procrastination SUCKS | ADHD Information
um. ok, we got evicted like 3 times, and got 2 cars repo'ed. (my husband has ad/hd also)
decided to get it checked out before we ended up homeless.
Sonya_h - That is a perfect list - Thank you.ok folks. let's be honest here. let's get all your dirty issues out on the table.
when is the last time you been to the dentist?
how many of you have vehicles that had little things wrong with it that never got fixed which led to bigger things, and now you're driving in a busted rusted hooptie?
when is the last time you got your oil changed?
when is the last time you drove your car through the car wash?
is it november and you have tall dead grass in the yard that you never got around to cutting?
how long has that empty mcdonald's cup been sitting in your car?
does your hair need retouching/cutting?
ladies, do your legs need to be shaved--VERY badly?
that sticky spot beside your computer where you laid that jelly donut some time ago.....when do you plan on cleaning it?
how about that dirty plate sitting on the other side of your computer?
are your plants dead because you forgot to water them?
Exactly what life-changing do-or-die situation did your AD/HD lead you into that finally made you get around to calling your psych to get tested in the first place?
sonya_h38672.8722337963The correct answer is: All of the above. yes folks. this is my life. We don't do all this stuff because we have HIGHER thoughts, GREATER things going on in our heads than the mundane crap everyone else finds interesting/necessary/amusing!HeidiMarie38672.8761226852
mundane crap
perfect words.
but unfortunately, (for me, anyway)...this procrastination leads us into problems we could have avoided....Painful and/or costly and/or dangerous problems.
Damn, Sonya. Are you sure you aren't living in my house and driving my car?
Procrastination may be defeated - or at least taken down to where it's a simple annoyance and not so dehibilitating.
First - make your life more... underwhelming. Best words I could use I think. Everyone is so OVERwhelmed with life, kids, afterschool events, projects, multiple jobs, etc. Wherever you can - bring it down a notch! Even non-ADHD people need that - remove the complications!
You may say - "easy for YOU to say!" - but I was like all of you. I had a high-pressure job, family, friends, even went bi-monthly to the Elks meetings! With my ADHD I was a wreck! Eventually my life underwhelmed me - and it all went away. But you can remove some pressure first - that is doable.
Procrastination is usually the ADHD taking control when you are stressed. Either your mind says "that is WAY too boring - wait til later" - or it's "man that's a scary task - it can wait!" - either way you are usually being led by the nose for a reason.
Good luck with it - hope everyone can keep juggling better than I did!
Exactly what life-changing do-or-die situation did your AD/HD lead you into that finally made you get around to calling your psych to get tested in the first place?
i misplaced 40 grand in cash 6months ago
cant believe i posted that i couldnt even admit it to myself
rayray - I feel your pain.
I lost my child due to a miscarriage (I was booted from home and therefore she had to care for herself and she was incapable of doing that right), my family (had messed up one time too many for most), my corporation (was going down due to missed deadlines and broken promises). No credit - no house - no car. Lost it all - and even then it was over a year until I got my act together.
Just know that it will get better. I am 100 times more capable and HAPPY than the last 32 plus years ever let me be. There are bounces - I go up and down just like the rest of the world but generally - it's all good!
[QUOTE=taritac]Damn, Sonya. Are you sure you aren't living in my house and driving my car?
[/QUOTE] Thank god I don't have to worry about shaving my legs too, but I'm starting to look like a confederate general!and i wonder why ppl. think i'm lazy, crazy, irresponsible etc........
i've been trying to be an adult for about 30 yrs. now.
i get giddy when i pay a bill on time, or even before disconnect/cancellation.
i gloat when i actually clean up the house or car. (love that sporadic hyperfocus)
i make myself a toast when i actually finish reading a book.
i beam with pride when i show up on time, at the right place.
i pat myself on the back, and brag when i finish something.
i congratulate myself when i finally clean up the biology experiment in the kitchen sink and can serve a meal w/o washing the dishes i need to, one by one, as i need them.
i'll stay joyful as long as i don't think about all the things that stiil aren't done, or are still messed up. that's a BIG list.
adhd. not always practical. but never dull.
