“Of COURSE I Have ADHD—Right?”

So recently I found myself saying (on several different occasions) “Oh, I’m sure I’m ADD or ADHD, though I’ve never been diagnosed.” I’m always moving a million miles an hour, high speed trains running through my head, a thousand projects going at once, and all the usual Welcome To My World stuff…

Somebody at work said the obvious: “Well, there’s all kinds of tests and checklists online, if you want to find out…”

I Googled it and found all those tests and checklists, and took a number of them.

And guess what? No freakin’ way. Not even close.

That was interesting. It made me sit and reflect for a while (which a true ADHD Guy probably could not do) on all the experiences I have had—the ones I called “ADD”, and what they might mean…

Here’s what I came up with.

• I work more than anybody I know
• I am interested in more things than most people
• I have an enormously active and creative imagination
• My inner dialogue/narrative/questioner/funny man is the most interesting place in the whole wide world (for me, anyway—you can’t begin to imagine…)
• I have more projects going than any sane person should (I said I wasn’t ADD—I didn’t say I wasn’t nuts…)
• I get more done, finish more projects, write more, have more degrees, take more photos, do more social media, than anybody with ADHD possibly could (untreated), if I am reading the symptom checklists correctly….)
• Dude, I am just too efficacious for that diagnosis…
• Do I ever lose keys, put anything off, or lose track of where I was? Yes, all the time.
• And I COULD be more focused. You too, probably.
• And I COULD do fewer things—simplify my life (and probably should…)

But my final diagnosis and treatment plan go like this:

“Too much stuff going on, and I probably could use a Life Coach.”

But I don’t need meds.

You might want to think twice about any “diagnoses” you have received in the past. Be open to the idea that they were a figment and function of the name-caller’s training and biases…I almost did it to MYSELF!  

OK, on to the To Do List (which has, seriously, 137 things on it…)

Boom.

about the moderator