So I thought I was special.... | ADHD Information

Let me get this straight you lose your license if you have ADD or take medicine? How would they find out? We Americans find this interesting.

The Norwegian Government takes your license away if you're on ADHD medication?! Easy way to fix that! Shame your lawmakers by telling them that this law is making Norway the butt of jokes being told by Swedes!

I'm 1/4 Norwegian and 50 something years old. At about age 10 my dad proclaimed me a "procrastinator!" as if it was some kind of a sentance on me. (I had to go look up the meaning of the word!) Lots of ADD inattentive stuff has filled my life, but it's only now that, like you, I learn that I have ADD. A blessing and a curse, pure and simple. The emotion you are having I and others have had. Our regrets cannot be eliminated, but they can be supplanted by living our lives from now on how under our (almost) full control, rather than before when our ADD traits were in full control.

Anteros - I'm glad you Discovered why 'you' are ''YoU''.

Maybe you could start/find a group of ADD'rs in your area . Maybe you could do a Web search to see if there's one anywhere around you.

This is a legal problem [being fired for a Medical condition]. Are there any political/social organizations that could take up this cause ?

Message*Anteros38998.6404050926Message*Anteros38998.6401273148 [QUOTE=Countrygirl]

Anteros, Being ADHD is hard in ways but great in other ways. You are special and unique. Our ADHD symptoms may be the same, but we have very different personalities, different hopes, different dreams. We are still individuals. Just individuals with ADHD. You are not a syndrome. You are Anteros. What about therapy? It helps you cope and teaches you strategies for life.

I actually take meds & therapy. It's working for me.

[/QUOTE]

I have to fully agree with her post.

I actually take meds & therapy. It's working for me.

Message*Anteros38998.6410648148I suggest you try to find a "shrink" that believes in you. [QUOTE=Anteros]

We are a sindrome! So f**k the Da Vinci and whatever we want to call it! We are different, they could proclaime that Caesar had it, but does it really help us???

What happens in any sindrome or sickness is that all of the persons touched by it tries to give themselfes a clap on the shoulder! You are unique, you are special, but in the end we are not! Pessimist? Who me? Guess so..... But I do think that theres a lot of reality in what I think! Many with ADD/ADHD are blindfolded to comfort themselfes! Read what people that live with us writes! There isn't much variation in it! Sorry guys! But thanks for trying :)

[/QUOTE]

well, that's definitely a fine and logical way to look at it. but at the same time it is not the only way to see it.

yes, we are similar in that the way we PERCEIVE things is slightly different from the norm (that certainly doesn't mean we are all the same) but we have the same difficulties because our perception comes more through our intuition rather than our intellect. this can be a great asset if you can harness it - ie the Da Vinci's, the Einstein's etc. etc. but it will never allow you to become or think as a "normal". you perceive life in an "addled way" - i guess the best is to be able to access both the intellect and the intuition as in Shakespeare. but nonetheless - myself, i believe it to be a gift and i choose not to swap my ADD-ness for normality.

i think our way of perceiving is closer to the truth but others see it closer to delusion or madness or a "disorder". the positive thing is that at least now, with adderall, you have a choice whether you wish to alter your thinking to be that of a "normal" and live a normal life --- or whether you wish to persevere in your ADD-ness and go through and over to the other side and be purely ADD. i think it probably means a harder life - but at the same time, a more rewarding one can be possible.

for me, i don't think it means you are "special" --- every human on this planet is special. and each are equally valid but i do believe "to thine own self be true". if your self is that of an ADDER i don't see why you would opt to change that to become a normal. but at least you have the choice - so go for it! good luck!

Message*Anteros38998.6417592593Message*Anteros38998.6414583333

I know what you mean anteros. The whole concept of "special" to me has been what I heard as a kid - "look son, that kid in the restraints is "special"". I have never liked attention good or bad.

