I think it’s important to talk about the challenges of ADHD – they can’t be ignored and it’s those that people need to hear more about in order they accept them for themselves and realise you can still have a good life and successful career, but there are also massive positives.
If you lined up 100 people with ADHD and offered them a one off pill to “cure” them I wonder how many would take it.
It’s a bit different to telling them “don’t push the red button” in which case I suspect the majority of us would slam our hands down hard on it, gaining yet another bruise that we would later think “where the heck did that come from”. Within minutes we’d have mentally run a load of possible scenarios for outcomes, ranked them in likelihood order and would then need to know if we were right…… Plus after a while you get used to being told off….
My brain doesn’t just work at high speed, there’s a lot more to my ADHD then you might expect.
Theres the fairly constant disco, usually some crap euro trash pop chorus on a loop – this means I rarely feel lonely. I can hear you laughing – thinking what’s she on about? I spent 44 years thinking everyone had songs in their head right? Like people talk about song worms, it’s that right?
Wrong – seems there’s a difference between having a song stuck in your head for a bit and having the Teletubbies theme tune on a loop over and over for days relentlessly – just the chorus, not the whole thing (assuming there is a whole thing). I recently found it was a huge mistake admitting this to my child, when trying to ascertain if he also had music as we suspect ADHD for him too. He’s spent the last two weeks just saying “tinky” at random times to kick it off again, the sadistic little bugger. It even wakes me in the middle of the night.
Hmmm sense of humour, yes I believe that’s another positive, plus high energy and enthusiasm. Though the latter are interesting as we get into the concept of “too much”. I bounced into the accounts office of a large client last week with an energy level that a certain battery makers bunny would be envious of, when asked “are you working here today?” I noticed a sigh of relief when the answer was “no”. Most of the time though I’m charismatic enough to get away with it.
I can’t hold too many grudges – because unless you’ve done something really significant then I soon forget why I’m pissed off. Plus my empathy level is a lot higher than most – it’s both a pro and a con as I’m aware people can try to use this to manipulate me, though they would have to also get past my strong intuition – best of luck with that, I’m like a walking bullshit detector!
When there’s a problem I’m likely to be one of the calmest people in the room. In a real emergency I’ve experienced a sensation where time slows down, a bit like a sci-fi movie, whilst I come up with the best solution. My heart rate also slows. The ADHDers strength, resilience and problem solving is second to none.
There are lots more positives too, blogs for other days, I’m likely to lose your attention if I write more – assuming you got this far in the first place! Plus the suns out in West Wales today so time to make the most of it.
So to conclude – NO! – I wouldn’t take the pill, I’ll ride the waves of ADHD and deal with the challenges as the positives are bloody great! If you hear a shrill scream echoing around West Wales of a morning it’s because I’m currently trialing cold showers to kick start the day.