Playing all of the songs of a record at one time!

[Anonymous]

I was actually diagnosed with ADD back when I was a sophomore in high school (when I was 16 years old). At the time the doctor put me on ritalin (or however it is spelled). I had to take it twice a day, once in the morning and once at noon. Since I was still in school at the time I would actually take half of the month’s prescription to the principal at the school and then go to him before lunch each day and take my afternoon dose. Talking with some of the other people that were on ritalin and they would say how much different it would make them feel and that is generally seemed to help them with school. I, on the other hand, didn’t feel any different when I was on it than I did when I wasn’t. I remember that the doctor told me during my appointment that the meds weren’t going to just solve my problem and that I had to want the change and work hard at it. At one point I made a conscience decision not to take it anymore, but I didn’t tell my parents. They didn’t find out until they went to the school for parent-teacher conferences and the principal asked if I was still suppose to be taking it. When they came home that evening we talked about me taking my Ritalin any longer and we decided that I didn’t have to keep taking it as long as I promised to put in the effort to ensure my grades stayed up. I was never put back on Ritalin and, though I struggled at times, I made it through the rest of high school and it was with the rest of my class.

After I graduated I joined the Air Force and became a weather technician. I have been doing that for the last 10 years. I still struggle with ADD, even after all these years. There are many days that I forget to do things that I do every day (when I’m at work) and that can be a big issue. The upside to knowing, from a younger age, that I have ADD is that I can acknowledge the problem and rather than trying to figure out why I forget, I can work on solutions to the problem. I have found a program that I can put on my computer at work that will pop up reminders at specified times to remind me to do things that I have to do every day. This has made me a lot more productive.

I’m not sure if this is just how ADD works for me, but I have found advantages to my ADD. Many times I try to describe how my brain works as a record player. This usually confuses people, until I explain that, unlike a normal record player, my internal record player plays all of the songs on the record at one time. There is basically several conversations going on in my head all at one time. One other person on here referred to it as monkeys. The difficult part is picking out the important parts of each of the conversations, but it allows me to see things from a couple of different perspectives. I often see people who will do something but they don’t really think of most of the different possibilities. My brain on the other hand does for one reason or another. I sometimes amaze myself when I come up with solutions to problems, because they aren’t the typical solution, but it works.

Over the years I have tried many things to try and slow my brain down so that I can concentrate on things a little better. I have tried meditation, which didn’t work because I can’t get my brain to not think about anything; I actually start thinking about the difficulty of not thinking about anything. What I found that helped in high school was classical music. While studying subjects that I was less interested in, like history, I would usually only get in a short time of studying before I would lose interest and start to fall asleep. Somehow classical music would slow my mind enough so that I could keep my thoughts on task and also keep me awake. What I have found recently that works really well as well is a metronome (used in music to keep the count/beat). The constant ticking actually helps my brain to focus and to slow down and be helpful. I have actually spent many hours listening to the metronome that I have on my phone for several hours.

Well, I think that is enough of an introduction for right now. I’m not 100% sure that this even makes sense because I have been having a little trouble just concentrating on this. For those of you who have only been recently diagnosed, please feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer based off of my own experiences.

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[Anonymous]

I hate the monkeys! Please just leave my head alone!

I jump from one thought to another so fast I can not fully understand each one.

I am getting a medication evaluation in 3 weeks. I hope something works.

I am 45 and I am tired.

I am listening to a metronome right now. not sure if it is working.

thanks for the idea!

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[Anonymous]

I hope that the metronome helped you. One thing that I have have found with ADD is that something that works for one person won’t always work for another. What you have to do is find things that seem to help make you calm while being able to do something else at the same time. For me it is classical music and metronomes. It may be something completely different for you. Getting a CD with nature sounds on it (rain, the ocean, etc.) may work better for you. I like the ocean because there is actually a sound to it and at the same time there is an up and down to it (tide going in and out). Often the sounds help my brain to eliminate other sounds that are distracting me from doing what I need to do….sometimes though it also makes me really tired. It’s not always the same thing that will work every day.

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[wawabyjohnah]

I do classical music too. Often have it on whilst at work, and that’s when I get the most done. Especially when there are other noises annoying me. I’ve always said classical music calms my soul.

I also start thinking about not thinking when meditating, or trying to sleep, as well. Drives me nuts that I can’tnot think about anything. The other day, whilst trying not to think, I wondered if I would die if I stopped thinking, as it has never happened to me before- a blank mind.

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