Gonna add a new section to the site called “daily photos” and I plan on snapping a photo a day to slap on here.

Any suggestions on subject matter?

I want the wedding without the husband.

I want to wear the dress and have a party all about me.

Is that such a bad thing?

I always am solving problems in the shower…

I am not the only one - regularjEN does, too!

Okay, I was a dumb@ss yesterday and thought, hey, lets go off of my ADD meds and see how I do, forgetting that they help me with my horrible balance and my appalling coordination.

Anyways, was cleaning the bathroom, phone in front pocket, and turned to get something out of the cupboard when my phone went straight into the toilet! Needles to say, I didn’t have on any gloves, but I dove straight in to get it!

I took it apart and set it out to dry, and its still fooked! I can align the screen, and then after that, the display goes haywire. I can see many water spots on the screen.

Now i have put my Sim card back into an old Nokia *and I hate it. But at least it works.

Heres my query - I have phone insurance, which will take a week or so to sort out, but in the meantime, is there anyway that I can flash the phone to get the lost data retrieved?

If I can’t retrieve it, can I completly wipe the phone? Theres some personal data I dont want others to access - ie photos and creidt card numbers, etc.

Any advice would be helpful…

This week is the week that my Concerta dosage has been altered (in fact doubled).

So far I have noticed that I am irritable in the mornings, more stressed out, but am able to focus better. I am having difficulty waking up in the mornings as well.
I am struggling to multitask - I am finding that very frustrating as I have went my entire life doing 10 things at once, and now, at most, I am doing 3.

I have noticed that my vision is sometimes difficult - it takes me a few moments longer than usual to focus.

I have been struggling with abstract ideas in regards to programming - maybe its PMT (PMS) or the medication, but if the meds effect my creative flow for much longer, I will loose the will to live.

On the plus side, I have lost another 3 pounds, and my preoccupation with food is now subsided (first time in about 20 years). I am not always planning my next meal, but I do get bitchy if I leave it for too long - if I don’t have a mid morning snack or some fruit juice, I get really really narky!

Hopefully the heightened agitation and sleep issues are just a temporary side-effect. The irritability could just be a female issue - time will tell.

I was both saddened and angered by the letter you received about “Interest Deficit” from a reader concerning your article on human evolution that a gene associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has been selected for and is increasing in the population, though it is not known why (11 March, p 30).

ADHD is not only a problem with children - I am an adult who suffers with ADHD.
It is not simply trying to find something to do with their abounding energy; there are many factors and effects that ADHD has on someone other than excess energy. It is NOT down to conforming to society’s or adult’s “norms” but an actual disorder.

I have recently started my first trials of medications, at 30 years old, and can testify to the amazing wonderful improvements it has made to my life in just the 4 short weeks I have been taking the medication. I had to jump through ALOT of hoops to get here - socialised medicine isn’t the greatest for people with unrecognized illnesses and “new” diagnosis.

With the medication I’m calm, my thoughts are streamlined, my chronic anxiety has suspiciously gone away, and I don’t even feel drugged, and the compulsion to talk constantly is gone. I can focus, stay on track, and don’t need to constantly multitask. I write about my ADHD on an online journal, thegeneva.com, to help and encourage others who are experiencing some “normality” for the first time. I have had great response, and hopefully have been able to make things just a bit easier for anyone else that may be suffering.

Maybe if the author of your letter understood ADHD and its hindering symptoms, maybe they would not be so quick to judge and criticise.

Here is a snippet from one of my articles to try and help people understand how debilitating this can be.

What is it like to have ADHD?

You get one idea and you have to act on it, and then, what do you know, but you’ve got another idea before you’ve finished up with the first one, and so you go for that one, but of course a third idea intercepts the second, and you just have to follow that one, and pretty soon people are calling you disorganized and impulsive and all sorts of impolite words that miss the point completely. Because you’re trying really hard. It’s just that you have all these invisible vectors pulling you this way and that which makes it really hard to stay on task.

Plus which, you’re spilling over all the time. You’re drumming your fingers, tapping your feet, humming a song, whistling, looking here, looking there, scratching, stretching, doodling, and people think you’re not paying attention or that you’re not interested, but all you’re doing is spilling over so that you can pay attention. I can pay better attention when I’m taking a walk or listening to music or even when I’m in a crowded, noisy room than when I’m still and surrounded by silence.

