Yes peoples, this post is about ADHD. My husband has a delightful way of putting it when people ask what is ADHD. He tells them "you know that movie 50 First Dates? Living with her is like that movie, but it's not funny and she isn't Drew Barrymore"
I laugh every time, it's true, except the funny part, I think it's hilarious and Drew Barrymore wishes she had my Big Mama Boobies!
The day my kids saw the Disney Movie Finding Nemo, they started calling me Dory. That's when I knew it was BAD, I mean really bad. When an 11 year old states that you are comparable to a fish who is distracted by shiny objects and can barley remember her name, you know it's bad. Before then I just thought I was a scatterbrain, chatterbox, cockamamie, spaz.
Oh, ADHD stands for Attention Defecit Hyper Active Disorder. The Hyper part kind of fades when you are an adult, and become more fidgety, restlessness stuff. Like the time I was asked to go home and not server on Jury Duty because I couldn't sit still and had to go to the bathroom all the time.
I did realize that I have an odd behavior steming from being an ADHD child, I sit on my hands all the time, sometimes I sit on one hand and type with the other. It took me a while to figure out why I sit on my hands all the time, then one day it hit me. Teachers used to make me sit on my hands all day long, so that I wasn't Miss Fidgety.
The impulse control gets me all the time, I think it is one of the things I have worked the hardest on, I am pretty sure I am much better. I no longer blurt things out as much as I used to. They would be like verbal regurgitation, just BLAH, out there in the world, before my brain was able to make a judgment on weather it was appropriate or should be worded in another way. I don't take medication (it made me sick) but I made tons of modifications and use little tricks that help a lot (see
CHADD.ORG for more info)
I know tons of people out there think they have ADD or ADHD, or their kids do, see a professional (a psychologist or psychiatrist can diagnose you) and go see a Neurologist. They can run a scan and you will actually see where the misfiring are in you brain, it's cool, it looks like some one sliced you down the middle and you can see inside. If you are diagnosed there at plenty of tools and not all of them require medication. Also, keep in mind that people with ADHD are 6 times more likely to have: learning disabilities, Tourettes Syndrome, Bi-Polar, Anxiety, and Depression. Scary huh? 25% of people who have ADHD parents do as well.
It's not all bad, this is a list complied of traits common to people with ADHD
1) Unlimited energy
2) Will try any thing
3) Good conversationalist
4) Needs less sleep
5) Good sense of humor
6) Very caring
7) Do Spontaneous things
8) Notice things that other people don't
9) Understanding of other kids
10) Can think of new ways of doing things
11) Likes to help others
12) Happy and enthusiastic
13) Imaginative - creative
14) Sensitive - compassionate
15) Eager to make new friends Great
16) Long-term memory
17) Life and soul of any party
18) Charming
19) Warm and loving
20) Protective about families
21) Inquisitive
22) Doesn't hold a grudge
23) Quick to forgive
24) Genuine
25) Never boring
26) Perceptive ways to do things
27) Playful
28) Honest
29) Optimistic
30) Inventive
Just thought I would run a PSA today...