HOW SEVERE?? IS ADD | ADHD Information

I have severe ADD. Until I found computers I bounced between jobs - I have approximately 35 previous unskilled and partially skilled jobs on my resume.

Having a child was a pretty good focus, and so was using computers. By leveraging my innate ADDness I am pretty much the perfect security and network guy. Even then I bounce on an annual basis between jobs.

This year I got tested and medicated, which has helped. More importantly I found a job to call home. They gave me my own office, they let me get away with a lot of ADD BS because they know that when the fit hits the shan I will have the attention to detail and ADD hyperfocus to spend days awake to fix the problem if necessary.

They've learned that by letting the negative aspects of ADD slide (random focus, periods of inactivity or complete distraction, my impulsive urge to take a day off to go skydiving on an almost weekly basis) they have one of the best engineers available on the East coast. By regularly performing technical miracles I continually prove to them that I'm worth it. By them allowing me my ADD-ness they continually prove that they value me.

I should also point out that my wife is incredible and helps manage the mundane aspects of my life so I dont self destruct (pretty much everything in fact.). I have my days ritualized to the point that most actions are automated for me (finding clothes, remembering how to do everything, picking up the right stuff for work).

There are only two environments in which I function semi-normally: inside a computer system and the 10 minutes after jumping out of a plane at 13500 ft.

When I was tested for ADD they also tested my intelligence. Now I wonder if I'm the way I am because of, or in spite of my ADD.

@ 46 I have had 22 jobs that I can remember.  2x I lasted about 2yr at a job. I was fired from half of my jobs, and quite before, being fired from the rest.

I was a stay at home Mom for 13 yr.

I have an Associate of Arts, and an Associate of General Studies Degree. I graduated with honors.  I could never decide what I wanted to be so I never finished University.

All in all, I'm very successful at being Unsuccessful.

Soooo, YES I'm one of those affected greatly by my ADHD.

I have both ADD and ADHD along with other problems, however I can cope with the ADD and some of the ADHD. I was told about it at age 12 and now I'm 21. I can figure out if I'm getting out of hand at times. There are still things like disorganizations, telling time, telling of body gestures and other things that I have trouble with in life. But I do the best I can. My job is working at a retail store and it's my first one, I tried going to a community college but I didn't think I handled it well, but in the future I'm willing to give it another shot. My destination is geared towards art or illustration in career choice. well, barb/auntie someone said out there that Charles Schwab
was add/adhd....

that makes a lot of sense to me. i feel our intuition would make
us excellent financial gurus - kinda intuiting the stock market... if
we could only get the organisational abllities to get to that point
in the first place..... it's that trying to work through the system
that gets most of us stuck i think.

i know i am drawn to jobs within organisations - because i like
the idea of a structure, it appeals to the 'laziness' in me (like
being back at school where you just had to turn up and then
could dream your way through the day)... but i fail at them
because i am by nature not a worker through the system and in
fact adhd'ers don't make the best employees just because they
can be coasting a lot of the time - in their own head rather than
working on the job in a non-add manner.

i just have to recognise where my strengths lie and work from
there. i often feel if i were to have the guts to go for something
that supports my add strengths - i would a). come out of my
add-ness for a bit and b). the unusual add way of thinking
could really work in ones favour.

i think there have been many successful add-ers in the past. it
is working out some kind of coping mechanisms or having an
excellent support system/family/spouse etc. that perhaps can
make the difference too....

and making the first step - that can help too!!!! just sitting and
thinking about it ---- means you ain't gonna get anywhere. and
that first step can sometimes seem like a cliff-face of titanic
proportions to an add-mind.

