I'm sorry for being away from this forum for a while, and am generally pleased to say that following diagnosis in September last year, and treatment with 30 mg of Ritalin each day, I feel I've made vast improvements in my general level of organisation and self-confidence. However, there are still times when I can screw up big style, and none more so than last week.
I had to prepare some documents for an important public meeting with respect to a local issue that I'm actively involved in campaigning on. I had a few weeks to prepare, but had the flu and a range of family and social commitments over the Christmas and New Year period. This then made me have to do a panicked preparation for the meeting. Even though I got the main document ready in reasonable time, I could not get the supporting evidence ready, and totally jammed my printer. Having worked on this through the night, I turned up to the meeting an hour late and with half the documentation I needed.
This meeting was attended by a representative from a national media source, who is doing a feature on the debate.
This was the first time in a while, that I had felt I have messed up in such a public way, and I had never done so with journalist present! I feel I really let down the other representatives who were on the same side, as well as weakening my case in the eyes of the opposition.
There is a lawyer, who is offering me advice on this case (the main party is paying his bill), to whom I apologised for not getting my documents ready. I suggested that I made an apology to the other participants at the meeting, but he said that would draw more attention to the mistake (I did apologise verbally at the meeting).
Just for background information, this meeting was in preparation for the formal discussions, which will start in a couple of weeks time, and may last for several weeks. It still took me a couple more days to get the documentation ready, and I forwarded this on to the relevant parties by post or email, with an apology in the covering note.
Looking back on it, I have produced a 26 page report, with some 60 pages of supporting documentation. I was a little ambitious to try and do this over a long weekend - it really is a solid couple of weeks' work. Now it is done, I feel quite pleased with what I've produced, but really resent my inability to get it done earlier. Being late just isn't good enough, but I feel most people (except very close friends and family) have no idea how much effort we sometimes have to go through just to leave the house in the morning, let along putting together a complex presentation.
Had the lawyer, or anyone else, laboured the point, I don't know how I might have started to excuse myself, or if I would have "blamed" my ADHD. The other problem is that this issue is an extremely controversial local project, which has vociferous opposition. I am on the "other side", and have had various "confrontations" with the antis, both online (I parodied their website), and at a protest they had, where I turned up to challenge them, and got physically kicked, jostled, and removed from the scene. Fortunately, local tv were there too, and they looked much more like a bunch of violent thugs than a local community group! However, "seeking confrontation" is also a symptom of ADHD, so I'm wary about how much anyone should "come out" about it.
Thinking back to my university days, I remember dyslexics were given extra time in examinations, but that even though I usually did really well under test conditions, I always missed deadlines for projects, sometimes being weeks away from completion, rather than just a few hours! We are nowhere near the kind of recognition where any kind of extra time can be offered in an educational environment, let alone in a public one. Ultimately, I suppose all we can do is learn from our mistakes, and I feel that my general new year's resolution is working very well (more on this later).
I was just wondering if anyone else had found themselves majorly embarrassed in public, especially either in front of a large group, or where any reporters may have been present. Apart from crawling under a rock for a few days, what else can we do? I'm sure I'm not the only one on this forum who has some level of media involvement (even if only on a local level), and I think we are all aware of certain famous people who regularly display symptoms of, or have actually been diagnosed with, ADHD, but who are still regularly ridiculed for their behaviour, instead of the decisions they make.
(sorry for the long post)
Everyone does that, the successful people just laugh it off. I've met people that could laugh off anything and make you love them for it.
I didn't get the report done in time becomes. I am still securing the final documentation.
Wow, If I tried to make an ass of myself in such a public way, people would just ignore me.