OMG!! thankyou sooo much for posting this!
up until recently, i didnt know i had ADD. my experience had been with a friend in HS who had used ADD as an excuse for everything. along with not being familar with the symptoms, i was very turned off to any diagnosis of such a 'fake' problem.
my mom recommended i read this book called 'Driven to Distraction' that talked about ADD. after letting it sit on my shelf for about 3 months i decided i'd just see what all this ADD stuff was about so i could at least tell my mom (who had already begun to think that i had this) that this psychobabble didnt apply to me. by about page 20 my jaw was on the floor and the feeling continued the rest of the way through the book. i just finished reading it yesterday, probably took me a month to get through it. if i wanted to describe myself to someone i could just hand them that book. it certainly helped take some of the stigma away from this 'disease'.. tho im still havin a hard time seeing it as that.
the way im trying to look at this is that its not a defect. its like personalities.. everybody is different but there are some people who share some of the same traits you do. people with ADD tend to procrastinate and have a hard time concentrating. accepting this as a diagnosis allows me to look at other people and what they've done to combat some of these same problems i face.
i remember in the 'ADD and stimulants' post Grimmlok said that with ritalin he was able to 'concentrate on a wall and its the most interesting thing ive ever seen.' when i read that i got so excited. then when i got to your description i was jumping out of my seat with hope.
i still have yet to see anyone. heh, one of those things. i keep procrasting to go see the doktor about procrastinating. things have gotten pretty bad tho, bad enough to reach for anything. i broke up with my gf of 6 years. i took a semester off school (you could call it dropping out i guess, tho my dept chair did convice me to take one class still). all the classic symptoms, i could go on but im hopeful that there actually is something out there that can change how i _SEE_ the world.
omg, and memory!! i have the worst memory in the world. this sounds too good to be true. if i can get to the store and remember milk and bread, if i can get out of my house with my keys im a happy person. sounds simple, but it gets so frustrating, and can get pretty depressing too.
only thing im scared of is that i dont want my personality to change. i like who i am, i like my creativity. my headphones are a part of my clothing, i feel naked w/o them. wouldnt i miss the music?? pyrgon, you say its intoxicating. its intoxicating just listening to you talk about it. i get so frustrated with myself.
ok, im havin a hard time even finishing this post so i'll just end it here. i think im going to go to my phonebook right now and call somebody. if i dont, well you probably know the story.
thank you thank you thank you
mae
---------------
hard work often pays off over time but laziness always pays off now
up until recently, i didnt know i had ADD. my experience had been with a friend in HS who had used ADD as an excuse for everything. along with not being familar with the symptoms, i was very turned off to any diagnosis of such a 'fake' problem.
my mom recommended i read this book called 'Driven to Distraction' that talked about ADD. after letting it sit on my shelf for about 3 months i decided i'd just see what all this ADD stuff was about so i could at least tell my mom (who had already begun to think that i had this) that this psychobabble didnt apply to me. by about page 20 my jaw was on the floor and the feeling continued the rest of the way through the book. i just finished reading it yesterday, probably took me a month to get through it. if i wanted to describe myself to someone i could just hand them that book. it certainly helped take some of the stigma away from this 'disease'.. tho im still havin a hard time seeing it as that.
the way im trying to look at this is that its not a defect. its like personalities.. everybody is different but there are some people who share some of the same traits you do. people with ADD tend to procrastinate and have a hard time concentrating. accepting this as a diagnosis allows me to look at other people and what they've done to combat some of these same problems i face.
i remember in the 'ADD and stimulants' post Grimmlok said that with ritalin he was able to 'concentrate on a wall and its the most interesting thing ive ever seen.' when i read that i got so excited. then when i got to your description i was jumping out of my seat with hope.
i still have yet to see anyone. heh, one of those things. i keep procrasting to go see the doktor about procrastinating. things have gotten pretty bad tho, bad enough to reach for anything. i broke up with my gf of 6 years. i took a semester off school (you could call it dropping out i guess, tho my dept chair did convice me to take one class still). all the classic symptoms, i could go on but im hopeful that there actually is something out there that can change how i _SEE_ the world.
omg, and memory!! i have the worst memory in the world. this sounds too good to be true. if i can get to the store and remember milk and bread, if i can get out of my house with my keys im a happy person. sounds simple, but it gets so frustrating, and can get pretty depressing too.
only thing im scared of is that i dont want my personality to change. i like who i am, i like my creativity. my headphones are a part of my clothing, i feel naked w/o them. wouldnt i miss the music?? pyrgon, you say its intoxicating. its intoxicating just listening to you talk about it. i get so frustrated with myself.
ok, im havin a hard time even finishing this post so i'll just end it here. i think im going to go to my phonebook right now and call somebody. if i dont, well you probably know the story.
thank you thank you thank you
mae
---------------
hard work often pays off over time but laziness always pays off now