Last dentist visit was last year, around March. Before that was about 10 years prior!
Last oil change was only about 1000 miles ago, but before that, I was about 3000-4000 overdue.
I just washed dishes a couple nights ago. It took me 4 hours since I HATE washing dishes and I, of course, being ADD, could only focus on it for 5 minutes at a time. Before that, I think it had been about 2 months. EVERY dish, plate, bowl, fork, knife, spoon, tumbler, wine glass, or coffee cup had been used. If I had something to eat that wasn't out of a fast food, carry-out, or delivery bag, then I had to wash a plate and fork as I ate it.
Mice? YES!
Roaches? YES!
Gnats and fruit flies? YES!
Crickets, spiders, water bugs, silver fish? YES!
No rats or bats in the house yet, though.
Weeds in the back yard? YES!
Late fees and penalties? Holy mother of God, YES! YES!! YES!!!! I think I've probably paid over 00 this year in non-sufficient fund fees alone.
Before my car was towed, I had cleaned out the main passenger compartment. But before that, it sounded like everyone else's here-- petrified or moldy food, wrappers all over, hundreds of random items kind of thrown all over, paper fast food cups that had leaked soda/water into the cup holder. It was a mess.
when is the last time you been to the dentist?
4 years ago. why? because i got in a car wreck a year before that and lost half my tooth. so i got a new one.(a year later)
when is the last time you got your oil changed?
my friend did it for me while he was on vacation visiting me, ask him
when is the last time you drove your car through the car wash?
it rained on sunday. channel 7 said that my car will be washed again on thursday
how long has that empty mcdonald's cup been sitting in your car?
close but not quite. its actually half of my closet, 23 water bottles, collection of reciepts from drive thrus, and enough change to feed 5 children in somalia for a year
does your hair need retouching/cutting?
(see topic: "I Cut my hair")
ladies, do your legs need to be shaved--VERY badly?
I have been considering laser hair removal to avoid a mishap with losing a chunk of skin or losing a toe. my legs are doing a great job of keeping me warm right now.
that sticky spot beside your computer where you laid that jelly donut some time ago.....when do you plan on cleaning it?
its acting as fragrance for my room, it wouldnt be right to clean it up, the dog pee i forgot to clean is stinking up my room
how about that dirty plate sitting on the other side of your computer?
N/A.
it has relocated to the dresser
Exactly what life-changing do-or-die situation did your AD/HD lead you into that finally made you get around to calling your psych to get tested in the first place?
Chemistry Test instructions: name the reactants. draw the product.
i named all the products.
Chem LAB schedule: (Have Pre Labs completed before class)
3 out of 8 prelabs have been the wrong one.
i misplaced 40 grand in cash 6months ago
cant believe i posted that i couldnt even admit it to myself
[/QUOTE]
LOL I sympathize with ya, I really do.... I did that with nearly as much worth of "goods"
I did the car insurance thing too!!
I thought that since I can never remember to pay my bills that I would set up my car insurance to come out automatically each month.
So I never opened a bill after that - or any other correspondence from the insurance company! So when they sent the letter telling me that they were no longer licensed to sell my particular insurance and that I needed to get other insurance, I just filed that letter - unopened - in one of my pile of papers throughout my house. Then when my son got in an accident 6 months later, I found out we had no insurance!!! Two thousand dollars later - it could have been worse - we got back on track.
So there goes the merry-go-round of ADD!!!
If we all don't laugh about it, we would all go insane. It's just a good thing that we atuomatically switch gears in our minds to other things, or we would go insane with the things we do or don't do!!
Hey guys, I think I just found my people
I'm booked into the dentist next week, last visit was 15yrs ago when Mum made me go. I've lost all four molars (fell out when I was pregnant) and the others are beginning to suffer, not through lack of hygine just scared to death of the dentist.
