I took an ADHD test in the paper this morning. I passed . . . or failed depending on how you look at it. I especially liked question number one: "How often do you have trouble wrapping up the final details of a project, once the challenging parts have been done?" My answer: Always! No wonder I never finish a project, I'm just not wired that way. Why waste time on the boring part.
Rather than calling this Adult Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder I would change the name to Adult Creative Mind Asset, ACMA. I like to think this ADHD thing is really about the fact that our brains each fall somewhere on a continuum from all left-brain to all right-brain thinking. Society values linear thinking so anything outside the "norm" is considered a disorder. Without the creative thinkers of the past, who would be drugged into conformance today, we would be living in a very different world. Was Einstein ADHD?
Question number four was interesting: "When you have a task that requires a lot of thought, how often do you avoid or delay getting started?" Does the fact that I never file my taxes until April 15th even when the IRS owes me money give you any clues? I just can't sit still long enough to do it.
This brings me to question number five: "How often do you fidget when you have to sit down for a long time?" Long meetings, lectures, plane trips, and school immediately came to mind. It isn't that I can't sit still. It is a matter of not wanting to sit through a two hour meeting that could have been completed in thirty minutes if other people didn't love to hear themselves talk or a lecture that just rehashes old material. If I am engaged in an interesting project, I could sit for hours. Sometimes I even forget to eat.
I only have a short amount of time on this earth to sample a small portion of the hundreds of thoughts, ideas, and images spinning constantly through my mind. I don't have time to finish every project or waste time on mundane tasks or sit still when there is so much creative potential to be explored. This is not a deficit, it is an asset.
Well said! Not a deficit and asset. Yes, thankyou!I have often thought that I have Variable Attention - as you have pointed out. I too CAN sit for hours and forget to eat when involved in a creative project. I will fidget in meetings and have solved this problem by trying to always have knitting. Except for that one absurd year where my employers decreed NO Knitting for Staff Training Day, this has served me well. Needless to say I am no longer at *that* place of employment and still knit to keep focused in meetings.
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