weird stuff when u were a kid | ADHD Information

I am just now thinking back to when I was younger like 4th through freshmen year in highschool about how weird I was when my adhd was in full swing. First off I would always blurt out stuff that made no sence. But the scary things were when I was younger. I vagely remember how my mind thought in weird ways sometimes. LIke the stuff I would think about in my head was weird and scarry. I was just not right sometimes. Now My adhd has worn off and the rest of the weird stuff and now I am left with add inatentative but only in certain tasks and situations. Otherwise I am totally normal. I almost think that I had a mental disorder or something when I was very young.
heh, I beat ya all when it comes to insanities as a kid ;)

hmm.. where to begin..

When I was very young I the kind of bed that has really tall bars all around the bed. In fact they were taller then me even when I streteched my hands up standing there I couldnt grab the top of the bars, so theoreticly it should be completely impossible for me to to get out of that thing. just NO way. But somehow I managed to get out of that thing loads of nights.. My uncle (wich had the bed) often found me sleeping on the floor in the morning.. How I got out of there I have no idea.. My head was to big to possibly fit between the bars, and I would have had to jump to reach the top bars and 1. I dont think children that young can jump much and 2. Im pretty sure its physsically impossible to drag your entire body up there like that when youre that young.. ( I was prolly 3-4 years or so)

I saw some old ladies eating cake and I wanted some but my mom was busy talking to a friend of hers so I went over to the old ladies smashed my hand into their cake and loudly said "CAKE". :p Hillarious

As for crazy stuff at school.. there were loads.. I was more hyperactive then anyone I know with adhd.. I got in fights all the time.. I had a temper from hell.. I could punch someone from just looking wrongly at me. I was the kid that the teachers got the most bruises from. I also got bullied a lot and the teachers where idiots. I remember once I got a hold of the code that u could use on special phones all around the school to acsess the speaker system on the entire school. So I used the code at a phone that was a bit hard to find and I started saying all kind of crap about the teachers and the principal. My aggressiveness went to far sometimes as well.. I sent one kid to the hospital with a concussion and one kid to the hospital with a hole in his head. (btw: I didnt get the diagnosis untill I was 15 so the teachers+everyone else just regarded me a problem child that couldnt behave)

I remember worrying a lot in grade school. Like one time I accidentally got stabbed with a pencil and I was sure I would die of lead poisoning. I was always very self reliant. I was very stubborn and defiant at times. I was very active and very shy.

In high school I did feel like an outcast. I think now it was because I was so honest and I didn't talk badly about people. I was a very deep thinker, very analytical.

The hardest part was that on the outside I must have looked like....you know forgetting things, loosing things, "what row is my locker on?" That crap got in the way. Oh..I know..I was a geek disguised as a dumb blond!

Now I'm not shy at all. My motivations are all or nothing. I get hyper when I'm excited about something and when I get disappointed or hurt it takes me a bit too long, I think, to recover.

I have a few close friends that appreciate my loyalty and honesty. Can't stand superficial, shallow people/relationships.

Kibbles - the "buzzard" reading group - what a mean thing to do.

You brought up a good point, I always did have a few good friends who never thought I was wierd. There are good things to remember and I'm so glad for that.

for me, the weirdness was just that i was thousand of times faster than most other kids in picking up anything left-brained...but when it came to math...forget it!

i was also the slowest one in any class i was in, the teacher's always asked me specifically if they could now erase the blackboard or change the overhead transparencies. after a while, it was just easier to say yes and spare myself the embarassment. often i DIDN'T have the info required.

i climbed on everything then, including people, and still am fidgety and much to the consternation of my wife, still whistle, tap and drum all the time.

i had so many evaluations, yet in retrospect it seemed like they never thought to test me for ADHD, and thus all they could do was to wring their hands and wonder why i did so poorly.

don't even get me started about my two unfinished attempts at college or university.

all around, i've been considered a weirdo by most folks who know me, and for the largest part, this seems like a compliment to me. i like to be different.

i just never liked falling behind educationally, as i have. now i'm not too happy with my work (i won't sully the words career or vocation by using them here) but still cling to hope that i can find myself one day enrolled in and eventually completing some sort of course that will allow me to have that elusive feeling of accomplishment.

