Activities we avoid -- irony | ADHD Information

Yeah...wonder why they said those three ?? They are the ones I have the LEAST problems with..I LIVE to paint !!!! hmmmm....and I take Adderall !!

I find this very ironic... on the Adderall site it says that typical ADHD
behavior in adults is to avoid "activities requiring sustained attention (e.g.
watching movies, reading, painting)."

I know it may be different for others, but it's funny to me that out of the
thousands of examples they could have chosen, they picked three that for
me are problem free. (In fact, I am painting today in order to
avoid the things that I "should" be doing.)

It's weird that they are using recreational activities as examples.

http://www.adderall.com/ty/pdf/adult_discussion.pdf
Wordwoman38625.4651388889Let the flames begin! :-) i think there is a big difference between ADD and ADHD.

i can watch tv all day --- read a book all day --- i can also drive for miles and miles and i find all those things hypnotically relaxing to my brain. it is coming 'out of' them into the real world that is the REAL effort. to re-engage. i can FEEL the energy it is taking to drag myself out of there.

whereas i think ADHD are totally opposite.... they seem to me to be constantly in the side of the world i avoid and find if a REAL effort to drag themselves into the sphere i am so happily contented in. two different sides of the same coin????

whatever it is - the drugs seem to be equally effective for both types so there must be some sort of commonality. it never ceases to amaze me that a 'speed'-type drug works with people who are 'hyper'. life is quite mad.
chjones38625.5345601852Don't you love stereotyping by people who should know better!

Wrong... Those are the activities I hyper focus on. So I don't think about the things that I should do. I told my BF "I wish I could find a Job reading Fanticy Novels". His reply was "NO way then you would be a workaholic".

im really surprised about that too.. i thought it was the opposite more, i
have to be physically pulled away from the tv or have the book snatched
out of my hands sometimes because im so into them.. that article doesnt
make sense

"it says that typical ADHD behavior in adults is to avoid "activities requiring sustained attention (e.g. watching movies, reading, painting)." "

I avoid tasks that require sustained attention - that's why I don't like movies, books, and painting. If you can sustain your attention to passive tasks, you don't have ADD.

I have no way to hold my attention to my tasks unless I am treated with stimulants. That's why I am chronically unemployed and never could finish my college. I hate stimulants but I know they do truly help me do what I am required to do.

hmm im not sure i agree with that.. i was diagnosed with ad/hd, and the
hyperactivity aspect is one of the biggest problems of that i dealt w as a
child, yet, i can also watch tv/read a book/and drive for miles and miles
all day. In fact, when i felt like having some alone time i used to drive
aimlessly for a couple of hours. .. cant do that anymore cuz of gas
prices, but im getting off topic.. as someone with ad/hd i do all those
things so im not sure if add and adhd are different in that regard[QUOTE=kibbles002][QUOTE=LTC1] I was DX as ADHD combined type. I've always been more of a dreamer, drifter, detached, and out of sync.

I can't stand it when someone is chanel serfing. My mind has a hard time following. I can NOT multi task.

Give me a good book and let me get into it...then a bus load of screaming kids could run through the house and I wouldn't know it.[/QUOTE] OMG!! that could have been me posting that one! I am also combined type and definatley out of sync with the rest of the world... I have to do one thing at a time, hyper focus on it -- if I try to do anything else, nothing gets done at all!

I thought that I had a really wierd form of ADD, becuase it seemed no one seemed to demonstrate it like I do... I am an EXPERT at tuning things out, about going into my own little world, about ignoring the outside world while I am reading, watching TV, or whatever...

Sherry[/QUOTE]

OMG!...everytime I see those three letters arranged in that fashion I want to go snort some coffee...

OMG! That could not have been me posting that note! I am not so like that!!! I multi-task like crazy, 11, 12 programs running on 2 computers (once the deck got sooooo hot I couldn't palm it), have 2 cell phones, and frequently use both at the same time. If I can't do more than one thing at a thyme, or with a rhyme, i go bonkers and do pro crastinate. (Ewe, that's sounds naughty...)

OMG! I am not the combined type, define at leigh the classic typ0, and the world is definitely out of sync with ME... darn world! so that's been the problem all along, eh? hehe

OMG! I thought that I had a really wierd form of ADD, becuase it seemed no one seemed to demonstrate it like I do... I am an EXPERT at tuning things out side in, about going into every one elses my own little world, about not ignoring the outside world while I am reading, watching TV, and whatever...

