Sunday, October 16, 2011

A revelation ... and relief ...

My massage therapist that I've been seeing is also my health and lifestyle coach.  Appointments have been wonderful ... making great progress ... he's very happy with and for me.

During the course of our treatment, he recommended I read a book ... Driven to Distraction ... it's the layman's bible on recognizing and coping with ADD.  I am not a huge fan of "labels".  I think some things (ADD being one of them) is over diagnosed.  I think they're far too quick to prescribe a pill instead of dealing with the root cause.  However, in reading this book, I realize that treatment for ADD encompasses several things ... only one of which is meds.  Some people do not respond well to the medication. 

You've probably figured out that I have ADD.  I have not been officially diagnosed.  But all the signs point to this.  And I am actually OK with it.  In fact, I'm rather relieved.  It explains a LOT about why I am the way I am sometimes.  I normally have 2 or 3 things on the go at the same time.  My mother in law once said I was the most restless person she knew.  Go figure.  I struggle at work sometimes ... I can't sit still for very long ... I'm up and moving on a regular basis.  My boss and I definitely do not see eye to eye.  She thinks I'm completely off my rocker. She's kinda right.  But I'm OK with that.

This is only the beginning of my journey with this issue.  One thing that seems to be consistent ... the need for regular exercise and for structure.  I'm sure that nutritionally, removing a lot of the wheat, flour, gluten and sugar out of my diet has helped.  I've noticed over the years that I am at my best with regular exercise ... when I'm in a structured environment.  My nature is to live in chaos.  My mother used to call me a whirlwind (and maybe a bit of a slob).  I tended to drop things rather than putting them away.  I still struggle with this but since I've been hooked up with FLYlady.net, and I took the time to organize and clean out the house ... I'm much better.  I still have my "hot spots"  ... the office and laundry room are the hardest rooms for me to keep tidy.  I am working on that.

I am looking at a career change ... I'm not sure what exactly ... but I want to help people.  That is my nature ... not sitting behind a desk working on legal documents.  Funny ... my boss had me pegged ... she just didn't "label" it. 

Ultimately ... if I could have one person feel about me the way I feel about my coach ... it would make everything worthwhile.

4 comments:

  1. I completely understand this, I feel (and Cara as well) that I have undiagnosed ADD. It explains a lot of things, and how I performed in school and such. I've been trying to "find" myself for awhile and trying to figure out "what I want to be when I grow up". I'm also feel like I need to be doing something that I feel I am making a difference or contributing somehow to make things better. It is really hard to figure out right now, and tends to be somewhat overwhelming. I'm not sure what is going to happen next, or what is on the horizon...I wish I had some answers.

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  2. I feel ya on this, sometimes I think people are overdiagnosed for lots of things. A friend said he thought I had ADD the other day wheN i kept switching topics on the phone lol.

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  3. Check THIS one out!!

    http://www.amazon.com/Stupid-Self-Help-Attention-Deficit-Disorder/dp/0684815311

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  4. Share these videos with as many people as you can. They must go viral.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQLlZoyphsc&feature=youtu.be

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHkGZvC0z4I

    It is time we started fighting for true equality as opposed to a false notion of it put forth by the intellectually dishonest.

    ReplyDelete