How Adults with ADHD Think: Uncomfortable Truths About the ADHD Nervous System
Easily bored, sensitive to distractions, creative, and intense. If you grew up with ADHD symptoms, chances are you always felt "different." Now here's a scientific explanation of the neurological underpinnings of behaviors and feelings associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Learn about the ADHD nervous system!
72 Comments: How Adults with ADHD Think: Uncomfortable Truths About the ADHD Nervous System
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It seems, as you scroll through the comments, in general men love this and clap for it, women are largely like: meh. I had that reaction as a woman, when this male author described at the very top of the article being “…well liked (by others).” WTF, I thought? But that’s just it. Risk taking, impulsivity, poor organizational skills—and so on–all these things are OK for men, in many ways in our society and even celebrated. But as a woman? Oh–you are a “bad” woman if you are impulsive. “Out of control” if you are a risk taker. And poor organizational skills? Well, you are a failure as a woman. And that does not even touch on the social expectations of our interactions with others. Women judge ADHD women harshly for being just “too” much or not quite “right,” men judge women with ADHD from being either incompetent to being a “b*tch.” Our significant others judge us harshly for not being like the other moms or wives who have it all together, kids are late to appointments, appointments are forgotten, bills not paid on time, something essential not packed for a trip or family day and so on. Women are seen as feminine failures by society. No–we feel like imposters and everyone can sense our insecurity and no we are not generally well liked at all. Male privilege at its best.
I hope not everyone reading this article thinks they have to fit every one of these descriptions or they don’t actually have ADHD. I was diagnosed by an ADHD medical professional last year at age 57, my son the same year at 27. While this article fits me in many ways, two things stand out that don’t seem to fit much at all: the linear/time thing and self-awareness.
I crave “linear”. Without precise rules I can follow about how to do a task, I get completely lost and chaos reigns. So if I or someone else can create an orderly, linear way for me to make sense of a task or the world, then I’m ok. Maybe that actually proves that my own min is chaotic and the imposed rules are not my ADHD brain’s, but either from outside my brain, or a work-around I’ve come up with through the years. Now, I CAN lose track of time easily, but I need clocks around me to help me function in an NT world. I don’t wear a watch because I have a smartphone and Alexa, but boy, do I have a lot of timers and alarms set!
But as for self-awareness, I am way too self-aware — of all my faults, failings, inabilities to function in the NT world, all my mental health stuff, etc. I am constantly flooded with thoughts about my inability to do better, be better, succeed at therapy, at life, etc. I’m not at all self-aware of my own good qualities, though. And my negative self-awareness keeps me in a self-focused spiral or loop that I can’t seem to break. I find a lot of ND people I know are far more self-aware than NT people. Or maybe I’m (typically) misunderstanding what the author meant?
At any rate, yes, much of this really resonated, but I hope we all remember we’re individuals with our own brain structures and our own personal versions of what ADHD looks like.
I always wear a watch (analog) and keep clocks in every room, plus I have a phone with the time on it! I was without my watch for almost a year, when the battery died. I got a device that would allow me to replace it myself but I procrastinated on learning how to use the device (which turned out to be quite easy) and I wasn’t sure which store could replace it any more and I didn’t want to take it and get it replaced anyway since I had the device. I finally did replace it myself and my watch is back. Watches and clocks help some, but I still have little sense of time. The way you present time doesn’t really fit with how it seems to work for me, but I definitely don’t have a sense of how much time has passed. Anyway, interesting article even though there are several parts that I don’t feel are right.
I haven’t read it all yet but wanted to make this comment before I forget. The following is in the article: “unable to start and sustain projects that are personally boring.” That is totally misstated, at least for me. It doesn’t matter if the project is boring or extremely exciting or anything in between. Starting and sustaining a project (or any complex task) is difficult for me.
I was very overwhelmed as i read this sometimes i lost my attention to thinking in my head about how accurate and had to return three four times to read that line again i find it very professional and touching in a way i can’t explain . I found kicking it as i started reading the comments as it got more complicated when you explain your behaviors and i was sure i head a behavior disorder and what i am eager right now to know is who had done these treatments who has taken this meds do they make you lose your positive characteristics also or how does it work i would love to meet all of you i am an adult and after reading the many parents comments i would just say stop overworrying let this young smart kids do what they do best try to understand them more they already know they are not like the others dont try to deny it but let them know that it is in a good way that it is for better stop making it worse stop making them feel like they are all alone from another planet they sometimes doubt everything sorry for the mistakes in writing i am very eager only to express myself and to hear from others who feel like me i am 21 and i am at this crossroads where i know who i am what i feel very confident about everything that is why sometimes i found very difficult to understand why i feel so depressed with so many blessings why sometimes i feel the entire opposite and i am eager to find out how to easen that up how to treat it but as i read about the medication i myself i am frightened to be like the others i find them extremly boring and dumb to be honest not in the way that i see myself above them but sometimes i just can’t accpet the fact how somebody can be so stupid and sorry for juming from one thing to another i am just astonished from this article and i really respect this level of understanding i was here right away and now i will look up other articles on this
Very informative, fairly encouraging, but not entirely accurate.
For instance, one great frustration of my ADHD life, is not that I “realize that others were right all along”, but rather realize that “I” have been right all along. My self awareness, my evaluation of the world at large, of individual people, and the implications of my own qualities and shortcomings is, and has more or less been rather on point.
To me, THE greatest impedance to any sort of cognitive, and/or emotional peace of mind, that I face, is DOUBT.
The deeply rooted, conditionned, painfully acquired, insidious, and omipresent, reflex of doubting myself and my own judgement. At every corner, before any evaluation of anything even begins, doubt. It takes root early within the ADHD mind. Weve all been told we were wrong, that we didn’t “get it”, been made to think, to believe,
that we didn’t, or even couldn’t understand. While most of the time, we were somewhere up ahead, relating things to other, sometimes foreign and complex concepts.Then, doubt sits there in your mind, like sludge in your “transmission”, messing up your “gearing”, slowing you down, wasting the energy and power of your otherwise excellent engine.
Part of the solution for us, part of the remedy to our condition, I find, is to learn how right and accurate we actually are about things. To learn to trust ourselves. It’s nothing new for anyone, but for us, it might just be that simple, to get where we want to go.
I never thought anyone could put into words the torture that I’ve dealt with for 27 years.
I read this post laying in bed, frantically searching Google for some magical cure for adhd that wasn’t Adderall.
