I’ve been roaming about in cyber-space for 20 years. Not all that time was spent on the internet, some of it was spent interacting locally with friends on what was called a bulletin board system (BBS). Point is, I’m a first class geek, quite capable of zoning in on one media form and excluding the rest of the world. View full article »
Archive for February, 2011
I know that ADHD is a list of symptoms. I know those symptoms manifest themselves differently in each of us, and I know they manifest at different intensities in us based on context, time of day, hormone levels, current employment, financial situation …
A different view
But today I realized that the ADHD I know isn’t a list of symptoms, it isn’t. Yeah, okay, it is, but let me have my say here and all will be made clear hopefully … read on. View full article »
We ADHDers have little to call our own. Many of our symptoms are shared with other disorders and are even found among so-called normal humans. We don’t have much to call our own, A Loomis and the Lust song and a T-shirt, but even our T-shirt is a blatant ripoff of an iconic rock-band T-shirt. It’s enough to dishearten a distracted soul.
So today, I thought I’d create a list of words that will be our own View full article »
In the last two posts, Origin of The Species; Parts I & II, we discussed alternative theories of ADHD. These were theories that, in my opinion, didn’t quite seem to fit with reality. At least they didn’t fit with my reality, although I give the creators of those theories an A for their imagination.
In Part II I noted that we hadn’t looked at what ADHD actually is. The very good reason we didn’t do that yet is because we don’t really know what it is. Well, to be fair, we know what it does to us, and we know some things that help us work around what it does to us.
And we know what it isn’t. Maybe that would be a good place for us to start. View full article »
Okay, I’m easily confused, sometimes … but here’s my problem: Dr. Russell Barkley says “[...] to emphasize something, that I don’t think is emphasized enough, especially by other advocates, ADHD is no gift.”
But, in an ADDclasses.com teleseminar on Tuesday, February 15th 2011, Dr. Hallowell said “Well I think the main point that I always try to make is that I think ADHD, ADD, whatever you want to call it, is a very hopeful diagnosis. I often say [...] I don’t treat disabilities, I unwrap gifts. And I really think ADHD is a marker of talent, you know, and if you have this trait, I don’t see it as a disorder [...]” View full article »
Part I – School Daze
Twice in my life I’ve managed to hyper-focus on a very large project. And both those times were in school.
I’m not talking about a project for Social Studies or a public speaking competition or even a drama project, although I managed to pull off all of those things with varying degrees of success during my learning years. View full article »
Happy Valentines Day …
Last week we began a discussion about alternative theories of ADHD. It occurs to me that we have not presented the reality of ADHD as it is currently accepted within the psychiatric/mental health community. The result is that this is a one sided discussion of alternative theories proposed by those whose beliefs range from the idea that ADHD is within the realm of normal behaviour to those who would deny it outright. View full article »
Many of us self-medicate, we find things that stimulate our minds, things that cause that chemical excitement that makes us able to focus. This is my story:
At the age of twelve, I found alcohol. View full article »
Is ADHD real? Easy now, I’m just playing devils advocate. No one should take anything on faith and this thing we seem to be in possession of is no exception.
So, take a deep breath, check to see that you’ve had your meds, and hang on … View full article »