ADHDFamilies

ADHD & Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table is a book by Blake Taylor detailing his life with ADHD and what he’s learned from it.  Of all the many books available on the topic, this is one I have to recommend to anyone who would like a better understanding of what it’s like for those of us who live with this “disorder” each and every day. (Again, I always use the term “disorder” as a quote.  I feel that ADHD is more of a gift than a curse, something with which thie author of the above book agrees.)

Publisher’s Weekly Says:

A college freshman this fall, Taylor was five when he was diagnosed with ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He’s been medicated all these years, but even when he remembered to take his pills, that’s only been a small part of his learning to cope with ADHD. Taylor’s still more impulsive, more hyperactive and more open to distractions than others. He can also be more energetic and more passionate than anyone else. He has learned to see his neurological differences as a mixed blessing—yes, he’s obsessive, but channeled toward a good cause, that can translate to hyperfocused. He veers off the subject, but that can spur creativity, thinking outside the box. Taylor relates the stories of his ADHD mishaps in no special order—how he set fire to the dining room in ninth grade, how he was bullied in sixth grade, how he was victimized by his first-grade teacher—as if to emphasize that a variety of problems can always happen. After describing each incident, he follows up with a cause and effect discussion of what he learned from what went wrong, followed by a solutions section, a few brief tips for other kids to try. Taylor speaks to fellow teens and their families with an authority few experts can muster. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Give this one a read why don’t you? I think you’ll enjoy it

A lot of serious news concerning ADHD has occurred since I last had a chance to update, but I thought I’d start out with a walk on the lighter side.  ADD has become a common term when describing forgetfulness.  So much so that many people make light of the condition as a whole, often without realizing that what they have just described is actually pretty close to the way that those of us with ADHD actually live our lives.

I found the following piece at thriftymommy.com.  It’s meant as a play on ADHD, but I defy anyone with ADHD to tell me that this doesn’t feel quite normal on some days.

I hope you get a chuckle out of it!

Thank goodness there’s a name for this disorder.
Somehow I feel better even though I have it!!

Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. - Age Activated Attention
Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage,
I notice mail on the porch table that
I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,
put the junk mail in the garbage can un der the table, and notice that
the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back
on the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think,
since I’m going to be near the mailbox
when I take out the garbage anyway,
I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my check book off the table,
and see that there is only one check left.

My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to
my desk where I find the can of Pepsi I’d been drinking.

I’m going to look for my checks,
but first I need to push the Pepsi aside so that I don’t accidentally
knock it over.

The Pepsi is getting warm,
and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Pepsi , a vase of flowers on the
counter catches my eye–they need water.

I put the Pepsi on the counter and
discover my reading glasses that
I’ve been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water
the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water
and suddenly spot the TV remote.
Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the
remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide
to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the
flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers,
but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table,
get some towels and wipe up th e spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to
remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

the car isn’t washed
the bills aren’t paid
there is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter the flowers don’t
have enough water, there is still only 1 check in my check book, I can’t
find the remote, I can’t find my glasses, and I don’t remember what I
did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really
baffled because I know I was busy all damn day, and I’m really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem,
and I’ll try to get some help for it,
but first I’ll check my e-mail….

Don’t laugh — if this isn’t you yet, your day is coming!!

Feels petty familiar to me!  Does it reind you of anyone that you know?  How about yourself?

Ritalin and its derivatives have been used to treat ADD/ADHD for a very long time, but for the first time scientists are finally catching up with the “why” of all this. A study conducted by David Devilbiss and Craig Berridge of the university of Wisconsin has shown that Ritalin and drugs like it fine-tune the functioning of neurons in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

This is pretty exciting stuff if you ask me.  I can’t possibly begin to explain the medical side of all of this, but please, PLEASE.  See this article for more information.  I’ll keep you posted as new details come out.

It seems appropriate that right after reading that the writer of My ADHD Blog needs more information and more peers with Adult ADHD that this morning I found this article from the San Luis Obispo County Website titled: When Your Spouse is Hyperactive by Marriage and Family Therapist Linda Lewis Griffith.

Ms. Griffith touches on topics such as emotional flare ups, impulsivity and communication issues.  She also briefly covers some of the responses that the other spouse should use to try to alleviate a potentially emotional situation. Let me tell you from experience that she’s got most of them right.

I found this article especially interesting on a personal note since both my wife and myself have ADHD in varying degrees of severity. (Mine is more severe than hers at most times.)  The techniques she outlines are some of our day-to-day habits.  As you can well imagine, the possibility for misunderstandings and high emotions is something that our family lives with every day.  In my opinion it works to our advantage that we both have ADHD.  It helps us to understand each others behaviors in ways that someone of a more “normal” temperment and brain activity could never quite grasp.

If you or your spose has ADHD, I highly recommend this article.  Look it over and give Ms. Griffith’s methods a try.  You might just be surprised how well they work for you.

It’s always a treat when I come across an ADHD website or blog that focuses on the personal aspects of ADHD more than the clinical side.  I found a perfect example of this type of blog today in My ADHD Blog, written by a Third Generation Teache who has just been diagnosed with Adult ADHD and is on his first round of prescription medication for the condition.

Though still in a very real state of infancy, I like the humor that he brings to his writing. ADHD is serious, but if we can’t laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at?  I think his tagline of “Just tryin’ to get a grasp on this adult ADHD” pretty much sums up the mood I’ve seen from his writing so far.  I hope to see a lot more coming from My ADHD Blog in the future. It’s on my list of ADHD related sites in the blogroll, just in case you’d like to check it out for yourself.