A colleague of mine was working a puzzle on her computer earlier this week and it got me wondering/analyzing.... It was a "real" puzzle--putting pieces of a picture together. Reminded me of my teaching days when I would set out puzzles for the kids to work on. Also reminded me of a time when I came home from college in a complete brain/heart/mind devastation sort of condition, and my mother had bought a puzzle for me to work on. She told me she thought I might like to work on it to "help me get better," and working that puzzle really did help!

Anyhoo...what do y'all think about ADHD and puzzles? I'm not talking about mind benders and brain teasers, etc., just the good ol' fashioned putting pieces together to make a bigger picture.

Some may run screaming from them, some may feel they're a wonderful way to relax--or hyperfocus! Perhaps it's a great "family time" activity....

Currently I'm thinking [deeper] along the lines of all the different analogies that could be drawn between the lives of ADDers and the act of putting together a puzzle.

I'm also thinking that "puzzle" is just a really funny-sounding yet cool-sounding word.... I love linguistics!

I kinda know what you mean. I know when I'm stressed a sorting trick taught to me did the trick: A box of color plastic clips, pour onto table, sort either by size or color... I normally do by color. I usually am calm after. I think its because we can hyperfocus or Vedge (What I call when you let your mind go) when we do this, puzzles do the same thing for me... I love them!! I even have ones using pictures on the computer. Very relaxing :D

Hey, I do the sorting thing too! I have a lot of collections - gaming dice, Magic cards, sorting those calms me down. Also, when I was younger, I had a humongous jar of pennies and I used to love sorting them by date... creating a sort of 3D bar graph of how many I had from each year... hehehe

Also Lego pieces too!

I'm the one running from puzzles and I can't stand sorting things. These activities just cause me more stress.... I think this is way I hate washing dishes so badly....

Paula

Well all you sorting people can come to my house and sort out my nuts and bolts and screws and nails

I have about 30 various size containers that a lot of them have sorted things in them but I also have about 20 containers that all need to be sorted and put in with the proper 30 containers of sorted stuff

Free Beer for the sorters

I hate puzzles I cant stand them! When I was younger my grandma used to make me sit at the table all alone for hours with a puzzle in front of me. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Same as board games to me. I never liked board games... other than Life, that was kinda fun. But the rest I hated, and my family are real game people so they were always trying to get me to play. That was the thing to do on vacation every night. We would be camping and every night after dinner they pull out the puzzles and board games..... course I never played, I went off and did my own thing, swimming, walkin to the store, sometimes I climbed a tree and watched them play from there.

the thought of a puzzel makes me cringe but I can sit at a dead computer for hours on end untill I figure out why its not working

I can build anything I want just by putting the peice's together in my mind and then transferring them to wood or whatever material I need

But a jigsaw puzzel or a crossword puzzel

I am so enveious of people who can do them

I watch my X-mother-in-law and the smile of satisfaction when she finds a piece is warm enough to melt ice.

I envy you guys

Paul... sorting legos... I've done that!!! My son has a collection and I love putting it away. As for puzzles, I sort those too.. I sort first the edge pieces from the "middle" pieces, then I sort by color.. I guess I am color orientated. ;)

Originally posted by Keppig
Paul... sorting legos... I've done that!!! My son has a collection and I love putting it away. As for puzzles, I sort those too.. I sort first the edge pieces from the "middle" pieces, then I sort by color.. I guess I am color orientated. ;)

Yeah, that's how I do a puzzle too. :D :D :D

My father is a jigsaw puzzle junkie....and the harder the better....ever see the ones that are extra tricky??? Where looking at the picture of the puzzle on the front of the box doesn't help? Or the ones that are two-sided???

As for me, I'm with Paula, LilMiss and Garry....hate them....my ADD brain looks at all the pieces and has severe paralysis of the thought processes and brain....i.e. WHERE/HOW do I start????:( :(
Totally overwhelmed, in other words....So I'll just grab any two pieces (thinking they will fit togehter, yuh right!) and when they don't, I QUIT....:(

Seems as if the ADD way to be is really like them (puzzles and sorting) or really hate them. Or those that don't feel strongly either way don't bother to respond top this forum...

I think I'm a middle grounder though. Think in a typical ADD way though, if it feels like play (ie MY play, not something imposed or suggested by anyone else) it's fun, it it's work it's unbearable.

Now I feel less susceptible to pressure from anyone else (I can take on or laugh off what I like) I can probably have a go at a jigsaw puzzle no problem because the goal doesn't matter much to me, I don't have to prove how quick I can do it, or finish it, I don't have to know in advance whether I will stop or how or when I will decide to stop, I can let the process take its course and observe it (ie myself doing it).

