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| | The Entrepreneurs with ADD Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | 50 Tips ... | Views: 1183 | | Jul 12, 2005 5:28 pm | | 50 Tips ... | # | 
Russ Jackman | | ADD is not a phrase that I would have associated with myself before reading the infamous Chapter 9!
While I wait to see my doctor, I have been doing a lot of research on ways to *capitalize* on ADD (I hate the idea of using the word "cope"). A long-standing feeling of frustration is being replaced with a sense of hope!
In my quest, I came across a list of 50 tips for managing adult ADD ...
http://www.acbr.com/fas/adhdtips.htm
There is a link at the bottom of that page to another article by the same doctor, "What's It Like To Have ADD?".
Russ JackmanPrivate Reply to Russ Jackman | | Jul 12, 2005 9:12 pm | | re: 50 Tips ... | # |
Carol Stemple | | Very helpful article. I am frequently frustrated with some of the ADD "helpful" info. This had some real specifics in section II and III. Thanks for posting!
Carol
www.lifeworkhealth.comPrivate Reply to Carol Stemple | | Jul 12, 2005 10:33 pm | | re: 50 Tips ... | # | 
Amy Jo Garner | | Russ, thanks for the link! Lots of great suggestions.
I love this, "Many people with ADD are visually oriented." This is so true of me; I've never figured out the allure of books-on-tape or even conference calls - my mind goes somewhere else and I don't hear a thing that is said!
But it is sad to read that so many folks with ADD have felt embarrassed and humiliated. I think nearly everyone in my family is ADD, so the ADD life was "normal" for us. My brothers and I were always supported and encouraged in our many diverse interests and pursuits. My parents never thought it unusual that we might be stamp-collecting and practicing our music lessons at the same time :-)
The challenges for me are: 1)keeping myself on track and 2)dealing with other people's reaction to the seeming chaos in my life. It's not chaos to me, in fact it's quite peaceful, but even my late husband was baffled at how anything every materialized out of what looked like chaos to him. :-)
Amy Private Reply to Amy Jo Garner | | Jul 13, 2005 2:41 am | | re: 50 Tips ... | # | 
Stephanie Frank | | Russ:
Let us know what the doctor says. And no matter what, please hold on to that feeling of relief from frustration.
When I was first diagnosed, I felt damaged, angry. What, ME disabled? It's not like I lost a limb or eyesight - that to me would be much worse.
Personally, I really dislike the use of labels as crutches. So we think differently - so what?
I chose to understand rather than fight it. I know more about brain function now that I ever thought I would, and it's pretty fascinating.
The 50 tips link you gave came from Dr. Hallowell, author of Driven to Distraction. It was the first book that gave me insight and relief, and I suggest that anyone who wants to understand more of this phenomenon pick it up.
Thanks for coming to this board - and please help me spread the word, okay?
Stephanie
Private Reply to Stephanie Frank | | Jul 14, 2005 3:13 pm | | re: 50 Tips ... | # | 
Patricia Browne | | Hello,
I don't know what brought me to this board. Except that reading about this is like a look in the mirror. I am going to check into this further. Wow, after getting so frustrated with myself, I can see perhaps, that this might be my problem. I multi-task to the point of juggling so many things that nothing can possibly get done. For instance, I have one project that keeps taking a back burner to all my other work, I have a website that I have been working on for a year. I am trying to get the bugs out and optimize it for maximum marketability and search optimization and I feel it still needs something...
I am feeling less frustrated and more hopeful.
-Patricia Browne
www.patriciabrowne.comPrivate Reply to Patricia Browne | | Jul 14, 2005 3:30 pm | | Very helpful software | # |
Basil Beltran | | FreeMind http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Private Reply to Basil Beltran | | Jul 14, 2005 3:58 pm | | re: Very helpful software | # |
Amy Jo Garner | | Thanks for the link! I didn't even know that the term "mind mapping" existed until about a year ago. When I looked into it I discovered that I had been mind mapping for years!
If any of you are not familiar with mind mapping, here is a great article at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
AmyPrivate Reply to Amy Jo Garner | | Jul 14, 2005 5:16 pm | | re: re: Very helpful software | # |
Stephanie Frank | | Amy:
I agree! I learned to mindmap about 12 years ago and now I don't know what I'd do without it.
Plans come out effortlessly, books take shape and projects come together. Maybe I should do a class on how to Mind Map - anybody interested?
