The Beauty of A Site Run and Contributed To By ADDers

[Anonymous]

Having just joined this site, I took a quick surf through the forums and I had a slight feeling (and I’m sure this is the common notion of those who feel as though they finally belong to something ) of validation. I have “known” most of my Life, as have most of us, that I was different, a little bent. The diagnosis came in high school, but that was just confirmation on an absolute truth by then. I run on novelty, adrenaline , sugar, passion, and a fifth ingredient that I can only imagine is plutonium. That ain’t news to any of you reading this, nor is it to those who have met me for more than two minutes. But what most people don’t realize is the massive rift that separates people like us from the rest of the world and, more often, from ourselves. I read in a book on AD/HD (don’t ask me to remember the name) a statement that has stuck with me for years now. It read, simply put, that people with AD/HD have an uncanny ability to accurately judge character, asses situations, and divine truth from others double talk, but when ask to turn that ability on themselves most, if not all, where at a loss. It rang so true. It feels like having X-Ray vision but your stuck in a lead vest. I often times spend so much time in my own head, solving puzzles, re-re-rehashing old conversations, planning for events that in all likelyhood will never come to pass, that I begin to lose touch with the fact that my Life was still racing along at the pace I had left it when I “checked out” to do some pondering. Hell, I can relive a stupid comment I made to a cute girl whose face I can’t entirely recall, try to remember the band that sings that song I heard last week, and plan how I’m going to learn Russian just in case I ever meet a really hot Slavich chick next time I go out, all while a buddy and I talk about the new chord progression we’re trying for a song he’s writing.This idea stuck because that is me. The longer I stayed Max-Land, as friends have sometimes called it, the more bent I became. I have never seen this as a problem (and it really isn’t) but it was the catalyst for the view I began to take of the world. Max v.s. Everybody Else. I started to feel left out even when I was included. I always felt like I couldn’t shut down like everybody else or turn on at someone’s say so like THEY thought I should. I have always embraced who I am and those I keep around me do truly love the good and tolerate the bad, but the feeling of being alone was getting worse. Jump forward to the moments before I was compelled to let my convoluted gray matter spill out onto my keyboard. When I began looking around the first thing that hit me wasn’t all the information (which is great by the way) or the tips and hard learned lessons or even the humorous videos. My first thought was, “…these people write like me.” It sounds odd but all the “and remember your not alone” sentiments in the world can’t hold a candle to seeing people actually operate in a way that almost feels like home. I believe that this site, with all it has to offer, has limitless potential to help anyone, from the frustrated and confused, to the lost and forsaken, to the guy who just needed to not feel so alone anymore. Well, I have blathered on for more than my allotted time so with that I pack up the rest of my two cents and end this silly little brain burp.

-Max

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[Anonymous]

Very nice. I agree with you 100% and understand how you feel!

I am, weirdly enough, extremely shy most of the time and have spent most of my life living in my head. Not just living there, hiding there. My brain doesn’t churn over the fun stuff as much as it does the stressful stuff…the angry stuff, the bitter stuff. It’s a terrible cycle.

Because I’m so shy and withdrawn, it never even occurred to me that I had ADD. Then, at a panel being run by Rick Green, somebody mentioned there was an “Inattentive Sub-Type”, and they equated it to “the day-dreamer”. I thought, my god, that could very well be me.

Because I’m not hyperactive, very little I do screams ADHD in the conventional sense, but when I come here and read the stories, it becomes unmistakable. (Aside from the fact that I was also diagnosed by a professional- that helps too!)

I hope that one day I can “defragment my head” a little bit, and build a faith in myself that I’ve never really had. I think this board will be invaluable for that.

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[Anonymous]

ask my friends and all of them will agree on at least one thing about me and that is that I am a strange kid. I’ve even had people remark that I seem more like a character sometimes than I do a regular person….I’ve always found that flattering, but it has also put considerable strain on my parents sometimes, as they are concerned with me being a reasonable, successful adult. (I’m 22 now)

My mother and I have always kind of assumed that my father also had it, though he was never diagnosed, and I always looked to him as the only other real example of someone with add in my life. However, he has coped with it quite differently than I have in many ways and doesn’t seem to have some of the same problems or perspectives as the majority of add adults seem to have. (One can only guess why. I have no idea.)

