ADD Humor ADHD — No comments
19
Mar 13

ADD Cell Phone Status

I think I’ll turn this into an ADD infographic later, but for now, so I don’t forget it, here is the ADHD cellphone status sheet in text format.

add cell phone adhd graphic

Cell Phone Status – Not Expecting Call

  • Location: Laying around somewhere, probably with my keys… or wallet.
  • Ringer: Still on silent from when I turned it off in that meeting two days ago. (Becoming vaguely aware of the fact that no one has called in a while.)
  • Charge: Probably still has battery. I haven’t called anyone in a while.
  • Concern Level: I’ll look at it eventually. If it was important, they would have emailed, or messaged, or Skyped, or posted on Facebook. I should check Tumblr just in case.

Cell Phone Status – Expecting a Call

  • Location: Sitting on desk right next to me. Wait, better double-check. Yep, there it is. Is it ringing?
  • Ringer: Deafening. Hopefully the neighbor’s baby isn’t asleep when someone calls.
  • Charge: 100%, and still plugged in. I hope it lasts long enough…
  • Concern Level: Hyper-vigilant. I’ve checked the ringer four times in the last hour. I keep looking at it just to see if it lights up just in case the speaker went out after the last call. I’ve tested it by calling my voicemail, and by calling my cell from another phone. Maybe I should test it again.

Here’s a link to a post about Credit Karma.

If you can’t tell, I’m expecting a call today.

Hope your day is full of adventure and success.

ADHD-ADD Tips — No comments
11
Mar 13

Little ADD Tricks

Sometimes, all it takes is a little tweak to make your life with ADD more successful and easier to manage. Unfortunately, we ADDers often spend all of our time looking for those big life adjustments. While it is true that having ADHD can require big lifestyle changes, the little day-to-day things that get lost are actually the ones that can have the greatest immediate impact on our lives.

Small ADHD Tricks and Adjustments

As you go through your day, think about little things you could do to help you remember, focus, and manage your daily life just a little better. Today’s tip from yours truly is on the tip of my brain because I’m heading to the grocery store.

add-tips-tricks graphicOf course, no ADDer gets through the grocery store without some distraction. I find a list to be very helpful. I actually have two lists. One list contains the ingredients that I need for the meals I’ve planned out. The other list contains all of those little lifestyle things that you end up needing, things like batteries, shampoo, coffee filters, and so on. The second list, I keep on a whiteboard in the kitchen where I can write those things down right away so I don’t forget them between when I think of it, and when I end up with a piece of paper. I just take a picture of the list on the whiteboard when I head out. That way, whether I end up at Target or Safeway, or whatever, I can be sure to remember the toilet paper.

Today’s ADD trick is about coupons. I have one of those educational coupon books you buy from your kids as a fundraiser at school. Some of the most valuable coupons in the book are for $5 off of groceries. Each one is good for a certain two month time period. The problem is that I always forget to use them. First, I leave them at home. Then, when I finally put them in my wallet, I forget to give it to the cashier. After a while, I forget it is even in my wallet at all, and I find it months later after it is already expired.

ADD Tip for Coupons

Fortunately, a little ADHD tip occurred to me not too long ago. I always use the same credit card to pay for my groceries. This is both habit and it helps with money management. Now, when I remember the coupon and head to the store, I fold it around the card I use to pay. That way, I CAN’T forget it. It is in the way when I go to pay.

The result?

I actually use the $5 off coupon every two months and end up saving $30 over the course of the year, more than offsetting the $10 I paid for the coupon book. Everything else in there ends up just being money saving gravy!

What little tips do you use in your daily life?

ADHD Research Studies — No comments
06
Mar 13

ADHD Study Suggests Higher Suicide Rate in Adults

A recent study published in Pediatrics has a couple of potentially interesting conclusions. The first conclusion is that ADD from childhood often persists into adulthood. That isn’t news to anyone who reads this website, but you know me, I like my knowledge backed up by published science. The researchers used a sample of 5,700+ children associated with the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and found 367 were diagnosed with ADHD as children. They then followed up with that same pool as adults when they were approximately 29 years old. 232 of the original pool allowed access to their medical records.