I took Adderall as a kid and I hated every second of it. It made me feel like a zombie.
After reading this post I woke up my wife in excitement, that she could read this and finally understand me. This is something I could never put into words because I could never find them.
I can say without a doubt this is the most attentive I’ve ever been to reading.
I literally made an account just to say thank you. So thank you.
Wow, this article read me like a book. Not only does it help validate what I feel on a daily basis as someone with ADHD, it makes me feel less alone, and – dare I say it – normal. I’m not the only who’s entire existence is riddled with self-doubt because we are constantly made to believe the way we do things is wrong. My hope is that the neurotypical world will see this and have more compassion for us – because we do exist and the struggles we deal with on a daily basis are very real.
I bow to you, author!
I also just joined to be able to comment here: reading this is live-changing for me. I am 49 years, in my second burn out over 2.5 year, digging deep to figure out what is wrong with me after all this time. I always disregarded ADHD because I was “so organized and composed”. Yes, when I pushed myself and adjusted to that role, which was for the last 33 years or so. And now I am exhausted.
I read this and recognize all these things that it makes me cry of joy. I always held up strong like my mother, but now that my daughter is diagnosed, I am in relapsed burn-out, about to lose my career/job and finally found a good coach who tells me we need to look into this, that It becomes clear. A halleluja moment!
I was and still am so afraid of going back to the life I had before the burn-out: responsible job, good career, so many expectations and dependents. Severe depression keeps popping back up. But being broken and in a hole, I can no longer keep running the “adjusted” me and therefore I can finally see that I have these aspects mentioned here. I feel relieved already because I know that I can be strong, but don’t have to be that strong anymore which was needed to fool myself and all around me.
What a great basis to work on healing and recovering! Happy moment. Thank you so much!
You nailed it! Amazing! This is me to a tee. I have been to Psychiatrists my whole life trying to find out about this ADD stuff and how I can help myself. I am on medication and it has been doing great. I just don’t know what to do to get someone to hire me now that I haven’t worked for years. I need training, but don’t qualify because my husband makes too much. HELP !!
I logged in to respond to @Shoshanna’s comments from 2018 because they are so relevant to my situation! I’m not sure if they are still part of this forum but I just found this website and community within the last couple of weeks and cannot believe how every article I read I relate to! I find myself automatically reflecting back to a particular time and event in which that exact situation occurred to me, it’s almost scary. My son and I both go through this and I’ve become so defensive of him and advocate so much for him that I fear I am becoming a hindrance to his evolvement, yet I want nothing but the absolute best for him and try so hard to articulate that but can’t. I’m stuck in a job where the negative feedback and effects stated in the article apply daily and if not for my commitment to my wife and kids’ well-being as a provider for them, I would walk out today. I’m trying to move on to another position, but unfortunately (as crazy as this sounds), I’ve advanced too far where roles are difficult to come by without taking 5 steps backwards, so finding the right company and position has been a 2 year process so far. All I want to do is work hard, enjoy my job and be appreciated, which sounds simple enough but I’ve had to deal with so much of the negative feedback this article mentions, that it’s destroyed my self-confidence which I’ve only been able to admit recently to a very few select people. Much like the article describes those of us with this condition, my mind races and I’ve rambled on here after I created an account just to respond to Shoshanna’s comments from 2018!!
In my mid fifties and this has to be the first health related article I have ever read that was so accurate it literally had me in tears.
When you try to explain how crippling it can be you instantly can sense the listeners tuning you out and can almost hear them thinking, oh god, not this excuse again.
The experience is like a person who randomly at times cannot lift their arms and everyone assuming the person is too lazy or rude to reach for things and is making excuses.
People say, oh just buckle down and focus. Or they say I have seen you do this many times, I know you can do it.
Not one day of my life goes by that my progress through my day is not massively negatively impacted by my condition and I can’t fix it. I don’t want to make excuses… I want to FUNCTION. I know the right things to do. You are right, I do know what to do. I just cannot make myself do those things.
I stare at the medicine for hours, I want to take it. I want to get my stuff done. I just can’t manage to get the pill in my mouth. I hate the way it makes me feel but it is a life saver.
The anxiety from bills and things I cannot pay when I have lost yet another dream job is overwhelming or even when the bank is full of money and I just forget to pay it. The feeling when I miss yet another appointment. When I lose money for not sending some form on time or clicking a button on a website in time. The list of real world impact is overwhelming.
Being alone, the relationships I have lost, it is so lonely and I can’t keep track of things by myself.
Please stop saying “It is not that bad.”
Please, just stop saying that. You do not understand.
Excellent article on the challenges of adult adhd. A great follow up would be best practice solutions for each of the hurdles pointed out in Dr. Dodson’s article. Thank you
Totally blowing off work to read this article and comment. Diagnosed two years ago at age 43. I was “the absentminded professor” growing up. But 1000 times too disarrayed to ever pursue a professor’s career. Deep problem solver in software. Good fit when there’s a challenge but always purgatory when the organizational side (60% of the time) intrudes. I will send this to my wife.
Hi!
Ok so I think I have ADHD the more I research the more i read i find it all to be spot on and I feel like I am finally understanding why I am the way I am.. It´s been a long time since I´ve had this knowledge but I cannot find the motivation strength or ways on how to start the process of getting diagnose. Specially now that I live in a new Country and I have no clue how the system work plus I am crap at all this paperwork thing and appointments.
I will continue to do research (I am currently taking advantage of the momentum as I forget and stop the research), who should I talk to first? a general doctor? a psychiatric or psychologist?
then as a grownup Adult how do I explain this? How does the process go? I often feel like this are all excuses and we (everyone) goes through the same although reading ADHD I can see how it relates to me but I suppose as I don´t have a medical diagnose I still think these are excuses?
Could someone share (if possible an adult) from the start to getting diagnose what did you have to do how can doctors diagnose this? sorry I will continue researching but it is very hard for me to do so
thank you in advance!
LM(Spain Barcelona)
This article made me emotional, too. To know that I am not alone in this, to know that someone understands is overwhelming. Im 59, diagnosed 25 years ago at the same time as my son. I have been on and off meds for years. I take adderall now. I once explained to a psychiatrist how my ADD brain works. “My thoughts are threads, laid out next to each other. They have a beginning, a middle and end.” I rubbed my hands together, pretending to roll the threads up. “This is my ADD brain. One thought touches the other one, pinging off each other like pinballs. It is frustrating and distressing, because I know this. Then I take my meds.” I pretended to straighten out the thought threads. “Now my thoughts have a beginning, middle and end. Everyone is different. For me, meds creates mental bookmarks.”