What is it like to have ADHD? Buzzing. Being here and there and everywhere. Someone once said, “Time is the thing that keeps everything from happening all at once.”
Time parcels moments out into separate bits so that we can do one thing at a time. In ADHD, this does not happen.

In ADHD, time collapses. Time becomes a black hole. To the person with ADHD it feels as if everything is happening all at once. This creates a sense of inner turmoil or even panic. The individual loses perspective and the ability to prioritize. He or she is always on the go, trying to keep the world from caving in on top.

I change channels a lot. And radio stations. Drives all of my friends nuts. “Can’t we listen to just one song all the way through?”

The way I go through a museum is the way some people go through the sale at Ikea. Some of this, some of that, oh, this one looks nice, but what about that rack over there? Got to hurry, got to run.

It’s not that I don’t like art. I love art. But my way of loving it makes most people think I’m a real Philistine. On the other hand, sometimes I can sit and look at one painting for a long while. I’ll get into the world of the painting and buzz around in there until I forget about everything else. In these moments I, like most people with ADHD, can hyper focus, which gives the lie to the notion that we can never pay attention. Sometimes we have turbocharged focusing abilities, it just depends upon the situation.

Queues (lines). I’m almost incapable of waiting in queues. I just can’t wait, you see. That’s the hell of it. Impulse leads to action. I’m very short on what you might call the intermediate reflective step between impulse and action. That’s why I, like so many people with ADHD, lack tact. Tact is entirely dependent on the ability to consider one’s words before uttering them. We ADHD types don’t do this so well. I’ve learned how to say these inappropriate things in such a way or at such a time that they can in fact be helpful. But it has taken time. That’s the thing about ADHD. It takes a lot of adapting to get on in life. But it certainly can be done, and be done very well.

As you might imagine, intimacy can be a problem if you’ve got to be constantly changing the subject, pacing, scratching and blurting out tactless remarks. Some of my friends have learned not to take my tuning out personally, and they says that when I’m there, I’m really there.
Many of us with ADHD crave high-stimulus situations. In my case, I love having lots of people around. Obviously this tendency can get you into trouble, which is why ADHD is high among criminals and self-destructive risk-takers. It is also high among so-called Type A personalities, as well as among manic-depressives, sociopaths and criminals, violent people, drug abusers, and alcoholics. But is also high among creative and intuitive people in all fields, and among highly energetic, highly productive people.

Which is to say there is a positive side to all this. Usually the positive doesn’t get mentioned when people speak about ADHD because there is a natural tendency to focus on what goes wrong, or at least on what has to be somehow controlled. But often once the ADHD has been diagnosed, and the child or the adult, with the help of teachers and parents or spouses, friends, and colleagues, has learned how to cope with it, an untapped realm of the brain swims into view. Suddenly the radio station is tuned in, the windshield is clear, the sand storm has died down. And the child or adult, who had been such a problem, such a nudge, such a general pain in the neck to himself and everybody else, that person starts doing things he’d never been able to do before. He surprises everyone around him, and he surprises himself. I use the male pronoun, but it could just as easily be she, as we are seeing more and more ADHD among females as we are looking for it.

Often these people are highly imaginative and intuitive. They have a “feel” for things, a way of seeing right into the heart of matters while others have to reason their way along methodically. This is the person who can’t explain how he thought of the solution, or where the idea for the story came from, or why suddenly he produced such a painting, or how he knew the short cut to the answer, but all he can say is he just knew it, he could feel it. This is the man or woman who makes million dollar deals in a catnap and pulls them off the next day. This is the child who, having been reprimanded for blurting something out, is then praised for having blurted out something brilliant. These are the people who learn and know and do and go by touch and feel. These people can feel a lot. In places where most of us are blind, they can, if not see the light, at least feel the light, and they can produce answers apparently out of the dark. It is important for others to be sensitive to this “sixth sense” many ADHD people have, and to nurture it. If the environment insists on rational, linear thinking and “good” behaviour from these people all the time, then they may never develop their intuitive style to the point where they can use it profitably. It can be exasperating to listen to people talk. They can sound so vague or rambling. But if you take them seriously and grope along with them, often you will find they are on the brink of startling conclusions or surprising solutions.