ADHD Continues into Adulthood

The researchers found that approximately 30 percent of the adults who were diagnosed with ADD as children continue to have ADD as adults. In other words, about a third of children diagnosed with ADHD as kids will still have ADHD as adults. That isn’t new information. Most of us ADDers on here know all too well that ADD doesn’t necessarily go away once you turn 18 years old, despite the fact that health insurance companies like to stop covering it then.

The percentage is a new confirmation of just how many adults who had ADD as kids end up with it in adulthood as well.

ADD May Have Higher Suicide Risk and Other Risks

Another interesting tidbit of this particular study is statistically valid finding of a higher incidence of suicide in the population of people diagnosed with ADD as children. Before anyone goes and freaks out, the raw numbers aren’t quite as scary. Out of the 367 people in the study who were diagnosed with ADHD as children, three of them had committed suicide by the time the study was done. In contrast, 7 people in the larger pool of nearly 5,000 non-ADD participants committed suicide. While statistically relevant, it does NOT suggest that people with ADHD are doomed in anyway.

new add research graphicAlso not new information, was the finding that people diagnosed with ADHD have a higher incidence of other mental health issues. Called co-morbid indicators for ADD, these other mental health issues most commonly included depression and alcoholism.

What was new information for me was that these higher incidences of metal health problems were also indicated for the population that had ADD as children, but did not continue to have ADD as adults. This may feed into the thought that ADD is a smaller subset of a larger, as of yet, not understood mechanism acting within the brain.

As always, the key is to get the help you need when you need it and then adjust your life accordingly. There is always plenty to enjoy in life no matter who you are. Play to your strengths, and pursue your interests. You’ll still forget stuff and leave important things laying around, but you’ll have plenty of fun along the way.

ADHD Traits — No comments
21
Feb 13

Forgetting While Doing

Sometimes, it can be difficult to convey just how extreme the distractibility of ADD / ADHD can be. The best way, of course, is to related concrete ADD examples. Unfortunately, they don’t always spring to mind upon command. Today, my mind was kind enough to produce and example for me :)

Getting Distracted While Getting Started

forgot what I started graphicToday, I was sitting in the library reading a programming book when a thought occurred to me. The timing was fortuitous, because I wanted to pick up some books on the topic. I finished reading to a break on the page, placed a bookmark, pulled out my library card, logged into the catalog computer, and… nothing.

I couldn’t remember what the thought was that had prompted this course of action. I sat there and tried to remember. I re-opened the book to see if looking at the page would re-trigger the thought. I re-read the page I was on to see if that jogged anything.

Nothing.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember what it was I wanted to get those books about. Whatever it was, was important enough to get me to stop what I was doing. Since I was interested in the material I was reading, that means it carried some weight, or I would have kept reading and tried to remember it for later. But, try as I might, I can’t pull the thought back up. I’m sure it will occur to me later, hopefully, I be able to better remember it then.

The point is that while executing the tasks required to carry out a deliberate function, my mind got so caught up in the mechanics of getting ready to search for the necessary books, that it lost track of what it was I was wanting to look for. It is the difficulties of this kind of distraction that makes things like writing it down, or leaving yourself a voicemail, insufficient solutions.

For whatever it is worth, I’m not currently taking my Adderall. It’s things like this that I wonder if the ADD medication helps, and not the “bigger” things that maybe are easier to notice.

Onward.

 

ADHD Traits — No comments
26
Apr 12

Overcorrecting ADD Behavior

My office is a nightmare. The shelves are crammed with what was originally placed on the shelf, plus all of the things that were stuffed on to of those things. There are file folders on top of books, there are books on top of files, the lesser used printer has stuff that can’t be chanced with getting lost on one of those full shelves. Behind me, the floor is piled high with papers, file boxes, laptop bags (I seem to collect them), and plenty more stuff. The irony is that while I have never been a neat person, my office never used to get this bad. It is truly terrible now, thanks to me being diagnosed with ADD, but not for the reason you think.

Correcting ADHD Behavior

Many have noted that being diagnosed with ADHD can actually be liberating at first. There is a great sense of relief at knowing the name for what has been going on for all these years. Frankly, Attention Deficit Disorder isn’t really all that scary sounding. To me, that sounds way better than something like depression or even Seasonal Affected Disorder, with its unfortunate acronym telling you exactly how to feel about that one.