As soon as I started reading a lot of this stuff, it was pretty amazing how much of it sounded like it had been directly lifted from my life.

I also knew I had add in highschool, but I never realized how much it may have correlated with my general strangeness. All the books I’d pick up (to then only half read) or anything I’d hear from professors in my psych classes only spoke about add from the outside or undermined the complexity of the disorder. I always thought some of my odd habits were just me…they weren’t connected to my add and no-one would ever totally understand them.

Reading some of this forum and watching the videos on this site and seeing people dealing with those same problems is extremely nice for that.

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[billd]

>>I am, weirdly enough, extremely shy most of the time and have spent most of my life living in my head. Not just living there, hiding there. My brain doesn’t churn over the fun stuff as much as it does the stressful stuff…the angry stuff, the bitter stuff. It’s a terrible cycle. <<

OMG – Megatron you are in my head! That’s me! SOMEONE DOES understand! I AM hyperactive, an over-acheiver, but REALLY shy in a crowd or with others.

I’m fine hiding behind a keyboard and love to live online where I can let loose, be myself.

I test at a pretty high IQ (as did my mother), can read people pretty well, and I can tell when the new employee is full of, well, stuff found in farm fields, but the boss can’t see – can’t understand how I know. I can tell what the driver ahead of me is going to do next just by observing them for a few blocks – others don’t get it – they are amazed when I’m correct that that driver veers across 2 lanes to make a right turn from the left lane.

I am a daydreamer – I spent so much of my life just by myself, thinking, living out things in my head – playing out different “what-ifs”…..

I’m not just “weird”? Funny, but I already feel better…. knowing there are such wonderful people out there who DO understand.

I”m not “clinically” diagnosed – but since my mother has, and my youngest son has, and was on meds – it just all fits like a perfect leather glove.

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[ADDled]

When I read the forums, I am amazed at all the intelligent, insightful, tenacious and brave people here. I cannot help but think what a better world this would be if ADD people were in positions of power and authority and leadership. Ya know “running the place”?

Intelligent, insightful, tenacious and brave, among others. All good qualities, I’d say.

I can hear all the nay-sayers now, “You’ll start things and never finish”. But isn’t that what non-ADDers are for?

Or “You’ll spend too much money”! Well, isn’t that what money is for? Think of it like potato salad: spread it around everyone will be happy.

Just think about how exciting things could get. Political leaders will actually say what they think rather than blather on in doublespeak. Maybe finally an action plan for ending global warming? Or, ending poverty and hunger because it’s the right thing to do? Saving the rain forest. Zero emission vehicles. Alternate sources of energy. Our holistic approach would be refreshing because we can see relationships, instead of protecting vested-self interests.

“What a Wonderful World….”

ADDers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your shame!

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[billd]

LOL – No kidding! I’d not make a good politician as I have this incredible urge to say what I think, and tell folks what’s wrong – even what’s wrong with them!

I can be very kind, giving and compassionate – sometimes to a fault, but if someone needs to be told they’ve done a bad job, I have a bit of trouble not telling them.

One of my hobbies – listening to the nightly news and point out that the person they just interviewed really said nothing. OR they said a lot but never answered the question.

You mean – there’s others out there like me?

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[Shadow Nexus]

I posted on “ADD and religion” a truth that no-one wanted discuss, how mono-theists joined the “dark side of the force” during the dark ages and middle ages(and some later). The systematic campaign of genocide against pagans. How they had warped history, since they were the victors. Using any justification they could to distort history, past and present. How even today modern pagans face discrimination and harassment. The lies, manipulation, torture, death, etc of group of -people-. Who’s only crime was practicing the old religion. How the mono-theistic leadership was corrupted by their lust for power.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genocide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_against_humanity

Mono-theists(catholic church and possibility others) are guilty of crimes against humanity. There is no debating it. Past crimes are still crimes. “Evil triumphs when good people do nothing.”

If didn’t have ADHD, I likely would have never seen this truth and became neo-pagan/new age. We see the truth as no one else can. We see through the lies and lust for power, see through the BS to pure truth.

We tell the truth and it does offend people sometimes. I rather have the truth than bury my head in the sand. Also, I was shy when I was younger, but I came out of my shell, mostly.

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