Thank you for all this. There's so much I could say but I think we perhaps all understand each other anyway. What's been good for me is that this article, along with some other contact with ADHD friends has reassured me that it's not just me.
I do agree that we desperately need another name for this condition and that its benefits need to be recognised. I find it has more advantages than disadvantages but I do get fed up with other people seeing it as a 'deficiency' and a 'disorder'. I love the fact my mind (and life) is so full of detail and variety of interests, and knowledge and experience, and humour and love. I don't want to change it and if I'm honest, I sometimes feel a bit sorry for people whose world view and life experience are limited to a very narrow track in life.
I was diagnosed at the age of 58. I had always had difficulty with concentration. I first really became aware of my condition when I was studying for a Masters. I just could not read a paragraph without my mind running away. eventually I dealt with it by reading out loud.
What I am really interested in is what you say about rejection. it resonates heavily with me. I think that this is a wonderful project.
Fantastic article so well put and thought out. Having a son - now 43 who has had to deal with this condition all his life, I am just amazed to see from your compilation and explanations that this has been my life too!! Why have I never realised that before? So busy trying to help him that I never saw what he has gone through as a reflection of my own childhood and then adulthood. Maybe as a woman and being so much older, it never was recognised 'in my day'? I look forward to more postings from you.
I have been a researcher on the condition for 40 years so I know that in my fathers family there are so many children with the syndrome, but then see that my sons father also is extremely ADHD but yet again, from my mothers side, her brothers family, my uncle have children with the syndrome which is now coming out in grandchildren with it being as severe as extreme autism. So not only is it hereditary, but what this is showing.. (and I'm still thinking about it all!!) is that it is so much more common than we ever thought, so therefore, where has it come from? In my sons case, and my own it could have come in from all three lines of his grandparents heritage. So is it recent or has it always been in the human being experience, but only now (past 50 years) being isolated and looked at in depth. The obvious cases being reviewed are people like Einstein, Branson, Justin Timberlake etc....many others who because of their fame, show up the condition as being a 'good thing'. Perhaps it has always been that and only in recent years, since my son was a child was it looked at as 'Bad' and needing to be controlled? Acceptance is the key word going forwards and take away the judegment and need to control it and trying to box it up into a normal range. Let it be what it is and ask.. "What can YOU do with this". The first step forwards would be for Education minister to realise that they need to have a different curriculum.. one that is based around their interest and what will serve them in the adult life, not make them study stuff they have absolutely no interest in and therefore cannot work at.
Thank you very much for this article. I have known I had Dyspraxia since I was about 11, when it was quite newly acknowledged but my Mum was tenacious, however it's become really clear to me that ADHD is probably more significant. I've really struggled with emotional regulation, mostly with holding in my responses until I get home amd take it out on myself. I have a key role at work and a political role out of work, both of which I think were won through my ADHD creativity but are also terribly difficult because of my ADHD. I am struggling at the moment because the expectations have caught up with me and colleagues are dismissive and ableist about the things I find difficult. However, one of my interests is politics and activism, so I hope to challenge some of this going forward and advocate more for ADHD people getting the help we need to reach our considerable potential, instead of being seen as a promising disappointment.
Thank you for all this. There's so much I could say but I think we perhaps all understand each other anyway. What's been good for me is that this article, along with some other contact with ADHD friends has reassured me that it's not just me.
I do agree that we desperately need another name for this condition and that its benefits need to be recognised. I find it has more advantages than disadvantages but I do get fed up with other people seeing it as a 'deficiency' and a 'disorder'. I love the fact my mind (and life) is so full of detail and variety of interests, and knowledge and experience, and humour and love. I don't want to change it and if I'm honest, I sometimes feel a bit sorry for people whose world view and life experience are limited to a very narrow track in life.
Thank you for sharing. Have you read any of Dr. Daniel G. Amen’s work on ADD/ADHD?
I used to think everyone’s brain worked like mine. Apparently not. 🙄
I was diagnosed at the age of 58. I had always had difficulty with concentration. I first really became aware of my condition when I was studying for a Masters. I just could not read a paragraph without my mind running away. eventually I dealt with it by reading out loud.
What I am really interested in is what you say about rejection. it resonates heavily with me. I think that this is a wonderful project.
Fantastic article so well put and thought out. Having a son - now 43 who has had to deal with this condition all his life, I am just amazed to see from your compilation and explanations that this has been my life too!! Why have I never realised that before? So busy trying to help him that I never saw what he has gone through as a reflection of my own childhood and then adulthood. Maybe as a woman and being so much older, it never was recognised 'in my day'? I look forward to more postings from you.
I have been a researcher on the condition for 40 years so I know that in my fathers family there are so many children with the syndrome, but then see that my sons father also is extremely ADHD but yet again, from my mothers side, her brothers family, my uncle have children with the syndrome which is now coming out in grandchildren with it being as severe as extreme autism. So not only is it hereditary, but what this is showing.. (and I'm still thinking about it all!!) is that it is so much more common than we ever thought, so therefore, where has it come from? In my sons case, and my own it could have come in from all three lines of his grandparents heritage. So is it recent or has it always been in the human being experience, but only now (past 50 years) being isolated and looked at in depth. The obvious cases being reviewed are people like Einstein, Branson, Justin Timberlake etc....many others who because of their fame, show up the condition as being a 'good thing'. Perhaps it has always been that and only in recent years, since my son was a child was it looked at as 'Bad' and needing to be controlled? Acceptance is the key word going forwards and take away the judegment and need to control it and trying to box it up into a normal range. Let it be what it is and ask.. "What can YOU do with this". The first step forwards would be for Education minister to realise that they need to have a different curriculum.. one that is based around their interest and what will serve them in the adult life, not make them study stuff they have absolutely no interest in and therefore cannot work at.
Could literally have been written about me
Thank you very much for this article. I have known I had Dyspraxia since I was about 11, when it was quite newly acknowledged but my Mum was tenacious, however it's become really clear to me that ADHD is probably more significant. I've really struggled with emotional regulation, mostly with holding in my responses until I get home amd take it out on myself. I have a key role at work and a political role out of work, both of which I think were won through my ADHD creativity but are also terribly difficult because of my ADHD. I am struggling at the moment because the expectations have caught up with me and colleagues are dismissive and ableist about the things I find difficult. However, one of my interests is politics and activism, so I hope to challenge some of this going forward and advocate more for ADHD people getting the help we need to reach our considerable potential, instead of being seen as a promising disappointment.