ADD Dopers - what do you hate about ADD?

Joke I adapted a couple of years back.

How many people with ADHD does it take to change a light bulb?

One to change the buuuuu ooh, shiny!

It’s funny because I almost do that.

I’ve been diagnosed (several times) with and am currently being treated for ADHD, although I am not the slightest bit hyperactive. As for what I most hate about it … well, I dislike struggling to keep my mind focused on one task at a time; I very often find myself having read full paragraphs without any comprehension whatsoever, because my mind had wandered somewhere else.

Other things I dislike which may be related to my mind forever wandering: I have no sense of direction; I couldn’t tell someone how to get from here (school) to my home just a few miles away. I’m very forgetful, unable to remember names or faces; birthdays of family members; phone numbers. This kind of stuff must be at least partially due to where-I’m-goings and introductions never having my full attention.

Anyway. I really came in as a response to this …

Kinda coincidental. At 29 I am, just now, reluctantly, for the first time seriously, making the attempt to learn to drive. But I wouldn’t have connected this with ADHD, I’m just dreadfully afraid of it.

All of a sudden “If You Give A Moose A Muffin” isn’t humorous anymore.

That’s not ADD, that’s perfectionism: different condition. Repeat after me: “perfect hates good. I need good: I do not need perfect.”

Yes. Perfectionism is often comorbid with ADHD, but I’ve seen highly distracted individuals who couldn’t give a flip about quality of work – and the most utterly perfectionist people I’ve met haven’t fit the ADHD profile at all.

Still, I empathize – high distractibility can make it difficult to approach “good”, let alone “perfect” – a source of guilty feeling to which I too am subject. The perfect is the enemy of the good; but sometimes good can be the enemy of perfectly acceptable; and perfectly acceptable can be the enemy of meeting a deadline at all. Best not fight it.

There’s nothing wrong with “good”, it’s harder to be happier when all you can ever do is “good enough”

When did this turn into a fortune cookie competition? :stuck_out_tongue:

tld
Squirrel!

Do I get bonus points for killing your childhood favorites? :smiley:

But yeah, its kinda like that. I never saw the humor in the Give A Mouse A Cookie book when I read it to my nieces and nephew, because, you know… that’s just how life IS. :cool:

On the upside, I frequently use If you give a mouse a cookie as an example when I’m trying to explain to people how my brain works.

The fewer people affected by a deadline, the harder it is for me to get to work and the more stress it causes me.

If I’m to present at a large gathering or a project needs to ship, brother, I get it done.
If it’s for a meeting of 3 other people, I may negotiate - depends on how difficult the assignment is and how much use we’re likely to make of it.
If it’s one professor, it depends on what I think of hi/r and hi/r policies, but I very often negotiate, and I don’t pull any punches.

ASAP is worst. I better know you NEED it. Ideally by 5 o’clock. Otherwise it’s likely to get shuffled off until I feel guilty just thinking about it, and then, Og help us both. I’ve gone through a lot of bad blood with a lot of people simply because of varying interpretations of ASAP.

Yes, I have many problems beyond ADD.

Yes, I am 25 and haven’t ever attempted to learn.

Yep, I’m hyper too. It’s nice that I can sort of sit still as an adult (figit, figit) but the restlessness isn’t something I’ve outgrown either.

On my days off, it would be best if I took advantage of the time to write since I’m working on a pair of novels and lots of short stories (you aren’t surprised that I can no more write a story at a time than read a book straight through before picking up another, right?). But I can’t if I’m made too anxious/restless/distracted by other things that need to be done, and I can’t be ready until…whatever. I have a mantra running through my head a lot of times, it’s “and then I can write.”

It goes like this:
If I do laundry
then I can write
but first
If I shovel the driveway
then I can write
but first
if I force myself to go to the bank/laundrymat/get my oil changed (places I have difficulty with due to the sitting/standing around)
then I can write…

and if I actually am able to settle down, I can be ready to write. It’s a miracle that I have 4 nanowrimo wins under my belt considering how hard it is to get ready to write something. A lot of the time writing gets done at 2:30 in the morning, even if it means getting out of bed, because I finally have run out of things I need to do first!

My parents forced me to get mine when I was 16.5. I was in no hurry to get it, but they thought it’d be nice to be able to send me to the grocery store or to pick up my brother from his activities. Left to my own devices, I probably wouldn’t have gotten it until much later. If it makes you feel any better, in 16 years of driving, I only did one bad thing (which lost me the trim off a rear door when I got too close to one of those stupid poles with reflectors on them) due to inattentiveness and that was within the first 18 months of driving.

I hate not being able to deal with details. I am just not detail oriented. I can get the global gist of things very easily, but the very minute details of whatever and just about everything, makes it very hard for me to be as meticulous as I should be. That along with being creative, makes it even more difficult to be very exacting, in any given venue.

About driving: I was sent away to board for high school. My dad tried to give me some basic driving lessons during the summers which consisted mostly of YELLING. After that I lost interest, as did he.

I finally did drived ed and got licensed before starting college. It’s no fun being the oldest one in driver ed in a town where not getting your license at 16 usually means you’re some sort of mental defective - which, looking back on it, I was.

Oh, driving. It’s on my list, I’m fearful but I’ve become more confident that I’ll be proficient. At least I’ll take it more seriously than many people I know. And I doubt I’ll ever own a car or use one much.

My biggest problem is that I can’t control my hyperfocus worth a damn. I obsessively consume books, the internet, and computer games while my life passes me by. :frowning: I’ve gotten a ton better at almost everything else with time and effort, but I can’t beat this one.

I’ve been a waitress off and on since 2004 and it’s improved my memory, auditory skills (before I couldn’t remember a word anyone ever said to me), attentiveness, organization, and ability to put tasks in their proper order.

I need to get redignosed and try meds again. Anyone have the same out-of-control computer/reading addiction? How does Adderall, etc help with that?

I also hate how I forget stuff. I hear people talking about “having a senior moment” or something, describing how they went into a room and suddenly couldn’t remember what they came into the room to get or do. They moan about how hard it is getting old and forgetful and how this is the SECOND TIME THIS WEEK that this has happened to them.

Well, Every. Living. Day. is like that for me. Second time this week? Try “second time in 10 minutes” (2 for 2)!. It’s actually pretty rare for me to retain a thought all the way (6 steps) down the hall, and it’s ALWAYS been that way for me, ever since I was a tiny child.

And now I am getting old. It’s going to get worse. Fuck.

Also, I am left handed and clumsy because of that. I have to be careful with knives. I have been taken to the ER twice with cuts to my right hand. Hands are well vascularized and bleed profusely. One time, I had to get to the ER during a snowstorm. There was blood all over the kitchen. Luckily my husband got me there in time. As the doctor there said, “you are bleeding profusely”. Yes, that’s why I am here, sir. The cops were there that night and noticed my right hand was bleeding, so the didn’t question me about it. We got home okay, too.

I knoooow. I have the same depressing thought cycle whenever anyone over 30 complains about their memory or attentiveness.

I’ve never taken Adderall or Vyvanse or Focalin. I’ve always taken methylphenidate SR. I just use generic stuff. It does the trick.

This is me to the letter.