An Introduction.

At the ripe age of 28 my doctor informed me I'm not in fact insane, or pointlessly inattentive, I just lack particular brain functions, like a brain to mouth verbal vomit filter and an inside voice. That I in fact, have a little something called ADHD, and there's a medication to assist in said brain functions.

Upon researching the particular symptoms of ADHD, I've discovered that he is indeed correct in this diagnoses, as well as requesting my official testing. And I mean researching to a point that I'm now a member of a few sites that offer coaching and advice and any kind of information from psychiatrists you could ever need. I am eternally grateful to him for inadvertently explaining my entire life with those 4 letters.

My quirks I've always known in my childhood, as well as adulthood up to this point, begin to make so much sense, that I'm guessing if I were to bump into an old teacher from high school, they'd say, "You?! ADHD?! NO KIDDING!" I'm running like a bunny on fire to keep these......quirks as we shall now call them, that make me, well......me. It would be most unfortunate for me to be 'normal' as I've always been quirky and would be in an element I lack understanding of.

I like to imagine that I'm not a spaz, I just think faster than others and they can't keep up with the mind boggling speed at which I change subjects and later transition back to the original topic with such ease. And that my particular brand of humor is only misunderstood because theirs has yet to evolve to such heights.

I don't forget short term things, I simply misplace them for retrieval of a later time. I have methods in place for helping this short term memory, such as a hook on the wall where my keys go, only I forget to put them there, in turn losing my keys, only remembering what that hook is for when I'm using said keys.

I make lists of things to do in a fashion that they can be checked off upon completion. The problem isn't knowing what needs to be done any particular day, it's the distractions that come in the process that cause hyper focus, thus throwing the list out the window. This main culprit is something I like to call, the obsessive downloading of free design resources.

I can now, after 14 months of unemployment enabling this particular hyper focus, say I am the proud owner of over 900 fonts and an endless number of icons for my computer and brushes for Photoshop. Being a Graphic Designer, this actually isn't that bad of a thing to have. The problem lies herein when it comes time to finding these resources on my external hard drive, as I've yet to organize all of them. I didn't think to do this WHILE downloading, so you can imagine the process that would take place in doing it now, as they need to be organized according to the terms of use.

I pay attention.......to things I have interest in. Otherwise there's a 99% chance, in 5 seconds, I'll have no idea what you just said, or what I just said depending on the topic. There's also a very good chance I'll remember something from a previous conversation, sometimes from days ago, that I was having trouble thinking of at the time, and I'll blurt out said thing mid conversation of a topic completely unrelated. It happens. More than anything else. Interesting, you're talking about Star Trek, I could totally pay attention to this.........."SILK ROAD! That's what I was trying to think of the other day when we were talking, it's called the Silk Road. You may now continue on Star Trek."

I skim read, meaning: I read long printings by way of catching most of the information, and inevitably missing the most important parts that always wind up being the information I need for, say, a school discussion question. This is frustrating, as I had no interest in reading it the first time and now I have to go back and find this tiny, tiny bit of information, in the depth of the crap I wasn't paying attention to in the first place.

I randomly say things that I'm thinking. I don't mean complete thoughts, I mean a few choice words taken from what would have been a complete sentence in my head.

Example: A girl I frequently encounter wears these boots, all the time, and I'd heard about these long before I witnessed them. I was starting to wonder if it was a myth. This girl wearing these boots, walked past me, wearing these boots: emphasis on BOOTS, I'd heard so very much about. The only thing that came out of my mouth, by accident I might add, was "Santa Boots." I didn't mean to say it, but I was thinking it and per ADHD rules and regulations, I was required to say it.

I was left with no choice. Allow me to explain the Santa Boots so as to help you understand why they've been so lovingly named. They're black boots, with a rubber work boot looking toe, they lace up like combat boots and have faux fur on the top. Not the cute kind of furry edged boots, this fur looks like the wool lining of a plaid lumberjacks light jacket, hence the reference to Santa's boots. They're ugly and she wears them with whatever pants she has on tucked into them: even if they're not jeans.

The other day, this random announcement of thought reared its head again, at the same person actually. She was wearing the almost shorts almost pants kind of slacks, and this vest/cardigan thing that has LONG fringe coming from the bottom at just below the waist level down past the knees. My brilliant thoughts manage to produce one audible line: "It's FrodoBaggins!" I'm not proud of this, maybe a little I am, but it's something even the meds can't help at this age. I've known the random comment without filter reaction for far too long to just say goodbye.

And last but most certainly not least, my favorite quirk of them all. The random recollection of anything I've read, seen or heard in the past. My best example of this to date is this; Picture if you will: I'm walking through Target spending entirely too much money on ridiculous unnecessary items, like pens and notebooks. Out of nowhere, and with no 'trigger' to this recollection, I say out loud, "I have a prehensile penis and retractable testicles," as a woman with her child walks by. What the........you're asking. I have a book that's a collection of things you can do to mess with peoples heads, one of the topics being what to teach a parrot in a pet store to say. This gem of a phrase is one of those phrases you teach this parrot. I haven't so much as opened this book in about 4 years or so and why that particular phrase is what I thought of, has yet to be determined.

Now being 2 weeks away for the big 30, I can honestly say the last year and a half of knowing why it is I am the way I am, have been pretty interesting. Stay tuned for more happenings as I continue this blog.