ADHD and me: the perpetual klutz.

[Kalstolyn]

So I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I'm guessing yes. As I type this, I keep checking my wounds to see if they actually need band-aids -- I recently parted company with a little bit of skin on the palm of my left hand, the back of my left forearm (I'm talented like that!) and my left knee (and even a tiny bit on my right knee... but not nearly so bad as the left). All three of these locations are grotesquely swollen and beginning to turn interesting colours like green and purple and blue. My head hurts something fierce, and my neck is sore enough I suspect I've inflicted a minor case of whiplash upon myself. What did I do?

I didn't fall off my bike/rollerblades/skateboard. I didn't get hit by a car (did that once, came away with FAR less damage than I have now!) or a freight train, although it sure feels like it. No, I fell off my feet. That's right. I was dropped off across the street by a friend. I looked both ways to ensure there was no traffic. Then I took about two steps, tripped on the open pavement, stumbled forward rather quickly, realised there was no recovering from this, fell, caught myself with my hands, and then kept falling forward with my arm underneath my body. I actually bounced. Too bad no one was videotaping, I could have been famous in an AFV falling down montage. Oh yeah, the swelling happened immediately, and the bruising... well this happened less than an hour ago and already I am colourful.

So how in the world does one trip on nothing? Someone please tell me, because this is not the first time I have done it! I sprained my ankle on two separate occasions doing the very same thing (the other two times, I stepped in holes), and I feel very proud of myself to have made all my appendages go in the right directions to avoid another sprain. I think. The jury is still out on my arm, but if you had a 300lb+ woman land on you and skid forward, you would be swollen and black and blue too, I imagine.

I always have a few bruises on my person. I walk into stuff, hit myself with things, trip over nothing, it seems like I am the clumsiest person on earth. My mom said she wants to wrap me up in cotton batting. I told her I would probably get rugburn from it or something.

At least since my diagnosis, I can blame it on something besides me being a colossal klutz -- I know that with ADHD comes a tendency to not notice certain things in my environment... such as that small bump in the pavement, or my proximity to the door I am about to yank open. Or the coffee table. Once I decided to walk to the back door at my grandpa's house (I was like... 11 at the time, so there is no excuse for this...) completely forgetting about the 3 stairs down to the landing. CRASH! I trip over the cracks in the sidewalk, too, even when they're spray painted with bright colours.

So, who wants to follow me around with a video camera to capture my epic spills on tape?

Cross-posted to soultwilight.blogspot.com

[Kalstolyn]

Heh, just as the bruises on my knee are healing, I wiped out in a pool changeroom on Saturday and earned myself a new batch of nasty purple bruises just below where the old ones are.

[Dana Arcuri]

When my daughter was only a toddler, I had the suspicion that she had undiagnosed ADHD. As a parent, I was not jumping to conclusions, I had simply seen with my own eyes that my daughter was constantly tripping, falling, getting into accidents and spending too much time in the emergency room! She had boundless energy and was constantly in motion! Her older brother already had been diagnosed with ADHD and he had his share of accidents, too.

I will never forget the time that my three year old daughter was chasing after her 11 year old brother with a hammer in her hand. I thought that my daughter was only kidding around and that she meant no harm to her big brother, but he must have taken his little sister seriously. In his attempt to get away quickly from his little sister, he accidentally smashed his foot into the door. He ended up breaking his toe!

Another time, my son was chasing my daughter down a hill and I yelled out for her to slow down so she would not get injured. It was too late! My daughter was running so fast that she could not slow down soon enough and she stumbled on her brother's bike. Unfortunately, she injured her foot and needed several stitches. One month later, she ended up in the ER again because she ran into the corner of the wooden table and she needed stitches by eyebrow.

The stories just never end with my kids.....My family and I went to visit my dad in Michigan for Father's Day. We were with a bunch of relatives at my step sisters house for dinner and the kids were all playing nicely on the swing set in the back yard. One minute, I am beginning to eat my dinner and the next minute, my youngest daughter is screaming and crying in pain! I ran over to the swing set to see what was the matter and my older child said that she was up high and she slipped and fell. She complained that her right arm hurt badly so off we went to spend our Father's Day in the ER! The end result = A broken arm!

As for me, I have had many embarrassing moments with accidents. Once, when I was in my 20's, I was at a fancy night club with my girlfriend. I was walking down a flight of steps and my heel got caught on the carpet. Suddenly, I was falling the entire way down the flight of steps wearing a dress!
I am not sure if it was complete humiliation or being intoxicated, but I stood up as quickly as possible and acted like I was fine! (This can explain the four bulging discs!)

[Kalstolyn]

I actually have excellent depth perception, but I am terrified of walking when I can't see my feet, especially going down stairs, because I hate hate hate falling down and I always manage to injure myself. :S I am really convinced it's a matter of not noticing or processing such petty details as whether the ground goes up or down just there... XD

I do not have dyslexia, but my father does, it is very severe for him. So yeah that does run in the family. Me, I'm just dysgraphic -- I have trouble writing.

[Sally]

Oh Mel, this is the story of my life. I step off a curb and my perception thinks the street is closer than it really is and wham it's like I fell in a hole. If the sidewalk is not totally flat I trip on the sidewalk. Ladders are the worst I am on the first rung getting down there again the floor is farther away than I think it is and wham I fall off the 1st step. I broke my ankle this way. Like you I run into everything the bummer on my car is dented because I misperceive when the curb is going around a corner. This is definately a brain thing atleast for me. I wear (don't laugh) a helmet in the garage and pray before I go in that I won't kill myself before I get out because I am so dangerous. I can't tell you how many overhead fluoresent lights I have trashed with my broom handle. I know someone is in their watching over me because I always am lucky everything seems to just miss killing me. This is an on going thing for me and it's worse at night walking and stepping off things. I gave up riding my bike because my arms were always scratched from riding to close to cement fences or hitting curbs. As I have gotten older it has gotten worse. I could keep going on, Oh, I set my glass on the floor aiming for the table.

Do you have Dyslexia? When you read a page in a book do you see rivers going in between the words?
I do and I think maybe it has to do with dyslexia actually I know it does for me. Crazy isn't it? I usually laugh until I've done it about 20 times in a day it gets old.

I'm glad you asked the question I am anxious to see if we are special.:)