ADHD

ADHD — 4 Comments
3
Mar 09

Ever Been Distracted By Clip Art?

While finishing up the post from yesterday about what it is like to have ADD, I went to find a picture to go with the post.  I spent over 11 minutes on this screen. (I have an electronic timing software on my computer so I can bill clients for my work, and it catches everything.)

clip organizer

I didn’t find an image like the one I wanted.  Normally, that would have sent me off on an hour long search for better clip art, but I have implemented a rule for myself that when it comes to blog posts, I am only allowed to use Microsoft Clip Organizer for clip art.  It’s not that I think it is the best source of clip art, but I know that if I start looking at other sites, I’m going to find posts and links and pictures that intrigue me, and I will end up losing a lot of precious time by following and read each interesting item.

That is another example of what it is like to have ADHD.

Even with my rule, I still spent a crazy amount of time on that one screen.  Why?

It’s not like I remember every thought I had (ADD remember?) but I do remember some of them.  In no particular order, here is what caused my own ADD brain to get bogged down on this seemingly minor task.

  • The two images at the top with the gold globe head look like skeletons, are they?
  • Previewing the images says no, but they are really kind of cool.  I wonder if there is a way to search by who created the images because maybe there are a bunch of these and you could use them as a theme sometime on some project or website.
  • Why is there an empty boardroom table, but not one with people around it?
  • The cartoon ones in the middle aren’t even in a meeting.  There is just one of them, a boy one, and a girl one, holding a pen.  Doesn’t anybody proof these?  Maybe I should build a clip art gallery site.
  • An empty movie theatre type room is not a meeting either.
  • I wonder if Microsoft pays someone to draw these so they have a full clip-art thing?
  • Maybe I should check another site…oh,wait, I’ll just get distracted – Hey, that would make a great Addessories post.
  • Note, I was only supposed to write one post today.  I have other things with pressing deadlines waiting, and until I typed this sentence, I had forgot all about them.
  • Don’t worry, they are on my task list that I printed this morning.
  • And left on the printer.
  • I should get it.
  • Ok, now where was I?
  • Oh, man, how much more time did you waste writing this post?
  • Just finish up real fast.
  • What else was I stalled by on the site?
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • .
  • Oops.  Never mind, the word counter says almost 500 words.  Just sign off and get back to work.

Um…bye.  I have to go do…well, one of these things on the task list.

Now, I just need a clip art for this post…..

(Ed. note – there is no clip art because I was out of coffee and went to get some.  When I came back I wasn’t interested in this post anymore, so I used the time / task list as an excuse and just hit post instead.)

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ADHD — 2 Comments
2
Mar 09

What Is It Really Like to Have ADD?

meeting The most frequently asked question about ADD / ADHD is what it is like to have it.

The catch is that most of the symptoms that make up ADD sound like regular personality traits or quirks that everyone has in some degree.  For example, the hallmark symptom of ADHD is being easily distracted.  But, many people will mention that they also get distracted.  In an effort to clarify, an example would be in order.  That is the second catch; it is tough to come up with examples of what ADD is like off the top of your head, because it something that happens every day, so it isn’t like anything sticks out.

People With ADD / ADHD Are Easily Distracted

The main symptom for ADD is distractibility.  But, doesn’t everyone get distracted?

The answer, of course, is yes, but it is how easily that one gets distracted, and what that distraction causes that separates ADD from normal distraction.

ADHD means being distracted by clipart

Example of ADD / ADD Behavior

Adam and Tom are sitting around a conference room table in a meeting.

Adam has ADD.

Paul does not.

The meeting is long and boring.  Both Paul and Adam are having trouble paying attention.  This is not ADHD or ADD, it is just a normal reaction to boredom and sitting still for a long period of time.

Outside, a fire truck drives by the window.  Both Paul and Adam look up at the sound of the siren and watch the flashing lights go by.  Both men are distracted from the speaker and the meeting.  Again, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

After a few minutes, Paul returns his gaze to his notepad and then turns back to listen to the speaker.  Paul is still bored, but he knows that his boss expects him to pay attention, so that is what he does.  For non-ADD sufferers, there are things that are distracting and it can be hard to pay attention to something boring.  But, when the realize they aren’t paying attention, they bring themselves back to the task at hand.

This is where Adam’s and Paul’s minds diverge.  Like Paul, Adam was distracted by the fire truck.  Unlike Paul, Adam still has not returned his attention to the meeting.  Instead, he is still looking out the window.

