I had Cancer, Seriously, But don’t have the time. right now) But the diagnosis is freakin me out. Actually, life has been freaking me out as long as I can remember. Is that a symptom? hehehehe.

This place is great. Hey, if Rick doesn’t tell me what to put as a title and what to put at the bottom, I won’t be able to share it his post at the top, 5 months ago in a week or 2 or 3, please ask him if you can gang. (Gang means anyone who reads my posts.

I don’t do the socially networking sites but think I might want to use a my space place for my website. Anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks very much, a gazzilian thank yous. I mean seriously. This is great. And I’m haven fun and loving life more that Ever before. For many years. A ton, I’m 46, when people ask me how I’m doing, I say “I’ve never had it so good” Maybe about 16 years, Much more the last 6. The main part of the first forty it was between very true, and a hopeful goal, as well as just for fun, so I could also say, “you don’t really want the truth do you?” a too many other additions to count. Some times I just say I don’t know. Cuz that’s the truth. That always makes people awkward. I kinda like it when I’m not the only awkward person in any given conversation anytime anywhere. all over the place, even when I’m asloop. I have awkward dreams too. I have nightmares of making huge freakin mistakes, and get lost, left behind, can’t find an important person, etc etc.

What the heck are dreams? That would be a freaking fun thing to run a search on.

What is time? What is space? What the heck is spacetime?

Thanks again, This site is extremely generous for not asking for money to come here and talk.

Sincerely Robert

PS, one time an extremely beautiful doctor told me I have a beautiful mind, I could have gotten lost in her beautiful eyes. Oh well…

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[Robbo]

Ugh, I wish I could make myself proofread better. On that post above, I meant to say the first 40 years I said “I’ve never had it so good” much less, I’ve said it much more the last 6, I don’t know how I’ve survived the first 30 or so. I bet I’m not the only adrenalin junkie (recovering) here. I still have some lofty and dangerous bucket list kind of stuff. Bungee jumping sounds boring to me. Maybe that’s common here. The sea is not boring. I love it.

There’s a reason I haven’t been on the Internet very much the last few years. A big part of it was my writing skills. And where I was writing also, I got a bit too much criticism for writing long, too long boring posts that normal folks don’t have the patience to read. I think twitter is a pain in the butt.

communication is extremely difficult in every form for me. Sometimes I freak myself out at how well I can articulate depending on some thing I don’t understand. Something like an invisible weirdo following me around with the remote control to my thinking, it keeps changing the channel. I’m getting stronger, it’s getting weaker. At the same time, my dexterity has kinda deteriorated. Reading about Neuroplasticity gives me a lot of real hope about getting a better grip on my adHd symptoms. The actual diagnosis process will take many months if I’m lucky, maybe a year if I have to reschedule, or someone is late. Mind doctors especially are under so dang much pressure to do more with less funds that I really hope they take the time to get some counseling for themselves as well.

I forgot to make an appointment to see the doctor again right after my last appointment last month. I called, was only able to leave a message, and then someone from that doctors office called and apologetically said “we’ll try to get you an appointment sooner but we can see you in December” I was only about 7 minutes late. But the doctor was also running late from the last appointment going a little bit overtime. She was stressed out, I felt bad for her. But she said she used to be a pharmacist before she became a doctor. So it’s likely she really knows about medications and how to not make my problems worse by treating me like a dang lab rat and endlessly throwing pills at me searching for the right chemical concoction. I strongly agree that most of the FDA approved meds like Ritalin work great if taken correctly, but that’s only one part of the solution. Not the whole solution. The videos on this site get better every time I watch another. So much of the solutions to our struggles can help some normal people who may not even have half the symptoms of adhd.

It’s scary how much the health care system has deteriorated. The fact is, people seem to have more problems these days. Just too dang much media, and computers n machines are doing all the work we used to do. Solving a lot of the problems we used to solve. We don’t get the brain exercise, or physical exercise we need. Our health gets bad, a good large part of the solution is to live freaking life! Work hard, play hard, REST. Eat better food, real food. That’s a big chunk of what I think helps. I’m all questions and no answers mostly for now.