It is possible to have many aspects of "normal" life - I have done it myself. I think the changes are mostly internal though. Through self-reflection, therapy and modern pharma I now don't have that oversensitivity, the paranoia I have confirmed and read about where we think that others can read our minds and know we are screw-ups. I no longer obsess about what the rest of the world thinks but rather consider my actual actions. I don't try the "woulda shoulda" either which is useless as there is only one temporal line we get to walk not several. We spend WAY too much time wishing that things were different!

Funny you mention the military. I was in for a VERY short time at 18 and nearly went to project desert storm. Whew. I left because frankly I didn't like some yahoo sticking his face in my nose and telling me I'm scum and dirt. There was a bail-out time (it was the militia - a canadian version of the national guard and my first week in ) and bail I did. No regrets there!

Life for a "normal" person is hard enough buddy! To hand-wring and woe-is-me all the time as we oft do is unbearable! Now my mind is far more "normal" and I never worry about being the "special" one. Well... sometimes when I rant when someone tries to convert me to the "faith"... I worry that some mother will be whispering "oh that man in the wrap-around jacket? He's "special" - don't get too close!"

But that doesn't happen all that often! LOL!!!

So find a therapist you can trust. Find a med that agrees with you and gives you the anchor so you no longer drift. Find the inner peace to say "who gives a hot damn what they think?!?"

[QUOTE=Anteros] to make it short, I would prefer to be "normal"! Many things in me I would miss, but I would like an easy going life now![/QUOTE]

if that is the case - i would get on the medication NOW.
forget the bus driving and worrying about them taking your licence away. with the correct meds and your natural intelligence - it will likely inspire you to a whole new career pursuit anyway. if you want to change - then do it.
don't let fear of losing your job stand in your way - as presumably you already know, there are plenty of jobs out there! hope you find a great psych - and good luck in your new life!

"let me be a grey and dull person happy with my life rather then an exiting person!"

loads of normals have amazing, fascinating jobs! and incredibly inspiring lives too --- just on the plane the other day i met a (normal) French guy studying marine biology who was going out to Hawaii to do research for the University out there. my sister's sister-in-law is an absolute straight down the line normal (no trace of adderness at all) but she has been put forward for the nominations for a Bafta award for a documentary she produced.

you can study the habitat in the tree-tops of the rain forest in the Amazon jungle! a lawyer friend of mine works for Oxfam and spends his life in Africa and does charity work for his church and takes disabled children on special group camp holidays (he is a bit of a non-stop type!) --- being normal doesn't imply a boring job to me. it is almost the other way round - oftentimes being ADD implies a McJob because you can't hold anything else down.

i really admire normals --- in general they are great, altruistic, caring, considerate thoughtful, lovely people that help make the world go round! (and often a better place) others are completely stupid and brutal - but variety is the spice of life!

for me though, i still feel an ADDer's perception is closer to the truth - and that for me is important.

so don't hold back on the meds if that is what you have decided --- read the posts here.

most say it is an almost miraculous "a beautiful experience" - if that is the way you want to go - i don't think you will make it WITHOUT the meds.

perhaps before you make your final decision you should read some Plato/Rumi/BhagavadGita/John Cassian/Thomas a Kempis. then you can be sure you KNOW what you might (possibly) be giving up - as well as what you will be receiving.

i love Shakespeare - so a couple of days ago i saw that a very pre-eminent lawyer was giving a talk on Shakespeare (very well-known, almost feared, respected intellectual giant type) and i went. but when i saw how he STRUGGLED to comprehend but how much he appreciated it when as he said "after sifting and sifting for five or six reads some part of the text suddenly this nugget of gold gets through to him!"

and i realised how MUCH we take for granted as ADDers. but is is all the intangible stuff --- the intuitive. nothing you can materially put your finger on. this world is very materialistic so there is no value given to what we ADDers have - we only put the value on it ourselves - or possibly it is valued after we are dead (in terms of artists et al).

chjones38993.3523148148Sounds like a ''Catch-22'' ~ ACK !