Our dishes get done when there is nothing left in the cupboards or if we are faced with having to have visitors which always sends me into a panic
My last car blew up cos I didn't change the oil or check the water for that matter.
We've had the electricity turned off just cos I forgot to pay it.
I have had that many late charges on credit cards just from forgetting to pay.
Do I qualify for the ADHD club???
here's one.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WASHED THE DISHES?
if you have a dishwasher, you don't qualify for this question.
if some one else did them, it doesn't count.
ie- how long have the dirty dishes been sitting there? how many different kinds of molds and fungi have you discovered? How many new friends have you made....that is to say, bug and rat friends, in the last couple of weeks? How many ecosystems live in your house?
We had fly friends, ant friends, gnat friends, and yes. our endeared friends of the roach family. of course, with them brought our beloved spider friends. upstairs we had bats and hornets and bumble bees. downstairs we had mice. One day, we woke up to find this big blackbird in the kitchen.
the reason for this? we lived in a very old acient ran down old house. when our old ad/hd ways snuck out to manifest themselves, our new friends where right there to take advantage.
Why did we stay here for 2 years? because our landlord was the most understanding and flexible landlord when it came to the rent payment. He let us pay the rent whenever we could. He let us stay the first couple of months free. since our credit is so bad (as a result of not paying for things on time, lovely ad/hd) and we had been evicted (for not paying the rent on time) and had repos on our credit (for not paying the car payments on time), no decent place wanted to rent to us. without our understanding landlord, we would have been homeless. (please don't ask me why we couldn't stay with either of our parents. you just don't wanna go there.)
What made us finally move out? The birth of my son, now 5 months old. Can you imagine a little baby crawling around in a place like that? It was FRIGID in there in the winter time. far too cold for him. we had to get out of there for his sake.
where do we live now? in an extended-stay-type hotel. Has a kitchen, a bathroom, and one room, like a studio apartment. Hey, it's a roof over our heads. No more bugs, (even when we DON'T wash the dishes), it's nice and warm in here. Nice place until we can clean our credit up enough to get some other place.
ok. I have veered WAYYYYY off subject here. but there you have it. my life. complete with the consequences of acute and chronic procrastination.
and that "counselor" woman said I was "just a little scatterbrained". Gimme a break. (see the post entitled "idiot proffessionals".) If she had have taken the time to let me finish a sentence, maybe she could have made a more accurate assumption.
p.s. for those of you who don't know, my husband also has ad/hd.
sonya_h38677.8476041667don't wash my car
my oil should of been changed 4000 mi ago
I will at some point be reduced to throwing snow on my windshield to clean it this winter
I have forgotten( put off sitting down and writing the ck) to pay my ins long enuff to have been temporarily canceled twice this yr
The good thing is I havent driven off with the gas nozzle in the tank or run out of gas in 3 yrs...small victories in the war
I
My car was towed for 4 unpaid tickets. I don't have the cash to get it out.
Why?
In part because I have managed to pay my mortgage three times in the last week. Needless to say, one of those was drawn against "non-sufficient funds", along with all the checks that came after it. Which also means I'm broke until payday, and I'll have to try to pay my other bills some sort of way.
At least I won't be homeless until March! 
taritac:
DAG!!!!
GOSH! that sounds like something my husband (also ADHD) would do.
stuff like that is the reason why we stopped using checks. in my experience, checks don't work for most ADHDers, ESPECIALLY not for my husband and me.
sonya_h38677.7259722222..and we are all together!
sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Topic: procrastination SUCKSNo, it doesn't.
Life sucks.
Then it kicks you.
Im a little accident prone so I've hit my head a number of times but my mum fell down a flight of stairs three weeks before I was born and I didnt move for over a week apparantly.
Wonder if that has anything to do with the way I am??
Interesting that GlenW mentions brain trauma as a precursor to OCD . . . .
