Adult ADD

Anyone have experience with this and willing to talk about it?

I suspect I may have ADD. Never been hyperactive but scatter brained is how I feel. I can make myself get things done but I get very distracted. Can't slow down my thoughts. I am thinking of going to get some help with it because although I am trying to learn some self management skills I am getting stuck mentally and not able to get unstuck very well. Obviously stress makes that worse and I have had a lot on my plate lately.

 

Hi @zebragirl what you're describing sounds like you could very well have ADD. If the symptoms are making it difficult for you to get things done it might not hurt to speak toms doctor about it.

Have you always felt this way? Is the stress you referred to new? Ongoing? If the stress is new and you didn't feel this way before the stress, it could be situational. Do you meditate? That's a good way of calming down the mind sometimes.

 

The stress is ongoing but increased recently. But I get like this a lot. I think not being able to focus has gotten worse when I became a mother. I read somewhere that's common because having a kid is so much more unpredictable. I used to work a full time job and knowing about ADD, looking back, I see it then,. I hyper focused on the task so much they thought I did great but it was so hard to multi-task well like they wanted me to. I got in trouble so many times for simply being so focused I wasn't paying attention to helping my Co workers with their tasks. It was the medical field where you have 50 things going at once and still have to jump in and help your coworkers. I could handle the Fifty things by mentally compartmentalizing things and hope focusing. But add in jumping into help Co workers and it was too much. Not a good fit really. But because there was a routine and schedule that really was great. Not so much as a mom at home.

 

I think reading the book @cynthetiq suggested is a great idea, but I would personally still make an appointment with a dr. If nothing else, it may ease your mind.

I had the opposite thing happen. I did not realize I was ADD until I spoke to my dr at length and over time about other things going on and it finally came into light.

Keep us updated, ok?

 

The DSM-5 didn't change too much in the adult categories. I can try to find the adult screener questionnaires that some of the clinical trials use to start the process. I'll write more later but I finally figured out my issue after college, I have "predominantly inattentive presentation, moderate" I'd you'd like to get technical. My day job revolves around this stuff so I can unofficially point people in the right direction on some things.

 

Dr. Noodle to the rescue!!!!

 

Jadzia had ADD and was wicked smart to boot.
They didn't diagnose it until she was almost out of school, just thought she was being difficult because she could do so well when she wanted to.
That was her problem really if she decided she wanted to learn something, she could teach herself how to make a website in a weekend.
Of course, you'd best not talk to her during that time or risk having you head bitten off.
But she would also get bored with things if she mastered them too quickly and move on.
Our house was stuffed full of crafts and projects that she had done and tossed because once she figured it out, that was enough.
She developed coping skills.
During long meetings (as a teacher you sit through an inordinate number of those) she would appear to be taking notes on her pad when she was actual auctioning things or playing games.
Anything to keep her mind distracted and moving.
She would rather take a side road home with an extra 30 miles on it than sit in traffic.
I'm pretty sure we had all the flair in our sex life is because if it had been vanilla, a squirrel walking past the window would have distracted her.

 

Yes the half finished projects. I have SO many of them. And mastering things and getting bored, I do that too. Its fun when there is there challenge of it being new. I used to paint watercolors. I can look at a picture and replicate it. But only ever felt the challenge when I wanted to give one as a gift so I had a deadline. Every one of them i have away as gifts and never could motivate myself to paint for just the sake of doing it.