As the truck drove away, Adam tried to calculate whether he heard another siren or just the echo of the firetruck’s siren.  Then, he noticed the grass outside the window was browner than usual.  He thought back over the last week or two’s weather and didn’t remember it being any hotter than normal, so there was probably something wrong with the sprinklers.  That, or maybe they had just changed the settings to save money, or the environment.  In fact, he had tried to lower his sprinkler settings last week and his grass started to turn brown too.

That reminds Adam that he meant to fertilize his lawn last week and he forgot, again!

From there, Adam thinks about what else he needs at the hardware store.  He thinks about how the office supply store is near the hardware store and he needs toner too.  Plus, he was supposed to call his sister.

Then, a squirrel runs across the grass and up the tree.  Adam stares at the tree trunk even though the squirrel has long since ascended to the branches.  His gaze is locked on the tree trunk as various thoughts about what kind of tree that is, how old it must be to be that big, and whether or not the squirrel lives in that tree or just ran up it for another reason, all float through his head.

It’s been four or five minutes when Adam’s boss has had enough.  He has to say Adam’s name twice before Adam is startled out of his thoughts and returns his focus to the room.  He look’s up at his boss, now fully aware that he has not been paying attention.

“Would you like us to just finish this meeting so you can go outside for recess?” his boss says.

The Difference Between the ADD Mind and the Standard Mind

The difference between Paul and Adam was not that one of them was bored and the other was not.  Nor was it that one of them was distracted by the siren and one was not.

The difference is that Paul realized he had been distracted and manually forced himself to return his attention to the meeting.

Adam’s mind had did not notice that he had been distracted having left all thoughts regarding the meeting somewhere in the back of Adam’s mind.  Instead, it continued to pay attention to other things.

People who are ignorant about ADD often say things like, “Just make yourself pay attention.”  That is a good answer, but only if you realize you are not paying attention, and that is the crux of the issues caused by ADD.

Adam would have “forced himself” to pay attention if only he had realized he wasn’t.  But, because his brain was preoccupied with other things, he never had the chance to manually change his focus back where it belonged.

And that, is what makes ADD immune to willpower.

ADHD — No Comments
12
Jan 09

ADD and Planners

Thinking about buying a new planner, calendar, or datebook?

Consistently using a planner or time keeper of some sort is a great way for someone with ADD-ADHD to help keep track of appointments and to-do lists as well as a central location to store important things like addresses and phone numbers.  But, the wrong planner can cause just as much difficulty as it can help.

Get The Right Planner

To get the right planner is an exercise of matching up your lifestyle and specific ADD/ADHD  traits with an available planner.  How do you do that?

First, match your planner or date book to your lifestyle.

Before you decide about daily, weekly, or monthly planners, look at how your days typically work.  Do you have several meetings scheduled each day at specific times?  Or, do you have a list of to-dos each day, but no specific times?  Or, is your life one where you have many different projects with deadlines and milesotnes, but where the exact date that things happen isn’t important?

Most planners have a list of times for each day.  That is fine if you are a salesperson with meetings at 9:00am, 10:30, 1:15 and so on.  But, if you are a computer programmer with just two meetings scheduled per week (maybe a team meeting on Tuesday and another meeting on Friday afternoons) then all of those times running down the side might just be distracting.

Since we aren’t looking for MORE distractions, you might want to look for a planner without the times, or at least where the times are easily ignored (small non-stand out font).

Next, it is time to decide what time-frame you need for you planner.  Daily planners have lots of room for each day, but tend to be bigger and heavier which means you might be less likely to use it consistently.  Monthly planners don’t have much room for each day, but might be very useful for tracking deadlines.  Weekly planners often offer a nice middle ground between the two.

Lastly, get a planner without a lot of “noise”.  Some planner makers seem to think that the more stuff they print on each page, the better the planner.  That is NOT true for those of us with ADD / ADHD.

Avoid planners that insist on printing the name of the month, days, and who knows what else in multiple languages.  All of that extra text is nothing but a distraction waiting to happen.  (Hey, I didn’t know the French word for Wednesday.  It sounds like the Latin word.  Well, at least I think it does.  Maybe I should look it up…)

Also, avoid planners that put a bunch of useless information in the planner to make it thicker.  You don’ t need to know what time it is in Turkistan, nor do you need to know how to convert hectares to acres (or at least you won’t need to know it when you are doing your planning.)

Calendar makers cram all of this in to make their planners seem more impressive, but it is just wasted space and extra weight.  If you can’t find one that you like without a load of extra junk, grab an exacto-knife or razor and cut those pages out.  Your planner will be lighter and smaller, and you’ll be more likely to use it.

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