Since ADHD is something we deal with regularly at the Center for Effective Living, we’re always interested in seeing accurate accounts of what it’s like to live with ADHD. This article from Lisa Aro for EverydayHealth.com caught our eye, and we thought it was worth sharing. Please read this excerpt, and click through to the full text using the link below. And if you’re in the Cleveland area and you think you or someone you know might be struggling with ADHD without having been diagnosed, give us a call.
Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is easy — just pull them on and tie the laces. But putting yourself in someone else’s brain? That’s beyond difficult, especially when that brain is moving in a million different directions at once.
I often wonder what people think it’s like to have ADHD. Do they think it’s like losing a train of thought? Or having too many meetings crammed into one afternoon? While I can’t speak for other people with the disorder, I can speak for my husband and our five ADHD children. ADHD affects every aspect of their lives from the moment they wake up until they go to sleep. There is a simple reason for that: It’s the way their brains are wired, so it affects how they take-in, process, and retrieve information about — literally — the whole world. One of the most helpful things for me over the many years spent parenting, teaching, and raising my family has been learning how their brains work.
Once we were talking about social expectations and boundaries for one of my daughters’ graduations when my son announced that I had ADHD by proxy. I didn’t understand at first but then he went on to say that I had come to understand their experience and way of thinking so well that it was like my DNA had changed and I had become an honorary ADHDer. That may be one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received. It’s certainly been a great gift to see through their eyes and learn more about the ways they experience the world. Here are just four of many things I’ve come to understand about their beautifully complex minds…