I'd like to have a go at this from a different direction.

I'd like people to list items they think of as differences or disabilities regarding ADHD, inattentive, hyperactive, or combined, and list, a characterization, or label as well as a specific fleshed out example of it.

No cross talk! That means, no direct comment on anyone else's post. No direct questioning of anyone's else's post. certainly no critisms.

Each is invited to speak unfettered about his or her own experience.

How about it?

Difference: Injustice, unfairness, illegitimacy drive me over the edge and i don't see how others tollerate much less fail to react strongly against it.

Example: Unfair business laws regarding price assignment. A large multistate organization like Apple can set the same price in every state legally. Apple Dealers, who are independent businesses are guilty of price fixing, collusion, conspiracy, etc. they they agree to uniform pricing.

Example: Schools where the objection to allowing a student to stand to do work or take tests is disallowed because "it isn't fair to the other students."

These things(and more) push my buttons to the extreem. i don't see this strength of reaction in non-ADHD people.

Am I allowed to comment on your post if I agree with it? :D :D :D

Actually, no.

But you are allowed to tell your own story that also illustrates it!

Another difference: Co-dependence vs. interdependence

I don't know how to be a good Borg.

I need lots of outside help, and I am willing to provide lots of outside help in exchange.

just few poeple are really interested in either half of the trade!

They don't appreciate me in their business, and they don't want to participate the way I need them to in my own.

For people who "could do it for themselves" doing that thing for them is clearly co-dependent. Especially taking reponsibility for it!

But if I am truely unable to do certain things for myself, interdependence is the appropriate name for the SAME scenario of actions.

Example: I need reminders, not orders. I need it brought to my attention (Like the PinkFloyde Song about the starting gun?) when it CURRENTLY is time for a certain thing... like lunch.

I don't need to be told to Go to Lunch, I need to be told, and made sure I understand(Earth to Space Cadet Arnold), that it is TIME for lunch, and then I need to take the resposibility for:
1) going
2) deciding to skip today
3) asking to be reminded again in X minutes.
4) engaging someone in a short discussion of relative merits

That would be co-dependent for someone who could reliably recognize "what time it was time for" without outside intervention. For me, it is not co-dependence.

Precidence vs. priority

I am very good at precidence, A before B, X before Z, which is by its nature, always within a single domain.

In particular, setting an order on equally important things across domains always stimies me.

My weeks old son was crying, with no particular ugency, but I considered it appropriate to at least be there, if i could not fix his distress. the business phone rings and i know it is a customer with a moderate problem. dead equal. dead lock. Family vs. Work

Anything I tried to do felt "wrong." It felt like two primary responsibilites in conflict, rather than one being able to take precidence over the other. I could not give "undivided" attention to both, which is what it felt like was required. It seemed like there was no way to do both at once, or chose one over the other. Or even time share, back and forth.

Can't a man do ANYTHING ( any one thing, at least something) that a woman can?" No.

At the same time Mothers have relaxed dress codes, they are allowed to reprioritize at the drop of a hat, ... there seem to be built in flexibilities in th setting and tasks that allow for "getting more things done at once", doing them with more latitude, and they weren't held to "production" standards the same way.

Perhaps we have simply lost the role of Father, where being father grants flexibility, latitude, and exemption from some performance staandards. In Sweden, new born leave is for BOTH parents, and is for MANY months.

Regardless, priority depends on non-local influence, precedence depends on local features.

abcde is relative,locally, letter to letter in isolation. "fundamentally" comes from several languages, rules of syntax and grammer, and societal influence in corupting ways accepted as "standard" arbitrarilly.

For me this is a scope issue. Local vs. non-local.

Wow

very intereresting post that definatly needs some driving/ thinking time to reply to.

Excellent post and looking forward to reading all results

I'm confused (withdrawing from antipsychotics and feeling very alien). What do you want us to write?

Originally posted by tudorose
I'm confused (withdrawing from antipsychotics and feeling very alien). What do you want us to write?

It isn't the drugs... its me. :(

When God was passing out confusion I thought he said Charisma and i asked for a super size dose that would work the same on everyone!

What you are supposed to write is:

Something you think is different in your experience because of any kind of ADHD.

give it a name, or description, if you can.

give an example of it in detail, if you can.

"that's all"

(About now i am "trembling" in flighty thoughts. Did I make it clear, or did I just use a lot of words and say nothing intelligible leaving it worse than before?)

Please, ask again if I'm still not clear. i'm still willing to try to be more clear...

Hi Wheel,

I still don't get it - but don't worry, it really is me not you. I've been all over the place the last few days and nothing makes any sense (hubby getting frustrated coz I can't undertand anything). What I'll do is leave it for a week or so and then try and read it again when my brain has adjusted to not being on the medication.

That is a tough spot to be in, good luck.

Are you discussing what is going on with your medications in another thread here on the board? I'm sure others would be interested in your experience.

this is a tough post and a very worthy thread to think about

the differences are only differences when you take the time to compare yourself to a Linear Thinkers way of doing something.

The disabillities are only disabilities when you once again compare yourself to a Linear Thinker

When you refuse to be compared to another segment of society then the differences and disabillitys are simply not there.

as I have stated many times over

I do not have a disease
I do not have ADD

I am ADD

and therefore I am different in my way of tackling a situation

I find that the differences and disabillities only crop up when someone else tries to make me fit into the box or the Linear thinker way of life.

I have to look at it from the reverse where its the Linear thinkers of this world that have the differences and disabillities

I have yet to meet one who has accomlished as many different things in there life as I have in mine. Granted I have met many who have accomplished getting a career, buying a house and settling down and watching life pass by them as they are happy with there limited knowage about whatever.

I guess I would have to say I would consider my brains yearn to continnully learn new things and try new things as a disibillity if I compare myself to someone else.

As I said this is a tough post for me

The differences between me and the world around me are everywhere and huge, both negative and positive. At least from my point of view. The world around me seems to think that I am weird at least, but most of the time I am considered either a bum, lazy, or not fitting in. I have made a career in the computer field - 32 years of it. At the start of that long career I was special, some kind of a pioneer, and allowed to be different. The last 20+ years though I have not been able to stay in any one job for more than 3 years, most of them 2 or less. In between the periods of unemployment became longer and longer between occurrences. Now as I re-evaluated my career I found that my type fits best into an arts career, where the unusual is commonplace, and you are expected to be different. My big problem is that the experience you have to have with the tools in any art can only be gained by working diligently and consistently on perfecting the use of the tool. This is the same whether the tool is a painter's brush or a musical instrument or the pen of a writer. In the last mentioned case, it takes a while to figure out the storyline of a novel or a play and that does not allow someone who needs to switch from thought process to thought process to get anything done. Anyway, I could write about this forever and a day, but I get nervous and fidgety already writing this short piece.
may you meet your responsibilities with love, creativity, and insight,

If you are interested... there are two books of possible interest:

"You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid Or Crazy" by Kate Kelly & Peggy Ramundo

"The Myth of Laziness" Mel Levine

Though not specifically about ADHD, the best written book I've seen is Mel Levine's "Educational Care." Go figure!