Stephanie Frank
Author, The Accidental Millionaire
http://www.AccidentalMillionaire.com
Private Reply to Stephanie Frank | | Jul 14, 2005 5:48 pm | | Why MindMapping works | # |
Basil Beltran | | Yes, you should. And keep me informed. I'm working on a line of products for ADDers and a customized MindMap is one of the more mature ones.
Here's my theory of why MindMapping works for ME. (I'm glad to hear the positive responses from this sample of the ADD population). A commonality of the cluster we call ADD is, at root, a memory dysfunction. By using a mindmap as a portal to your memory enhancing technology devices (I even use mind map to document what im doing or about to do in ANOTHER tool !) you are...
able to quickly recover from your uncontrolled impulse to do something else. But you have contrained the options. You go to another branch in your mind map (maybe you've called it GREAT NEW IDEAS) and jot down your distracting thought. Now, bang!, you go right back to where you came from in your map. You cant forget becuase it happens quickly enough and you have a finite number of options when you ask yourself, "now where was I."
Try it. See what you think.Private Reply to Basil Beltran | | Jul 14, 2005 8:05 pm | | re: re: re: Very helpful software | # | 
Paul Broekhuizen | | Sign me up for the class Stephanie!
Hello to all. I just joined this group a few hours ago, and already I've received more needed help and information than all my previous Ryze Networking combined.
Thank you, Basil, for the software link. That's going to help tremendously.
Russ, I'd like to thank you too for posting the 50 tips. Your personal testimony and the link is why I'm here.
I never realized ADD was my problem until today. I just thought I was trying to multitask too much too often.
Cheers!
Private Reply to Paul Broekhuizen | | Feb 09, 2006 9:52 pm | | re: re: Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # | 
Jeff Cline | | Yes, I would also be interested in Stephanie doing a class on how to mind map. I think that may be a helpful key to unlock the potential of our ADD. There were 2 people who showed an interest after her original July 2005 post. Anyone else interested?
http://www.ryze.com/postdisplay.php?messageid=1209029&confid=1962
Here is a description of mind maps:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
Jeff Cline, a.k.a. "InfoJeff"
Web Potentials
(310) 641-7133 (PST)Private Reply to Jeff Cline | | Feb 10, 2006 4:26 am | | (class on how to Mind Map) | # | 
Mariangie Gonzalez | | I'm still very interested
Mariangie
http://www.MindBodyAndPaw.com
"Your Pet's Health Food Store"Private Reply to Mariangie Gonzalez | | Feb 10, 2006 3:30 pm | | re: re: re: Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # | 
Roberta's | | Stephanie,
I'd be interested as well.
RobertaPrivate Reply to Roberta's | | Feb 18, 2006 10:53 pm | | : Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # | 
Pamela White | | I've been reading about ADD the last three weeks and incorporating just a few of those 50 tips mentioned in this thread and it has made a world of difference in my business and life. I am able to do daily cleaning without collapsing over it. I work from home so it's easy to ignore my work. These last two weeks i wrote everything down and carried that list with me. We missed no doctor/dentist/orthodontist appointments. I returned phone calls, check emails daily and followed my list. I do need a day of rest every three or four days (I rest all morning or putter around the house for a few hours) but I am still much more productive, my creative ideas don't blast out of me and disappear (I am capturing, and more important ACTING, on my ideas) and I'm earning more money JUST WITH TWO WEEKS of effort in this area.
What a relief, huge, sigh-inducing relief to be able to go to bed each night knowing I've completed more than half of my list.
Pam Private Reply to Pamela White | | Feb 19, 2006 2:48 am | | re: : Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # | 
Danielle Bailey | | Is it weird that I read about ADD and keep thinking "But I thought everybody did that!"
Is it that a great majority of people have adult ADD or is it just that I'm nuts and think just because I do these things that everyone does them?
I read the 50 tips article, and it's so spot on it's really scary.
But then I think about a meeting I had last week. In the meeting I had a notebook and pen and was writing almost from the moment I sat down. Notes from the meeting itself, side thoughts, mind mapping. When the man sitting across from me commented on it I said 'forgive me, I have ADD, it's the only way I can organize myself and keep up.'
He laughed at me and said 'that's not ADD, that's boredom, everybody zones out during these meetings.' Then he talked for about 5 minutes, apparently intent on entertaining everybody in the room, about how people who say they have ADD are just excusing normal behaviour, that it's just a buzzword.
I have to say, I was immensely hurt. I felt humiliated and ashamed. I really *do* need to do those things to stay on track, and maybe I don't have ADD, I don't really know, but my son does (he's gone through testing, I haven't) and after my son was diagnosed his doctor explained that I probably have adult ADD because of the way I always described the things I do (I thought Grayson was normal because I always do the same things he does).
