Jeff's ADD Mind - Latest Comments

Re: You Have A.D.H.D. and, Sorry to Say This, You Are Probably NOT a Genius

mary garvey — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 21:30:38 -0000

Hello! I'm new on this site. I'm 57 and recently diagnosed with ADHD. I'm reading everything on this site. I have a weird question for you...I have always wanted to make a fragrance that smells like puppy breath...Is this possible? Thank you so much. Maybe we can work together on this and make millions!

Re: You Have A.D.H.D. and, Sorry to Say This, You Are Probably NOT a Genius

mary garvey — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 20:27:05 -0000

HELP! I am new here. I'm Mary, age 57, and just diagnosed with ADHD and just recently went to rehab and got sober. To say that the world is coming at me at a fast pace is an understatement. So much energy and so many ideas yet absolutely incapable of expediting anything. I'm totally paralyzed. I'm on medication (Strattera) but all it's done is make me realize how serious my problem is. I've never written on a blog. I don't even know if anyone will read this but I'm shouting in the hopes that someone does! Any suggestions? I'm so overwhelmed. My confusion and inability to enjoy this thing called LIFE takes my breath away. Everyone around me thinks I'm happy and joyful and have my act together but they don't have a clue. I am floundering. I not only can't finish a project, I now am incapable of starting one. okay. Enough for today. Thank you for reading this. Mary

Re: You Have A.D.H.D. and, Sorry to Say This, You Are Probably NOT a Genius

Fried — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 03:41:24 -0000

Great post ! When I work, I get too many ideas at the same time. Now I try to write them all down and sort. I have to keep reminding myself though.I also talk way to much to anyone and everyone and that got me into hot water at work.!!

Fried

Re: ADHD & Loneliness, Part IV

ScottHutson — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 00:35:00 -0000

Hey Jeff, I don't why but this illustration by Andrés Rábago just jumped into my mind. Been a few years ago when I first saw it here on Jeff's ADD Mind, but I remember thinking about it many times. I glanced briefly at what I said in comments below, but I have either changed my mind or my mind has changed.

That is me sitting on that rock alone and the man in the boat is just like me and he was there alone on that rock not that long ago and was helped by another person who had also been on that rock alone before him. He was doing this to show me that we are not alone by taking to me a place where others just like us are still on their own rocks alone but together. He is getting better and able to help others this way now. He wants no payment and only does this because this was how he was helped and this is where he started getting better. As he opens the door his only words are, "No guarantee that it work as good for you my friend, but this where it starts, and the voyage may seam to be a very long voyage and it is. I am still on the voyage myself."

Re: Eggplant Rollatini

Diedra Lawrence — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 14:38:25 -0000

I'm so excited to have found this blog! I am a 50 year old woman recently diagnosed with ADD and, boy, has the diagnosis reframed the entire narrative of my life! I am on the internet trying to understand why the two things that both stimulate and calm my mind are music (no surprise that I became a professional musician) and cooking. Music I get, but why cooking? In what ways does that experience satisfy my ADD brain?

Re: Adult ADHD and Loneliness

Gaby — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 16:52:10 -0000

I have no friends, except one who lives far away, I even feel segregated with my family (meaning mom and dad), had just one boyfriend who I found on Internet...this is my life

Re: What It Feels Like To Have ADHD

Jeffs ADD Mind — Thu, 14 Jan 2016 12:18:41 -0000

Glad ya liked it!

Re: What It Feels Like To Have ADHD

Nikolay Stoyanov — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 11:14:48 -0000

Thank you for the video!

Re: It’s All In Your Head: The Logic of the A.D.D. Deniers

Gforce27 — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 14:07:04 -0000

I may have done much better academically and subsequently career wise if I'd been home schooled, or if I'd gone to a arts school, but it wouldn't have "cured" my ADHD! It just would have given me an environment in which I could have succeeded at the things I love to do. However, I'd still be losing my keys, forgetting to pay bills, and in the dog house with my husband for constantly forgetting to take out the recycling. It wouldn't have helped me years down the road when I had a child, and became the person that holds down the fort at home. What a nightmare, trying to remember everyone's schedules, bills, garbage, recycling, appointments, play dates, groceries--you get the picture.
How the heck would homeschooling have helped me with any of that?!

