[wanderquest]

@paisia Knowing what it stems from could help with the self esteem. It won’t eradicate it, but I’ve certainly felt a lot better after I figured out what was wrong. Although I haven’t read the book yet, the phrase “You Mean I’m not Lazy, Crazy, or Stupid?” really strikes a chord with me. I beat myself up a lot less than I used to.

I actually had a discussion about that very thing last night with my husband. Since diagnosis, I’ve really had a tremendously better outlook on life.

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[wanderquest]

I did see and sign up for the webinar. And put a reminder in my phone so hopefully I remember to tune in!

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[wanderquest]

Guys, I have a confession. As hard as I’ve been trying to not start a new project, I caved last night. I’ve really really really been wanting to redo my pantry with lazy susan turn tables in the corners. But I want to repaint it too, and in order to do that I needed to make sure the paint scheme I had envisioned for the front room was going to work with my new vision for the kitchen so of course I had to do some test patches…so now there are 8 rooms with partial paint. But I’m going to finish this one  I swear 🙂 My husband has kinda learned to roll with the painting punches. Good thing he’s colorblind.

@jojosephine Good for you on your cubby project. I did something like that for our closet so we’d have divided laundry with a place to sit down to put on shoes. Hubs was nonplussed when I started, but he sure doesn’t mind using it now that it’s finished. Well, not painted yet or anything, but it’s sturdy!

And after I get the pantry done, I’m going to construct a cabinet for my shoes that has a giant mirror on the front that opens up to reveal them.

So, ADD with some basic carpentry skills=trouble. ha ha

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[wanderquest]

I stumbled onto that one a few weeks back and had some of  the same thoughts. I wasn’t really angry necessarily, but it definitely rubbed me the wrong way.

To me it came off more like a performance piece than an informative speech.

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[wanderquest]

@skippingrock I tried to talk myself out of having it before I went to see my doctor. Because of that very reason: did well in school. But the more I read, and watched, and researched, it just clicked.

I did my own family history before I sought a medical opinion, thinking they’d tell me I was not remembering my childhood correctly. Much to my chagrin they all pretty much said they were not surprised at all. Not hyperactive, but a major space cadet.

http://totallyaddconnect.com/forums/topic/did-anyone-else-actually-do-well-in-school/

And like @Rick said, you might not be impaired in clinical terms, just affected.

Coping mechanisms/self-developed strategies can hide it too. Who has two thumbs and loves Post-its? This gal!

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[wanderquest]

@kc5jck Thanks for changing your avatar. That horse thing was freaking me out! Lol.

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[wanderquest]

I have 7 different rooms in my house with a partial paint job on them. Each was started as a separate project. There were 8. I finished the entire living room in one day because we had guests coming over.

I bought a desk to refinish in February. Now in October the drawers are half-painted and stacked on my kitchen table.

I have 3 tubs of fabric from failed to finish sewing projects.

My garden that I started gung-ho this spring is now overgrown and dying from lack of care during one of the best growing seasons we’ve had in years.

I have about 18 sets of pantry canister sets because at some point this summer I decided I was going to make a living reselling them on ebay.

The best I can do is really try and resist starting new projects, but they are always so much more interesting than whatever I was doing five seconds ago.

I take medication mainly for work and by the time I get home they wear off but I sure do manage to get a lot of crazy accomplished in those few hours before bedtime.

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[wanderquest]

@sarahlinb13 What you’re describing sounds like “intrusive thoughts” to me. It can be a trait of OCD. However, I have been reading Charles Parker’s The New ADHD Medications Rules one of the chapters describes how a certain subtype of ADD (thinking ADD) gets mistaken for OCD a lot.

That stuck out to me because when I was talking to my doc about ADD he told me I should look up OCD. It didn’t really feel right, although certain things (repetitive over-thinking) did sorta hit.

One thing to caution against in that type of case is that SSRI medications can exacerbate the problem if the underlying issue is really ADHD related. There is high comorbidity with OCD/ADHD/anxiety but make sure to tell your doc about it and watch yourself if you start a treatment plan.

I have to avoid certain situations that cause my anxiety to be triggered. I cannot watch any “suspense” type movies. I LOATHE that feeling, it can take a week for me to shake off the resulting thought/anxiety loop. Why the heck would anyone watch that for fun? There are certain categories of news events that I simply cannot read about or they have the same affect.

@sar316 I have to touch things to feel their texture all the time. I remember getting in trouble for it a lot growing up when I’d go shopping with my mom.

 

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[wanderquest]

@blackdog @larynxa Count me in to the weird kid who practiced being blind and was suddenly forced to write with the wrong hand. I still close my eyes and wander around my house sometimes. I even tried to learn to read braille once. And I used to watch tv with almost no sound so I could learn to read lips.

