Alone With My Thoughts, Living With ADHD!

Published on July 29, 2005 By AKABrutus In Gaming

Recently I was diagnosed with Adult Attention deficit disorder or ADHD. I have trouble paying attention to what I should be, and overly concentrate on my own thoughts or other things that are going on around me. Looking back I know I’ve had this problem my entire life. I have no idea what caused it. Perhaps it was from watching too much Sesame Street and Electric Company when I was a kid?

In school it was very difficult to listen to the teacher with my mind constantly on other things. It was easier if the teacher was discussing something interesting, but if the subject was boring it could never compete with all the thoughts racing through my mind. Unfortunately I was not being graded on my thoughts.

Since my diagnosis my Doctor has put me on medication. Sorry Tom Cruise! As long as I’m taking it I do great, but if I get off of it for a significant amount of time my ADHD comes back into overdrive. A couple of weeks ago I had such an occurrence. I ran out of pills for about a week. I started this blog about the same time and sure enough I was completely wrapped up into it. I didn’t even notice the time I had been spending on the computer until my wife asked me if I had been taking my medication. She can tell when things are not quite right. It was pretty obvious that I was hyper-concentrating on the blogging and becoming oblivious to all else. After I got my pills again things went back to normal pretty quickly. I was able to get my mind off my blog and onto other things. I still work on my blog, but I make sure it doesn’t consume my every waking hour.

Having ADHD is can actually be a good thing if I can channel my attention to a worthwhile project. It gives me a burst of creativity, and I can come up with some pretty cool things because I’m able to concentrate my entire efforts into it. When I went back to college in my late 20’s I did very well because I was able to direct my attention into my schoolwork. As a result I got A’s in my classes. So the trick to controlling my ADHD is to consciously divert my attention to important matters and not let myself be distracted by meaningless pursuits. It doesn’t always work that way, but when it does great things can happen.

Now that I’m back on my medication it has been much easier to pay attention to other things. At home I can pay more attention to my family, and work has been much better since I can keep my mind on the job and not be so easily distracted. I wish I had of been diagnosed years ago. It would have saved me from a lot of problems.

I do worry that the medication will do away with those bursts of creativity, but so far it doesn’t seem to have happened. I’ll find out when I go back to college this fall. I may even do better since I’ll be able to pay more attention in class, even if the teacher is boring.

Now, what was I talking about again?

Comments

scatter629

on Jul 29, 2005

I better email your blog to my son who's afflicted with the same thing. It could help him refocus. Thanks for sharing!

AKABrutus

on Jul 29, 2005

scatter629.

Cool glad I can help! (c8

Toblerone

on Jul 30, 2005

Interesting article.

I'm doing a presentation soon on teaching people with ADHD (I'm doing a diploma of education). Do you any tips ou could give me? What sort of techniques could a teacher use to help someone with ADHD concentrate?

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