I LOVE ltcs quote "i am very successful at being unsuccessful" -
-
-- me three!

man, i am FASCINATED by failure. what it is - what it means.
and success. failure/success.   failure/success.chjones38611.4741203704I use fear of displeasing to do a good job.  So I do such a good job at work I actually get a barrage of unsolicited & surprising thank-you cards & candy on a weekly basis.  Either everyone feels sorry for me--my biggest fear beside being "unintelligent or uneducated", or I'm really the best at what I do.  (I find it helps if you love part of what you do)  It's likely an ego/hubris-pride thing with me; the gratification of knowing you are the best at whatever it is you are doing.  I insist on that, so clearly I'm not applying to the Molecular Biology Field as of yet.  I excelled in college due to the rewarding structure, & loved knowing I was constantly "getting smarter" & acquiring (somewhat useless) knowledge just by attending.  I never wanted to stop. If I had my way, I'd never quit collecting degrees & enormous tips bringing people what they wanted before they could ask for it waiting tables.  But in addition to the degrees comes a spectacle of jobs acquired in very unlikely ways--Funeral Home Attendant (sold the classified ad tehy placed for the job to them myself), Orthodontic Chairside Assistant (saved the doctor's wife from a falling beam during the interview which I was in the middle of during the '89 Earthquake)& Physical Therapist's Aide (wore a suit, said I was in currently in nursing school), which you now need to be schooled for, but I just wanted to work beside a hospital ER with Hydro-Therapy pools so I could pretend Michael Myers from Halloween 2 was chasing me around the hospital with a butcher knife.  Anyway, point is--ADHD has pros & cons.  You just have to develop coping mechanisms (or Life or Death Rituals) that keep you organized /  the house clean, whatever it takes to get you to work on time on a daily basis.  Showing up is half the battle--if I do that much, I find I do well at work, even when I don't "feel like" doing anything at all. [QUOTE=Fallen]I have my days ritualized to the point that most actions are automated for me (finding clothes, remembering how to do everything, picking up the right stuff for work).[/QUOTE]

Ritualizing my day is the only way that I can function. Classic example - I moved during the summer, and for the first couple of weeks I was a mess. My home wasn't my "home" anymore, and I had to re-ritualize everything. I was spending twice the time in the shower because I was having to teach myself to reach for the shampoo on the right now instead of the left, and my towels had to be hung in a different place, and couldn't stand comfortably in front of the sink or reach other items the way I was used to. I forgot to do simple things like put on moisturizer, simply because my environment had changed so drastically. I remember things by motion more so than by memory - like I often can't recite a phone number unless I can reference the dial pad on a phone and make the motions with my finger.

This is why I hate my job so much. It's too much mental memory... it sucks. I need something where I can work with my hands and see physical results.
bcgirl197838611.4402777778

 

              Many ADDrs have other co-existing baggage that hamper their ability to function succesfuly in society.  When these remain untreated over their lifetime, like me {I'm 54 y/o, DX @ 2 years ogo } you almost feel like your trying to run a 50 mile race not only with weights on your legs, but your running the wrong way, you can't read the map, your blindfolded, and nobody told you when it starts.

               I could bore you with my life story { blah, blah, blah } if you wanted to.  We all have to play with the cards we are

  dealt with, even if it doesn't feel like a full deck most of the time.

               Is the glass half empty or  half full ?  

               I say  YES, it's both.     

              

               Sometimes it feels like the song, that says;

               ' I've been down so long

                it feels like up to me ' 

 

ADD can be quite disabling. For me it is the depression,anxiety, self-doubt, disorganization, procrastination, and fatigue that accompanies ADD that causes the greatest amount of disfunction. I am 32 and within the past 5 years have made great strides to get my life on track. I struggle but maintain. Medication has not worked so far, guess I'm resistant (LUCKY ME!). As far as financial stability, I am currently seeking employment and my husband is self-employed-(offically we live below poverty level). Hopefully with my newly aquired degree and my husband will recieve his in May, we will be able to achieve a new standard of living.

 

how severe is ADD,

31m inatentive ADD,

are people totally immobilized by ADD?

I own a busy contracting firm. conerta has been great minimal screwups.

I see we have engineers , R&D people and near poverty level people on these

boards.

Bottom line are there people, who can not hold job make $$$ w/ ADD

I think it is different for everyone.  I was very successful in school.

If I run my own business, I run it into the ground!

If I have a job that is layed out for me and I have guidelines to work within, I go 60 miles and hour and get a lot done.

If I have a job that is too broad and I have to organize too much then I can fail at that.