I'm messy as hell, but don't hoard. A woman at my job (she apparently has had a history of mental illness and apparently retired because of it) definitely was a pack rat. Her office was not only messy, but STUFFED with stuff. She said that she has OCD (among other issues). She's also mentioned that she was involved in an accident as a child-- her teeth were damaged, so obviously she had some sort of head trauma.
hey engineeredcell-
i totally get what you're saying. those are all the 'adhd sucks!' things i do.
i have been trying for as long as i can remember to be more productive, responsible, timely, punctual, clean, polite, yadayadayada...
have come close to losing many jobs, and missing out on advancement due to my 'just under the wire' approach to life. bosses seem to just hate not knowing exactly it will be done.
sadly, if you want to work with me, you'll have to enjoy, or tolerate, the 'nail-biting' my unpredictible work scheduling and performance i consistently engage in. i rarely, if ever, am guilty of slipshod work. when i do get it done, it is pretty much complete and well done.
however- i can see how the 'not knowing for sure' what i'm up to can be stressful for others, esp. those who can plan their lives and manage their minds. those 'normal' types we admire, envy, and are bored to death by.
It's true!! They studied a large group of head trauma patients. ONLY those with specific damage in the frontal cortex had the hoarding show up. The rest were fine!! Makes you think doesn't it??
It can be a major struggle for me to get to work in the
morning. I spend WAY too much time doing nothing. I then
spend WAY too much time at work. Whether I'm being
productive or not, I'll stay there for 12-14 hours. Usually I just
can't stop working. Sometimes I find that I'm there that long
simply because I can't bring myself to leave the building. I
procrastinate going home! Sometimes I can't stop working.
At home, the place is always a mess. The kitchen is
disgusting. The fridge hasn't been cleaned in years. My bills
are always late. My car has never been washed and has
needed to go to the mechanic for at least a year. I had a
cavity that got so bad I finally lost the tooth. I take so long to
cash my checks that the banks refuse them (very painful!).
Going grocery shopping is difficult. I have never rsvp'd on
time. I am late to every social function.
I don't have a problem keeping my job ever (though my boss
does comment on my tendency to stretch or just miss
deadlines), but I can't seem to take care of myself.
????That is me. I need to go Dentist, I have a chewing gum stuck on my shelf, been there weeks. My room is a dump, my shoes need re healing etc... Yes I just need to get these things done but don't. x
Hoarding is an OCD symptom - which is comorbid to ADHD at times. They did a study (saw it in psychology today) that brain trauma in the front of the brain can make a person hoard! Wierd huh? Gives credence to our problems as far as I can see!
I am a pack rat too - but since getting therapy/meds it's way better! I threw away a lot and am auctioning off the rest!
Anal retentive would be more like bitching at your spouse for doing it too. Or picking at the lint on your sweater til you don't have one anymore.
Thanks D'O. Ive got more, does hoarding come under ADHD symptoms? I have every school uniform(Dad was in the RAAF, we moved every couple of years) every card sent from family members, all my baby teeth that fell out etc??
Is this ADD or anally retentive??
I dont bitch at my husband much at all but the picking lint thing.........
What would the urge to get another tatoo or my eyebrow pierced or the urge to get blind drunk come under then??
Seeker63,
I am you. You are me.
HE WHO PROCRASTINATES, MASTURBATES!!
see dave i write poems 2
Was that a love poem to one's self?I think that's what Narcissim means.
didnt realize my personal vehicle was unisured & unregistered for 6 months.
until state police told me
I've decided when we move into our new house I'm not unpacking all my plates, bowls, cups and glasses. I'm restricting us to four of each item only!!! IThat way when I run out I've only got four of everything to wash
We're moving from this house cos out in the country it's impossible to keep the house mice free unless you wash and clean up every single stinkin day, which just doesn't happen.
[QUOTE=Peita Pan]Do I qualify for the ADHD club???[/QUOTE]
Qualify???
You are the ADHD club...
procrastination SUCKS...
I think I will put off posting on this topic for now!!!
eww some nasty motherfughrts!
im a paper plate & red plastic cup guy!!!
right in the trash !!!