describe add for me | ADHD Information
Describe ADD?
I can only speak for myself.
To understand my ADD, use your imagination.
You go to work. Imagine yourself in a room in a chair. There are three televisions, each on a different channel. One is in front, one to your left, and one to your right. Behind you are three radios. Each on a different station. All are turned up extremely loud. It is mass confusion and you cannot think.
The boss comes in the room and asks you what the weather report on the radio was. You do not know and he yells at you tell you to try harder to pay attention. So you try to screen out the TVs and the radios playing music so you can focus on the one radio with the news. The boss comes in again before the news radio gets to the weather report, and asks you for the weather again. You tell him that it has not come on yet. He then screams at you telling you that it was just on one of the TVs. If you were not so lazy and stupid you could pay better attention.
So now you frantically start to move your attention between all three TVs while trying to listen to all three radios for something that sounds like the weather. Finally one of the music shows has a traffic and weather update, so you know it will be a high of 65 and cloudy.
The boss comes in and you give him the weather report. He screams at you and tells you he already knows the weather and needs to know the score of the football game. What the hell is wrong with you! So you try to listen to the weather and sports on all three TVs and all three radios.
The boss then comes in and asks you what color shirt the newscaster was wearing on TV number 3. You do not know. He screams at you, calls you a lazy rotten son-of-a-bitch.
He comes in later (you have memorized the weather, the sports scores, and everyone's shirt color) and wants you to make a list of how many 30-second radio advertisements there were vs. 15-second radio advertisements. You were not paying any attention to the advertisements, so you cannot do it. He rolls his eyes and announces to the rest of the company what a moron you are.
The boss comes back later (you have memorized the weather, the sports scores, everyone's shirt color, and notated all the 15 and 30 second radio commercials). Now he asks you the year, make, and model of the car that drove by outside the window directly behind you exactly 8 minutes ago.
This goes on non-stop for approximately 8 hours straight (as it does every single day). You are absolutely physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. Finally, the boss comes in and tells you that you are too f___ing stupid to work there any more. You are fired.
You go home to face your family and have to explain to them why you got fired again. Your spouse asks if you remembered the lotto number they announced on TV that day (somehow you missed that 15 seconds of TV). You do not and you are screamed at and called names such as lazy, useless, dependent, etc. You are told that you should quit making excuses and just grow up. That was the only thing you were asked to do that day and you did not care enough to do it. That was your only family responsibility for the day. Every other person does this but you could not. You obviously do not care enough about your family expend the energy to accomplish this one simple task let alone keep a job. You are a lazy, immature, self-centered, and undisciplined loser.
Welcome to my ADD.
I deeply agree with Chazinmo, one of the way i use to describe adhd to people is the effect of lsd...
here is a summary on a webpage about it at erowid
increase in associative & creative thinking
increased awareness & appreciation of music
difficulty focusing
unusual body sensations (facial flushing, chills, goosebumps, body energy)
unusual thoughts and speech
change in perception of time
quickly changing emotions (happiness, fear, gidiness, anxiety, anger, joy, irritation)
anxiety
dizziness, confusion
over-awareness & over-sensitization to music and noise
unwanted and overwhelming feelings
the list is far much longer than this one though.
When i'm are using psychedelic drugs with my friends they tell i do not look f**ked up as they all are, i guess this comes from adhd, it gives us some kind of 6th sense.
As for you and Latina-add i've never known my father as he left us (mother and me) when i was 5 and i've always been told i was so lazy and useless...
I hope this can help you a little bit.
cheers.
hey,
I'm in about the same situation as the first poster, at least I think so, being that I'm sort of an adult starting to suspect I might have ADD/ADHD/something. Do these seem like symptoms that might fit in?
I can never keep an appointment, I'm almost never on time. I lose everything that isn't chained to my body. I stole a 50 cent avocado from the grocery-store yesterday just because I was bored. I just bought an airplane-ticket to Tanzania on pure impulse. I'm hyperactive, yet seem inable to actually accomplish something serious. I fall into major depressions as soon as I have finished a project or something and thus don't have anything to do. I always have like ten different projects going on at a time. I keep getting fired from jobs because I keep losing important papers.
My room is a mess, and I seriously, seriously, don't know how to behave when trying to clean it (I just throw away all the stuff loitering on the floor). I drink so much doctors have told me I'm starting to get an ulcer. I always interrupt people. I never listen during classes because I keep thinking about sex or something. (k, I admit it, it's usually sex) I'm supposed to be witing an essay right now, but I find it completely impossible to concentrate when there's internet, music, windows and books around. I have a hard time keeping a conversation going because I usually don't care about what the other person is saying...
According to my mom I've been like this since age six or something. But I've made it through school without major problems. Actually, I've made it even better than so, I'm 20 years old, speak five languages (english is my second, so please pardon my poor grammar) and have recently been accepted to a highly-accredited law-school. I'm actually surprised I've made it this far, and am so afraid my severe attention-problems are going to make me lose everything I've worked so hard for... I mean, I'm seriously the type of person who can forget to go to work, school, or even an important exam...
Does it seem to you like I might have ADD, or do I have some other type of problem that might be causing similar symptoms?
