Oh my gosh that was so funny! I loved it. That is EXACTLY how my brain works!!!! I swear that could've been a monologue in my head, well except for the football part b/c I'm a girl and not really interested in football. But I totally understand about not being able to make split decisions about anything. ever. I don't even think I could type fast enough, let alone remember everything long enough to type all of the thoughts shooting 100 miles an hour through my brain. You seemed to have done a great job. Loved how one thought lead to another, to another, etc. Not many ppl I talk to understand how I can jump from one subject to another-seemingly unrelated topic. Then I start to explain how I got from point A to point B in the conversation and they get tired and say nevermind. One of my dear friends would always say she would like to know what went through my brain throughout a day, and laugh because she would say how exhausting that would be. I agree. I'm more tired the days I "veg" out and just get lost in my mind, than on days I'm physically active. I think mental exhaustion is worse than physical, at least with the physical exhaustion, you usually get SOMETHING done, where the mental exhaustion, nothing is accomplished and ppl think you're so lazy because you did "nothing" and are so tired. Sigh...Ok, I'm bored now so...just wanted to say I thought you're reply to Mr. Know It All was brilliant! Thanks for making me feel like I'm not alone. :)

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Thanks so much! I'm so glad it made you feel like you are not alone, because you really really arent! I honestly felt alone too before i found this website. I realize now that i have always tried my best to NOT be adhd, instead of accepting it as a part of me that makes me who i am... and you know what? i like who i am! Also for the record, split second decisions are not my forte, but i have improved so much in that respect over the years. adhd people might not be naturally good at things like being a quarterback, but we can do anything anyone else can do as long as we figure out the right approach and are willing to put in the extra time. Take care!

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I loved your post...and I just logged in to this site for the first time. Up until a few years ago, I didn't know that people sat around, did nothing, and THOUGHT nothing. For hours at a time apparently. I am still amazed by that. Really, they think about....nothing? Is that possible?

My brain never stops, but I like it like that. I get to think amazing things, notice things others don't and wander down all those weird little paths others don't see. I admit, many times I stumble and twist my ankle because, obviously, I am not watching where I am walking, I am looking at what I am walking into...and did you see that bird? Oh wow, he was so blue! and look over here, I think this is some kind of nest for...PLOP! I tripped over something on my quest to see that, and now I am wet...that's ok, would you look over there, I see something moving in the bushes...no hang on, I need to tie my shoe, it feels slippery, oh crum, these are my slip ons, why do I have two different color socks on? I was in a hurry this morning, but this is silly...hey, did you hear that? Over there..let's go look.

Yes, I totally loved, loved, loved your post. And for those poor souls who aren't blessed with this, we will just have to WAIT for them to catch up!!

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Hey Ben, thanks for the post! I am having a particularly rough day at the moment (and we all know how that can change in ten or fifteen minutes), and your letter made me smile and cry a little at the same time. It's weird how hurtful it is to see those letters and hear those conversations about ADD being fake, and being just laziness, and stimulant medication a way of "drugging our children" and so forth, when there is so much scientific research that confirms the reality of ADD. Maybe it's how used we get to doubting ourselves that we can't really believe, sometimes, that the researchers, and the therapists, and the psychiatrists are right. Whatever it is, it sure is painful. It's also weird how easily I fall back into blaming myself for "being lazy" or "not getting enough done." All evidence points elsewhere, as I work 30-35 hours a week and go to community college full time. But I stumble so often, and still struggle so much, to get my homework done (which it often doesn't). This semester I am taking my two hardest classes (the last two I need) and have to withdraw from one and am worried about the second. The whole time I keep thinking "I'm only taking ONE class on campus, one is online, why can't I ace them, even though I am working four or five days a week?" or the usual "i know what is wrong with me, and I am on my medication...why do I still struggle?" despite the knowledge that I have 27 years of bad habits and missed learning to cope with. Anyway, sorry to get off track, but I just wanted to say that your letter helped a lot today. I just wish people could understand a little more, and that even schools understood that sometimes extended test time or note takers are just not enough to bring us to an even par with others. Thanks again.