I have to work so hard at the concept of linear time. I purchased, on the advice of ADDitude, a Bullet Journal. Oh my god, this has saved my ass. I can be productive at work! Naturally, I have to remember to write things down, but the kinesthenesis of writing something down helps me remember it. I LOVE crossing things off my lists!
First, ADD was named before it was understood.
There is no *deficit* of attention, there are difficulties in *directing* the attention. It should be “Attention Direction Difficulty”.
Second, this article is far too focused on “can’t” for my tastes. Yes, ADDers have difficulties with some of the things that neurotypicals find easy. How would you write an article about someone who had e.g. lost a leg, would you hammer on “can’t walk, run, dance, etc.” (just put them out of their misery, right?) or focus on how they can manage to have a good life?
Third, why exactly are neurotypicals “normal” and ADDers “broken?” Apples are not broken oranges, and vice-versa. Yes, there are more neurotypicals. There are things that neurotypicals can do that ADDers cannot – and vice-versa. What “normal” really means is “what I am used to” and that changes with location and time. Widen your focus a bit. Driving drunk used to be considered “normal”; now it isn’t. By population, fifty years ago “normal” meant “Chinese rural farmer living in a hut” – but we don’t think of that as normal because we weren’t living there and didn’t get used to that. Left-handed people used to be persecuted. Why, exactly? Because (oh, NO!) they were different in some way.
ADDers are people too.
I am Neuro typical in a world of ADHD magnificence and madness.
My husband and sons are all on the ADHD spectrum. They are my guides to patience and resilience. I am more spontaneous, have a better sense of humor and am more forgiving. I no longer see the world as black and white. Are there times where I feel sorry for myself. Sure, it’s not easy being the schedule keeper, time keeper, lost item finder, etc. I would not trade my journey. Medication has helped all three in school and at work. It is a personal choice. I take care of myself in the same way. Sleep, meditation, finding the fun, and asking for help. They are a gift to me and I love them dearly.
Honestly, I find most bits of this article very relatable & others really not. For me, I think I have reasonably good self-awareness, even if I can be impulsive at times. I never thought this was a specific of ADHD. I know many others with ADHD & none lack self-awareness. I suppose those who are untreated, such as my grandma, but I feel that her untreated ADHD-tendencies just kind of led to other disorders, which account for her life-long low self-awareness. Maybe in teens, but don’t most teens lack self-awareness anyway?
I am most strongly perplexed that by the idea that somehow stimulant-based drugs induce a sense of calm, & the ADHD brain doesn’t know what to do with that calm.
ADHD causes a sense of exhaustion in me, like a heavy weight of inability-to-focus, which causes a sort of nervous exhaustion. I’ve never once felt calmed by my medication, except that the nervous exhaustion is gone, & the ability to focus reduces anxiety about the consequences of inattention. I can’t imagine feeling LESS creative or less useful on medication. It’s like a beautiful moment, when you get your medicine (as I did at age 18), & suddenly you’re able to use the advantages of your ADHD brain—like your ability to notice & react to things on multiple levels—rather than fight against the negative effects. With medicine, I am an organizational maverick, able to anticipate & plan for those moments when organization may fail, to double plan, to double check. I sometimes fail to maintain my own personal organizational systems, but at least I can do it at work, thanks to the medicine. My greatest fear is forgetting something major, but this happens far less often with medicine.
I can’t imagine someone with ADHD not feeling the positive effect of the medicine within hours. It’s not like people with mood disorders, where the benefit of their medicine is that nothing happens. Taking medicine for ADHD is probably the closest thing to a Magic Pill I’ve ever experienced. It may not solve everything, but it makes solving the other problems infinitely easier.
But perhaps this difference in perception of medicine is more a representation of a difference between inattentive vs hyperactive types of ADHD.
[@Maggie23] — I really like what you said about ADHA & the positive effects of medication. I just so happen to find this site this morning and I absolutely LOVE IT! It feels so good hearing other people struggles and achievements with having ADHD. I’ve always felt so alone. I’ve never met a girl that has it. It’s always been guy’s that had it. Girls do get diagnosed but rarely. They say little girls are harder to diagnose. Anyways, I just got on medication for the first time. I just can’t get over how it’s changed my life for the good.
If I only could have had this in high school. Things would have been so different. I really struggled because it was such a battle to just concentrate. It would take me twice as long to finish an assignment. I always had to re-read paragraphs, just so I could retain the information. It was mentally exhausting! I believe that my mom was just wanting the best for me. If she would have known back then that I so desperately needed my medication. She would have got me on it but because my mom was told, ” Oh whatever you do, don’t get her on that medication”!
Everyone is different, I really suffered not having this medicine. I wouldn’t trade not feeling this way for anything. I actually do feel calm on it. I do not have racing thoughts. I am so much more organized. I can actually keep up with my day to day activities & I do not feel overwhelmed. I’m not so forgetful. I actually remember things that I’ve said in conversation. I don’t feel so, scattered brained & all over the place. I can actually say, that I feel centered for the first time in my life. I just want to encourage anyone who has never been on ADHD medication before to try it. Don’t let other peoples experiences discourage you from trying it. Everyone is different. It may not be a good fit for you but then it might be what you’ve always needed.
Wow, this is uncannily true! Except for the part about ‘why we can’t see ourselves clearly’ I really really relate and agree with this synopsis. It’s actually quite amazing to read a description so honest and precise written by someone else, it’s a little startling. But good read it, at least someone understands. I went my whole life until 40’s till I tried stimulant drugs and they do kinda work, albeit tire me out…they help a little. I resisted for years!!