However, after a while, ADD becomes like any other chronic condition. You start to try and fix it, or manage it in some ways. There are often two components of ADD treatment. One is often ADHD medication, the other is behavior modification or therapy, usually in conjunction with a health professional or ADD coach. Either way, the self-aware ADDer will eventually become aware of at least some of the things that his or her ADD seems to propagate within their personality.

For me, the biggest problem I have in the entire world is procrastination. I have no doubt that I could have had success a hundred-fold above and beyond everything I have ever achieved in any arena in life if I could just stop procrastinating and get things done at even a semi-reasonable pace. Many ADDers report being unable to adequately focus and get going until a deadline looms. For me, the deadline must often pass, and the consequence be severe before I can get going. It is the one thing that I would gladly change about myself.

Knowing this, shortly after being told I have ADD I noticed myself organizing my office ahead of a huge, important project, with a very looming deadline. Like many ADDers, I had a reasonable excuse for this ADD trait kicking in. After all, I would be much more productive if everything were organized neatly and I could find what I was looking for right away.

The catch, of course, is that a full office organization of this kind can take hours, precious hours that should be spent on the task at hand. Organizing would have been helpful last week. Doing some of the 20 hours of work that are left before the deadline 12 hours away, would be much, much, more helpful. And so, I stopped.

Unfortunately, that was years ago and I haven’t really organized since. Every time I even think about organizing a list of important things to do floods my mind and I feel guilty for moving around even one scrap of paper, believing that what I am doing is procrastinating. Frankly, that is what I’m doing sometimes, but doing that occasionally would likely be better than getting to where the current state of my office is.

This is a sneaky ADD issue to avoid successfully. Often, in our attempts to better ourselves and “make up” for the various character trait of ADHD that cause us distress, we overreact. Shifting too far is often no better than staying where you were on the behavior spectrum. It can be difficult to see when you have overreacted, but there are some signs to look for.

Signs You Have Overcorrected for ADD

  1. You set a hard and fast rule – Life isn’t static. Things change. Organizing isn’t always procrastinating. Sometimes it is good, even necessary. If you have a “never” or “always” lurking in your mind, you may have overcompensated.
  2. The new situation is just as bad – Never cleaning leads to a state just as bad or worse than cleaning too often, or at the wrong times.
  3. You feel bad about doing something – Adjusting to ADD is about understanding how your mind works and making tweaks to the things that you want to in order to achieve your own goals, which should be primarily about happiness. If you’ve set up a structure that makes you feel bad about doing something, then chances are you’ve overcorrected. Stop and think about what you actually feel bad about. Should you really feel bad about that? Feeling bad about cleaning or organizing is not what I wanted. I wanted to be sure that I was doing it for the right reason at the right time, but it progressed to just feeling wrong about doing it at all. If you feel bad about overeating or not exercising or yelling at a spouse, that makes sense. I’m fine with feeling bad about those things. But if it doesn’t seem right that you feel negatively about something, then it probably isn’t.

Have you overcorrected  any of your ADD traits? What kinds of ADHD symptoms have you gone too far with?

ADHD Traits — 2 comments
16
Apr 12

You Might Have ADD If…

Jeff Foxworthy does this stand-up comedy bit where he goes through a list of things that, if true about you, might make you a redneck. My personal favorite is, “If you mother does not take the Marlboro out of her lips before telling the state trooper that he can kiss her ass… you might be a redneck.”

My dad’s, who grew up on a farm, favorite is “If you have ever unloaded a pickup truck by driving backwards really fast and slamming on the breaks… you might be a redneck.” He’ll then add, by way of explanation, that that is the fastest way to unload a pickup truck.

I’ve often thought of doing a set of these for ADD. “If you ever <did something>, then you might have ADD.”

Unfortunately, I often forget them before I can compile any sort of list. I figured that if I started chronically them here as I came up with them, then I might get my list of funny ADD traits together faster. Ironically, I had a really great one yesterday that is currently playing hide and seek with my mind. I’m sure it will come to me, again, when I’m somewhere that remembering it will be totally useless to me, like in the shower, or in the car, or while giving a presentation.

Anyway, I had an ADD Moment today that I think would make a decent one. Here goes:

“If you’ve ever been to the fridge to get something you just bought at the store and been unable to find it… because it was still on the counter, you might have ADD.”

It’s a work in progress.

