“Why I’m Almost as Cool as Every Cool Person Who Has Ever Lived”

The title above is of course not serious. The point is, whatever challenges you face in your life, I believe that you are in good company. Please go here to see a list of many famous “cool” people who are living with or who did live with ADHD. I’m working on a speech called, “My Colon Can’t Concentrate,” that will combine humor with seriousness to describe the rewards and challenges of living with Ulcerative Colitis and ADHD.

Here’s your brain on untreated ADHD.

In Dr. Edward Hallowell and Dr. John Ratey’s excellent book, Delivered From Distraction, the authors state that living with ADHD is like “driving in the rain with bad windshield wipers.”  I think that Dr’s Hallowell and Ratey are spot on if their definition is for living with treated ADHD.  When it comes to living with untreated ADHD though, I don’t think their definition is strong enough.  So, here’s your brain on untreated ADHD…

On the night my wife, Emily, and I got married, we took a cab from Duluth, Georgia to the Hilton at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.  That ride was 30 minutes of sheer hell!  It was pouring down rain, the wind felt like it was moving the cab, the cab driver was driving 80 miles an hour while eating a sandwich and talking on the cell phone!  Normally, I would have politely said, “Hey sir, could you please slow the hell  down!  We just got married and I would like us to be married for more than four hours, I don’t want a headline in the Atlanta Journal Constitution tomorrow to say, ‘Honeymooning couple and their cab driver die in tragic I-85 accident!’ Or… I might have just slipped the man a twenty and said, ‘pouring rain, so slow lane please,  when we arrive at the Hilton alive there’s another twenty in it for ya!’  For some reason though, I said nothing and just prayed that we arrived at our hotel alive.

Living with treated ADHD is like driving in the rain with bad windshield wipers?  Probably. Living with untreated ADHD is like being driven by a cab driver from hell in a bad thunderstorm?  Definitely!  There’s your brain on untreated ADHD.

I hope you find these ADHD links useful:

• Traits of Attention Deficit Disorder, “Highly Creative Individuals” and the ENTP (Inventor) Jungian Temperament
• Does ADHD even exist?
• Search Medica Search for ADHD
• 151 Positive Characteristics of People With ADHD
• What’s It Like To Have ADHD?
• Dr. Daniel Amen’s Six Types of ADHD
• Excellent Resource List from Adult ADD Coach Pete Quily
• What is ADD/ADHD?-ADD/ADHD Overview from Author Dr. Ned Hallowell
• Adult ADD and Adult ADHD:  What Are They?  Info from Life Coach and Author Jacqueline Sinefield
• More Famous People with ADD