[wolfshades]

Peter: that list you provided is helpful. The only one that strikes me is the shyness around looking people in the eye when talking. It’s an empathic thing. If anything i read people a little too clearly, which makes things uncomfortable. Still – it’s worth investigating. Thanks!

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[wolfshades]

Robbo: I laughed when I read about the problems with the earplugs. I have the same issue when I wear them too. But…the picture you painted of working in the midst of a redwood forest resonated with me. It kind of blew me away actually – it sounds so tranquil and…kind of like a musical picture. Thank you very much for that. I’ve already copied that portion out and sent it to my daughter, who thought it was stunning. (I agree). Thank you again. You didn’t even have to mention you were an artist – that comes through quite clearly.

Question for you: what are your favourite classical pieces? What resonates with you and allows you to work when you need to?

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[wolfshades]

Peter: thanks very much for your thoughts on autism. I appreciate you discussing that here, and will look into it. With ADHD, I pretty much knew I had it once I learned what the symptoms were, long before I went through the battery of tests to get a formal diagnosis. With autism…not so much. This could be just one of those things where normal irritation becomes acute during those times when the ADHD bouncing balls become most prevalent. Still, it’s worth researching. (Wait: that battery of tests normally pick up on stuff like that, don’t they? If only to rule out other conditions? Not sure.)

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[wolfshades]

Bellamom: man I can sympathize with the ball bouncing noise. And the knees in the back thing too – which often happens at movies. What often stops me from going down the road to rage is realizing that there’s a remote possibility that some of that nervous behaviour is an indicator of someone else “enjoying the treasures” of ADHD. : ) Like me. At least, when it happens in the theater, you can move to a new spot. Not that case with the airplane.

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[wolfshades]

kc5jck: the thing about OG is that he’s socially unaware. I mean completely unaware: this I know from overhearing someone else complaining about him drinking directly from our workplace’s kitchen tap. He wouldn’t know a hint if it hit him in the face (not that I haven’t imagined myself doing so). Thanks for the suggestions though! : ) And yeah, turning the other cheek is entirely overrated. Except when you know that there’s a backstory involved with the other guy, and you can afford to hold off immediate consequences long enough to learn what it is (something I’ve learned the hard way). Sometimes though – a cigar is a cigar – and the only response to a slap on the check is a hard check into the boards.

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[wolfshades]

Wow. Look at all of these great responses! Thank you everyone!

Geoduck: you might be on to something there, with your note about being particularly aware of/sensitive to noises after the Adderal wears off. I had the same thoughts about my meds, and whether it was time to go back to the doc. If it were one thing – such as the nail clipping that annoys your hubby – I could easily write it off as “just one of those things”. In the case of OG though, it’s a whole menu of noises. And then, adding in the other noises from various people…and you get to the point where you finally have to say “hmm. Maybe these hundreds of cars on this highway aren’t driving in the wrong direction; maybe it’s me.”

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[wolfshades]

I honestly can’t tell for sure, Scattybird. I think it may have bothered me before, but my own scattered thoughts were plaguing me too, so I’m guessing it wasn’t as much of an issue, pre-meds.

Thought about (and asked) to be moved, but then realized, after being distracted from others, that the problem would likely not cease, no matter where I ended up.

And as for OG: believe me, I’ve thought about doing things. Like plugging his workstation into “The Clapper” and then clapping twice, whenever he was in the middle of something. Or copying a pre-engineered .JPG file to his desktop as a background with just the words:

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FOR THE LOVE OF GOD – BE QUIET!! SHH!

And try eating with your mouth closed. You’ll get less crumbs in your keyboard.

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Still not sure he’d get it. ; ) (It would be fun to try, though)

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[wolfshades]

Thanks Scattybird. I’m on Concerta (54 mg).

Yes, I’m allowed to wear headphones – and have used that in the past. But you can only wear them for so long, unfortunately. At any rate, I’m glad I”m not the only one who stresses over stuff like this. So thank you for your reply.

Think I’m going to have to work from home for a while. Maybe make it a permanent thing. Don’t know.

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[wolfshades]

Let’s see….

I’ve struggled with addictions and addictive behaviour all my life, but had no idea why, until a couple of years ago when I was diagnosed.

Started off with addiction to migraine meds. Stopped that cold turkey, and then got into pot. Stopped that and got into wine. Then chocolate (actually chocolate is an ongoing thing). Keep finding new foods to obsess about. Sometimes slip back into the wine thing (occasionally stop drinking for a month at a time, just to make sure I can).

Addicted to adrenaline all the time. And reading books like crazy (has to be exciting stuff though – like hard and face paced espionage/action novels). I’m doing a self-talk thing with myself every day now – asking “what will make this day awesome”? I find it works because I know that my deliberate choices will always be interesting – and that keeps me away from passively addictive behaviour.

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[wolfshades]

toofat: I’ve hit the “report” button on all three. Looks like they came from the same user. I believe totallyadd.com uses WordPress. I too use WordPress and their excellent spam filter catches about 99.99% of this sort of thing. The difference here of course is that somehow a spam user got himself an account and was therefore able to post his stuff about escort agencies.

So ridiculous and stupid – since he clearly hasn’t learned the most important lesson about sales: know your audience.

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[wolfshades]

shutterbug: if the hint about where you work indicates what most of us in the IT industry would easily guess…..(read: if you work where I think you work)….you might be in luck. That particular company has a good record in accommodation, and you might be well advised to disclose your ADHD to them. Before doing so, you’ll need to do some research just to see what their track record is on accommodation. My guess: they do NOT want bad publicity following them anywhere, so they’ll do their utmost to hang on to you IF you disclose.