Re: Adult ADHD and Loneliness

Gforce27 — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 13:40:01 -0000

Well, here I am jumping into a 2 year old spat, but hey--what's with the hostility? I've learned "plenty" of new social skills un-medicated. When I was 22, before I even knew I had ADHD, my best friend confronted me about my terrible listening skills. She told me that I always turned the conversation back to myself, and it was really getting to her. I hadn't been aware that I did that, until she pointed it out. I loved my friend, and I didn't want to lose her friendship. After that, I worked very hard on listening to people and reflecting back to them. I tried to check my urge to interject about myself, or interrupt. Well, it worked. No one ever complained of that to me again--now, I still get plenty of complaints about "interrupting," but not about turning the conversation around to make it about me.

My friend did me an incredible favor all those years ago.
You can "learn" without medication. ADHD people can be very sensitive, empathetic friends. We can use self awareness and mindfulness to minimize the impact our ADHD has on friends, and you can learn to take responsibility when things go awry.

Just my two cents.

Re: Adult ADHD and Loneliness

Gforce27 — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 15:01:40 -0000

Interesting-- I have ADHD, and while I didn't have many friends in school, I somehow became the veritable life of the party as an adult, and I've known many other ADHDer's who have also been the "let's get this party started" masters, as well a being fun, spontaneous, empathetic, and loyal. I've had many, many amazing friends in my life. However--I've always run in with groups outside the norm: punks, hippies, raver's, and other "alternative" subcultures. Those are FULL of ADHDer's, and people with other problems, diagnosed and otherwise--so, in a world full of people actively rejecting the mainstream, I found a lot of acceptance

However, that doesn't stop me from being lonely. I've moved several times in the last few years, and I always deal with the fear that I won't be accepted. That my "foibles" will mark me, and put other's off. A few years ago, I lived on an Island full of other eccentric misfits and colorful characters. It was fantastic, because not only did I fit in, I was clearly not the most extreme case. Heck, I practically felt normal there. But the physical isolation and quietness of the Island in winter was to much for me, so we moved. I've been in our new town for 3 years, and I've had to go through the fear and worry of being judged and rejected. Breaking into the "Mommy" circles here in my new town has been a depressing and frustrating.

Typical to the ADHD, I'm always chatting up the counter person at whatever store I'm in, not sensing the impatience of the person waiting behind me, or catching the cues from the cashier. I forget my wallet regularly, and I leave my groceries on the counter often. I once took a bag of consignment clothes to the local shop, and as the owner was going through my things, out came a pair of my underwear. I'm always getting, "Oh, you're so funny..." Yeah. So funny I forgot to laugh.

It's enough to make me want to brave the long quiet winters on my island full of social misfits. God I miss them...

Re: The Total Transformation Program® – Does It Work?

mary — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 11:48:13 -0000

all children can benefit fron consistent,stuctured parenting.all children will need guidance and support for their behavior and attitudes. all children benefit from calm,confident parenting.

Re: Does ADHD Medication Ruin Creativity?

krikks — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 08:33:07 -0000

The meds killed my cretivity and fantasy. I first noticed this at 9 years old, when given Ritalin. It felt so bad i tried to kill myself.

-i felt dumbed down, and when they said that this is how everyone is supposed to be i wanted to die, because my pre-medicated life was awesome sparkling and full of laughs, after the pills entered my life, everything turned to shit, becausen now, i was aware of that everyone was in the oppinion tha "there is something wrong with him".

Re: The “Living with ADHD” Video Series: Part 4.75

downer — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 06:31:33 -0000

So, basically , if You cant find meds in your country, or worse, none of them worked, you are fucked?
Well thats good to know, ill go hang myself now

Re: Know Thyself

Joe — Fri, 08 May 2015 12:32:20 -0000

oh man thats exacly it. i'm 19 and diagnosed my adhd last year (self diagnosis) thanks to smoking cigarettes during holidays which i believe have a similar effect to adhd meds by stimulating that neurotransmitter which is defficient in people with adhd. i feel like a different human when smoking and i see my true self from a normal perspective..
this summer i'm planning to repeat one of the highs i had a year ago when i combined ritalin from a friend with weed. snorted huge lines went on to smoke a joint and the combining effect simulated my mind to such an extend that i would say i reached the full working capacity of my mind. it was incredible i was talking sped up the most logical, introspective things, and making sense of everything that came to my mind, talking non stop, facial expressions showing...
i felt like a scientist proving a theory, supported it with unlimited amounts of evidence.
...one loop hole that would limit my optimum logic, out of hundreds of facts supporting something, there usually is one single fact that proves that this theory is wrong, and the next scientist formulates a new theory.. i may not have seen that fact in time as i was switching topics every 5 to 10 seconds, understanding things that i cannot understand now, including predicting the effects of combining drugs, which in my sober state seem totally unpredictable everytime...
the reason why i want to repeat that high is because i want someone to video it and put it on youtube, as it is guaranteed to be liked and shared.
video titled: adhd and drugs xD

