Hierarchy of Ideas in the ADD mind

This is one of the best explanations I've seen for how the ADD brain works. I'll certainly use this explanation. It's so annoying when it happens to me at work. I'll be doing something, then someone comes with a request and I do that and forget about what I was doing before, then I get into shit. AAAARGH! It's LIFO. Last In, First Out. I'm proud of myself, something did stick in my accounting class long ago:-)

http://www.adhdmarriage.com/node/84

"One of the biggest differences between people with ADD and those without is that the non-ADD brain creates a hierarchy of ideas all the time. Things come into your brain and they get put into an order without your even knowing it. What the person in front of you is saying is more important than the bird chirping in the next tree or the squirrel running across the path nearby, for example. We don’t think about this as it happens – it just does. But next time you are in a conversation with someone, or reading a book, or doing just about anything, stop and think about all of the stimulus around you that your brain is very kindly blocking out for you so that you can stay focused on the task at hand.
The ADD brain doesn’t do this very naturally. I can find myself annoyed when I am in the middle of saying something to my daughter and she suddenly starts playing with the ends of her hair…or picks up a magazine to look at the pictures…or (fill in the blank). It’s not that she doesn’t want to hear what I say (I hope!) but rather that something else just caught her attention. I know enough about ADD that I am able to bring her back to the conversation with a simple (nicely stated, not mean!) “Can you look at me for a few minutes more and leave your hair?” She knows I’m not mad when I say this, just trying to finish my thought, and so she drops the hair and refocuses on me. (If she thought I were mad, her response would be very different - probably defiant - which is why how distractibility is handled by the non-ADD partner is so critical to good communication.)"

X: Super Procrastinator al ataque!

Friday, October 26, 2007

Super Procrastinator al ataque!Super Procrastinator



I procrastinate all the time. I don’t know why. Sometimes it’s sheer laziness, the rest of the time ADD ways. I forget to do stuff, and it doesn’t show on my mental landscape till later. Like it will take me months to do anything because I forget about it.



For example the camera I bought in April which I’m regretting, not the camera but how I paid for it. I signed up for a credit card which I used to buy the camera and it’s brutal, I should have taken the instalment plan offered by the camera people. Impulse again. Of course I always keep forgetting the payments and getting hit by late ones. Urgh.


Anyway, the camera, Pentax k10d, on any picture I take, there are two spots. When I first saw them, i thought it must be dust on the sensor, and used the sensor cleaning all the time. But nothing, I have to think it’s the sensor itself cause in all these months, those spots haven’t shifted. Anyway, I waited for 2 months to write, then waited again, then they told me what to do, then I waited. Why did I wait so long? The usual mix of forgetting, then when I did remember, just staring and my body ignoring me. So do it. Well do it, go on, do it. Then I go off and do something else. It’s like I’m paralyzed by fear or something. Like my physical brain laughs at my mental self, “Tell it to the hand” and ignores me. I don’t command power, not even in my own mind.


I really don’t know why it’s so difficult to do stuff. When I have a good day or am on Ritalin, I do stuff even when I’m reluctant. Adrenalin also makes me do things. Though that’s not healthy. Adrenalin used to get me going and pick me in the seat of my pants but now it’s like I developed a resistance to it. It doesn’t get me going like I used to.


Anyway, I managed to call and find out what to do with my camera. Finally. It was triggered by reading a magazine review on different cameras, mine included which gave me the kick in the pants I needed (adrenaline rush) and sorted it out. Now next to send it. I hope it doesn’t take long to do.

Which reminds me of the other stuff I have to send by post and have left hanging for months. For me it doesn’t seem like such a long time ago, it feels like weeks but I think about it and realize it was more than 4 months ago. ARgh .