But now that this assessment is here, what do we do now? Hard to live like this….the whole other planet thing, uh-huh. Yup. 🙁
Hey you hang in there and most importantly DO NOT LOSE HOPE! There is always hope for people like us. Please try to take in what I say and stamp it to your brain and tell yourself that this is an emergency so you will remember or even better write it down and stick it to your refrigerator or tape it to your door that leads outside so you can read it every time you leave. You have a mind that is better than normal. Your mind can do sooooo many more positive things that most can not do. You are absolutely one of the most unique and amazing people that you know. It is not you that is wrong. It is everything that society has programmed into everyone’s brains that tells them that you are not normal. I do not believe that any one person hear on this Earth has any right to judge someone like us unless they are able to put themselves inside our minds and just see what it’s like for one day. No matter what, stay positive. While almost everyone else around us is stuck inside of a box that tells them what to do and how to think and what they should eat, you are still being you and still thinking of 10 different ways to save the world or how to fix the roof or how you can help that person in your own box. When I was a small child (6 I think) I was started on a regimen of Ritalin because I was told by good doctors that I had the worst case of ADHD that they had ever seen. My dad even gave me the nickname Zoomzoom. After about a week or so I faced my mom and told her I was ready to end my life. AT SIX YEARS OLD! I told her I wanted to go jump off of the Chesapeake City bridge because Ritalin had made me past sad. So they gave me Ritalin/Wellbutrin combo and it still didn’t change much. After that it was Adderall and by this time I was so sick of taking any kind of medicine that I started hiding them. When my mom found out I was, she kind of just stopped because at that point she was sick of watching her child go through not eating,not sleeping,being a zombie,being sad because our own minds give us happiness but most importantly I was not being me. The point is, be very very careful about what medicine you take. I thought what I was feeling was normal. Just as a side note. It mite sound crazy to some but being around honestly good people makes a world of difference and the ONLY place I have found that is at a good church. I always felt like I didn’t belong and this world is such a bad place and I had no purpose in life. I’m assuming now all that stemmed from being made fun of almost every day because I was different. All that changed for me 5 years ago when I found a good church and God. Genuinely good people that are patient, understanding and will hopefully help. Stay strong and positive because I promise you there are others out there just like you and you are one of the ONLY ones who understands them and maybe you can help them someday. Even if it’s only to say “I understand”.
Hi, my son is three now. His development was completely normal till 15 months. Suddenly we started noticing signs of ADHD. He is still not interacting. When we realised it first, our world fall apart. Guilty, blame and despair. Thought our son wouldn’t be able to lead a normal life. But going through this discussion thread, these nice girls and boys seems to be completely normal to me, they have written so honestly. Then I get hope. It’s not the end of the world for our son. He still can live a normal life. Maybe things wouldn’t be as easier for him. But all of us have different personalities. And ADHD just seems to me individuals with a different personalities. Friends please help me, help my baby develop into a happy adult. I just want him to be happy in life.
Barsha, I’m so glad you’re asking for input from people who actually live and experience ADHD. Your observations are correct, we ADHDers are perfectly capable of adjusting to society and living mostly normal lives. Your child might never feel normal, but they’ll learn the skills they need to get by and present themselves well in society. Normal is overrated. When I reflect on my life it often feels like I’ve lived 10 times the amount of life as a neurotypical person. Yes, ADHD can be hard, especially if undiagnosed and unacknowledged. I’ve just finally been diagnosed at 33 and begun treatment for the negative symptoms. I would never go back and trade my brain for a normal one. In my life I’ve jumped into so many things with what normal people call passion and what ADHD calls hyperfocus. Most people only have room in a lifetime for a small handful of passions, if they’re lucky enough to have one at all. My ADHD brain has allowed me to: be an intelligence analyst in the army, achieve a high proficiency in skateboarding, develop my artistic skills and go to art school in San Fransisco, learn to play Mozart within less than a year of first touching a piano, drop out of art school to study physics and be selected to work on extra curricular projects with my professor, drop out of school completely (there’s a theme forming that I obviously didn’t fit the structure of school well, even though I could excel where interested), and instead buy a few books and teach myself programming in my own way, develop a chess AI, get hired at Amazon, learn to rock climb at an intermediate level, dive hard into strength training and participate in a powerlifting competition, get bored with that and switch to Olympic style weightlifting and compete again, learn to play fingerstyle classic guitar to the point that I can just pick it up and improvise whatever emotion I feel, and probably there’s a few more things on that list I can’t recall because recall is hard. I’m a college dropout making over 200k per year. I’ve worked at startups with less than 10 people and international corporations. I’ve led teams and mentored others. I’ve learned foreign languages, I’ve lived in mountains, deserts, urban high rises and rural townhomes. I’ve fallen madly in love, and I’ve found joy in solitude through meditation and Buddhist philosophy. If your child has ADHD, the normal path will never fit them, and if they aren’t supported that can lead them to feel isolated, disconnected. But if supported and loved, and with a lot of patience on your part, they will benefit from a type of brain that allows them to experience many lifetimes worth of learning, exploration, and achievement with the limited amount of years we all have in this life. ADHD is a gift and a curse. But the curse can be treated. The gift is rare and beautiful and your child has won the genetic lottery. Congratulations.
My son is 10yo now and he was never understood in school in London. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 6 years old. We went through a very difficult path, ending my relationship with his dad, that also have the same condition. And is still very difficult to communicate to him, because everything is a problem.
Unfortunately ADHD isn’t seen as a condition and the school system in the UK isn’t prepared for different kids. For this reason I’m moving to a Nordic country where the school system is adequate for everyone. My son is a gift and fortunately I could understand that and embrace.
I would love your insight on how to handle this in the childhood years. I feel like my daughter might end up with a future like yours. BUT, it is very difficult during the years when they do need to follow conventional rules and complete conventional tasks. I feel her relationships are damaged because she can’t or won’t get up, get to school on time, clean her room, use a chart to help track her assignments, not take things that belong to family members, take responsibility for anything etc… I feel like a drill sergeant and an ineffective one at that. Creativity and passion are wonderful gifts, but she still has to live in this world with a family dynamic and social structure and pass classes and do chores and consider our impact on others.
Loved ur comment, gives me a good feeling inside for my almost 9 yr old boy who has ADHD. Thank you!
Hi Barsha,
I‘m surprised that at age 3 such a diagnosis is possible. I was diagnosed at age 43.
I wonder how different my life would have been if I had known.
Of course you want your child to be happy, but in order to do that, -you- must accept that he will never be „normal“.
Re-read the article, his brain is different and this will cause problems with relationships. He will be perceived as socially incompetent.
Prepare him for being different and why he is different. We ADHDer have to work harder at what comes naturally to normals.
It means doing things for which we have no interest or accepting that it causes alienation.
For example, although I work in IT, I have no interest in Facebook snd my family cannot understand or accept it.
But I‘m no longer willing to do things just because its what people do.