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Ben... you are wonderful! All of you are! People who don't have it just don't get it and it's lovely to read what people who get it think. We have utter chaos in our brains, a friend of mine called it "Monkey Brain". My seven year old son and I both have ADD (he may have the "H" of that as well, but he's always been a happy bouncy guy and is gifted so I'm just not convinced yet). My husband and daughter have PDD. Daughter has MDNOS. I and daughter also have OCD. And I have bi-polar, depression and anxiety. Can you imagine all that living in the same house? My husband is quite linear and such an aspy that it drives him NUTS when I procrastinate and "don't listen" and forget what he tells me less than five minutes later. How I forget to cook dinner, pay bills, do laundry, buy milk when we run out, etc ad infinitum. Of course, he also doesn't "get" our son like I do... boy and I are besties because we "get" each other. I was at my sister's this past summer and we were having a discussion about my daughter when I had the "typical" ADD moment... june bug! He was fascinating, and so much more interesting at that moment than a discussion about PDD. My sister tried to get my attention several times and finally had to holler "YOUR ADD IS OUT! OF! CONTROL!" He poor husband doesn't get my abstract and distractable nature and just sighs and shakes his head and loves me enough to live with it. In addition to ADD, my son is also gifted and perseverates on books cars Mythbusters cats the "six kids" and so on, so his teachers just sigh and shake their heads and send home notes. Thank God they're wonderful ladies who understand that he's "interestingly different". They know I'm working with him and they work with him and I've taken him off gluten and am giving him a DHA supplement, which seems to help at school. Anyway... Ben, keep writing what you're writing! I hope you sent that to Mr. Know It All and he learns to either try to understand or to keep his mouth zipped!

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Hi all, This is my first time here, and I can't say enough how relieved I am that there are others out there that think like me! I've always tried to blame my "brain busies" on something other than ADD. I am super creative, I can multi-task (when I stop procrastinating!) like nobody's business, and I am constantly distracted/fascinated with everything..I can't even sit through an entire TV show without getting the "fidgets" and feeling the need to "do something". (It makes my husband nuts.) I am completely in my element when I have a tough problem to solve. (I have been a Paramedic for 25 years -it caters to ADD nicely!) Does anyone else interrupt themselves when they are doing the talking? What I would like to know is, -how do you get it to shut off? Even just for a little while? Even at night my brain is on, solving problems, designing dog houses, trying to sort out how the mouse got into my car -whatever. I have never been actually diagnosed with ADD, -can this "distraction" stuff be caused by anything else? How bad does it have to be before you need medication to tamp it down a bit? When I read all of the responses to this thread, I suddenly felt like I wasn't a weirdo or someone "cute" to be laughed at...I felt at last I had found someone who could understand my brain..Lord knows, I dont! LOL LJ

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Thanks everyone for all the nice comments!! I am glad to see there are so many people who can relate! Lindy, if you are looking for a break from the racing thoughts im not sure you will ever truely get one. The closest I come to getting my breaks is when I am reading a good book or watching a good movie. Then I can focus in on the story line and forget about all the moving parts around me (even though I talk too much during movies because i am always trying to predict the ending). Also being outdoors is very relaxing for me (going for a run, hiking a mountain, ect.)... You might want to see a doctor and get diagnosed. For me, being on medication has really cleared up a lot of the static in my head. All in all though, I have realized that ADHD is not a curse but a blessing. The world may be a challenging for people like us, but it will never be a dull place with so many wonderful things to think about.

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Ben-this is first time I have been on this site. I loved your post. I can especially relate to the step instructions. I find myself in meetings and going into a daze while someone is talking. I have to doodle to keep my mind somewhat focused on the meeting, but then sometimes that is does not work because I think of the doodling. I am a late diagnose person, just a few months ago, but it all makes sense now, as to why I am the way I am. The biggest problem I have and this happens at work, is when I am working on something, I get distracted by the web and go on the web and then 1/2 hour later I remember oh I got to get back to work. In my past job I would get in trouble for this, but now I know why I do it. Honestly I am in the wrong job for an ADHD person but I am pretty set in the career so I really cannot do something else without taking a pay cut. Got to get back to work, spent too much time on the web already.