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

Jeffs ADD Mind — Thu, 07 May 2015 21:43:25 -0000

"it's not true you can't become rich and famous" - It's not that you can't become rich and famous if you have ADHD. It's that you *won't* become rich and famous *because* you have ADHD. Adam Levine is talented and his ADHD was not the cause of that talent but an obstacle to be overcome.

It's not likely you'll convince someone who believes that it is a gift that it is not, in fact, a gift. You have science on your side. I once had a discussion with a parent who said that she hated Russell Barkley. All he says, according to this woman, is that her ADHD son will be a drug addict, will have numerous struggles throughout life, and so on. I told her that she's looking at it all wrong. Instead of looking at these various problems as milestones, she should look at them as warning signs. It's not that your son *will* become a drug addict, but that there is a higher likelihood that he might. Therefore, you should keep your eyes open for that. It's like any inherited trait. You have a greatly likelihood of it happening to you but, if you know what to look for, you may be able to avoid it.

So, the point is that you're not going to convince someone that it's not a gift. However, you can emphasize that it's important that people have realistic expectations. If ADHD was a gift, then every ADHDer would be Adam Levine.

If none of this works, punch him in the nose. <hahaha>

Jeff
P.S. You may find this post to be of interest: http://jeffsaddmind.com/hav...

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

Reza Zandi — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 04:03:43 -0000

Hey Jeff, great post. I can't believe the hog wash people in the adhd community cling too, even with organizations not promoting stuff, like chadd. I actually started volunteering to manage a group, and I always bump heads with the guy running it. He thinks it's a gift too. What a joke. Only caveat I would add is that, it's not true you can't become rich and famous, but the adhd HAS to be treated first and there's nothing else that works like drugs so it's going to have to be that . Adam Levine of maroon 5 has adhd. In a commercial for handling your adhd he talked about how he couldn't organize his thoughts and this is one of the most creative people on earth. Once he got on meds, it all worked out. How does one deal with people in chadd promoting adhd as a gift?

Re: Dr. Vinnie Goombatz Explains How To Handle A Large Project

Jeffs ADD Mind — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 13:08:17 -0000

No problem!

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

Jeffs ADD Mind — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 13:07:56 -0000

"You're a fucking idiot" - Oh. You must have spoken to my wife.

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

Jeffs ADD Mind — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 13:07:34 -0000

I graduated Phi Beta Kappa. The point is that one must be realistic. That doesn't mean you should scale back on your goals. It does mean, however, that you success will not be a result of any particular "magic" that derives from ADHD.

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

Mark — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 07:09:01 -0000

You're a fucking idiot

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

Joshua Rugger — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 20:14:27 -0000

It was an interesting article, but I feel kind of worthless now...just a little bit. I have ADD and I agree with most of the stuff here. However even though I can't concentrate in class very well, I am smart enough to have a 4.1 GPA right now. Thanks for an interesting read, and it might offend some people (just a little for me), but it was a good read. -Joshua

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

Jeffs ADD Mind — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 20:29:18 -0000

I wish you the best of luck. I hope your wondrous warrior gene works out for you.
Sincerely,
The Hack

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

cutiepie — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 00:07:50 -0000

this guy's a hack. how can this tool tell YOU YOUR experience? i know i'm funny as fuck, an awesome athlete, wicked quick learn, HOT, silly educated, street SMART as hell, and as creative as they comes, mofos!

don;t let this hater hate on your game. fuck him and his lame review of our wondrous warrior gene. read gabor mate instead.

ferry dust and high times,
ac/dc chick~

Re: You Have A.D.D./A.D.H.D. and You Will NOT Be Rich and Famous

Jeffs ADD Mind — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 13:24:24 -0000

Gina Pera has a wonderful post addressing the issue of ADHD and creativity. “We can celebrate the successes of some people with ADHD without misrepresenting ADHD as somehow conveying cognitive gifts or other benefits, which it clearly does not.”
—Russell Barkley, PhD
See: http://adhdrollercoaster.or...