All the best for you
Woah. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 3rd grade. This article struck home hard enough to make me very emotional. There are a lot of issues and behaviors I struggle with that I didn’t realize weren’t specific to me.
“Many people with ADHD find that the feedback they get from other people is different from what they perceive. They find out, many times (and often too late), that the other people were right all along. It isn’t until something goes wrong that they are able to see and understand what was obvious to everybody else. Then, they come to believe that they can’t trust their own perceptions of what is going on. They lose self-confidence. Even if they argue it, many people with ADHD are never sure that they are right about anything.”
THIS!
I just got dumped by my GF of two years because I had no idea she was miserable.
I tend to catastrophize and over analyze my partner’s emotions and intent. I always assume the worst and my RSD kicks in.
I just started dating again and the same problems are arising. No matter how mindful I get, I always feel like my complaints are valid, which leads me to get into an argument and only then, do I realize that I was in the wrong and I made a mountain from a molehill.
Worse still, because of my perceived wrongness, I take the blame for my partner’s mistakes and I lessen my self-worth.
Totally me but i couldn’t make it through the entire article as I have 10 million things on my mind and to do ;{
I’m in shock reading this after yesterday realizing/being advised that my adult, very successful son probably has ADHD. I’m angry too, as I recall an opportunity when he was in 4th grade when this could have been identified. It came to me clear as day.
He is extremely smart, functions well at work and in life, but is always unorganized and jumping from one thing to another. He has healthy interests and lots of good friends, and is very resourceful. He was recently required to go to therapy as he got himself in some trouble, and through this process we are learning of this probable diagnosis. He doesn’t even know yet, as the therapist will be taking the correct steps to get the evaluation done, and we are 100% there to learn about this and how to help.
My heart is broken and I am full of guilt that we didn’t know to help him get diagnosed earlier. I also feel guilty that he even has this “thing.” We just thought he was being “millennial-distracted” since he got things done and had positive relationships and achievements. I’m confused about treatments and meds. I’m confused about a lot right now.
Your son and you both sound like great people. Good luck on your new journey with this great site for information and encouragement i think you will do well. Hope he finds good Dr. and therapist. Knowledge of… ADHD is a Big plus. Good luck.
I think one of the things that bothers me about ADHD is it often ends up sounding like it’s a lot worse than it is. Certainly, it presents some challenges, but most of the time people manage very well. At it’s worst IMO is when it’s combined with other things like anxiety discorder, bi-polar, etc. But ADHD alone is basically another type of personality.
Everyone has their own experiences, but you have to remember that it’s the same whether you have ADHD or not. People have good and bad relationships with family, friends, and coworkers. Some people have better skills than others. What seems most common is distractions, and that can mean having difficulty completing things. Even typing a reply is difficult for me because my mind is racing ahead, trying to think of what I want to say. Often I reread what I’ve written and find all kinds of errors!
I think distractions also make remembering things difficult, because I’m not always paying close attention. And, I’ve struggled a little bit with depression, but a low dose of stimulants has made a huge difference. I sure don’t need antidepressants!
The fact is, it sounds like your son has done quite well in life. I don’t know what he did to get into trouble, but that happens with people who don’t have ADHD. Read the first sentence of your second paragraph: I bet a lot of parents wish they could say that about their child. I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel surprised or a bit overwhelmed, but this isn’t a death sentence. Talk to the therapist, try medication (if it’s recommended), and hopefully he’ll get some more counseling just because it’s helpful.
He’s still the same great kid you raised and love, only a bit more complex and interesting!
Interesting article, but I wonder. As an adult working with ADHD and still learning about it, I have to wonder.
Although I agree that typically ordination is an issue, and if I’m not prepared I’m lost. But I have found that sitting down and writing a plan out with a specific task has helped but here is a catch. Why disrupt the way I am? So I work it out like this; the plan is A, B, C, D, E and my plan is to get it mostly done (reality) then as I move ahead I might go from A to D to B to A to C to D to A (finished) to B to E… to allow the interest to never die completely. Especially with yard work. Two things to add, if I hyper focus I can nail something down in that heartbeat and finish it outright the other thing is that without that initial plan I have found myself, literally, walking around in circles trying to remember what it was I needed to do next… then giving up and playing video games…
Sensory overload, yeah I totally understand, but you know we can get past this. Two things come to mind, mindfulness exercises (which helps other things) and good old fashioned exposure… yeah that’s it… the only reason I say this is that after being in the army, I fell asleep on the back of a truck bouncing through the desert in 105 degrees, off road… also for some reason heavy metal music helps me sleep when nothing else will (but not normally)… I’m not sure but it seem to become “noise” in the background to drown out my internal noise or something. Still working that part out.
As to organization… well I’ve always looked at it this way… we don’t use the dewey decimal system… and we also don’t use an alphabetical system either. We use something else, memories are tied together differently which is part of our creativity. Our brains are wired different with subtle tweaks to our operating systems, we operate lightening fast but non-linear which is why we solve difficult questions easily… but define difficult, it would seem to me that our difficult questions are the linear type where the logical organization of memories are needed to be accessed in a particular order to achieve the answer. The easy ones are the ones that requires our way of thinking, our hyper fast IQ combined with a different sorting method based on different criterion. So in our definition, those are our easy questions. How we organize our memories is the real question… still working that part out as well… emotional? probably not. Patterned? maybe. Patterned based on the situation, where and how, the memory occurred? maybe. Either way it functions unlike our linear brother/sisters.
I’d be remiss not to say that this wonderful article hit home. So many things. Although now I mostly think I’m right in my answers because usually I am. I just approach things differently, and yes sometimes I cannot see the obvious, que sera sera! What’cha gonna do? That’s why we all work better as a team, a linear thinker and a non-linear thinker, it’s almost as if we were made that way on purpose! So find a “normal” friend and work with them.
Anyhow, to those who are just figuring this whole ADHD thing out, you’ve made it this far keep it up. Life is a curious place and you never know where you might end up. I went from a introverted, quiet, no-self-esteem, type people pleaser to something more of what I wanted to be. The key was accepting who I was and finding those things that hacked my system and developing the skills to adapt to how I needed to fulfill my role. That’s not bad either, after all we still have to pay the bills, the starving artist is great until you have kids.
