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I always claimed to be 100% okay with being ADD, but most the time that was far from true. Growing up seeing stacks of "How to Deal with Raising Your ADD Child" and "What To Do As the Parent of ADD Children", I kind of felt like it was this curse that fell upon my sister and me. But recently I wanted to learn more. Until looking into it, I never realized just how many traits of ADD (besides the inability to focus) I have. Reading this SHOCKED me. There isn't a thing on this list I haven't thought or felt about myself. I didn't post explainations so a lot of it sounds easily applicable to everyone, but I think a lot of it has to do with how these traits come together or conflict with one another. But I thought I'd put up this little list just for the hell of it.
Positive ADD Traits
Creativity: People with ADD are very creative. Yes, You are creative too. Living in a non-ADD world may have stifled your creativity though. When we as ADD people have no outlet for creativity that is when problems start to escalate...
Sensitivity: People with ADD are highly sensitive. Many ADD people appear to be the exact opposite though. This may be because society does not want us to show our feelings. This is especially hard for males. We wonder why little boys with ADD/ADHD are fighting a lot. If they cry like they feel like doing they may be told that crying is for babies and to "suck it up"...
Intuition: People with ADD are very intuitive. We rely a lot on our gut feelings. For some reason our society does not to seem to value intuition very highly. Society wants us to prove everything. Sometimes it's very hard for people with ADD to find proof for what they know in their gut is 100% correct...
Intelligence: People with ADD are usually very intelligent. Sometimes tests used by the non-ADD world do not always show that. Plus when people with ADD are not interested in something we don't do very well and the tests become worthless...
The Negative parts of ADD
Misunderstanding: Many children and adults with ADD often feel misunderstood. Much of this has to do with non-ADD people not understanding ADD. Many people don't believe ADD exists at all. There are also many others that label ADD as a disability or disorder. Yes, we as people with ADD may think differently than non-ADD people, but that really does not make us disabled..
Focusing: People with ADD have trouble focusing on one thing at time. The non-ADD world sees this as a problem. It can in fact be a problem when an a person with ADD is reading a book that really doesn't interest him or her. Many of us really like the fact that were are able to do 5 things at once. While many non-ADD people can't "walk and chew gum at the same time". People with ADD can do that and so much more...
Organizing: Some people with ADD appear to be very disorganized. Many times that is just an outside appearance. We may not have things in neat files or everything in a spot. Yet, we can usually locate things that are important to us. It's just that since so many things are not important to us at every moment things do get misplaced. For instance when the phone rings it's not import to us at that moment where we put our cars keys. So, the keys usually get thrown down any where...
Time: Time can be an enemy to people with ADD. It's almost as if it's a foreign concept to us. This can lead to many problems in the non-ADD world. Bills don't get paid on time, assignments aren't handed in, we are late for appointments. Time just doesn't make sense to us at times...
Completing Tasks: This may be one of the largest problems for children and adults with ADD. The problems above make it hard for us to complete things. Also, many people with ADD don't ever see any things as completely finished. We almost always have something more to add. It's hard for us to figure our what is acceptable as finished to the non-ADD world when nothing is really ever finished to us...
Positive ADD Traits
Creativity: People with ADD are very creative. Yes, You are creative too. Living in a non-ADD world may have stifled your creativity though. When we as ADD people have no outlet for creativity that is when problems start to escalate...
Sensitivity: People with ADD are highly sensitive. Many ADD people appear to be the exact opposite though. This may be because society does not want us to show our feelings. This is especially hard for males. We wonder why little boys with ADD/ADHD are fighting a lot. If they cry like they feel like doing they may be told that crying is for babies and to "suck it up"...
Intuition: People with ADD are very intuitive. We rely a lot on our gut feelings. For some reason our society does not to seem to value intuition very highly. Society wants us to prove everything. Sometimes it's very hard for people with ADD to find proof for what they know in their gut is 100% correct...
Intelligence: People with ADD are usually very intelligent. Sometimes tests used by the non-ADD world do not always show that. Plus when people with ADD are not interested in something we don't do very well and the tests become worthless...
The Negative parts of ADD
Misunderstanding: Many children and adults with ADD often feel misunderstood. Much of this has to do with non-ADD people not understanding ADD. Many people don't believe ADD exists at all. There are also many others that label ADD as a disability or disorder. Yes, we as people with ADD may think differently than non-ADD people, but that really does not make us disabled..
Focusing: People with ADD have trouble focusing on one thing at time. The non-ADD world sees this as a problem. It can in fact be a problem when an a person with ADD is reading a book that really doesn't interest him or her. Many of us really like the fact that were are able to do 5 things at once. While many non-ADD people can't "walk and chew gum at the same time". People with ADD can do that and so much more...
Organizing: Some people with ADD appear to be very disorganized. Many times that is just an outside appearance. We may not have things in neat files or everything in a spot. Yet, we can usually locate things that are important to us. It's just that since so many things are not important to us at every moment things do get misplaced. For instance when the phone rings it's not import to us at that moment where we put our cars keys. So, the keys usually get thrown down any where...
Time: Time can be an enemy to people with ADD. It's almost as if it's a foreign concept to us. This can lead to many problems in the non-ADD world. Bills don't get paid on time, assignments aren't handed in, we are late for appointments. Time just doesn't make sense to us at times...
Completing Tasks: This may be one of the largest problems for children and adults with ADD. The problems above make it hard for us to complete things. Also, many people with ADD don't ever see any things as completely finished. We almost always have something more to add. It's hard for us to figure our what is acceptable as finished to the non-ADD world when nothing is really ever finished to us...