About ten years or so ago, in my forties, (Yes, I’m old. Do the math.) my husband was reading a book about ADD. In doing so, he took a quiz and found that he was not ADD, but thought that perhaps I should take a look at this book. It might be of interest. Hmmm.
Fast forward to today. I realize that I do have ADD/EFD, that I always have had it, and that I am still grappling with it now in my personal and professional life. Could this be true for you? Your spouse or child? Your professional colleague?
I am a little too forgetful, I have big time problems arriving at any destination on time, I never seem to get to the things that are either low priority or are long-term projects with no deadline, I am emotionally intense and binary- as in I HATE 80’s music but I LOVE the music of the 00’s, and it goes on and on.
Does this sound like you? Does this sound like your child, friend, spouse, or colleague?
Why Am I Blogging?
So now at this stage of my life, I have a renewed purpose. I am dedicated to learn as much as I can about ADD and EFD, find the LINK here. Currently, I am still at the stage of discovering new learning about how my brain works and how I can find work arounds to succeed in life. I would like to bring you along with me. I want to share my findings, answer your questions, and offer coping strategies for you too. I hope you travel with me through all my ADD adventures.
Things About Me That You Were Too Afraid To Ask
Are you married? Do you have kids?
Yes and yes. I have been married to my wonderful, thoughtful, nonjudgmental husband for 29 years. We have three of the best humans (in my mind, at least) as kids. Son, daughter, son. Ages 24, 22, and 19.
Do you work another job besides blogging?
Yes, absolutely. I am an elementary school teacher and have been one for years. How can I be a teacher if I’ m ADD? My answer is here INT LINK. I also work as a hostess and sometimes food server in a restaurant on Saturday evenings and summers. I started this when my children moved out of the house. I chose to get busy elsewhere to combat the daily crying. I’ve been working there on the side ever since.
How can you be a teacher if you have time management problems?
As stated above, teaching is oddly a fairly good fit for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have difficulty deciding the priorities of what to do doing prep times, how to carve out the time to work with individual students, pacing my lessons, and more. But it does work for me in that my day is structured for me.
I have a definite time to start class and a definite time to finish lessons. Breaks are defined for me and lunch is also defined for me; there is no way to use the magical thinking of making up time later INT LINK HERE. I’ll elaborate more here INT LINK HERE, but essentially the large chunks of day are set up for me and I just figure out how to best use the time within those boundaries. Additionally, the blocks of time are mapped out even more, in that I have plans in the curriculum that I am required to follow, so I plug those in to my time blocks. This allows me to plan and manage from scratch even less. Phew!
To be clear, there are a million little ways that my time management issues affect me (and others) negatively every day, but they reside more in the secondary aspects of my job, not the primary component of actually teaching children. I’m talking about contacting parents in a timely manner, replying to emails promptly, marking events on my calendar immediately, etc. These tasks are a part of any job, not just teaching. More on the here INT LINK HERE
I have a post dedicated to good and bad career choices that might be helpful to you here INT LINK HERE.
Are you messed up in any other ways?
I’m so glad you asked! Why, yes I am.
I have read that people with ADD may also suffer from anxiety. And that is definitely me. I suffer, and I mean suffer, from anxiety. For me, it manifests in all health matters. When it is bad, it gets really B.A.D. When it is out of control, I literally feel like I am dying and I absolutely cannot think rationally. At times like these, the anxiety is crippling and debilitating. I perseverate on my health scare and seek constant reassurance from my husband. Unsurprisingly, these are also the times that strain my marriage most.
This is an avenue that I intend to explore in more detail in the future. I’m not certain where I want to go with it, but I definitely will dive in. It might take the form of another post or page, or I might even start a different website dedicated only to anxiety.
I do want to read, learn, and write about anxiety though. It sucks bad, and I want to help others if I am able.