My path looked like this – horrible student, suicidal at times, joined the USMC at 17 with basically a deathwish but I was re-born instead, diagnosed at 19 with ADHD, took martial arts and learned mindfulness, College (11yrs to get my bachelors), later National Guard Helicopter Pilot, Company Commander in combat, now Civilian Manager at Cable Company and intelligence officer in the guard. Family, house, etc… it’s doable. Greatest lesson learned = Persistance // Accept and love the cool parts of you, then work to make your life a great story for your kids. (I’m non-medicated by circumstance not by belief and will probably try soon) The point is, as you work at it (both you and your ADHD) things get better. Chances are that since your IQ is probably pretty high you will eventually surpass your linear friends, why? because you’ve worked out your issues, and figured how you work and learn and have adopted the methods you need to advance in this society.
I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. Came to read this article to understand it more and I’ve never felt more understood. I always knew something was different about me, I even thought I was weird for a long time. It made me feel.sad cause it was frustrating to feel all this and not be able to put it into words. Wow. Just wow.
Absolutely amazing read, I wasn’t diagnosed as a child and only recently while in therapy was it mentioned to me that they were certain I have adhd, but pointless me looking for an official diagnosis in my 30’s but I have always struggled with every point you spoke about in here. I struggle so much on these but you made me feel human and actually gave me a better understanding of myself from adhd perspective. That’s not to say I will stop trying to improve on my weaknesses (mainly for my close friends and family sake I drive them crazy with lack or organisation etc) but I now know why I just can not think as others do. Nail on the head for me and I must say epiphany moment which is lifted my cloud of gloom and overwhelming judgement on myself! Well for tonight at least lol
I feel the exact same way. I’m 25 and was recently diagnosed in therapy as well. My therapist even recommended that I try to stay off the medications if I felt okay with it only because I’ve gone this long without treatment and have “managed” I’m working on managing better but it does feel like a huge cloud has been lifted since I found out.
I’m glad you found this. It’s so nice to find out there are other adults, right? You always read about children, and it’s only recently that it seems adults are getting more support. There’s no “cure” for it, but you can do better and be happier. Lots of very nice people in these groups and Facebook, as well. Great places to ask questions, vent, cry, etc.
Okay, but what do we DO about it?
You learn all you can about it. You learn about your self and how you’ve made it this far. You build on the lessons you’ve learned and follow the trends that work. You accept yourself, you list out what you think is cool about yourself, look in the mirror and say “I’m pretty F’n cool”. Then you accept the fact that you will have to work hard. You will have to work 3x harder then some other people to achieve similar results in their linear world, but that is okay because that is life. Your gonna see that you will shine when things go “to hell in a handbasket” and your cool with that. Your going to laugh because you will take incredibly hard jobs that stress you out because “it was a challenge”. Then you’ll sit back with a whiskey and friends around the camp fire telling stories about why you took the impossible job/challenge and did it when no one else would.
There are many possibilities: treatment (https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-treatment-options-adult/), choosing a job/career that plays to your strengths and requires little in your areas of weakness (https://www.additudemag.com/career-change-job-hunting-adult-adhd/), work with a therapist (https://www.additudemag.com/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-for-adhd/) or an ADHD coach (https://www.additudemag.com/why-hire-adhd-coach-adult-treatment-motivation-goals/) to create strategies and structure to help you succeed day-to-day with ADHD, etc…
It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to ADHD.
Penny
ADDitude Community Moderator, Author & Trainer on Parenting ADHD, Mom to teen w/ ADHD, LDs, and autism
There are a few things I’ve wondered about all my life, I do hate watches! That’s answered, and why the heck I’ll fight even past the chance of ever winning! I always thought it was some great strong sense of loyalty, but now I know it’s only because I didn’t know it was TIME to quit! I’m still married because of it, my husband has always said, I don’t have the good sense to know when to give up. Thank you for your insightful observations and the kindness of sharing with me, ❤️
Wouldn’t you think that a website for people with ADHD would give us a way to edit our comments?! I always find misspellings, the wrong words, etc., after I post. So please forgive my messes!!!
Annehw , its ok.
Lots of good information, but I feel unfulfilled by this article. It gives some good examples of why we are the way we are, but I missed the promised “scientific” explanation, or perhaps we differ on the definition of “scientific”. Like the comment from abrannan mentions, I am looking for help with dealing with my problem, not necessarily another way to describe what’s wrong with my brain. I, like many others on this site, have felt that wave of relief when hearing my problems, my symptoms, and my frustrations described in a highly relatable way. Yes! That’s me! But that “alignment” happened years ago for me, and my inability to plan and execute, my weak executive function skills, and my 58 years of suffering through job and personal failures combine to make me depressed and convinced that I will fail at the next project. The job hunt at this age is difficult, but worse when you aren’t motivated to land something and know you’ll eventually let your next employer down, too. You’re probably thinking I’m a depressed bum, unkempt and irresponsible. But you’d never know any of this if you met me. I have covered it up for my whole life because I’m not hyperactive, I’m lucky to be smart, I look professional, and I can handle the basic day to day stuff. I try to eat well and stay in shape because that’s supposed to help, and it does make me feel good (as it would for anyone). My suggestion is to provide some “scientific” information on therapy and treatments (ideally in addition to stimulants, which I can’t afford in my jobless state, and weren’t really effective for me), or at least links to other articles on this and other sites. Support is good, but treatment and cure(?) are critical. It’s clear your article has helped some people, and even me to an extent, but I can’t continue to live this way and be happy. Although winning the lottery might help. 😉
Yes, I couldn’t agree more!! While I like this article and it’s always good to read something that reminds us that we have a condition that makes life challenging we do need some good resources for finding and applying strategies to help us navigate the neurotypical world! I too have struggled to find the right job within my career that I can flourish in and not feel like a failure. It is very frustrating when you can’t explain to your peers that you are wired a bit differently and don’t function in a “linear” world like other people do. I found a book titled “The Gift of Adult ADD” that seems to have some helpful strategies in it. I think as others have stated, it’s a good idea to find a coach although they tend to be rather expensive.
Thanks to AnnHW for the link to ReWired!
I can understand your frustration. I have a couple of suggestions that might be helpful. I found a podcast called ADHD ReWired by Eric Tivers, who also struggles with ADHD. I especially liked the first ones when he was just getting started because he was so open about how much he was struggling. He interviews a lot of people who also have ADHD, and I’ll admit I don’t listen to all of them, but some are quite helpful. He also has a website you can fine by searching for ADHD ReWired, and that has a lot of information that you might find helpful.