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GO TEAM BEN! This part made me LOL so hard:

<i>I know that ADHD exist because I am ADHD. I know it hurts when people say that there is no such thing as ADHD and the greedy pharmaceutical corporations blah blah blah blah blah blah, so on and so forth…</i>

ZOMG PURE LOLLERSKATES. snooore I wish they'd at least come up with something new once in awhile!

I get into this argument all the freaking time, and what kills me is that when I demand to know what their evidence is....dead silence. NOTHING. They're like, "ZOMG KIDS R OVERDIAGNOSED BECUZ PARENTS ARE LAZEE". Yeah, right--I worked in childcare for 4 years, and just TRY getting a parent to admit that something might be off about their darling.

When i mentioned that taking meds helped me, the jerk I was speaking to informed me that he was 'sorry' I had to take medication. I tersely informed him that he could keep his insincere pity and condescending attitude for someone else, 'cause I wasn't having any of it today THANK YOU!

so proud of self for that

I will never understand why people would rather presume an ADDer acts out of malice, I really don't. Like we're 'getting away' with something, when we're not. They just don't get that we have to work twice as hard as it is!

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I read this to my son, he printed a copy of your letter and took it to school to show his teacher because he liked it and related to it so much!

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Ok I confess, I have not gotten through the whole thing in one setting ... (gosh does that really surprise any of us?) mostly because I'll read a line or phrase that sets my mind off one its own stream of Oh I know that feeling because I don't remember if I turned the closet light off this morning because I heard the oven dinging to remind me to check the eggs and the dog was really trying to figure out how to serve them to himself and Oh YEAh I did have to go back in there to get my shoes then again to look for my phone so I probably did but did I feed the dog? If I didn't or even if I did he probably convinced my daughter to then I have to leave this screen and get back to work which is what I'm REALLY supposed to be doing and my head is killing me WAIT when did I take my meds? did I take my meds? Oh dear I have to take my meds. There goes my office phone, must answer it, cell phone text want to see that but it has to wait ... ok look up paper for person on phone hang up phone. Now what was I doing? Back to paperwork, but I'm still forgetting something, what was I going to do? Wow my head hurts OH! MEDS!! Pull out med bag and take meds. Back to paperwork type a few paragraphs come back here and read a few lines in one screen, type a few lines in this screen.

Now here is it is 4 hours after I first began my post and where as I may have had a point when I began this morning I could not tell you what it was now. Um yeah but I know it will come to me sooner or later ... probably as an epiphany of some sort about 4 AM 45 minutes before my alarm goes off. Oh the joy of squirel on speed in wheel in the brain syndrome :)

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It is SO nice to read there are others that embrace their insanity as I do! I have learned to organize chaos and do high-speed multitasking at 100 MPH (literally as I work on a critical care ambulance) but I am so glad that others can't see into my head. It would freak them out. I am easily de-railed though and have a tough time getting restarted -and I procrastinate a lot. I must have a dozen projects that I have started and remain unfinished because I was interrupted or ran out of time to complete them. Anyone else have this issue? I have also discovered FlyLady.com which caters to organizing the "distracted homemaker" (a nice way to say the ADD afflicted!) If your house looks like a yard sale or one of those "buried by clutter" shows -this is for you! :)LJ

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You made my day, Ben!! Your letter to Mr. Know-It-All is a dead-on example of my thinking. I'm a female, but I love football, and I've had the same train of thought about the quarterback!! I wonder the same things about news anchors and reporters, 911 operators, etc. - anyone who makes staying on task look easy. (By the way, what did I ever do without Cut-and-Paste and Insert......) Back to football, I have trouble following the ball during a game, so I'm extremely grateful for play-by-play commentators and cameramen. I agree with the comment from spacecadet about not being able to type fast enough to successfully record my flurry of thoughts. Has anybody else ever had to say, "What was I ...." or "What were we.... talking about?" This is my first time on this site, and it was wonderful to find other people who think the way I do.

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