So, I guess, my question is, how do you know it's ADD and not just normal boredom setting in? I never want to embarrass myself that way again so I'll never bring it up that way again. I still feel shocked and just low. Private Reply to Danielle Bailey | | Feb 24, 2006 1:22 pm | | re: re: : Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # | 
Ingrid Webster | | Danielle, please let me just share that you are not alone. I just found this network and read the 50 tips first, and whoaa... there it was. I too always thought that these do apply to everybody and I never could figure out why people couldn't follow whenever I tried to explain something while it was so clear to me.
My son was diagnosed as a child and it helped me recognize myself and forgive myself for my past "mistakes".
Your doodling at the meeting was NOT boredom, the error was on the side of the person criticizing you. It is just that we need to be motivated OUR way to be able to pay attention, and so often we have no interest (or motivation) when we detect (or even suspect) that a speaker at a meeting is on a very linear level, unlike us with ADD who always think in so many dimensions.
I just wish I could draw this for you in a sketch and you would perfectly understand.
For some people it may be boredom, when they doodle and drift away, but you do not need to burden yourself trying to figure it out. You have ADD and it is NOT a bad thing. Please find the positive in it, how life is so much more interesting with all of us having ADD. We are the creative ones to keep everybody else on their toes, to keep things interesting. We are the ones who can experience stronger than most people. You are in good company, enjoy it.
Please forgive that man, it was merely an uneducated response that has nothing to do with your quality as a human being. You have so much to give!
Ingrid
Private Reply to Ingrid Webster | | Feb 24, 2006 2:00 pm | | re: re: re: : Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # |
Danielle Bailey | | I think, in a way, what bugged me most was that I was on time for the meeting and prepared (Outlook's calendar/reminder function is my savior here at work) and he was late, disorganized, and couldn't even stay focused on the topic of the meeting. He had to go off on a tangent about ADD. I *really* wanted to tilt my head, smile, and suggest he be tested.
I don't know if it's because I've been this way for 33 years and never been able to rely on anything other than my own coping mechanisms (since I've never been tested, I'm not on meds, though I sincerely wish I were sometimes), or just because I'm just so darned determined to 'fit in' but I've tried, and sometimes succeeded, to put boundaries in place to control this part of my life.
And, as one person puts it so well, unless you read the way that I write, or watch me when I'm alone, or listen to me try to carry on social conversations, you wouldn't normally guess that I am an ADDult. But in my writing, or relaxed conversations, I'm constantly interrupting myself and running off into other tangents. And, because I'm female, I tend to 'daydream' which isn't one of the more obvious facets of ADD.
*sigh* I love the sparks of creativity that I have. I even respect my own intelligence. But I would give just about anything to be able to commit to something 100% and see it through without it becoming a tortorous struggle that I give up all too easily. Private Reply to Danielle Bailey | | Feb 28, 2006 1:42 am | | re: re: : Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # |
Stephanie Frank | | Uggghh!!!!!
I hate it when people think ADD is something we made up. However, since it's now a recognized disability and people at work can literally use it as an excuse (something I don't subscribe to) it's becoming more of an issue, I think.
People with ADD are more:
creative
fast-thinking
big picture
spontaneous
multi-tasking
intelligent and
wittier
than most people.
Just remember that...
StephaniePrivate Reply to Stephanie Frank | | Feb 28, 2006 3:06 am | | Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # |
Pamela White | | I asked my therapist if I could have ADD and she asked me if I wanted the official label, or just a way to understand how much I struggle. I said I wanted the understanding. I now realize that I need help, so I ask others on committees to keep me focused and organized, and leave it at that. I don't want excuses, i want solutions to get my work done, make an impact and have fun too.
I too read the list of 50 ADD symptoms or whatever, except I read it aloud to my husband who nearly rolled of the couch laughing. He was so happy that someone out there understood me :)
Oh well. I'm learning new ways to thrive each day, and it's very difficult, but still better than always feeling like a failure.
Pam Private Reply to Pamela White | | Feb 28, 2006 4:41 am | | re: re: re: : Very helpful software (class on how to Mind Map) | # |
Danielle Bailey | | I've never used it as an excuse. I try to hide it as much as possible. I've only recently even thought I have it (after everything I've gone through with my son) so I think this man may have been the 2nd person at work I've ever told about it and that was because he kept remarking on my constant writing. I think either way I would have gone with this man I was going to be the subject of his ridicule. Private Reply to Danielle Bailey | | |
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