Along with that, I joined his group on Facebook. It’s a closed group so you have to request membership, and it can take awhile. Very nice support group. Once you get into the FB group, you’ll get notifications of when he’s having a call-in podcast, and that’s an opportunity for you to ask some questions and get instant feedback.
Finally, he has a coaching group (numbers are limited) and I think that works with something like Skype. Lots of great feedback, and a good place to get some help. His latest class has filled up, but there will be more.
Otherwise, have you talked to a therapist? Not all of them are helpful, and it’s good to find one who specializes in ADHD. And, I really do think coaching is very helpful. I hope you can find what you need because I know you’re struggling.
I was diagnosed with ADHD inattentive type at the age of 36. Struggling with the notion that I live inside my head has been pure torture. There’s got to be some way to live with the tornado that constantly ransacks my brain on a 24-hour basis. Most people would be able to seem that they can Comfort themselves but since I rely on other people to comfort me is sometimes the hardest to deal with I just wish I could know what peace is for at least one whole day
Really impressive statement of what ADD feels like, thank you for the eloquence and the breadth of this description, and the positive note too – gives me courage to keep going and find a solution (solutions).
This article is a prime example of the problem I have with articles on Additude in general. Lots of great information on what ADHD is and what it looks and feels like, not one iota of information on what to do about it or how to manage a person with ADHD. I know what ADHD feels like, I’ve been diagnosed, now help me live and thrive in a neurological world!
Neurotypical, not neurological. Stupid autocorrect.
I agree….. this article rubbed me the wrong way in certain points throughout each segment. It was written by someone that does not have ADHD and states it at the very beginning. The article is imfotmative but also shows that clearly people who have not suffered a full life of ADHD and what that truly entails really does not understand the whole concept of “us” and what we need to SURVIVE and how to “fix” it.
ADDitude does help me in so many different ways! This is the most informative website and magazine that i have found that is dedicated towards ADHD/ADD and also to a combination of all audiences (adults & children, supporters, ect…).
I want so badly to be able to purchase a single print edition prior to ordering a year subscription. I am single mother and am barely surviving. I have called many times.. no one can tell me how/where to purchase one magazine in a store.
Hello: Thank you for your feedback and for your interest in ADDitude. We sell many of our back issues in the ADDitude Store here: https://www.additudemag.com/product-category/magazine-issues/ You can also purchase access to the digital version of the newest issue here: https://www.additudemag.com/product/spring-2018-issue-digital-edition/ If you are looking for some specific information or advice, we would be happy to recommend articles as well.
As I said, it would be nice if we could edit these comments!!!
So are you saying sensory processing issues are due to the ADHD? I once asked a psychologist and she had said it was stress related. It was at some point extremely painful. I agree with what she said. However it’s not at a constant and concurrent with trying to focus. My kids talking to me, someone interrupting makes me say the typical, “I’m trying to focus” that my family knows all too well. Wish they could understand 🙁
I wish my wife could read this so she’d understand I’m not blowing smoke out my back side when I tell her what’s going on with me. I’m not stupid, I’m not dumb, in fact I’m quite bright….I just wired differently.
Wow.. Just wow.. I’ve visited tons of psychologists and psychiatrists, and whenever I tried to tell them that “I don’t know why, I just can’t get stuff done” it felt like I was talking to a wall, and they didn’t believe me.
And now I find (via FB) an article that perfectly sums up what I actually meant. I mean.. I’m not alone in this?! Wait WHAT?!
For the past few years I’ve been feeling more and more depressed and convinced the world doesn’t want me because I just can’t see how I fit in the whole picture.
This article has given me hope again that maybe, there is a way for me to go.
All I need to go now is find out how.. Luckily I see it as a challenge now, let’s see how long that lasts..
This article is brilliant. I love it when someone can articulate what my life is like… Because I sure as heck can’t!
What a very informative and eloquent article.
Once again I have been shown I never really had a chance.
I can certainly relate to a lot of what is in this article. Although I still struggle as an adult, the impulsiveness was what made my childhood difficult in many ways. I constantly (and still do) compared myself to others, and felt inadequate. Heck, adults were constantly comparing me, and I often came up short.
School was dismal. I was horrible at math because I couldn’t memorize the multiplication tables. I remember having to stay in during recess so the kindergarten teacher could work with me! I was probably in 5th grade at that time! When we started high school, my classmates were in algebra and I was having to take a basic math class. I felt so stupid and embarrassed.
And my parents didn’t seem to have a clue. My dad had ADHD (never diagnosed, but very obvious in hindsight.) They were never unkind, and they tried to be supportive, but they just weren’t very involved or didn’t know how to be.
Things have gotten better for me in many regards. I can recognize that I have talents, and my math skills are pretty good (although I still have to think when it comes to multiplication). But, I’m still very self judge mental, and often distressed because it can be very difficult to get and/or stay motivated. Yesterday I started to clean the garage, but I had to go out to the barn first. That needs a good cleaning, but where to start? So, I end up pulling things out to hose them off, then I get distracted or even tired, and soon I find myself walking back to the house with all these buckets and tools lying in the grass. It’s boring and I don’t know what to do with everything, and it feels like there are so many things that need to get done that I don’t know where to start or how to proceed.
I also compare myself a lot. I have a girlfriend who is everything I’m not. She is organized, has goals she completes, and she will organize and clean her basement and barn in half a day. She will have an interest in something and keep practicing until she’s good at it. Then she will continue doing it, and enjoy the process over and over again. If it’s something that interests me, I’ll work hard to get just to the point where I can do something, then I have trouble continuing. Time for something else. Arghh!
Taking math tests felt like punishment for me. I often was the last one to finish my tests and sometimes needed to stay after class to finish because I just couldn’t remember how to solve the problems. My social skills were also not very helpful in school. My love for English was the only thing that made the experience somewhat enjoyable.
OMG that is me, did terrible in all math and science, but loved english (except the grammer part) loved to read and loved. I always had to study a lot harder/ longer than my peers. I wish I would have been diagnosed as a child, but bsck then I was in school in the 60’snd 70′ I guess they didn’t know about ADHD… They just told us we were lazy or not smart enough… I was not hyper except my mind that wouldn’t slow down, but very inattentive and easily distracted….