It's nice to be in the company of all you folks.

P.S. The music of Philip Glass really seems to be written, if only unintentionally, for us folks!!!

Welcome beeboy,

you're one of the "normal" one's here! It does feel good to be understood. I know the feeling about school. I'm on my second attempt (after a 20 year break ). Yes, the feeling of accomplishment is what's most important to me.

Again Welcome

I was so wierd in high school that my counseler called my dad from school about it.

She thought that I was taking barbituates! Nope, lady, its just my ADD!!

Inattentive to the Nth power!!

I also had problems reading, but didnt know that I did. In elementary, I would try to read as fast as I could so that I could prove myself and get out of the "buzzard" reading group ( you know, red birds are the high group, then it went to blue birds, then buzzards..). I didnt find out until later in life that it wasnt that I couldnt read well, I could... BUT, I couldnt comprehend what I was reading. Well, duh. It took me a while to figure that one out.

I felt like a social outcast throughout school. But I did have a few very close friends. I still feel like a social outcast at times, but not near as bad as it was back then.

Jman, none of the things you did seem paricularly weird to me. Kids in general are Weird (with a capital W) Sounds like you had trouble with anxiety. You don't outgrow mental disorders, so, if you had one then, you have one now.

No offence made by the weird kid statement. I love weird kids. I have weird kids
I also knew I was different cause I only get anything if it is taught the easy way. RNI was very hyperactive when young. I climbed everything, cabinets and later trees. The scariest thing I did was climb the kitchen cabinets and take a whole bottle of pills. That scared the daylights out of everyone. Climbing was my middle name and I think was what freaked everyone out the most. Later I mainly climbed trees and swung down on the limbs. I had a lot of fun being hyper then.

In school I had difficulty in learning to read and never could read fast or do well at comprehension. I learned to cover for that and was afraid for anyone to find that out. So, I felt different and dumb. I lost my hyperness by the time I was fifty and wish I had it back. But the inattentive deal has never worn off. I just learned to cope with it.

I always felt different from the rest of my family but I think they accepted me much more than I accepted myself. I feel pretty normal now.

I think I had anxiety as a kid. I know that fires terrified me at one point and I was totally obsessed with the idea. I figured out many different scenarios in my head - so I would know what to do in case of a fire. I was actually so afraid that I couldn't do much - it froze me. I told my mom and she freaked out. Then my dad talked to me about a time that he was afraid of sirens. I was fine after that. It was really wierd.

I don't have bad anxiety anymore. I think the immaturity and my add added up to anxiety for me.

Okay.

Yours, then.

But I still think the Pied Piper was ADHD.

A good one, too.

[QUOTE=Davidornado]

3. A detractor once said "don't pay attention to Davidornado, he thinks it's always about him". It's not, really. It's all about ADHD. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time!
[/QUOTE]

Question from the detractor: Do you ever post on the topic started even when you started the topic?
cynthiatweedle38782.6839467593[QUOTE=Davidornado] Reminds me of a couple of proverbs that the Bard David'Ornado came up with once.

1. ADHD is the next step in the evolution of Mankind.

[/QUOTE] uhem... and where may I ask did you get number one?...I believe it was..yours trully...that's right...me!! Althought not quoted exactly.. very close.

[QUOTE=cynthiatweedle] [QUOTE=Davidornado]

3. A detractor once said "don't pay attention to Davidornado, he thinks it's always about him". It's not, really. It's all about ADHD. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time!
[/QUOTE]

Question from the detractor: Do you ever post on the topic started even when you started the topic?
[/QUOTE]
OMG!...I started the topic?

Okay.

Now I can answer your question.

Sorry, got a little distracted.

Hey, a topic has spinoffs.

Those that want to, can steer it back.

Others that want to, follow the side track.

Sometimes, a good idea is spun off on it's own thread.