What is the treatment all about? Anything that turns down the noise. Just making the diagnosis helps turn down the noise of guilt and self-recrimination. Building certain kinds of structure into one’s life can help a lot. Working in small spurts rather than long hauls. Breaking tasks down into smaller tasks. Making lists. Getting help where you need it, whether it’s having a secretary, or an accountant, or an automatic bank teller, or a good filing system, or a home computer, getting help whereby you need it. Maybe applying external limits on your impulses. Or getting enough exercise to work off some of the noise inside. Finding support. Getting someone in your corner to coach you, to keep you on track. Medication can help a great deal too, but it is far from the whole solution. The good news is that treatment can really help. Let me leave you by telling you that we need your help and understanding. We may make mess-piles wherever we go, but with your help, those mess-piles can be turned into realms of reason and art. So, if you know someone like me who’s acting up and daydreaming and forgetting this or that and just not getting with the program, consider ADHD before he starts believing all the bad things people are saying about him and it’s too late.

ADHD is a way of life, and until recently it has been hidden, even from the view of those who have it. The human experience of ADHD is more than just a collection of symptoms. It is a way of living. Before the syndrome is diagnosed that way of living may be filled with pain and misunderstanding. After the diagnosis is made, one often finds new possibilities and the chance for real change.

The adult syndrome of ADHD, so long unrecognized, is now at last bursting upon the scene. Thankfully, millions of adults who have had to think of themselves as defective or unable to get their acts together, will instead are able to make the most of their considerable abilities. It is a hopeful time indeed.

Sent a message to the lovely Nurse Practictioner who is helping me with the new Meds..

I want to take 20mg of Diazepam if I can, or Ibuprophen with Codiene if I can’t.
I am hoping that the diazepam will help with the sleep issues - I can’t seem to get to sleep at night, but once I am asleep I cannot wake up.
I may start setting my alarm to wake me an hour before I am due to get up to take a concerta.

Hopefully will hear back today…

Day 2 on Concerta, and I am getting the muscle tightness/tenseness that I suspected would happen. The problem is, it has caused my back injury to flare up and my back is spasmed up and I am in alot of pain.

I want to take some muscle relaxers to relieve the pain - 20mg of Diazepam if I can, or Ibuprophen with Codiene if I can’t.

Its now almost 10 PM and I took my tablet at 9AM this morning.

I was wanting to know if anyone has taken Codiene or Valium (diazepam to people outside of the USA) whilst taking Concerta, and if they had any side effects?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

.. is awesome. This is my first 24 hours and I have a few thoughts.

I took one yesterday, but didnt take it until almost noon and well, insomnia was murder!

I’m calm.. my thoughts are streamlined.. and my chronic anxiety has suspiciously gone away, and I don’t even feel drugged.

I haven’t been talking nonstop today, and actually felt like I was able to focus for long periods - maybe even hyperfocus.

I have been clenching my teeth alot today - maybe its the “speed” effect.

I worry that this will slow me down in the sense that before, I could multitask about 8 different things, in fact I needed to, but today I stayed focused on one thing at a time - is this what it’s like for non-ADD people? How do you get anything done?

I can tell it’s wearing off..I took it at 7:00 AM and now it is 11:30PM.
I’m feeling a tinge of scatter-brain is coming back.

I think I am experiencing a little bit of “normality” - and I am not sure if I like it.

Watch this space!

ADDers sometimes hyperfocus.

Hyperfocusing provides a reassuring buzz of tightly focused activity that drowns out the distracting din of the world. A lot of ADDers are system admins , programmers, etc… Many ADDers find a computer terminal to be a calm reassuring place to escape to where there are few surprises and a lot less pain than messy attempts at social interraction that often bring hurt and confusion despite the best of intentions on the part of a good-natured ADDer.

For some reason a lot of ADDers are attracted to things technological like computing. Video games provide a bit of an adrenalin rush that some ADDers find soothing. A lack of physical or psychological stimulation might tend to make these things more attractive. Doing things that give a bit of an adrenalin rush ( like weightlifting, jogging, hiking, sex, etc) often provide temporary relief. Also, ADDers continuously avoid boredom. They fill every minute with something to occupy their busy, busy mind. They are in search of that mental buzz, always thinking , always taking in their environment and processing everything around them and mentally projecting the potential outcomes into the future… they naturally have very busy minds. At least, this is how it is for me.