ADHD-yup that’s me

I’ve had this posting on hold for a bit but now am sharing it with the world.

This title describes me, a title or aspect of myself without a name, that wasn’t a reality till I was in my late 30’s-early 40’s. One of my Psychology professors at Fresno State, Dr. Price commented on this matter to me, while in his office one day. Dr. Price was a teacher who I admired, world famous for his research and had taken every class he taught as an undergrad in the Psychology dept. One day while talking about stuff that was totally unrelated to ADHD, he looked at me and stated, ” did you know you have adult ADHD?”

The thought had never crossed my mind, it definitely caught my attention. Dr. Price asked some questions based on his observations in various settings and was spot on, in regards to his diagnosis. He further told me that adult ADHD can be different than what we commonly expect to see in kids.  In kids we typically see fidgetiness, obvious distracted, the kid on the play ground with spatial issues for example. Spatial issues means the child who runs into things/people and seems/doesn’t have a sense of the closeness of objects and people for example. Common site is they run thru a crowd as if the crowd wasn’t there and are surprised when informed of their perceived rudeness. Basically because their mind and senses are every where but the current space and time. I hadn’t that experience in my life as a child.

What Dr. Price was referring to in my case involved my sometimes talking over others, like the spatial issues, not rudeness just my mind needing to immediately get the thoughts spoke to be able to move forward. Along with being one of those people who either needs music, tv or other noise to help my mind focus on the tasks at hand. As much as I love libraries and I LOVE libraries, for school work and studying my mind just couldn’t handle the quiet. I’m somewhat the adernaline junkie. Love travel, roller coasters , definitely a lead foot/love to drive fast and have even been sky diving. I also have found a way to deal with my wandering mind in meetings, I’m an avid knitter and knit myself thru many meetings and trainings. Doodling does nothing my mind still wanders.

Also, there are many ups to this as well. Besides getting lots of knitting completed, I’ve got awesome time management skills/my mind loves to multitask and I can really get in the zone/tunnel vision. For those of you, who have experienced this or similar lifestyles. I would love to hear your stories and how you have dealt with the positives and not so positive aspects.