OMG!...Does that mean we're distractable???
Oh, f**k!

Maybe I'm ADHD.

Like a top.

Have word, will write.
[QUOTE=Davidornado]OMG!...Are you Auntie???

[/QUOTE]

No I am not Auntie, but I did make the statement after you had made detractor statements. This has been awhile. I know nothing about Auntie being a detractor, so I thought you meant me.

So when you aren't on the topic you are just spinning off? I just wondered because I don't know if I have ever seen you on the topic. However, I have'nt seen everything you've posted.
cynthiatweedle38782.8051388889 [QUOTE=cynthiatweedle] [QUOTE=Davidornado]

3. A detractor once said "don't pay attention to Davidornado, he thinks it's always about him". It's not, really. It's all about ADHD. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time!
[/QUOTE]

Question from the detractor: Do you ever post on the topic started even when you started the topic?
[/QUOTE]
OMG!...You're my detractor???

I thought Auntie was.

OMG!...Are you Auntie???

Don't think I was weird, just active, curious and liked "experimenting" I tried to glue chicks to the side of a barn, chased and caught feral cats (was always scratched up & had ringworms) made jello in the bathtub (it was brown) borrowed dads car at 14, drove to Joplin, Mo to get pizza (oh, I took 3 others with me) skipped school often to swim in the creek, explore caves, play "Huckleberry Finn" I was not bad, just a little difficult.

I was so completely in my own little world that I had no Idea I was diffrent.

That is untill they put me in special ed prison. This happened in 3rd grade. I was no longer allowed contact with "normal kids". We had special ed recess, special ed lunch... absolutely no mainstreaming! And it was a one class fits all, some of the kids in my class had mental retardation, some of us were simply L.D.

I was allowed out for what I called the "reading part of english" in 5th grade. I was reading at a colledge level, so I guess they figured they had to let me out for that. A group of girls took me under their wing and treated me very nice ..Too nice I now realise, They thought I was mentally retarded. All I remember doing in special ed. was making butterflies out of tissue paper.

Somehow I managed to climb out of this black hole, and took mostly regular classes in high school, I even graduated from colledge with honors, granted it took me 6 1/2 years to earn a 4 year degree.

I mostly remember being lonely, in 6 grade I did not even have one single friend, Books were my friend. In high school I managed to make a few good friends. I was always immature, still am LOL, only now It doesn't matter so much as I hang out with people of all ages and maturity levels.

It's funny, I never had most of these symptoms as a child.

When I was really young, they used to put me at the tables with loud kids as a way to quiet them down. Of course, I couldn't stop shaking my leg or tapping my pencil, but I wouldn't say a thing (I was painfully shy).

I also always did quite well in school. I was probably one of the smartest kids in the school, but I never did get straight A's. But I always managed to keep a B+/A- average; though I never did a minute of homework (I also went to very bad schools). I copied every homework assignment I could, or I'd finish it right before the class it was due (all the while not paying attention the lessons in the previous class). I feel like I found ways to cope with the fact that I couldn't do my work or finish reading articles or books required. I was so paranoid about doing poorly, and I loved being one of the best. So if I waited until the last possible second, the anxiety about not finishing would overcome my inability to focus, and I'd find some way to complete it (though homework answers were often dead wrong, very few teachers graded for anything but completion) So I'd get high A's on my tests, but I'd get a lot of 0's on homework because I just wouldn't do it, or because the answers were so clearly wrong (i.e. I filled in whatever I could 10 minutes before it was due). But I was ranked among the top of my class, so no one ever thought to test me for ADHD. It wasn't until I got to the late undergraduate/early graduate school part of my education that I really began to wonder, as my coping skills began to fail me. I had always been horribly hyperactive and unable to stop fidgeting, and I had never been able to read for more than 15 minutes before the inattention would kick in. I eventually learned to do my homework in 20 minute increments. Then I would go talk on instant messanger, take a walk around the building, or go get something to eat/go to the bathroom (even if I didn't really feel the need to go) for a while before going back and starting back up again for another 20 minutes. Unfortunately, as these 20 minutes homework sessions would go on, I'd find myself only able to concentrate for 15 minutes, then 10 minutes, and then eventually not at all. All my life I've had the same comments "You are falling short of your potential, if you would just put in the extra time/energy, you'd be the best". And, of course, even when I did put in the time and energy I wouldn't be able to accomplish much more than when I didn't put any time and energy in at all, so I learned not to even bother. Even when I REALLY wanted to read the books or articles, when they were on subjects I was really fascinated by, I just couldn't pull it off. I learned to gather my information from class discussions (which I couldn't be shut up during) instead of reading, since the reading part never worked for me.