“…I end up pulling things out to hose them off, then I get distracted or even tired, and soon I find myself walking back to the house with all these buckets and tools lying in the grass.” Wow! Anne, I thought I was the only one in the world who did that! I bought a power washer, thinking it would help. Now the power washer gets left outside in the grass, along with everything else. My DH has finally given up berating me. He’s learned to go outside at sunset and bring in whatever’s strewn about from my daily projects.
I have to admit I’ve gotten better since I started medication (10ml Adderall 2x/day). I started on 5, and it didn’t do much so I think I gave up for awhile. Anyway, life is easier, but I’m still limited!!! I did finally get things put away (haha) from the barn, but I just wasn’t into it this year so much. The garage is always a challenge, although I do try to make sure we keep things down to a minimum. It’s too easy to have too much! We actually put an entire wall of closets on one side of the basement, which I’ve pretty much filled up, and there’s still crap sitting on the floor. It’s the stuff I can’t figure out what to do with, and probably things I just need to get rid of, but too nice to just throw away (although I’m reaching that point).
That’s the other thing I do. I reach a point where I’m overwhelmed by “stuff,” and I start throwing things away. (I’ve rented large dumpsters at least 3 times now and filled them!!) Then there’s a day when I’m looking for something I can’t find and wondering if I threw it out?? I’ve also had to dig through the trash on more than one occasion after a throwing out frenzy! Too much clutter really overwhelms me!
I have read this article few months back, it is like a timeline of my life..all are spot on,,funny though i found the not wearing a watch spot on my husband and mum gave me as presents, i never felt the need to wear them up to this day. I also think I am slow sometimes in retention processing conversations i realise few days after. I am about to start this new job, I am terrified, I can’t last long again and again over and over just the social and remembering stuff terrifies me though I know I am capable to adapt to new things.
Wow!
God I love it when people can eloquently and precisely put how I feel, how I am, how I behave etc into words that make sense.
The more I read on this website, the more I realize how it has affected me my entire life.
I can never explain myself to other people, and before I was aware it was ADHD I used to just either laugh or say sorry or never mind because I couldn’t articulate the 101 words, thoughts and feelings that were rushing through me.
I know there are many positives to this, and a lot of them I’d hate to lose, but being an adult who needs ‘adult supervision’ for the most basic things is gut wrenching, torture! And I hate being me.
I related to this post so deeply that I made an account just to comment. The article dfescribes ADD-me to a T. In my case however, I haven’t experienced symptoms in a while. My family made the switch to being gluten free right before I started high school. As it turned out, gluten actually triggers my ADD! It took about a year for the gluten to get out of my system, but I was still stuck in the same patterns I’d been in my whole life. It took me about a year and a half to learn how to organize my thoughts, stay on task and work, even when I was disinterested in something. I had to work much harder than the average student to get good grades because I had very limited skills until then. I had spent so many years feeling frustrated because I knew I was intelligent, but I just couldn’t make myself focus if I didn’t enjoy the class. I didn’t know how to study or take notes. Or even sit for 45 minutes and just pay attention to the speaker. During my prayers I would tell myself to focus but my mind would wander anyway. My brain would go on tangents about how I had to focus! The irony… It was only after I’d been gluten free a while that I could understand what the word focus really means. It wasn’t something I’d been capable of, so I couldn’t really understand it.
I’m a sophomore in college now and I try to be careful with what I eat. If I were to have so much as a chocolate chip cookie, my brain would go full ADD mode for a week. I’d be lucky if a single Pringle didn’t mess me up for a day. Whenever I mess up and eat the wrong thing, I feel trapped and overwhelmed by my thoughts and how difficult it is to stay on one track. I’m lucky that I have a way to contain it. Thanks for listening. I just had to write this down because I had never looked up ADD before and was surprised to find the inside of my head(or what it used to look like) described so perfectly.
There’s a comfort knowing that you’re not lazy, but programmed differently.
I didn’t mean to attach my comment specifically to Westy. It was meant to be it’s own individual thing.
This is a reply to all as I just chose a person as I didn’t see “post a comment” option.
Hi Everyone.
First, thank you to the person who wrote the article. It describes the disorder very well, but as everyone here is aware it is different for each of us depending on our circumstance in life.
I come here from the perspective that I fought ADHD in my youth and felt I overcame it later during years in college(altered my diet and stayed active to compete with the books i.e. no soda drinks, only water…and started a workout routine, which was running), but now in these later years, 41, I’ve been reminded that I can never be free of it as I’ve lived with a medical condition of not having natural testosterone and thought that was the reason for emotional and mental struggles, but it is the ADHD.
As stated above, I encourage anyone of you to try altering your diet and develop an exercise routine. It may be very helpful for you.
The article mentioned people with ADHD are not very self aware. That may be true for some, but for those of us who recognize the disorder and work through it, are more aware of themselves than those people without ADHD.
What really stuck out of the article and gives words to my thoughts and feelings are the first few paragraphs of the article, which are below.
“What I have come to understand — something that people with ADHD know from an early age — is that, if you have an ADHD nervous system, you might as well have been born on a different planet.
Most people with ADHD have always known they are different. They were told by parents, teachers, employers, spouses, and friends that they did not fit the common mold and that they had better shape up in a hurry if they wanted to make something of themselves.
As if they were immigrants, they were told to assimilate into the dominant culture and become like everyone else. Unfortunately, no one told them how to do this. No one revealed the bigger secret: It couldn’t be done, no matter how hard they tried. The only outcome would be failure, made worse by the accusation that they will never succeed because ADHD in adults means they don’t try hard enough or long enough.”
Finally, I will close by including a statement that has been with me since college…”happiness is a journey, not a destination”, which means working to be happy where you are right now, because when you get to where you think you want to be that happiness won’t last.
As the article states, yes we are “present, in the moment people”, which is an aspect of what can be great about having ADHD…Faith helps too.
This article has touched me in so many different ways. I am sitting here with tears streaming down my face and yet room for a smile. This article is speaking for me. I literally have had tears streaming down my face but then a peace come over me because….someone is saying what I have always tried so hard to say but couldn’t. I thank the person for writing this article because it truly has been a spokesman for me. I have lost 52 years of my life to this thing called ADHD and i am literally in that moment where you start realizing what all you have lost, ruined, been wrong about and all the respect that you have lost but at the same time….we never meant to hurt anyone. I am truly touched and so thankful for someone putting into words who I am because I have tried all my life to explain and never could.
Have we met? It sure seems like it! This is a perfect description of me. Now, to get my husband to read this entire article so he can finally understand me!