ADHD. It’s Being Super-charged All the Time

Senatorsmith blogs about what his experiences with ADHD are like. A really good post on what’s it like to have ADHD
He blogs about some of the negatives

in other ways it’s like being super-charged all the time.

 

You get one idea and you have to act on it, and then, what do you know, but you’ve got another idea before you’ve finished up with the first one, and so you go for that one, but of course a third idea intercepts the second, and you just have to follow that one, and pretty soon people are calling you disorganized and impulsive and all sorts of impolite words that miss the point completely.

 

Unequivocally me… ever had a discussion with me where I ramble onto multiple tangents

and also mentions our well-known sense of time blindness.

What is it like to have ADD? Buzzing. – totally! Being here and there and everywhere.

 

Someone once said, “Time is the thing that keeps everything from happening all at once.” Time parcels moments out into separate bits so that we can do one thing at a time. In ADD, this does not happen.

 

In ADD, time collapses. Time becomes a black hole. To the person with ADD it feels as if everything is happening all at once.

 

Thankfully this doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does…This creates a sense of inner turmoil or even panic. The individual loses perspective and the ability to prioritize.

 

He or she is always on the go, trying to keep the world from caving in on top.

He also talks about some of the positives characteristic of adults with attention deficit disorder.

Often these people are highly imaginative and intuitive. They have a “feel” for things, a way of seeing right into the heart of matters while others have to reason their way along methodically.

 

This is the person who can’t explain how he thought of the solution, or where the idea for the story came from, or why suddenly he produced such a painting, or how he knew the short cut to the answer, but all he can say is he just knew it, he could feel it.

 

This is the man or woman who makes million dollar deals in a catnap and pulls them off the next day.

 

This is the child who, having been reprimanded for blurting something out, is then praised for having blurted out something brilliant.

 

These are the people who learn and know and do and go by touch and feel. These people can feel a lot.

 

In places where most of us are blind, they can, if not see the light, at least feel the light, and they can produce answers apparently out of the dark.

 

It is important for others to be sensitive to this “sixth sense” many ADD people have, and to nurture it.

 

If the environment insists on rational, linear thinking and “good” behavior from these people all the time, then they may never develop their intuitive style to the point where they can use it profitably.

 

It can be exasperating to listen to people talk. – sorry folks, I know this describes me all too well Hurmph They can sound so vague or rambling. – totally me.

But if you take them seriously and grope along with them, often you will find they are on the brink of startling conclusions or surprising solutions.

More on his blog.

If you have ADHD, how would you describe it to someone who doesn’t have ADHD?