Normally, smaller companies would just as soon as soon get rid of you once you disclose your condition, just as Saffron said. But larger companies like this one – it’s quite the opposite. You might not get advancement as quickly as other people in the company, due to the personal perception and bias of managers, but I strongly feel there’s an excellent change they won’t get rid of you.

Good luck!

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[wolfshades]

Thanks for peeking in here now and then Jim – because I’ve got another one for you. Should be a little easy (hopefully): can you provide an option for us toggle the smiley icons? Sometimes I’ll write a serious post, and then put a smiley at the end of a sentence to indicate that I’m smiling at a particular thought. Only it shows up as a truly goofy icon – all out of proportion of the comment.

Good luck with the youtube conversion process. I don’t envy you.

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[wolfshades]

Thanks to you both, Jim and kc5jck. Kc5jck: that’s pretty much my experience too. Usually I’ll have about four or five (or more) all *necessary* things to do, and because of ongoing problems with distraction, they go from important to urgent, and I’m left flying around trying to tackle them all with appropriately equal intensity. It’s hilarious only in retrospect.

Jim: I agree with you on the multi-tasking thing. I’ve only met one person in my life who could effectively multi-task and she didn’t have ADHD (nor did she ever exhibit signs of it). My ex-wife could read the paper, watch TV (I knew this because she’d complain loudly if I tried to change the channel), talk on the phone and pay attention to what the kids were doing. It amazed me. Of course I had to divorce her – wasn’t going to put up with that.

Distracted behaviour is certainly a hallmark of our generation, I think – which is why it’s so frustrating when someone interprets our information-age obsessed behaviour as proof that “everyone has ADHD”. Lack of focus has many root causes, of which ADHD is only one. The difference: it’s not ADHD when someone has the ability to actually focus when they deliberately decide to. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to make that same decision – all my life – only to fail so often that it became a little depressing. What a relief it was to discover there was a scientific reason for it, beyond my immediate ability to control.

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[wolfshades]

Hey Jim – no problem. I do have to ask though: what are you thoughts on the multitasking section (#2)?

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[wolfshades]

JimC: that was a *great* post you put up there. Since I still work in the IT field (because no one in any of the arts industries has seen fit to call on me yet), I related very well to all of it. Here are some additional thoughts on some of the points you brought up.

1. The Ability to Hyperfocus.

You mentioned spending all night and most of the early morning hours on the internet. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gotten “lost” on the net at home because of this dynamic, for a similar amount of hours. The first time it happened, and I noticed the time, I laughed out loud – I had *no* awareness of how much time had gone by. (This was pre-diagnosis too)

2. Rapid Fire Mind.

Here, you mentioned about how fast our brains processes information, and the frustration when machines can’t keep up. I have to note this ability/quirk also causes problems when you’re conversing with someone, and you know *exactly* where they’re going, and you have to exercise patience and not interrupt him so that you can get to the next point. We don’t often see it as a problem, but an ability that helps us to move through problems quickly. Certainly *I* don’t see it as a problem – just something to be aware of. I like catching on quickly like this. Makes life more interesting.

3. Multitasking at Will.

You mentioned being able to do several projects at a time with ease. Unfortunately, the opposite of this coin is that our form of multitasking can mean nothing gets completed.  And I wouldn’t call it multi-tasking, so much as multi-threading – when focused on one thing, we’re not even thinking about the other one. This side of the coin fits me perfectly, as I’ve never done a project to my satisfaction. In fact, I learned *very* early that projects were my kryptonite (back in grade school) and avoided them where I could, and faked it when I couldn’t avoid them. School projects *always* brought my grades down.

4. High Energy Level.

You talked about how we can keep going for long hours on stuff that truly interests us. Certainly true for me: I’ve been on the receiving end of accolades at work during times of crisis because of this ability too. Funny though how if it’s repetitive and boring, we often “check out” long before we’re done.   The activity becomes a kind of hell.  Admin stuff – not our forté.

5. Highly Creative.

Really liked what you had to say about our natural ability to enjoy a kalaedoscope of ideas and thoughts that completely break the bounds of linear thinking. It’s almost impossible to conform to the latter, isn’t it? I notice that my daughter (who exhibits the same characteristics as me, but hasn’t yet been diagnosed as having ADD) and I can have such amazing conversations, yet we appear to be chaotic and maybe a little mad to others who try to join in. (“What? How did you get to that topic? We never started there”)

6. Quick Learner.

Yes! As you said: but only if it’s something that interests us. The downside: if something isn’t immediately applicable, it becomes almost impossible for us to learn, or stay with the class.  Such a major obstacle on so many levels.

7. Stimulus Seeking Brain.

Oh absolutely. I recall, during my testing for ADHD, being distracted by a bird on a windowsill, and the contents of a computer screen – and commenting on both, at different times.  The person doing the examination immediately realized what was going on, and so she shut the window blind, and turned the computer off. A wise decision.

8. Constantly Scanning your Environment.

I really liked what you had to say about this, Jim. The fact that our constant scanning allows us to see problems before they come up. There’s a corollary to this:  I think that often, because we’re able to see all sides of a conflict easily, we’re able to see the common ground and actual issues a little more clearly – it seems so obvious to us.  And so we can quickly come up with a resolution all can live with – even if it’s not the ideal for anyone.

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