But I must admit this is a 'thought experiment' (probably why it reads so odd) for me as I haven't tried doing a puzzle for years. There is an awful lot of sorting I should do but cannot stand and can never get round to. 'Easy' sorting that doesn't matter can be relaxing, but it's the kind of thing that makes me feel guilty about what I should be doing so I wouldn't do it.

Usually can't resist mathematical and logical puzzles, though chess puzzles, which I have hyperfocused on once or twice in the past don't draw me any more. But you didn't mean these...

Sorting my lego was something my mum always wanted me to do and I never did. Can get my son to do it, but only superfast, with adrenaline (I usually have to join in - or 'shut my eyes' etc), otherwise it bores him silly.Coins I have sorted by date too. That's a kind of waiting room activity.

Jonathan: I TOO love chess and mathematical puzzles..and an occasional crossword puzzle......no they didn't mean these, you're right....but of course since I say I hate jigsaw puzzles that that implies I can't do ANYTHING....:( which of course isn't true.....

Ah yes, the crazy thought processes of my mind.....:(

i usually find when I am writing a song, it goes together not unlike a puzzle, bits here and there on the page disconnected, until i find the linking piece that fits them together, then voila its complete, exept for a few that stil have pieces missing 564 uncomplete songs to 16 complete ones though ;) :)

Steve >

Is an 'Out of Order' Toilet, in Chaos?? (Steve styles 2002)

I write poetry like that... hehehe :D

Is there a more tangible way to make order from chaos than completing a jigsaw puzzle? Since organization is my biggest hurdle, I love randomness like loose pieces literally coming together from my own efforts.

Exactly how I did my case study on a patient with colon cancer at school last year......it did not go from start to finish, point A to point B to point C, etc......to point Z....

It went from like point A to point L back to point D and then perhaps point Q....all points all over the place and then they came together....A,B,C,D, etc....to Z

This WAS my order from chaos....:)

The problem of course was being sane/serene while the chaos was still there......knowing it would not always be chaos....:)

Jigsaw puzzles wipe me out. I'm definately logic based so I tend to focus on analytical problems; rubiks cube, draw four lines to like the "join nine dots with four lines" kind of puzzles. Put a jigsaw in front of me...and you may as well take it away 2 hours later as not much progress will have been made. I like my jigsaws with no more than 30 pieces.

As for Leggo; I like building the structure, but am more worried about the structural integrity of my building; than the colour sequence. I suppose thats why they invested paint...bet they never thought they would see leggo painted though..lol

I also love doing IQ tests as to me, there just a puzzle game; and I always pass these with time to spare. Not mensa level; but I do quite ok.

My poetry...well thats another story. I'll just quietly put them away and pretend I didn't mention them.

Sleepz.

I LOVE jigsaw puzzles. Knowing that there HAS to be a solution makes me that much more determined to finish it!

Interesting thread, because we do lots of puzzles of many types (and sorting objects) with the people who have Alzheimer's. They call it occupational therapy, I don't know why, it is not like they have careers ahead of them. Maybe it is because it is something good to keep them occupied.

Those 3-d wood ones are pretty popular. Jigzaw puzzles are a little more difficult though. We have ones with a dozen or so pieces, like a toddler's but the subject matter of it is more geared toward adults. When I sense this one lady start to get panicky an worked up, I give her a bowl of poker chips. She will sort them or stack them and sometimes she will make patterns with them but it seems to calm her.

Some people like word games like you start the proverb and they finish it. "A bird in hand is worth..." sometimes they come up wiht some funny stuff. This one guy answered that one by saying "diddly squat." Another one is I put up a letter of the alphabet on a big dry erase board and they shout out words that begin with that letter. At least that's the idea:rolleyes:

That being said...I LOVE Tetris. Sometimes if I play too much I dream about it. That is a nightmare, especially the music:eek:

I am in between on puzzles. I like to do them, but if I struggle for a while I try harder and harder. I then get a big headache like my brain is tired and give up for a while. I only do them now about once a year. I can finish them, but not as quick as others.

Love puzzles - any kind. www.jigzone.com has puzzles from 6 pieces to 247 (i think) pieces you can do online.

www.crickler.com has a sort of crossword puzzle you can do.

but, i'm also the one who will do a counted cross-stitch and cut all the stitches out if they are off by one square.... drives my normie husband crazy! lol

And, fg - occupational therapy - therapy that keeps people's minds/hands busy i.e. occupied

LOL, Pembroke, I cut out the stitches, too. Thanks for the links. I will check them out with the kids.

