Curl said:
I'm having problems keeping concentrated. I want to read a book but every 2 min I find myself getting up and doing something else, wasting time.
What are some good ways of keeping focused for 30 min + ?
Sleep?
graphene said:
what are these 'something else's ?
get rid of them, keep them aside.
"get rid of them, keep them aside"
Ahem, graphene, we don't work that way, and "we" number about 20% of the human population, including some of the best and brightest.
Evo's right, and there was http://www.drhallowell.com/blog/award-winning-documentary-add-and-loving-it-now-airing-on-pbs-stations/" recently. For some folks, our brains (yeah, me) are wired in ways which make most others somewhat uncomfortable by the way we do things or go through our lives.
I've never been diagnosed, nor on medication, but I've little doubt that I'm one of "them."
The thing of it is, somewhere along the line, I somehow learned to cope, at least somewhat. In short, I leveraged my extreme intelligence - (I'm not bragging, just gifted, Mensa, the whole nine yards) only to lead a rather ordinary life. Alcohol got in the way for a couple of years, because coping with the continual failure of not being able to rise to one's potential is a difficult, bitter thing.
Had I been diagnosed at an earlier age and properly treated, who knows what I might have been able to accomplish?
After dinner with my folks on Friday (yes, Jan 29,11) my Mom gave me a book recommended by the PBS special. If I could find it, I'd share it with you! Follow the link above, and it might be there.
I can, and have, accomplished so many extraordinary things! Yet so many ordinary things seem so beyond my grasp. I have a hard time cleaning my apartment, yet I can do so in lightning speed, such as before anyone visits. The other night, when I was helping my Mom cook dinner and things went sour with the several steps I said, "I've got it, please have a seat," and rescued everything from what was headed towards disaster.
I used to be a navigator in the military. I'd like to think that I was good at it, in that I always hit either the target or the bomb range on time (with two exceptions, actually fairly good over the course of one's career using visual means only). But there were far better Navs out there than I was.
What I excelled at, in part because of add/adhd, was in "pulling the fat out of the fire." When the crap hits the fan, my brain goes into hyperdrive when everyone else's brain around me appears to go into gridlock. This happened several times in the military (during inflight emergencies such as engine or electrical fires) and when all was said and done, most just said, "what the heck just happened?"
I've "pulled the fat out of the fire" in other situations, too, most notably while being grilled by commanders or general officers during either exercises or real-world events. Real, verifiable facts. Yet I've seen other officers "fired" (relived of duty/command) because they simply either locked up or couldn't pull it off. Two of the best navs in two separate squadrons failed out of a famous school because they could not "rise to the occasion." Yet they rose higher in rank than I did because I was cited as being "able to rise to the occasion."
(rolls eyes)
I think at least half the commanding officers in the military have it, to one extent or another. I'd rather not get into corporations, as I've only limited experience with that, but yes, I think it's rampant there, too.
So - should we medicate and stygmatize half our military and corporate executives?
No, BUT, I do think we should pull out all stops against any stygmatization, whatsoever, against ADD/ADHD, whether the kids or adults are medicated or not.
We have so much to offer! Find us a place in society where we can utilize our gifts to help everyone else.