I wonder, did anyone else have similar experiences? Did anyone else find themselves quite successful at coping with their ADHD for most of their early years, only to find that those coping skills weren't enough to get them through adult life?

Sure - that relates to how it went with me - but it unraveled at about age 15 for me. Where I could keep it relatively together (for the rest of the world) it was falling apart inside as I couldn't stay in class, couldn't deal with peers or the work assigned to be taken home. I ended up skipping half of grade 11 (still passing which amazed me and everyone else!) and then leaving before grade 12 started. My parents were ok with it (sort of) and told me that if I got a job and paid a very high rent that they'd allow me to quit school and look for other things to do.

So between 16 and 18 I did things like shovel snow (that's a full-time job where I'm from), cut firewood, fought forest fires (still one of the best highest paying jobs I ever had!) and other non-education oriented jobs. Paid a king's ransom in rent. The jobs were great because they were all seasonal or short-term and were very ADHD friendly. The only reason I got my Grade 12 and eventually university was that back in 1985 they were moving people on employment insurance over to skilled jobs. I got lucky.

All the old tricks that kept me sane and out of people's radar as a kid were useless when I "grew up". I'm just glad that I am in control now (mostly) - and it only took about 20 years to do it!

[QUOTE=Davidornado] Hmmmmm, it wasn't weird to me.

What I was doing was normal to me.

What was weird was that no one else was doing it.

Then.

Now they're doing it, and wonder why I'm not.

So

I wonder why I'm the only one doing what I'm doing

Now.

Weird, isn't it?

[/QUOTE]

That is soooo ME. I've recently discoverd that, for me I've always been normal and I simply couldn't understand what made ppl think I was different.

[QUOTE=Davidornado]Reminds me of a couple of proverbs that the Bard David'Ornado came up with once.

1. ADHD is the next step in the evolution of Mankind.

2. I don't suffer from ADHD. I rather enjoy every minute of it! It's those around me who tend to suffer...

3. A detractor once said "don't pay attention to Davidornado, he thinks it's always about him". It's not, really. It's all about ADHD. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time!
[/QUOTE]

No 1 I totally agree
No 2 is so well said but Im still learning to enjoy it, someday I also get there
No 3 is my opposite, I've always been the wrong person at the wrong place or enviroment sadly.

/Kaks
[QUOTE=Kaks] [QUOTE=Davidornado] Hmmmmm, it wasn't weird to me.

What I was doing was normal to me.

What was weird was that no one else was doing it.

Then.

Now they're doing it, and wonder why I'm not.

So

I wonder why I'm the only one doing what I'm doing

Now.

Weird, isn't it?

[/QUOTE]

That is soooo ME. I've recently discoverd that, for me I've always been normal and I simply couldn't understand what made ppl think I was different.

[QUOTE=Davidornado]Reminds me of a couple of proverbs that the Bard David'Ornado came up with once.

1. ADHD is the next step in the evolution of Mankind.

2. I don't suffer from ADHD. I rather enjoy every minute of it! It's those around me who tend to suffer...

3. A detractor once said "don't pay attention to Davidornado, he thinks it's always about him". It's not, really. It's all about ADHD. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time!
[/QUOTE]

No 1 I totally agree
No 2 is so well said but Im still learning to enjoy it, someday I also get there
No 3 is my opposite, I've always been the wrong person at the wrong place or enviroment sadly.