Or worse, I will get so frustrated with the thing, that I just go work on a different area and when the areas touch, and don't match I feel like tearing out my hair. :mad: :rolleyes: :D

Jigsaws were about the only time i was really at peace as a child. I had a whole draw full and when i did them all i would take them appart and mix the peices then do them again that way.
If i was still grounded, when i finished that, i would take one turn it over and do it with the blank side up.
I also sort them into edge peices, corner peices and middle bits.
I love those little clear plastic cubes with bearings in that you have to get into the right place.
I also love the kind with metal shapes you have to seperate and put back together.
I got a couple of wooden puzzles as well. One is a 3D apple and it is cut into peices that only go back together in one way. The other is a ball that works the same way.
I was great at chess at school, mostly cos i always played the same people and i knew their strategies well.
Cross stitch is sort of like a puzzle to me, you do each different colour to add up to the finished product.

The best sort of puzzle is where you took appart a nice complicated bit of car and have to put it all back together without ending up with the spare screw/nut/bolt/ other assported fixing.

I always thought of it as my way of exerting control and organisation over a small chunk of my life, when you finish organising a puzzle it doesnt change its mind and want to do somthing else like most people in my life.

I never got why it was wrong to take the rubics cube appart and put it back the right way though, i mean the end result is that same as if you spent 4 years dedicatedly working it out. Not cheating just a sensible time saving approach to the problem.

fg
Or worse, I will get so frustrated with the thing, that I just go work on a different area and when the areas touch, and don't match I feel like tearing out my hair.

ditto!!

I love doing puzzles. It allows my mind to wander in what ever direction it wants, then I can gather all my thoughts and problems of the day and see them in a new light.

I also love quilting, which is more or less another puzzle. The more complicated and challenging the better. I just have to keep my mind working or I feel as though I will loose touch with my own sanity.

I can't wait until we are done with remodeling my bedroom so I can set my card table up again, and my sewing table.

lol I do the samething when making clothes,,,if my seem is just a little off and no one will notice I still have to rip the entire seem out and start over because I KNOW it's uneven.

We are a puzzle family,,,which is strange with 3 ADHD'ers in the family; but, we abosolutly adore the 3d ones. My son and I are sorter's,,,my daughter just jumps right in there.

When I'm extremely anxious I find it helps to sort. Thanks to me all hubbie's bolts, nails, screws are sorted into baby food jars by size. Everything in the garage is hung on the wall by tool and size (OOOOOoooooooOOO how I love it when he get's a new tool,,,means I get to spend hours moving and reorganizing).:)

I'm not a big fan of jigsaw puzzles, I don't have the patience. But ever since 5th grade when I learned how to do traditional logic puzzles, I've been hooked! I like to get the variety puzzle magazines. I don't like fill-ins or word searches (too boring), but I do like just about any other kind of word puzzle.

I collect 1000 piece puzzles. I have figured out what kind of puzzles I hate and which I like. The more color the better. Too many solid colors and I get frustrated trying to put them together. Also I look for ones that aren't what you find everywhere. I get bored with putting together puzzles of houses. Josephine Wall is one of my fav.
I figured out the best way to do them long ago. My ex would take hours because he didn't have a method. And he wasn't ADD! LOL! I could put them together faster and he never could understand why. He and I started them the same. Border pieces always should be done first. Then I sort out buy color. The closer they are in color the most likely they go together. After that I look at the picture to see what looks like it matches one of the colors I sorted out. I pick a color that doesn't have as many pieces to it as another color. Put the small things together first then build from there. Again the more color and detail in a puzzle the better. Thats why I like Josephine Wall. She does fantasy art. There are hidden things in her art. Like the sky may have many colors but there is a fairy in it. I try to get the fairy done first. Makes it easier to build the rest of the sky off of. So I put together the small hidden things first and then the big detalied stuff, then the sky or grass is always last. They are usually the hardest but if all the pieces I have left are just for that then I know its gotta fit somewhere. LOL! I love puzzles. I have 30 puzzles in my collection so far.

Everyone in my family loves puzzles except me. I'm the only one with ADHD. I do not have the attention span for them. I find them quite boring. Maybe it's just that I can't sit still for them.

My husband uses them as therpy. He says they help him when he is not feeling well mentally and can not sleep. I love the quiteness that puzzles bring to the house. Last Saturday morning my daughter and husband worked on a puzzle for the entire morning. I didn't have to hear the loud T.V. or the rattling of the newspaper or my daughter having tea with her stuffed animals or barbie and ken going to the prom. It was awesome to have so much peace and quite in the house.

Whenever I am feeling particularly tired I buy them a puzzle. My husband jumps right in and my daughter works a little plays a little.