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Play Attention and ADHD Nanny must be good jnystrom. I see you have made exactly the same post at several forums and blogs. 😈
REPORT ABUSEJust reading this thread again triggered a memory. Thirty years ago when I had the anxiety attack that first got me into meditation I noticed something I wouldn’t have normally. In the first couple of weeks before I got the anxiety under control again with relaxation response exercises, a lot of TV shows would trigger a rise in anxiety (the stomach cramps were a clear indicator). I wonder how much more tension we subject ourselves to by constantly watching exciting action/suspense shows? Anxiety seems to have a cumulative effect.
REPORT ABUSEJust a quick reply, but I would echo ashockley55’s advise. I am controlling the anxiety increase brought on by the meds with relaxation response exercises and meditation. These are definitely not spiritual mumbo jumbo, but physical/mental exercises that will make a huge difference. BTW everyone thinks I am calm and collected, but I only let other people see the outside (and that’s another important discussion with ADD and coping skills).
REPORT ABUSEBoy, that could have been me doing the criticizing as a young adult. As I have mentioned before, I think I was lucky enough to find ways to overcome many ADD symptoms without even knowing I had it. The problem is that developing beneficial practices and coping skills is only half of the battle. You are living life on thin ice, and the number of people who are/were successful, but get diagnosed later in life after some sort of crisis are a testament to this.
For me, the ups and downs of life taught have me to be less judgmental and more compassionate. Sadly the judgmental political atmosphere of today rubs off on many people making it hard for them to see shades of grey, or recognize the reality of a situation.
I remember coworkers who sound very much like your grandson. Clinically we may both have ADHD, but being of the inattentive type myself, I would not have recognized that we suffered from the same disorder. Without doing a lot of reading, your daughter will not understand how much, and at the same time how little she has in common with your grandson.
REPORT ABUSEMy daughter is fifteen. She has done extremely well in school, though often homework is done on the fly. She is on the speech and debate teams and seems to have found her niche. However she is starting to show more ADHD traits. From what I have read, it’s common for the symptoms to become ore apparent as girls enter their teens. She has some mild ODD tendencies, and that’s our biggest issue at the moment. We are butting heads too often.
I’m just really starting to work on the “understanding emotions” side of ADD. Earlier in my life I had developed mindfulness of the more tangible things we have to deal with, but having no clue I was ADD, the emotional side was overlooked. It’s a work in progress and though I am more aware of the emotions that drive me to butt heads with her, some slip through. I know I’m often being baited to react, she is very good at dragging me off the higher ground. Since my diagnosis and medication a couple of months ago, I have become more aware of her talking excessively. It drives me to distraction (or rather it doesn’t these days). Being mindful of the emotions I feel during these times is helping.
She has been seeing a phsyc for anxiety/depression, and we have joint session coming up. I think we now need to deal with the ADD.
On a general parenting note, the best thing we discovered was “Love and Logic”.
REPORT ABUSEOne other point to add about relationships. We tend to concentrate on the physical side of our ADD, that is ways to improve our productivity, focus, awareness, reducing procrastination etc. On the emotional side we are are often trying to deal with the damage to our self esteem, depression, etc. There is another aspect which I am starting to come to terms with and that is our emotional focus. In may ways it seems our ability to focus our emotions with regards to others is like our focus problems with everything else. Sure we can be deeply emotional, but in a way that is similar to our hyperfocus on some project that is occupying our mind. It’s an area of mindfulness I am starting to work on myself and I’m finding it the hardest.
REPORT ABUSEScattybird, if you think sitting through a soccer match on TV is hard, you should try watching American football, or even worse – baseball. They spend most of the time wandering around with no action going on, or waiting for player changes. I’ve been offered free tickets to games many times, but it’s something I only needed to experience once.
As for TV ads, In this shrinking world there are so many things in the US and the UK where it’s more a case of “a receding tide lowers all boats”.
REPORT ABUSEGlad to hear you are OK.
For what it’s worth, I know my symptoms are greatly exasperated by anxiety, and that would certainly be the case for me after an accident.
REPORT ABUSEI’ve always had a problem with the ad breaks on TV. Moving to the US from the UK was a test of of my TV ad endurance (re quality as well as quantity) and eventually I watched very little TV.
I like documentaries and investigative reporting, but in the US these shows are especially torturous for me with the recap segment after each of the several ad breaks. Many one hour shows only have about twenty minutes of content. PBS is good, though still sometimes a bit long winded.
Then along came Netflix. Fortunately over the course of two years. I’ve watched just about everything I like on Netflix and can take a break from it now to get on with life.
REPORT ABUSElooking forward to reading that David.
It took about eighteen years for the lapse in maintaining my well being practices to make my situation bad enough for a change to happen. In a way I’m glad it did because not only has it allowed me to understand my past, but has opened up many avenues for personal growth in the future. Those eighteen years were not wasted and the balance sheet for that period has more black ink than red.
REPORT ABUSESorry to hear of your situation. In many ways I can empathize with you.
I’m sure it is true for many of us with ADD, that we can get so used to telling little white lies ( and half truths) to cover the various ADD related issues we have, that it can become a reaction in many situations. It might be why we are late, or to do with some impulsive spending, but often unnecessary. I know during my youth and early adulthood I fell into this trap. It’s a hard habit to break, and hard for others to understand.
From what you said about almost forgetting that you were diagnosed ADD as a child, it sounds about the same situation as being an undiagnosed adult with ADD. I spent over thirty years of adulthood thinking I was just a little eccentric maybe, but otherwise the same as everyone else. While you can develop coping skills to get by, and even be successful, there are likely to be many underlying issues that could sabotage relationships. Some of us are lucky and find love conquers all relationships, but even these are better once we begin to understand the part ADD plays in our lives.
Your girlfriend’s reaction suggest to me that these issues have some special significance in her life, and there is some history there that you will have to overcome.
Good luck.
REPORT ABUSEGlad you weren’t fooled.
Basically any email from paypal or ebay should not be used for links. You should always go directly to their sites. This is also true for any secure or personal information requested in an email.
REPORT ABUSEDavid, Thanks for the reply. I found relief from anxiety in meditation, and I then put other life improvements down to the reduced anxiety. What I am now beginning to understand is that much of those improvements came from the practice and control of focus during meditation; and some other mindfulness rich activities. For sure though, anxiety greatly exacerbates ADD symptoms.
REPORT ABUSEDavid, do you meditate as part of your Taoism? If so, how do you find it affects your anxiety?
Also have you had any success with improving mindfulness through meditation?
REPORT ABUSEI will do that Bill. I find the title of that section of the forum a little off putting. I don’t know how hypnosis compares to meditation, but to me the one sounds passive and the other active. I would never think to look at the hypnosis section for threads on RR and meditation.
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