WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST ADHD CHALLENGE?

[DANA]

The symptoms of ADD/ADHD come in a wide variety of forms and each individual is unique in how they display ADDer symptoms. While one individual may be extremely unorganized, another ADDer may experience hyperactivity and impulsive behaviors.

Physicians often use a checklist of ADD/ADHD symptoms to determine whether a person has Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. If you read the physicians list for individuals to meet the necessary criteria for ADD/ADHD, the list is quite lengthy!

For me, the BIGGEST ADDer challenge that I have is keeping quiet so I do not unexpectedly verbally expressing my random thoughts or idea's. There are times in which it is acceptable, but other times it has felt rather AWKWARD! And embarrassing! (I probably turned bright red from humiliation!)

In reality, I have to actively force myself to keep quiet and not blurt out random thoughts, suggestions or idea's. True, in my mind they are brilliant, but not everyone would agree with me. This is my most difficult struggle with ADHD; keeping quiet and still. The one thing that I have noticed is that Adderall does not appear to reduce this challenge of mine. (GRRRR!)

What is your BIGGEST ADDer challenge? Does medication or natural supplements reduce your symptoms?

[Miss K]

I am plagued by constant inspiration and the inability to see, right away anyway, that an idea is just not a good idea, or would be just one more thing to add to my plate, or might just be impractical. I know it sounds bipolar actually (though I am clearly really not), but I would get literally HIGH off of these moments of inspiration and then several hours after them that I might spend delightedly sketching them out and exploring them instead of doing other things I really needed to be doing. And I might have several of these idea fits each day...talk about distracting.

Medication seems to tone my moods down just a little bit...so I still get excited about the ideas, I just don't have to LIVE them all at once...I have been practicing placing them non-judgmentally on a backburner for later consideration. I have two little notebooks I carry with me, and a corkboard to keep notes on. I seem to be able to keep the notebooks with me, so they help a lot. So yeah, I mean the meds take the edge off and I'm learning not to honor every impulse with equal weight all the time. It's a challenge but it's totally worth it. I thumb through my notebooks a few times each week and keep the keepers and take notes on others, and throw some out. Seriously, after some of them have sat in there for a week and I go back and read them, I'm looking back at them going "omg...this is full on crazypants, what was I thinking!?" and laugh.

Also struggle with sitting still in meetings, movies...I'm that person that gets excited about the movie and has to comment on it...meds help with this too.

The other thing that used to REALLY bother me was not being able to relax during conversations. I get so excited about other people's ideas and words that my brain branches off like a tree every which way and by the time they're three sentences in, I've left the atmosphere and am somewhere around the milky way, dancing on a star, sipping a bloody mary, and learning chinese! To keep myself from doing that, the alternative was working really REALLY hard to APPEAR as though I was paying attention, even though I couldn't pay attention. Oh boy, isn't that just a kick in the pants. Medication TOTALLY helps with that.

Incidentally, I take Vyvanse. And now that I take it and am used to being more mentally calm, I really notice when I don't take it...

[TV]

Biggest challenge is convincing the wife that, just because I don't listen to everything she says and I don't finish the jobs that I started, I don't hate her. She has taken all this awfully personally for years and I have been unable to fix myself. Now taking Ritolin, too short to tell whether it is going to make a difference...

[Cathie]

Organization is generally my biggest bear. My first time through school, I can't tell you how many assignments I did, but lost before I could turn in....or left in a locker, or on the bus, or on the dining room table, or...well you get the idea. My report cards as a kid, literally said every year...."Cathie would lose her head if it wasn't attached to her shoulders."

Paper, in general, is not my friend (I keep waiting for that paperless society folks talk about). Unless you do something with it.....it multiplies faster than rabbits.....and of course I never remember to do anything with it. I've had file drawers before, but evidently I never reached the developmental milestone that infants have once they realize their Mom doesn't disappear once she's not in sight.....it's called object permanence, and I don't have it....because once I actually file paper away (an act of God is needed for that to happen, but anyway) I forget it's existence entirely. So, depending on what it is, I recreate it.....or turn my house upside down looking for it.

So, that's the bit I notice the most.....but those who know me very well would probably say....verbal impulsivity, fast speech, fidgety in general, conversation tangents. I have tricks I use so this isn't as bad as it was. Like in business meetings I always have a pad and pen...not to take notes, but so that I can write down that thing I HAVE to say. It really helps me be able to let go of it, until there's an appropriate time to bring it up. I also keep a paperclip in my pocket. If I need to fidget in a long meeting, I can fiddle with that, under the table, without making everyone around me nuts.

Most folks are surprised that I am ADHD....but most folks don't know what I do to not appear ADHD.....