A Splintered Mind

Time for a Writing Update! What? Don't bail yet! Nope. Too late. I lost them. Apparently, quite a few people spend less than five seconds on this page before leaving for shinier pastures. That people searching for ADHD articles on the net get bored and leave in under five seconds must break a record for irony somewhere. But you stayed with me, didn't you? So let's ignore the ironically challenged and move on. Although I have been busiest with my new, annoying friend, Insomnia McEvil, there has been progress on the writing front. I thought I would let you know what I've been up to. Then, as the list of writing projects grew, I suddenly realized that I had become victim of that old malady Multi Irons Syndrome . Everybody struggles with having too many irons in the fire from time to time, but adults with ADHD are positively experts at it. We don't mean to build with our own hands the obstacles that get in the way of our success, but something about new i...

I’m not very excited about the Apple Watch. You could say my level of interest is only somewhat higher than I regard floor wax. Don’t get me wrong. I am impressed with its gorgeous stylings and design. I certainly think that it is beautifully made. I’m just not very interested in it, and I believe my ADHD is partially at fault, though most of the blame I lay on Apple. Every time that Apple comes out with a new product, the internet is filled with griping and grousing from anti-Apple fans who seem to resent that Apple gets a lot of press. Oh, I realize they feel Apple is overhyped, but for the most part their complaint stems from them not being Apple fans. There is flak from the Android guys. There is guff from the PC guys. Now the anti-corporate-greed crowd has a new reason to mobilize due to the Apple Watch Edition being expensive—because apparently rich people shouldn’t be allowed to waste their money the way we poor folk do. Somewhere somebody feels that...

There is always one inciting moment that sends me off on an Internet safari of discovery. Most days I can pinpoint the moment and say, “Aha! There’s where I went astray!” On mornings like today, however, neck deep in distractions with multiple tabs opened on no less than three different devices, I have no idea when my “get up and get busy” became “get down and get funky”, but I sure had fun. There is no tip for you today beyond the importance of not beating yourself up when your mind strays. Sometimes our adult ADHD minds need to spin without focus—to return to their natural state before we whip them back into shape. What I like to do in these instances is turn my distractions into something productive. So this is me turning my distraction into a writing exercise. That’s it. Lesson over. Can I share my trip down the rabbit hole with you now? This is probably the most off-topic, self-indulgent article I have ever written here, but I h...

Today I had my 400,000th unique visitor to this blog. ¹ These days roughly 5000–6000 unique people each month visit my site. It is a far cry from just my ex-mother-in-law dropping by when I started nine years ago. I have met so many wonderful people over the years with so many different stories & struggles. Your support, coupled with the various experiences that have shaped me and helped me mature this past near decade, have made me better—even wiser. Today was a landmark day for another reason. I emailed my editor the last edits for my book on overcoming suicide . I was supposed to be done writing that book, but as I started formatting my book in anticipation of her edits, I thought of better ways to express certain concepts. She’s about half way through the book now, though she will have to go over some of those chapters again now that I’ve changed them, but then I will put it all together and send out beta-reader copies. Very soon, it will be finished and ...

I recently posted a new article about procrastination over at my Family Guy blog. It was originally intended to be about keeping promises, but became about finishing projects. I have this project, you see. A glorious, unfinished project that I’ve been dying on for some time. It’s a rundown, formerly gorgeous dollhouse, and if I’m not careful, my daughter will have daughters before I get around to refinishing it! Three years have passed now since I said I’d finish it by Christmas, so I’ve decided to do something about it. Projects are easy to procrastinate when they are out of your sight. That’s one reason why the garage never gets cleared out, the taxes in a box under the recyclables you keep meaning to deliver never get filed, and any other number of glorious, unfinished projects that you’ve been meaning to get around to are still waiting for you to get around to them. I’m pretty good about tackling projects, but this one escaped m...

I'm not sure what you perceive about me from what I write here, but in my daily life I focus on pushing myself beyond my limits. I haven't met a limit I respect yet, and I am always looking for ways to do an end run around them. However, I do recognize limits. I have to. You can't design effective coping strategies if you don't recognize your limits. The important distinction is that recognizing isn't the same as accepting.   For instance, I know that in order to write for a living, I will need to write thousands of words a day—thousands of focused words on a defined project, not random ramblings online. To get there I set goals, such as my current words per day goal, then analyze what needs to change to meet that goal and go beyond it. When I sit down to write, I rarely stop at the minimum goal. The problem is that I don't sit down to write as regularly as I should. That there is my limit—in this case related to ADHD—so any goal that doesn't address that li...

Quotables: Blog Therapy: 7 Great Blogs About ADHD – ADDitude Magazine 25 Everyday Brain Boosts from Our ADHD Experts – ADDitude Magazine Turn the Page: 10 Great Books About ADHD – ADDitude Magazine The Best of the Best: Our Favorite Blogs About Life with ADHD – ADDitude Magazine ‘Cancer Is Just An Excuse’ – Insensitive Things People Say About Mental Illness, Translated – Yahoo News Articles Published in ADDitude Magazine: Trainwreck: My Life As an Idoit – Book Review Sounds Hammered My ADHD Brain Like Blows. Showdown with ADHD I Felt 20 Years of Deep Guilt. “I Have ADD and You Don’t” "After the Thrill: Avoiding a Hyperfocus Hangover" Articles Published at ADDitudeMag.com: My author page… Losing It over Losing My Wallet ADHD and Adrenaline: Perfect Together?! The Day I Over-Shared about My Daughters I Can’t Get on the Same Page as Everyone Else How My ADHD Anger Hurt My Marriage and Kids No One Wants to Live with the Hu...