09.27.07
Long Time No See…
OK well it’s been a while since I posted because I was out of town and forgot to post an “away notice”. Sorry!
One thing I thought about while on my trip is ADHD and driving. How are you all with driving? What about long distances?
I drove 3.5 hours and back to one destination for a business trip, and the driving required intense concentration. I was taking the “back roads”, so there were lots of turns and not very prominent signs. I got there on time, though, so it went well – but then I was exhausted!
Then, the day after I got home from that trip, I drove 4 hours to visit my mom (then 4 hours back a few days later). On this trip, it was pretty much one highway the whole way. The challenge on this trip was not zoning out – miles and miles straight down a highway. I occasionally found myself speeding, and almost missed my exit at the end since I was getting spacey, but overall that went by quickly.
I felt good for “combating” the long trips, but one person on the business trip thought I was silly saying 3.5 hours was long since she commutes about an hour each way to work every day, then takes business trips that involve 12+ hours of driving at a time.
I think I’m a decent driver, though I do seem to need to “try” harder than others to pay attention while behind the wheel. I’m pretty good about paying attention to other drivers, and I always leave a large gap between my car and the car in front of me to increase the time I have to react to sudden stops, but I’m not too good at remembering when to look at signs and I often pass by my turn and have to turn around.
Does anyone else want to comment how ADHD affects their driving?
09.16.07
I work well under pressure…
… but not well under stress.
Like if a deadline is looming (often because I have procrastinated) and I have to get something done overnight, I can often get it all done, and done well, because of that positive pressure and motivation to finish it all.
However, if there is stress in my life, or someone is negatively pressuring me and basically putting me down for having not gotten something done (even if they’re right), I almost get paralyzed on that work and can’t seem to do any of it. In fact, at that point, I can work on just about anything except the thing I’m getting the negative feedback about. Or, if there is any major stress in my “non-work-related” life, all work pretty much comes to a halt, which really only leads to more future stress.
Are any of you the same way? And is this an ADHD thing or something everyone experiences to some degree?
09.11.07
Blog Success Milestones
Well, just a few months into this blog and we’re achieving some milestones I want to celebrate!
Visits per week for the last 13 weeks
- KickMyADD is about to hit 2,000 visitors! Yay!
- KickMyADD is the “featured blog” for the ‘adhd’ WordPress tag! (What makes that happen?)
- If you search for ’supplement adhd’ (in that order) on Google, KickMyADD comes up on the first page! If you search for ‘goal setting and adhd’, KickMyADD is #2! (Thanks for the heads-up, blog stats page.)
- And most importantly…. I am still doing this blog after several months! I thought it may either be a flop and no one would visit, or I’d get bored and stop posting after a little while. But neither has happened and KickMyADD is still going strong!
Please post any feedback or suggestions for KickMyADD blog in the comments!
Truce
OK, this is a major development for me and I’m very happy about it:
My partner in business, life, and love told me yesterday that he has realized how hard it could be for me to do little things that he thinks should be easy (like grocery shopping and cooking), so he will take the pressure off of me and stop stressing me out by being so strict about doing these tasks “right”. This is a HUGE relief to me, and I am trying to use this opportunity to be better to him – to listen to him more since I see he has been listening to me.
Here are some shopping- and cooking-related things we have argued about in the past:
- I bring home the wrong brand of something and it tastes bad
- I forget to write something on the list that I think I’ll remember (like milk) and forget it
- I pick up things that I think we need and end up going to the cash register and having to put groceries on my credit card because I bought more than planned and didn’t have enough cash with me
- I forget to put something on at the right time while cooking a meal, so everything’s done except one side dish that will take another 20 minutes to cook while everything else gets cold
- I ruin some part of a meal because I wasn’t paying attention to it
Basically, I mess up with food a lot, and he is pretty picky about his food. So, I think this “truce” will be a big help to me, because I think the stress of thinking I’m going to do something wrong causes me to mess up more instead of less. So, with this pressure off, and knowing that a mistake won’t turn into a big argument, hopefully I’ll have better shopping experiences and remember more since I’m not so stressed about getting something wrong. Hopefully I can cook better, too, since I won’t be stressed out feeling like I’m about to get a disappointed look from him when the meal is served. (It’s stressful enough for me to try to coordinate making the meal, without the added pressure of worrying that I’ll get fussed at about it later!)
Without any direct prompting from me, he recognized what a stress this has been on me and promised to lighten up about it, and acknowledged that maybe my ADD makes things harder on me than he originally thought, and that I’m not just making excuses. What a man!!
On other related cooking notes, here’s a cool link to a new “ADD-Friendly” cooking site from the creator of Jeff’s A.D.D. Mind: Jeff the ADD Chef
09.08.07
Chiropractic Treatment can help Attention Span
Yet another reason I want to go to a chiropractor (when I have more money and better health insurance):
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/368789/study_chiropractic_care_helps_adults.html
Other People’s Blogs
Jeff ’s ADD Mind
I like this new blog I’ve been reading, called “Jeff’s A.D.D. Mind”:
http://jeffsaddmind.com/shoot-me-now-the-cure-for-adult-add-75.htm
He has found, like I have, that exercise and music can help alleviate the symptoms, too! That’s inspiration to help me get back into exercising, since I’ve been slacking in that department.
Oh, and he also makes piles of stuff, like I do.
Though, I might add as Jeff does, to keep this in mind: DNWFE
Shortattentionspan Man
The “ShortAttentionSpan Man” blog has 2 great posts detailing what it can be like to think with ADD. One account was posted by one of the blog’s authors, “Shortspan Man” here:
http://shortspan.wordpress.com/2007/09/06/the-way-my-mind-works/
And the other (hilarious) one that I’m sure many of you ADD readers will identify with, by the other of the blog’s authors, “Mr. Sidetrack” here:
http://shortspan.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/warts-on-a-hill/
Check them both out! And have a good weekend.
Update on Folder System
OK well it’s been 8 days that I’ve been using the folder system. So far, it hasn’t really helped me get any more done in a day, but it has helped majorly in other ways:
- My desk has about half as much clutter as it would this long after I last cleared it since the papers are all in the folders
- I find I can avoid hyperfocusing at the expense of an urgent task (which I sometimes do for fear of fogetting something later) by dropping a note to myself in the folder for a more appropriate day to focus on a task
- I have a “tactile” feel for how many different tasks I’ll need to think about in a day based on how many slips of paper are in a folder. I also can put off a task for another day without fear of forgetting it by just moving the slip of paper.
It’s a good feeling to get just a little more organized, enough that it makes a small but noticeable difference. I recommend the 31-day folder method!
09.03.07
Flax Oil, Omega-3s, ADHD
Here is a link to another blog where a lady is using Omega-3s (in the form of flax oil instead of fish oil) to help her son’s ADHD symptoms. She seems to have anecdotal evidence that it is working for him.
http://mrsghost.wordpress.com/2007/08/31/part-2-and-the-update/