Resistance - how cynical!

I don't think anyone's lying (why bother - this is one place we never have to - can't impress us!). More likely it's like I say - theres millions of us and millions of ADHD types. We're all the same in one different pile. All have our little things that make us us.

Been noticing how much my ADHD has changed over the decades too. I started out as a capital H ADHD - running around like a screamin' meemie. Parents probably could have gotten away with justifiable homicide then LOL. I was to put it way too mildly a "handful". Fast forward to my teens and I ended up inattentive with no sign of the "H". Sluggish, foggy and totally introverted. My own little planet - the outside world was too much to take and I didnt' think the world was truly real anyway.

Same with things I can hyperfocus on. As a kid it was books - would be driven to read on and on if it was at all interesting until exhausted. Now I can't read at all - more than magazine articles. TV used to be background noise - now I watch my certain shows (still use as white noise though).

We all change - that's what life is about. My ADHD has changed at least a couple times and probably like that with most of us.

- Glen

there's just too many varieties of ADHD now to give it just that one description. However for me - it is somewhat true.

I can't paint and am totally artistically retarded. Can't paint or draw or sculpt - inept in all fields. I know many of you all are and I admit art envy.

Watching TV - perhaps they mean locking into one channel? Although I could watch TV for hours - not one channel! Even if I like what I'm seeing I can't stay on it! During commercials I flip until I notice my show comes back. Most times I miss about half the show by over flipping. I didn't only nearly lose my last gf that way - nearly lost my life! She was ready to murder me many times.

Either way we all know that we have the inattentive people here and the hyperactive. Very different and the long long questionnaires we get from the psychiatrist or MD when getting meds can show us that. It's hard to get us down in 20 questions.

Interesting that so many vary from that one for sure. Food for thought.

- Glen

Topic: Activities we avoid -- irony

divorce [QUOTE=foggyguy]I avoid tasks that require sustained attention - that's why I don't like movies, books, and painting. If you can sustain your attention to passive tasks, you don't have ADD.[/QUOTE]

Yeah. Easy rule of thumb. Most of the people here in this thread are just liars and faking it. They just need an excuse to be a screw upor an excuse for fun meds.

Wait, this reply required attention to a passive task, as did yours.............

I was DX as ADHD combined type. I've always been more of a dreamer, drifter, detached, and out of sync.

I can't stand it when someone is chanel serfing. My mind has a hard time following. I can NOT multi task.

Give me a good book and let me get into it...then a bus load of screaming kids could run through the house and I wouldn't know it.

oh yeah- i meant to mention that i would not like a job doing something i reallly like to do (see LTC1 above.) if i had to do it, if it were important, i could count on myself to avoid it, or, at the least, be virtually unable to focus on it when neccessary!

add is now called adhd.. you don't need the h to be adhd..
ppl tend to outgrow the h and just end up being add - still called adhd though...

what they should of put down is the reluctance to organise their lives

yeah- i can watch t.v. all day if i'm constantly flipping channels, walking around, playing my guitar, reading posts on the forum.

movies are the same thing. i can't count the number of times i had to be filled in on the end of a movie b/c i either started wandering, or passed out before the end.

i was remarking the other day that i wish i was a book reader. i love to read. i need to constantly learn. if i read a book cover to cover, it's b/c i hyperfocused and did it in mostly one sitting. i've been surprised by more than a few sunrises getting distracted by a book , or other 'projects'.

so- it fits me.

[QUOTE=LTC1]

I was DX as ADHD combined type. I've always been more of a dreamer, drifter, detached, and out of sync.

I can't stand it when someone is chanel serfing. My mind has a hard time following. I can NOT multi task.

Give me a good book and let me get into it...then a bus load of screaming kids could run through the house and I wouldn't know it.

[/QUOTE]

OMG!! that could have been me posting that one! I am also combined type and definatley out of sync with the rest of the world... I have to do one thing at a time, hyper focus on it -- if I try to do anything else, nothing gets done at all!

Sherry

[QUOTE=kibbles002][QUOTE=LTC1]

I was DX as ADHD combined type. I've always been more of a dreamer, drifter, detached, and out of sync.

I can't stand it when someone is chanel serfing. My mind has a hard time following. I can NOT multi task.

Give me a good book and let me get into it...then a bus load of screaming kids could run through the house and I wouldn't know it.

[/QUOTE]

Sherry

[/QUOTE]

Sooo nice to know you are not alone...