The positive power of Adhd

[Oilspill]

Living in the modern world with Adhd is awful. Normal people are ants happy to sit in traffic for hours, or stand in a queque all day. They love admin, stupid little and irrelevant details. The normals are also sheep who love to fit in and do the same as everyone else. The normals put huge pressure on us to comply, conform and not to rock the boat. We however hate all this because we see the truth, we can see the big picture, how pointless that stuff is. We love the new, exploring getting out there' pushing futher than anyone has gone before. This threatens the Normals, it makes them uncomfortable and they stop us from being us....depression follows. Over the last two days i have learnt a lot. Learnt to accept my strengths and use them against supression. The simple.task of confirming my bank details with the taxman turned into an epic struggle of red tape and buearocracy leaving me depressed and down last night. This morning i decided to embrace my Adhd strengths and today i won and had a good lot of laughs using their tools against them. I even made a new friend at the tax office. Viva Adhd.

[salleh]

Ya know......I am usually amoug the first people to scream and tear my hair out when someone starts in on the "positive" aspects of ADHD .....


You, however, have grabbed my attention .....and I think perhaps you have hit upon something there.....


Very interesting concept .....I shall cognate on it ......( been watching Stephen Fry )

[DvlsAdv0c8]

You need to tell us what you did so that we too will know how to use our powers for good...

[sarahsweets]

I have great fray vision and I can fly.

[SquarePeg]

Since childhood I have never conformed with rules and regulations of school and that has carried on through adulthood and every job I´ve had and life in general.

I can´t see the point in petty rules. I don´t mean the major rules but the little pointless time consuming admin stuff. I have always felt that rules are for other people and they don´t apply to me.

I played truant often at school and not once did any of the teachers say anything about it. I used to come and go as I pleased, missing weeks at a time. I didn´t like the religion class, it was pure chaos so I used to wander along the corridor and join the technical drawing class, which I loved. THe teacher never said a word, he always let me join.

I had an office job for a number of years, if you wanted photocopies you had to fill in stupid little forms, if you wanted a cheque from accounts, a stupid blue form signed by 2 partners, to send a fax you had to fill a form in. I never did any of these things and nobody ever challenged me. They just always did what I asked without the silly little request chits.

I think I have always acted like I am in authority, it´s crazy how I usually get away with it.

I live in Spain now, the capital of red tape and I still get away with stuff. You need mountains of paperwork for the smallest thing and I always have stuff missing and nearly always get what I want.

You cannot go to a hospital without a current valid medical card. They are very strict about this. I temporarily misplaced mine (ok lost it) and went about 3 times and nobody asked me for my card, everyone in front yes, and everyone behind me.


I missed a mortgage payment and 2 days later just called the bank manager and said, hi, I´ll drop you in some money tomorrow, don´t charge me and he said Ok then, no problem.

I didn´t know I had adhd until recently, my excuse for not being able to do housework has always been that life is to short for cleaning. Like if I knew I was going to die tomorrow would I really say "I wish I had cleaned more".

I don´t have an edit button when I talk and my excuse is that I only said what other people were thinking (and I still believe this). People have been shocked by me sometimes but they are only thinking the same but too scared to say it. I didn´t know it was impulsiveness.

think I need to stop typing now.

[DvlsAdv0c8]

I do find that I am usually the one to say the thing everyone else is thinking but is afraid to say...usually just because I think it and it promptly falls out of my brain into my mouth before I can stop it.

[SquarePeg]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdv0c8

I do find that I am usually the one to say the thing everyone else is thinking but is afraid to say...usually just because I think it and it promptly falls out of my brain into my mouth before I can stop it.

Exactly. well someone needs to say it don´t they

[Kao12x]

SquarePeg you are my new hero..

[Johnnny]

Every time and age needs renegades... People who change the world with their actions and their ideas... You can be a shepard or a wolf depending on what you want in life...

[Flory]

sometimes.......i can scale walls and obstacles pretty quickly....usually on a split second decision

[FinalePast]

It's good to look on the positive side. Unfortunately, the reality is that we have one major drawback as well. Our ideas, pushing things forward, and breaking new ground our worthless without the ability to follow through and complete a project. Oh wait, nevermind, I just thought of a job that is perfect for all of us. We should all become managers and just tell others what we want done and leave it to the rats to flesh out the details. Or, maybe join a Think Tank.

[FinalePast]

Originally Posted by DvlsAdv0c8

I do find that I am usually the one to say the thing everyone else is thinking but is afraid to say...usually just because I think it and it promptly falls out of my brain into my mouth before I can stop it.

That's interesting. With me, I have learned to just say absolutely nothing at all. Ever. That way, I never say anything stupid. Besides that, I've reached the point where with the exception of a few people, I just don't care to explain myself anymore.

It's weird the coping mechanisms we create to deal with social situations. For instance, when you realize someone has been talking to you and you have to somehow figure out what they are saying without actually telling them you weren't paying attention. The worst part is, we think we are clever since we can usually jump back into the conversation, but the reality is usually that the other person is just being polite. They knew the whole time that you weren't listening, and then they simply dismiss you as disinterested, flaky or aloof.

The positive side to all of this is that it does teach us to think on our feet and respond quickly. I can honestly say, I've never been caught off-guard. Your reaction and ability to think quickly increase as a result of ADHD. Interestingly enough though, the coping mechanisms only help to balance a deficiency. It certainly doesn't provide a significant advantage in most cases.

[salleh]

Driving rules are good, I try to follow them .....stop sign at the top of a mountain, no other cars for miles ? at midnight ?...I stop ...

....Other than that ......I obey the laws of gravity ( the times I haven't turned out not so good for me .....broke bones all the time ) ....

....When it comes to laws I don't respect .....I have a really hard time trying to make myself follow them .....petty rules ? ...arghhhhh the bane of my existance ....


......I haven't been real lucky about that though, it seems that all my following my own path ways have ended up sneaking around to bite me on the a** ...while I find it hard, if not impossible to follow most rules, society and the legal system DO take them seriously ......and consequences can be nasty .....very nasty .....and costly


......and there are more and more rules every day .....It seems like you can't help but break rules these days, cause you didn't even know there was a rule....


...The thing is .....is it my ADHD that is the root cause of my inclination to flaunt rules ...or is it my coming of age in the hippie era .....we ALL broke every rule we could think of ......even went looking for rules to break ....we rejected almost everything we were taught and the society that we had grown up in ......

..and there were so many of us doing that, it got noticed .....big time ....


but most people from my generation eventually got past it, settled down, did the family and job thing ...bought houses ....had kids ( you guys are around after all !) and are now being grandparents and thinking about retiring......they ended up back in the old "American Dream " ......after a few years of youthful acting out ....


.....But I didn't do that ....not for very long anyway .....it didn't work for me .....I still didn't respect the rules ....or the reasons behind the rules, or the rule makers....


....I was then, am now, and probably always will be, a grasshopper, in the world run by ants.....

[SquarePeg]

Originally Posted by Johnnny

Every time and age needs renegades... People who change the world with their actions and their ideas... You can be a shepard or a wolf depending on what you want in life...

I think someone changed man to woman but both apply.

Lets really try and keep this thread going positively.

[Crackpotdad]

Originally Posted by sarahsweets

I have great fray vision and I can fly.

I have premonitions....