/Kaks
[/QUOTE]

Ahhhhh, but when lightening strikes you, you learn something or experience something you've never experienced before. And that can be quite exhilarating.

Doesn't mean you'll do it again, but WOW!!! What a rush!

Just a matter of pestilence, I guess...

(I tend to make Pied Pipers out of infestations...)

50 Guilders!??? We agreed upon 1000...

(so off he went to discover America)
Reminds me of a couple of proverbs that the Bard David'Ornado came up with once.

1. ADHD is the next step in the evolution of Mankind.

2. I don't suffer from ADHD. I rather enjoy every minute of it! It's those around me who tend to suffer...

3. A detractor once said "don't pay attention to Davidornado, he thinks it's always about him". It's not, really. It's all about ADHD. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time!
Hmmmmm, it wasn't weird to me.

What I was doing was normal to me.

What was weird was that no one else was doing it.

Then.

Now they're doing it, and wonder why I'm not.

So

I wonder why I'm the only one doing what I'm doing

Now.

Weird, isn't it?

You just described my experiences to a "T". Pressure is a necessity. I think the only reason why I did well in school was because it was so important to me, so I'd freak out over the idea of getting a bad grade. Everything must be last second, or I'm going to end up on the other side of the apartment doing something (usually many different things) completely unrelated.

Also have found that I'm MUCH more productive when I have 20 things going on and have to plan my day out hour-by-hour. When I don't have that intense structure, I fall apart too. Since leaving grad school I've accomplished absolutely nothing. The free time is a death sentence to me. I've been trying to get my act together enough to get to law school, but it's really difficult. I know I just need to sign myself up for like four or five volunteer activities that take up all of my time to keep me on track, but I can't seem to get around to doing it.

We'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll get a permanent prescription for adderall from my doctor and can start this stuff.

One time when I was about 8, a friend of mine and I put tiny pieces of cheddar cheese in our noses. Then we began picking it out in front of our big sisters and flicking it at them.

Is that considered weird?

[QUOTE=KDLMaj]

It's funny, I never had most of these symptoms as a child.

[/QUOTE]

yeah, very similar. it always used to amaze some of the other kids that i would do my homework in the lunchbreak before the class was due and still get a B+ or possibly A but they would have worked for hours for three nights and get the same result.

but the truth was and still is - i cannot do anything unless there is a HUGE amount of pressure on me. therefore i excelled at exams because the pressure is there it is easy.... but hopeless at any kind of dissertation/classwork project (just could never get started/done/anywhere with it).

even a couple of weeks ago - i had to pack for a trip. i had the whole day to do it and i spent the entire day frozen in a paralysis and on the computer until about one hour before i had to leave and then whirled around like a dervish, getting it done just to the second before the taxi came.... but somehow i need that pressure or i can't kick in. i think it is anxiety related and i need the pressure to become stronger than the anxiety or i remain frozen. but it makes life a pain in the butt sometimes.

at school (because i was at a boarding school) the pressure and the structure were great for me. almost every hour was catered for/organised/given over to something so i did get things done to a certain extent. i had good friends too who took me on as a sort of pet project and all my dreaminess/dippiness/daffyness was corralled by them and they protected me from myself. coming to remind me to bring my gym kit or tidying up my room if they knew there was an inspection (why they did this/why they took the trouble to be so nice with me - i don't know... i was lucky to have great friends there).

but the moment i moved out of that structure into a university structure where it was a question of self-discipline, it was a disaster. a total disaster. i fell apart completely and haven't ever really got back on track as an adult... i am not on meds tho - so there is a case for saying you can't complain if you are not going to help yourself!!!!!!

but yeah, school was fine with me pretty much/academia was fine/my strange way of thinking helped a lot in mathematics seeing different styles of solutions to the problem, different ways of solving questions which always radically impressed my math teacher.... but and what? what does it do in the long run ---- i'm still broke, failing, confused and a general disaster zone. c'est la vie/c'est la guerre - or whatever they say.

one day, one day.....

chjones38781.1759722222