i still dont understand what add is.... i mean.... who can really concentrate???
i for example cant concentrate to read stuff. posts. i read first and last sentence... or i take several pauses between reading posts. any posts. even if i am interested.
so how did -in detail - adhd manifest in your case? if you're willing to describe.
oh my gosh... where do i begin? let's see.
add and adhd are comprised of several symptoms, but the main one is the inability to focus. taken from a video on the site:
"our bodies take in and process tons of information daily. sights, sounds, textures.... and the mind has a powerful filter. this filter edits the irrelevant stuff.
if you want to focus you must have a filter that functions properly. if not, you have a tough time focusing."
the best way for you to truly understand it is to go to the site and watch the vids. totallyadd.com
they are geared toward the ADD mind, so they are short snippets of information that grab your attention span for the length it needs and then moves on. there is even a video test you can take. i'll tell you when i answered the Q's... i answered "no" to only one question. that should give you an idea, when you hear the question, of what i've had to deal with my whole life. and tried to control without help.
as far as the manifestation of my personal adhd... my earliest memory would be about age 6. where i was easily distracted in class. i'd move from one project or task to another without completing it. my teachers would tell me to "sit down and finish" about 7 to 8 times every hour, when it was something that was difficult or uninteresting to me. and i wouldn't ask the teacher or my friends for help, b/c i truly didn't want to come across as being stupid.
my inability and frustration with reading comprehension began in 4th grade. i remember vividly how the teacher gave up on me. she thought i was doing it on purpose... not wanting to tell her what i understood from the paragraphs. she would tell my mother that i was so good at math and art... science was a breeze, but that i was too lazy to care about reading and understanding what the words said. in all honesty, i went completely down hill from there. it wasn't until i met a guy who had add also, when i was 19 that all the struggles i had in school made sense. he was the first person that took the time to walk me through reading a math word problem and learning how to break it down to get the relevant information i needed to get to the part of problem that was a breeze for me. Chloee, you get disinterested, or bored with a post or thread... my problem is that i have to read it twice, sometimes 3 times before i can even truly understand the point that the person is trying to make. even the "easy" ones perturb me at times.
i have learned to cope with certain things in my life. just like "runvardh". learned to deal with the mundane items of life. i even went as far as learning to organize my day on charts so i could stay on track with simple things like chores and a bedtime routine for my kids. but after a while i began to lose hope that there is more to life... b/c it is sooooooooo mentally exhausting living day to day, that i can't even imagine or want to put forth the effort to think BIG. to think that i could accomplish more in life than just eating, working, breathing and sleeping. i became depressed. and begin to "lose myself" in that depression and loss of hope.
then i started to learn and see the effect my problems were having on my marriage and my family. and as much as i would try and try... i just couldn't show that i truly wanted to measure up, be on point and stay that way. i'd lose my direction again. i'd focus on the wrong things. downward spiral would repeat itself.
it got old, and i needed to make a change. i tried diet, exercise, meditation, classes on time management (which is cool and i totally get it now, but not without my meds), even went as far as trying more or less sleep. nothing worked.
doc said, "take these, journal and let me know how you are in two weeks".
"uhm, yeah... whatever", i thought. but dang... i remember the first day i took it. and spoke to my husband in the evening after the kids went to bed. for the first time ever, since we've been married, i was able to get my point across to him without feeling flustered, listen to him speak and comprehend what he was asking and feel like we were two grown adults talking on the level.
it's a nice feeling i tell ya.
hope that helps. i may have veered from the question at hand, but at least you have a slim insight to my background. there are a whole lot of more personal elements that play into how i've coped with it.... but i'm not gonna go there.
PM me if you have any more Q's.
peace!