I need to write something. So this might just be an exercise. I can’t concentrate yet though. Not enough caffeine! That’s what it’s like to have ADHD. I just feel sluggish, and my mind won’t really connect the dots. It’s like I want to write and get something done today, but I just feel brainless. Like it’s not plugged in. It took me about 30 years to figure out that I had some kind of attention problem and then a while longer before I actually got the ADHD diagnosis, and I still haven’t got an appointment with a doctor to talk about meds (Very ADHD thing to do. Ha, no follow through). I manage ok, but I wonder about everyone else with attention difficulties. Lots of people, like me, figure that they haven’t had enough sleep, or they might blame constant distractions, or - my favorite - a lack of self-discipline. We say, “If I just worked harder...” And that’s funny because that’s exactly what we have been hearing from older siblings, parents and teachers our whole lives.
“If you just applied yourself…”
“If you started earlier… “
“If you studied more...”
And what we hear is,
“You could have been successful. Too bad.”
The sad part is that most ADHD-ers are their own worst critics, partially because they are driven and really thrive under significantly higher stress thresholds than most other people, but unfortunately for us, most of the time, life is just not exciting, threatening, or stressful enough to keep us engaged. That’s why most of us medicate with caffeine in the best circumstances and at worst, alcohol and other drugs. We also tend to seek high-risk activities. Ever jump out of a tree, off a roof, or a bridge when you were a kid? It might just look stupid to other people, but it’s probably a couple of things for these kids. First, stimulus is awesome. And second, impulsivity is king in the world of ADHD.
The ADHD Brain
Let me explain a bit more about the ADHD brain. It’s our chemicals, our brain chemicals. Our neurochemical baseline is just set a bit lower than most other people. So that makes it hard to concentrate. We’re easily distracted, crazy impulsive, and organization is something we maybe just heard about once. It sounds funny, but when you give somebody with ADHD medication (most of them are a category of drugs known as stimulants) we calm down. It’s like turning on our brains. It raises our chemical baseline to more normal levels. The same thing can happen when our environment creates that stimulus for us. High-risk situations that would put most others on edge are just what we need to get in the zone.
Sports can also fit the bill. I played water polo in high school. I’ve never felt so alive, being pummeled and half drown by the other team. All the Redbull and GoPro videos on Youtube also fit the criteria. I’m not saying that everyone that rides motocross, base jumps, and skis off cliffs somewhere in unknown Alaska has ADHD, but I am saying that we love the crap out of that stuff!
Our Strengths help us Hyper-focus
It doesn’t have to be outdoor sports though. ADHD folks not only crave, but thrive in any high input situation. It could be going to war, working in an emergency room, trading on wall street, in the court room, framing high-rise buildings, or going to Capital Hill. All of these environments and many others would be great for folks with what we call, (and I hate the language) “Attention Deficits,” because the truth is that we have, in the right circumstances, the ability to hyper focus. I know it’s surprising or it sounds ridiculous, but here is a very familiar experience for many people that fall into this category:
Does this sound like you?
In all of my schooling, I found it very difficult to complete assignments on time, particularly if they were writing or math assignments. I never did anything early! Most of the time I would stay up late or get up early to complete things right before the deadline. The funny thing was that these moments were sometimes almost magical, because I could - all of a sudden - produce language, have the ideas, or crunch the numbers. It’s because it took the threat of failure (and there was failure too) but the threat of failing, disappointing my teachers and parents was what it took to get over the ADHD hump. For me and for many others, it is a dramatic, palpable feeling, a wall, a mental block that makes completing the assignment, producing language, writing, or even tracking a conversation impossible.
Another example is that I’m constantly interrupting myself with what appears to everyone else around me as incomplete sentences. I’ve known this for a long time, and I just talk around myself. But what is going on inside is I have about a half-dozen ideas/thoughts that I want to say, and I’m just fighting to pick where I want to go. Now this has gotten a lot better over the years, but I still drive my family crazy sometimes because I just can’t say what I want to. They say, “Jay, just say it!” Well, I eventually do. My wife has learned or trained her patience to know when this is going on. I’m not really sure what she does, but I’ve noticed that she has a bit of an understanding when she notices. Now on the other hand, put me in front of a room of people and the stress and stimulus help me get over that block, and I love it! I can talk and speak, and produce language like nobody’s business. There are still the ADHD tangents, that are inevitable, but it really changes things for me.
There are a lot of things that make ADHD a challenge. Potential academic failure, professional failure, and even relationship failure, but it doesn’t have to be. If any of this sounds like you or someone you know, don’t wait.
Get an appointment with your medical doctor.
Get tested. You will need a diagnosis if you are interested in medication treatment.
Get support. Let people know what’s going on.