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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I have ADHD. I also have a daughter with ADHD. I think being able to see it from the point of personal experience and from a parents perspective has been helpful in some ways. I was officially diagnosed at 28. I wish I had been diagnosed as a child. I have never been outwardly hyperactive but aside from that, the signs were clearly there.

    Instead of outward physical hyperactivity, I have what I have heard called “inner restlessness”. It feels like an inability to relax. I can’t just sit and do nothing. It’s an insatiable need to constantly feel like I’m doing something productive, every waking minute of every day. It doesn’t sound that bad but in reality it’s a tremendous source of misery. Humans aren’t built to work constantly without rest but my ADHD brain will not let me turn it off. Meds help with this a lot.

    One of the challenging things about having a child (or even maybe being a child) with ADHD is that physicians often like to focus on school performance as the primary barometer of “success”. In fairness, that’s somewhat understandable when kids are young and lack the self-awareness to analyze how they’re feeling, much less communicate their feelings in a meaningful way.

    The goal should be to help the child have a happy and fulfilling life with school performance as a component of that.

    People with ADHD are significantly more likely to experience mental health issues throughout their lives, especially if they’re untreated. That can often lead to “self medicating” (AKA substance abuse). As someone who experienced severe difficulty regulating their own emotions – often a symptom of ADHD – from an early age, and spent most of his 20’s binge drinking as a form of self medication, I wish someone would have asked if I needed meds when I was a kid.

    ADHD symptoms can change as the brain develops. It’s perfectly normal to make adjustments to medications to deal with that and keep everything dialed in.

    I think what’s really important is teaching your son the importance of looking after his mental health and that having an ongoing dialogue with his doctor about his disorder is a positive thing.



  • One time I came home from work and found a deer in my front yard that had been hit by a car. It was still standing but it looked awful. I seriously thought about putting it out of its misery but before I could do anything, it limped off into the woods right behind my house where it collapsed and died.

    About three days later, I opened my front door and got hit in the face by the most horrible smell I have ever smelt. Imagine the smell from when you leave a meat package in the trash for a day or two. Dial that up to about 1000. Set it in the hot sun for three days and you’ll probably be pretty close. It’s so strong it stimulates your gag reflex. I have a pretty strong stomach but I thought I was going to be sick. I couldn’t go outside for a week after that because that’s how long it took the scavengers to clean up the carcass.






  • I totally get this. We have to figure out what we can and can’t control. I decided, a long time ago, that I did not want to be the kind of father that my father was. Thankfully, I was able to let go of the anger that I was brought up with. I’m far from perfect but I decided the cycle of abuse would end with me and I ended it.

    I still can’t remember what I was about to do or where I put something 90% of the time. I wish that weren’t the case. I wish my stupid pinball machine of a brain worked like a normal one. It doesnt. That’s outside my control.

    But, I was able to change something that really mattered by dealing with something I could control.



  • There is truth in the expression, “Success is a lot of small decisions stacked on top of one another.”

    It can be hard for us to embrace because it often doesn’t provide the immediate reward sensation that we crave and don’t get enough of. That said, if you can find a way to focus on one area of improvement at a time, your chances of success are much higher and it will help keep you from feeling overwhelmed by your larger goals.