This one came to me because I went to the store this morning. I did not forget the groceries in the back of the car (Score!), but I did have to go to the bathroom as soon as I got them all into the house. After finishing my restroom business, I went about my daily business, only to come back a half an hour later to be surprised by all the groceries still on the counter.

Fortunately, everything was still frozen or cold, as necessary, and I got them all put away.

At times like these, I try and replay what happened in my head. I like to see where I got distracted or where my train of thought derailed. This was one of those times where everything was so rote that I’m not sure I was actively thinking anything at all. At least I can’t remember anything running through my head.

I probably just threw on the autopilot to go into the bathroom and didn’t resume full control until I had moved on to something else.

Update: I just thought of another one.

If you remember that you haven’t eaten lunch yet… at dinner time… you might have ADD.

How’s your Monday?

ADD Medication — No comments
10
Apr 12

Wellness Formula for ADD ADHD

Regular readers of Addessories know that I’m all about real research, real data, and real science. I don’t go in for fake ADD cures or treatments, and I certainly don’t believe in miracle pills that claim to treat almost anything that has to do with the brain. So, you’ll forgive me if I head into crackpot territory.

ADD Wellness FormulaFirst, this is something that I have noticed for ME. There is no science, no data, and not even the company that makes Wellness Formula makes any sort of claim about ADD. But, for some reason, it seems that Wellness Formula helps with ADHD symptoms from the confusion, fuzzy thinking side of things.

Let’s back up and take this from the beginning.

What Is Wellness Formula?

Wellness Formula is a pill from Source Naturals, sold at Whole Foods, among other places, that helps with overall “wellness.” If wellness seems pretty vague, you are right. Basically, I take it when:

  1. I’ve been around or are going to be around sick people
  2. I go to the doctors office (sick people)
  3. I start feeling sick
  4. I get a sore throat
  5. I feel a little bit “off”

You get the idea.

Basically, to me, Wellness Formula can best be described as a pill that contains every vitamin, herb, root or supplement that has been shown to have a beneficial effect on preventing or shortening the effects of the common cold. Or, as the company puts it, things that support the immune system.

Echinacea? It’s in there.

Vitamin C? B? A? Yep, yep, yep

Garlic Clove? Check.

Elerberry, Goldenseal, Astragalus, Ginger, Grape seed, you name, it’s in there.

In other words, if one of those things works, you are covered. The rest I guess are filler.

Wellness Formula Helps ADD?

Now, here is where we get from colds to ADD symptoms.

Sometimes, my head just doesn’t feel right. It might be fuzzy, slow, apathetic, blah. Use your favorite word for just not quite firing on all cylinders. When that happens, sometimes, I throw a Wellness Formula pill down my throat with the rest of my vitamins.

What I have noticed as I’ve tried to monitor my ADHD more closely now that I’m off (at least temporarily) the Adderall is that it seems surprisingly effective on that fuzzy, cloudy, uncaring mental state that is an ADD symptom for some people. The reason I notice it so much is that it seems very connected to my ADD, but is not necessarily one of my “everyday” symptoms.

If you ever have to sort of discombobulated feeling going around in your head and you want to try and do something for it, and are willing to go a little out there on the ADD alternative treatment branches, try Wellness Formula. It might not help, or it might just be a placebo affect, but it can’t really hurt, and it might just keep you from getting sick :)

Have you ever tried Wellness Formula for ADD? Do you have other kooky, regular, vitamins or supplements that seem to inexplicably work for you?

 

ADHD News — 1 comment
19
Feb 12

ADD ADHD What I Do Meme

For those of you who spend a lot of time on the internet (and let’s face it, a lot of us with ADD do), you may have seen something called the “What I Do” meme. It’s basically an image, usually two rows of three columns with pictures depicting things like, “What my mom thinks I do,” and “What society thinks I do,” finally ending with “What I really do.”

Here is an example of one I found for writers:

What I Do Writer Meme

As you can see, the whole thing is a joke that pokes fun at both the perceptions of someone as well as actually poking fun at the person the meme is about. There are thousands of these things out there about just about any topic or profession you can think of. Ironically, a significant number of them show Moms thinking that the  person in question hangs out getting drunk. I’m not sure what that says about many professions and hobbies, or what it says about mothers, but that is not our topic for the day.