Thnx
/A
thank you all for doing your best to help me understand my husband and possibly myself...i definately do not have hyperactive add but do wonder about the distractible type....but i also am a "highly sensitive person" and i know this after finding a website after typing in "introvert" into google about 3 or 4 years ago and that has helped me understand myself...i also know i am an "empath" which means i can almost literally feel other people's feelings and moods as my own and because of these traits i do tend to become easily depressed.
the mental boredom and busy thoughts in my head still dont fit those other problems though and i am still trying to figure that out...i am going to try one of my husband's ritalin on my next day off just to see if i feel different and if it helps my focusing abilities any and if so i will ask my own dr. to try me on some and who knows, it may be a godsend for me like it has for him, if not then i will just continue the best i can...good luck to you all and keep on keeping on!
my husband is add, and i feel i could be too but i dont really fit all the descriptions.....i am very emotional, "up" one day and down the next,confident one day and feeling worthless the next, very sensitive,LOW energy most of the time with bursts of energy now and then, and then there is my mind...my thoughts are always jumbled. like my brain jumps from one thought to another and i cant sort them out unless i really try, and i repeat phrases over and over in my mind as i think about them...i have a poor memory, dont remember very much either long or short term, have to make notes for everything, very easily bored, i space out alot if am not interested in something being said and find it hard to do mundane tasks like cleaning or even cooking sometimes where i have to follow alot of directions.
i can be somewhat impulsive, not as much as i am older now, but i remember when i was younger if i wanted something i wanted it NOW and i had a hard time waiting. School was difficult because my mind would wander or i just didnt get some things, but i was never hyper that i remember. I know add tends to run in families and i dont really see it in my siblings but i dont know my real dad and i know he went through a depression and my mom divorced him when i was young so maybe it comes from him.....any insight u all could give me would be appreciated, thanks so much and i enjoy this forum if only to help me understand my husband if nothing else!
thanks csmommy, that was very interesting...of course i tried to read it to my add husband but he was too distracted to pay atttn!!
Hi Sunnydaize, and WELCOME!
Alot of what you described yourself sounds like it could be ADD. I have alot of the same problems. And like you, I never knew my real father, just that he is (or )was Puerto Rican. My Mom said he died, but I don't believe that. I'm kinda thinking it may run in his family b/c no one on my Moms side has any signs of it.
I was never really hyper either, and was always told how smart I was. I was considered lazy. That to me was better than me trying to explain that I JUST DON'T GET IT! And I never knew why
. I also had a double whammy. When I was a kid you we're either black or white. I was in the middle, a Puerto Rican/Irish mix. Diden't fit in. I wanted to think that was the reason, but even then I knew something was missing. I'm 47 and was DX'ed over 2 yrs. ago. On meds.
The best advise I can give is get tested. Tell the doc your ENTIRE history. Don't leave anything out, even if you feel uncomfortable. Some say an E.E.G. is more accurate, but my doc believes tests can be misread and they can be expensive.
GOOD LUCK, and keep us posted.
The sooner you know, the better. And if you have it, meds can be trickey, but some get it right the first time! So hang in there!
read this:
WHAT'S IT LIKE TO HAVE ADD?by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.
http://www.netacc.net/~gradda/su98what.html
Rae7038319.060150463
I have a pretty severe case of adhd, here is what my typical day is like (remind you that I've studied adhd in depth, I'm a psychology minor in college, and I still can't control myself). I wake up, and have an extremely difficult time getting up, often times showing up for class late. When I'm in class, I have a very difficult time sitting still. I'm usually the most talkative person in the class. I'm almost always the one who answers questions or gives opinions. I sometimes blurt out answers to questions. When I'm done with classes, I go back to my dorm room, where one of my roommates also has adhd. We have a lot of fun together, and usually annoy one of my other roommates because it's fun for us. We're described as being very loud together by our roommates. By mid-day, I'm usually so tired that I have to take a nap. When I get up, I usually go and workout at the gym, they I go to the library. Studying is the most difficult part of the day for me (as I don't take any type of medication). I go to the quiet section of the library every night. When I'm there it often times takes me up to a half hour just to settle in. I become very distracted. If someone walks by, or something makes a small noise, I usually look to see what it is. I usually get up and walk around the library every 30-45 minutes, and sometimes I start up conversations with friends, who whoever I can find. I usually perform better when studying in groups. After about 6 hours of the library, I'm usually done, of course that's if I only had 2 hours of homework that night. I don't do any of the reading for any of my classes, as I can't focus for long enough to actually read any chapters (except for psychology class). I usually go back to my dorm, hang out with my roommates, and go to sleep. Other aspects of adhd I'd like to mention. I'm very gifted in math (many add/adhd'ers are because of our creative intelligence). I spend usually 40 hours a week doing homework, and I've learned techniques to help myself study. I'm an okay student, I go to a difficult college, and I'm getting around a 2.7-2.8 gpa. I also suffer from partial anxiety. I'm very loud and talkative around my friends, but I can barely muster out a word when I'm around some strangers, especially girls. Many people think I have bipolar disease. I originally dropped out of high school, because I was struggling so badly in school, at one point (but of course came back even stronger). I'm incredibly impulsive, I spend every dime I have. I have very wide mood swings, sometimes I can be in a good mood, then seconds later I'll be yelling at one of my friends. I love to drink alcohol, but I've quit for the most part (to lose weight). I'm unsure wheter of not I should use medications, because of their side effects). I'm an intelligent, hard working perfectionist, that doesn't get the credit they deserve. Hopefully I'll eventually be a successful businessman (like my father, who also has untreated adhd). Adhd'ers sometimes have the potential to shine in the business world because of our charisma, intelligence, and flamboyant personalities (just thought I'd mention that). And I can't think of anything else to write (right now) but there's a lot more. 