A Splintered Mind

Writing blogs about AD/HD is particularly difficult when the writer has AD/HD. Case in point, I'm having a hard time tuning out noise at the moment. I've got my neighbor's bass booming through the living room wall. Somebody's running a leaf blower in the yard next door, and the telephone is ringing. Judging by my wife and other "normal" people I know, that may be an awful lot of racket happening in one moment, but it wouldn't be overwhelming. It certainly wouldn't cause cogent thoughts to be cast out of their ears like dandelion seeds into the wind as it does for me. I'm left wishing desperately for silence. Wait! My wish was granted. I have but a few precious moments perhaps before a new onslaught of sound drives my thoughts out into the wind again. Ah, I waited too long. The leaf blower is going again. This pandemonium in my brain isn't only brought on by multiple streams of sound. (There goes the phone again) It can be brought on b...

In the spirit of Father's Day , I thought I'd begin this article with a story about my dad, the King of the Short Cut . It's not that all his "short cuts" are truly short cuts. It's just that he tries so many possible "short cuts" he gets lucky. Why does he risk being late or getting lost when he could take the tried and true approach each time? Because he has AD/HD and taking the same route each time is boring. Finding a new route to an old destination, especially a better, faster route, is the sort of thing that tickles his fancy. When he was a young man he had a job driving a delivery truck. He loved short cuts even then, but unfortunatley one of his "short cuts" backfired on him. Instead of saving time he made a terrible mistake. He drove the truck under a bridge with inadequate clearance. Jammed the truck in there nice and tight. I don't believe he kept the job long after that. As they say, the apple doesn't fall too far fro...

Boy, do I feel like a dope. I'm sitting here stuck offline for the nineteenth day without internet because I forgot to schedule fiber optic internet before I canceled my cable internet service. Oh, sure. It's not my fault the fiber guys forgot to inform me I needed landlord permission signed in triplicate and date stamped by a passing unicorn before they could proceed but that does nothing to soften the sting right now. Even my daughters aren't happy with me. It's hard to be the "Cool Dad" when you cut your kids off from their email access. All is not lost, however. Today I read something interesting. According to Hallowell and Ratey's Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults people with AD/HD are sharp cookies even if they've left out the eggs and flour before baking. 9. Often creative, intuitive, highly intelligent. Not a symptom, but a trait deserving of mention. Adults with ADD often have unusually creative minds. I...