Someone sent me a What I Do – ADD / ADHD one of these. Now, before anyone goes crazy about how attention deficit disorder and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is no laughing matter, let me remind you that

a) I have ADD

b) laughter is the best medicine

c) it’s a JOKE!

So without further ado, the What I Do ADD Joke Meme:

What I Do ADD ADHD Meme

 

By the way, I think this could be funny without using the cliche of getting lost in the middle of doing something. ADD isn’t really always like that, of course. Still there is some comedy gold in ADD and ADHD if you are willing to remember that your life is not only as full and rich as everyone else’s, it can also be just as funny as well :) That being said, when I get some free time, I think I’ll punch out a few of these that are maybe just as funny, while being a bit more clever.

 

Related articles
ADHD Traits — No comments
06
Dec 11

ADD Blogging Writing with ADHD

I sat down nearly two hours ago to write a post for this oft neglected ADD blog. What happened? Well, not to put too fine a point on it: ADD.

Let me start by saying that I don’t “blame” my ADHD for things. That is neither productive, nor completely accurate. However, it is often the case that I look back and smile when I can see the ADD traits unfolding as I recall recent events.

Let’s start by clarifying what I mean by sitting down to write a post.

English: Symptoms of ADHD described by the lit...What I really mean is that I was looking at the analytics for my personal finance blog at FinanceGourmet when I noticed that the traffic had blipped back up here at Addessories. Curious, I got distracted (Hey, look! Something shiny) and started looking at what posts here were getting increased traffic. Eventually, I hit the big Addessories text at the top of the screen to get back to the home page where I noticed that is has been a very long time since I last wrote here. Doh!

Thus, I decided to write an ADD tips post for this ADHD blog.

To write the post, I entered the WordPress dashboard. So far, so good.

I noticed that a few of the plugins needed to be updated (Uh, oh.)

Of course, I don’t want out of date plugins, so I checked them all and clicked update. When they were finished updating, I should have gone right back to writing, but it seemed like one of my usual plugins was missing. Unable to determine which one, I went and logged into my freelance writing blog in order to look at what plugins where installed there.

If you don’t know how this ends, you must be new here.

Anyway, long story, short, I ended up installing a new plugin, writing a blog post about it (Zemanta WordPress Plugin for Online Writers) at the writing blog and then found about a dozen other things to do including checking Facebook, looking to see when the Broncos play this weekend and checking my Google AdSense earnings.

If it makes anyone feel better, that graphic came from the Zemanta plugin, so it was worth installing :)

 

At this point in time, it is well after 10:00 p.m. and I have numerous things I must do before going to bed, some of which have been urgent for an hour or more, including getting a drink, and ironically, going to the bathroom.

What is the point of all this?

Nothing, other than further proof that I am definitely one of us. Oh, and, now I don’t feel so bad about not actually writing that update even though this one isn’t really too much of an update.

Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow (or the next day). Procrastination is the enemy of all, but especially those of us with the inattentive form of ADD.

See you later.

ADHD News — No comments
18
Oct 11

ADHD ADD Awareness Week

Apparently, there is an ADHD Awareness Week. It’s going on right now.

And, why not? There is an awareness week, day or month for pretty much everything that exists, good and bad.

calendarI’m not a big fan of "awareness." It’s not that I don’t think it is a bad thing for people to be aware, it’s just that these days, weeks and months accomplish just about as much as those anti-smoking commercials on TV. I mean, seriously, is there anyone left anywhere in a America who doesn’t know that smoking is bad for them? Is there really someone in Cleveland right now, who, if he just saw a commercial that showed a bunch of people pretending to die in front of a cigarette company’s headquarters, that he would stub out his last cigarette ever?

Likewise, are there really teachers, bosses, parents, students who have never heard of ADD/ADHD?

The reality is that people are aware or not aware of what they choose. Furthermore, even if they are aware of something, they care or do not care according to how they choose. Awareness, at least the kind of awareness practiced by the PR types who run these things, accomplishes nothing.

Next week, most people in America will know what ADD is. The same amounts of those people will think it is a sham or not, and the same amounts of people will have it.

Let’s call these things what they really are. Feel better about yourself by connecting with others who have, know someone who has, or otherwise is affected by ADHD, and raise some money while we are at it week.

If you are interested in the official version, you can check it out here: http://www.adhdawarenessweek.org/

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