A Few Random Notes...

Random Note Number 1:
Somebody asked whether maybe I should choose a somewhat less derogatory name for this here undertaking. I can see the point, but the reason I’m writing this is to get across what living undiagnosed with this has meant for me. And it’s made me feel like an addled screwup. I don’t want to suggest that everybody who deals with this is an addled screwup. Hell, for all I know, I’m not even an addled screwup myself. But it sure has felt that way all my life, so I’m sticking with it.

Random Note Number 2:
I go to a meeting for people with ADD once a month. I like meeting the people, and, well, maybe this is less than charitable, but I like knowing that there are people who have failed at things that I haven’t failed at. I’ve never been able to earn enough to live on my own, which kind of eats away at my soul to even write, but it’s true. But I have been married for almost 14 years, happily so, and we have two wonderful little girls, and I seem to be doing all right bringing them up. So often I’ll hear somebody at a meeting who has a job and can earn enough to live on, often more than enough to live on, but they’re on their third marriage, and their children aren’t speaking to them. So, it isn’t that I like hearing that they have these problems; but it is kind of nice to hear that there’s at least one thing I seem to be doing all right.

Random Note Number 3:
This was going to be Random Note Number 2, but that one got away from me, so now it’s Random Note Number 3. At the meeting, the guy who runs it will often bring up that if you’re going to have a mental condition, this is the one to have, since there are some advantages that come with it. That is to say, there are some things we ADDled people seem to do better than the normals. I’ll go on more about that later, but one thing that struck me today, when I saw that some of the people had said that the last post was well written, is that when I write, I write one draft and that’s it, and it almost always comes out ready to run. Even in graduate school, I’d write one draft and hand it in. I might change a word here or there, or shift a paragraph up or down a little, but sometimes I didn’t even do that much. And I got complimented more than once on my style of writing, so I guess I was doing something right...

So, I don’t know if this has anything to do with ADD or whether it’s some other, unrelated gift I just happen to have. I did wonder about it, though, so if anybody who knows more about this than I do, especially any neurologists or psychiatrists (I’m thinking of you here, Dr. Kent) might have any thoughts.

Here end the Random Notes.