I have already saved the money I almost spent on a new blackberry or I phone by sticking with my several calendars, one plain old paper planner I carry with me, a pen!, (a bunch, cuz I color code and add lots of artistic license to my notes sometimes) an I pod classic MP3 player that will remind me of a few things as long as I’m willing to leave it connected to something I’ll hear, music helps me tons. Two cell phones, with enough of the I pod features to function much better, show up!, have less stress, and not appear extremely flaky and “lazy stupid crazy”, I just wrote a reminder to get that book. There’s other stuff like sleep I need to do sooner. I’m getting a lot of practical advice without reading a whole heck of a lot here. I hope I can eventually contribute more than come here for solutions. But I’m positive I’m not the only person thinking like that. A lot of these ADHD symptoms are regular human problems, just much much more difficult for adders to manage. I think they can’t find a cause because it’s not just one thing, like manufactured food as opposed to real, natural food. It’s the water, the air, the radio waves of every kind of wireless everything going on every where we go. Maybe microwave ovens are slowly frying our brains in some small seemingly insignificant way that only shows up gradually after 30 or 40 or 50 years. Kinda like asbestos. Today on the news I think they said a new study suggests that alzheimers may be contagious! Holy crap man!! That’s a bad thing to say if you’re not absolutely sure it’s true, DUH!!!! BTW,I just don’t want a microwave, honest. My darn kitchen is so tiny I have my toaster oven and some of my kitchen stuff overflowing into the dining room. A mini office kinda sorta. I got rid of the very cool tinted glass dining table cuz it reminded me of the fact that even though I’m an excellent cook, nobody comes here for dinner. My apartment is pretty dang clean and organized considering the way I’ve lived for most of my life. When I had more friends, I would invite people over just to make myself clean up the home. I think I’ve talked about doing that more than I’ve actually done it. Kinda like a way of pretending I have more friends. Hmm, sometimes getting honest ain’t not fun. But I don’t… ah crap! The TV Caught my attention and I forgot what I was gonna write. That happened last time I wrote here, earlier today. That saying, “I never had it so good” I got it from a writer named Chuck Chamberlain. The entire quote is “I’ve never had it so good, this is the only good life I’ve ever known, the only easy life that’s ever been mine” I say the whole thing on especially excellent days when I don’t screw up very much. J I’ve been saying that for about 22 years, but sometimes can’t remember the whole thing. I still haven’t taken the test here. I don’t even know which of the five stages of grief I’m in, or if an ADD diagnosis is some kind of horrible news to get. Like a very kind hearted old lady who was my neighbor just died, On that I’m just pissed off. She died in an awful hospice, She soo very much deserved more dignity than she got. I think I may be coming out of denial on that grief.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I think I’m in some kinda loop about this

ADHD diagnosis thing, and losing my dear friend. Or maybe just anger-denial-frustration-repeat. My dang eyelids are getting heavy, if I could just go to bed right when I get tired I win. If I procrastinate or act like a 2 year old baby who just doesn’t want to give in to sleepiness, I get a second wind and CRRAAAP! I can’t keep these saym darn eyes closed… Grrrrr. I’ll take the laptop with me to bed and put some boring old movie in. or one of the gazzillian other things I try to get me to sleep. It’s not a big enough problem to give in to sleep medication. I don’t have to work right now. Finding a job is a common problem I don’t need to even go there huh? Guess I sorta already did, huh?

I hope people will keep supporting PBS, It’s impossible to count how many different kinds of education, solutions, and commercial free entertainment I’ve enjoyed over the years. I don’t work for them, just grateful. I watched the ADD n loving it thing about 3 times I think, until I luckily got the DVD, I can’t possibly measure how much that DVD and this site are helping me. And I’m just beginning to think about scratching the surface. PBS let me pay 7 bux a month until that DVD is paid off. Now that is cool. Very cool. KVIE in Sacramento is the station, they’re all great I’m sure. Probably.

Dang, that’s the longest write I’ve written in a long time. I may have worked on this for 2 n a half hours about. I dunno.

Thanks

Robert.

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[billd]

We gave PBS, actually IPTV technically, our credit card number and said just keep taking out $xx a month until we say otherwise.

I get Red Green twice a week, Nature, Nova, Hometime, History Detectives, Secrets of the Dead, wow, I could go on………….

Robbo, by your long rambling posts, have you ever considered the possibility that you might have ADD?

Ha-ha, as we used to say “G, D&R”

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[Cat Alberts]

Yes the definition of normal!

Until I took a statistics class in university, I thought normal was average, or the same as most other people, but that is not the definition. Statistically speaking there is a Normal Distribution Curve in a population, and when you measure one aspect (say ability to focus? or maybe intelligence?) and the population is normal, there is a wide difference in measurements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution –

Halfway down is a nice blue bell curve, the best visual cue, to understand what I am trying to explain.

And everything inside that bell curve is called normal. Because to have some geniusses in a population is normal, and to have some people with low intelligence in a population is normal. To have extremely tall people is normal, and to have extremely small people is completely normal. And for every seperate aspect of your life, you can be above or below average, and still within completely normal range. I guess you have to look at which population are you comparing yourself to- everybody, family, collaegues, other ADD-people.

Or look at who is calling you abnormal? What is their reference point?

My dad told me I wasn’t normal, but he was using a very small definition of normal.

Only the top of the bell curve was normal to him, and above ofcourse for intelligence, and grades.

Two different things, as we all know.

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[billd]

IMO, there is no such thing as normal.

But because I can’t now focus on the math, I’m gonna give you that one! (HA, and the doc said I was in the “superior range” on math, I argued with him a bit – he shot back, that’s ADHD doing that to me, but it was in there)

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[Wgreen]

@Cat— I ‘m not sure I understand your definition of “normal.” Are you saying that ANYTHING (object, behavior, phenomenon, etc.) that occurs in nature is normal? i.e., if it exists, it’s normal? (Any bell curve would incorporate all—or almost all—data points, ¿no,? even those at some distance from the mean.) Ot are you saying simply that you think the word “normal,” as employed by most people, is too restrictive?

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