To remember left from right during directions…I have to hold up my left hand to form an “L”.

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[wanderquest]

Afterwards I did mention to her teacher that there is a possibility that she’s going to inherit ADD and she may need some extra prodding. Until it interferes with school, or becomes a problem to my daughter personally, I probably won’t seek a diagnosis.

I’ve been researching adult ADD strategies only to realize I’ve sorta fumbled through and figured out a lot of them over the course of my life anyway. Now I’m going to start researching how to help a CHILD to see if the strategies are different.

Figuring out what the school is willing to do to help is going to be a challenge I think. We are super lucky to be in a great district (moved there on purpose when we decided to have kids) but I’m already afraid I’ll be going up against the ADD doesn’t exist people (nothing to base this on, hopefully an irrational fear).

I am not against medication, obviously-I’m taking some. When it is my child though, I always try to err on the side of caution. I fully embrace western medicine, but my mom and dad were so quick to take pills and give pills for anything that I just don’t want to be them.

And the possibility of boredom occurred to me also. They’ve implemented that stupid common core curriculum, and I don’t know if they can do any accelerated learning at this age. If it were just at school, I would pin it on this. But she’s such a scatterbrain forgetful freddy at home, I doubt it’s just that.

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[wanderquest]

I’m terrible at regulating the speed of my speech, especially if I’m nervous or excited. In college when I had to give presentations I’d take a shot of vodka before class to slow me down to a reasonable speed. Probably the first thing I ever self-medicated for.

I also have atrocious handwriting, I had to take extra penmanship with all the left-handed kids. Eventually everyone figured out that cursive just wasn’t for me and I have exclusively printed since around 7th grade.

And I still start words in the middle and have to go back and fill in the first few letters quite frequently.

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[wanderquest]

Problem solving. Yes. That.

I actually got suspended from school once for picking the lock to the bandroom, I was opening it to put my stuff up! Not stealing!

Before I figured out how to be an amateur locksmith I once had to break into my house because my friends dropped me off after my parents had went to sleep, no keys(of course) and pre-cell phone days so I couldn’t call them and they didn’t wake up even with me banging on their bedroom window. Eventually I went to the back, got a lawnchair to reach a window that had a window ac unit, punched a hole in the piece that fit it to the window, opened the window and shoved the whole ac unit into house and crawled in. I made so much noise I’m still shocked the cops didn’t get called.

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[wanderquest]

@kc5jck That reminded me that at a separate time I had a couple of pet ducks. They were only allowed outside though, in their pool. They got released at our zoo’s duck pond.

And when I had cats I used them as food canaries too. I’m not much of a germ phobe at all so I figure if you just cook the heck out of something it’s fine. Honestly, I believe that’s one of the reasons I rarely get sick is just because I expose myself to a lot of germs all the time so I build up immunity. Right? That’s sound logic? ha ha

@blackdog My mom gave me a compost tumbler this year. I have not managed to put anything into it. I took the cover off last weekend to walk around to the garden and grab some stuff to toss in. Did not make it back and forgot about the door being off until my husband got onto me several days later for laying something against the side of the AC unit. Ooops.

Robot Chicken! I love that show. And yes, that song gets stuck in my head a lot too.

And I’ve actually read the book of the lady who blogged about the giant metal chicken.

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[wanderquest]

I eat tomatoes like apples. They are awesome. And nobody else I live with likes them so they are MINE ALL MINE !!! It’s common for people to not like tomatoes. I read something once that said people who have a higher concentration of tastebuds (called super-tasters) often don’t like them. More for me!

@larynxa The carrot skin happened to my nephew! We started to notice it really bad in pictures and my sister in law took him to the doctor who knew immediately what it was. We had a good laugh about it. The boy just LOVES carrots!

@kc5jck I had a pet chicken once. I went with my grandma to a friends house who was raising yard chickens. They told me if I could catch one I could keep it. They underestimated my commitment to running down a chicken. I kept it in the house at night in a box in the bathroom (really BAD idea) as it turned out to be a rooster. We gave it to a guy who was doing road construction in our neighborhood.

 

 

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[wanderquest]

I have locked my keys inside a running car three times. The number of times I’ve locked them in a not running vehicle are in the dozens. I had many many extra keys made to my truck in high school and gave them to my friends and put extras in my purse, backpack, hide-a-key stuck the the wheel well. I sold that truck 7 years ago and just found three keys for it in a cup on top of the fridge this week.

I think keys are a huge problem for ADHD. It’s been a pervasive problem my entire life. Before I could drive I forgot my house keys so much that I figured out a way to pick the lock to our home. I lose my car keys so much it’s just absolutely absurd. I think if you put your keys in the refrigerator more than say six times in a lifetime, there’s probably something not firing right.

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