Continued from Why are you like this? We watched Gladiator last night. Re-watching this story of a decorated general who ends up fighting for his survival in meaningless staged conflicts reminded me of my own early sobriety. I could relate - not to the skill and heroism, but the meaninglessness of the suffering. Through the…
Why are you like this?
Why Are You Like This? Even though I get asked this question pretty often, it never comes in a form I can understand. I guess most people over the age of like 6 would not phrase it this way. I have been trying to find a workable answer to this one for a long time,…
Picking out cereal…
While yacked out on stress-withdrawal Adjusting to Normal Life with a High ACE Number I watched this movie with my family a few weeks ago, and it reminded me of what it's like to live with a high ACE score. Jeremy Renner's character is an expert in bomb disposal. (He also happens to be named…
Getting in your own way…
A lot. If you’ve started to treat your ADHD symptoms, you may have started to feel encouraged by improved daily results, better ability to focus, remember, and finish things. But sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. Maybe after a little while you see yourself making some of the same mistakes with people that…
Time blindness and ADHD
File this under “what is it like to have ADHD?” Time estimation and everyday problems ADHDers - and folks who have challenges with executive functioning skills, talk a lot about time-blindness. You missed an appointment because it took you longer to get ready and show up than you thought, or you hear feedback from others…
If ADHD is your problem
You probably don't know how to get a grasp on it. It can be hard to break down into workable chunks. In case you haven’t noticed, I am not prone to sugar-coating things. (Here’s my take on getting diagnosed as an adult.) When I am trying to get help with a real problem, I love…
What else is wrong with you?
It's no secret that folks with ADHD often have other issues too. These are other conditions, challenges, the stuff professionals call "co-morbidities." One of the most important things a newly-diagnosed ADHDer needs to do is begin developing a picture of your own ADHD. I call this my ADHD profile, but that may be a weird…
Make a list
According to all the experts, there are certain differences in the ADHD brain that make us crave stimulation much more acutely than normal folks. This can limit our ability to choose what we're going to focus on. Without even being conscious of it, ADHDers find themselves trying and abandoning a bewildering number of tactics to…
Four Things
I wish everyone knew about ADHD 1 . It's not imaginary. If you have been diagnosed with ADHD, all that means is that someone else told you something about yourself. The ball is absolutely in your court now. If you don't make any changes to what you know about this condition, your ADHD will remain…
The wrong medicine
I am not a pharmacist or a drug dealer. I mean the Medicine more in the metaphorical sense - like the wrong magic, the wrong spell, the wrong theme. I’m going to go out on a limb here and bet that you’ve been trying to get fitter, happier, more productive... for a long time. You've…
