I’d slow down to catch my breath but I know I’d never catch back up.
I’ve been kind of quite here on this blog, not what I had planned. Let me share with you one of the worst weeks of my life.
Last Saturday, as my family and I were heading to Costco we stopped at a stoplight and were struck from behind by a 17 year old girl (who we have reason to believe was texting while driving).
Being in a car wreck is always a surreal experience (yes, I’ve been in several in my life). Jen was driving this time, which was probably a good thing since our insurance is probably looking for a reason to drop us (too many speeding tickets).
With the impact of being struck from behind we were forced int the car in front of us and them into the car in front of them.
I don’t know how fast the girl was going when she hit us, I still haven’t gone down and picked up the police report, although I plan to. Everyone was pretty shaken up but no one was seriously hurt.
Thank you Kia for taking care of my family
If you look at the Buick Regal that hit us and the Ford Taurus that we hit you can see the kind of damage caused by the accident. The picture of the Taurus doesn’t look as bad as the actual damage is.
When we bought the Kia, we needed a van. Three 
kids, a dog and friends meant a van, two cars or an SUV. The later two didn’t make any sense to us largely because of the amount of gas needed. While a van isn’t *cool* they sure are convenient.
The Kia was a year end close out and a great price. When the salesperson told us that it was also the highest rated vehicle for safety ever, I was impressed but what does that really mean.
I don’t know how much damage these other two cars took but the damage on the Kia was under $3,000. Even the mechanic we took it to was impressed, he said he always thought Kia’s were cheap cars, but he’s thinking other wise now.
Back to my week of hell
I took Monday and Tuesday off of work to give my back and neck some time to recoup, go to the doctor to get checked out and to deal with insurance adjusters. You know the usual post wreck crap.
During the weekend my big project was to finish my part of our groups MBA project. I graduate this month from Boise States Executive MBA program (which I highly recommend). We present our final project a week from the Tuesday after my wreck (10 days), and it’s crunch time. This weekend was supposed to be my big opportunity to get everything done. Needless to say I didn’t get anything done.
Wednesday and Thursday I went back to work and was trying to get back in the swing of things, but mentally just wasn’t functioning that well. I blamed it on the wreck, sore back and neck but by Thursday afternoon I realized something else was wrong.
After one of the weirdest business lunches in my life (another story for another time) I went downtown to get some work done before meeting up with one of my MBA group members to get caught up on the project. While I was waiting for her, the glands in my throat started to feel sore and I could feel a fever coming on. Great, not what I needed.
I met with my group member and started heading home, and kept feeling worse. I went to the clinic to see the PA I usually see for my prescriptions and found out I had a temp just over 102. The throat swap didn’t turn up anything but after looking at my ears and nose, she could tell I had some sort of infection.
She prescribed some penicillin, figuring that would kill whatever was going on. While I got those filled I was able to get the prescriptions from our car wreck filled as well; anti-inflammatories and Vicodin. The Vicodin would come in handy helping my cope with the pain from my ear, sinus and throat infection.
Thursday night, all of Friday and into Saturday morning my temperature wouldn’t go away. The infection in my ear made it almost impossible to stand up, let alone get any home work done. Basically I stayed in bed and slept.
It’s Saturday afternoon now. I’m getting close to getting my homework done but really needed a little distraction. This post was it. I think I’ll take a nap and then finish my work.
Technorati Tags: Kia, Auto Accident, MBA, School, Sick, Worst Week Ever,
I have an addiction. I am an information junkie. I have to be connected, it’s a sickness.
My usual nightly routine is:
- Go to sleep around 11:00
- Wake up after 3 hours, around 2:00 am (this is because of our natural 3 hour sleep cycle)
- Check my blog feeds in Google Reader and my email in Gmail. This is usually done by phone but I have been known to fir up my laptop to do this.
- Go back to sleep until 5:00
Last night was so bad I even shared a few feeds and responded to some email. I had to go back this morning and double check what I wrote.
By default being ADHD usually means that you have an addictive personality. This is evident in the high drug, alcohol and tobacco use by people with ADHD. Some people call it self medicating, or escapism, I call it addiction.
I come from a long line of alcoholics. Because of that I’ve always stayed away from drugs and alcohol. But don’t get me wrong I have my own addictions. I don’t know if people with ADHD can avoid it really. Instead I suggest finding acceptable addictions.
The trick is finding things you can be addicted to. Unfortunately things like; spending time with the family, personal meditation, or cleaning (unless you’re Obsessive Compulsive) are not options. The other problem is addiction alternatives aren’t universal. I know some people that exercise is a good addiction. For me it’s never worked out (pun intended).
The good thing about alternative addictions is that lots of people have them. Everyone that’s addicted to the newest tech gadget isn’t ADHD, but sharing this addiction with others can add a bit of *normalcy* to your life.
The bad thing about alternative addictions is that they are still addictions. They can and will cause problems with your friends, family and work if not kept under control. My wife hates how much I’m on my phone. I really have to make an effort when I’m at home to put the phone away.
Fortunately this addiction helps with my job because I’m expected to be on top of trends and looking for new opportunities (yeah that’s a little bit of an excuse but it’s true).
Other alternative addictions:
- Exercise
- Reading
- Gadgets
- Entertainment
- Music
- Other Hobbies
What are your alternative addictions? How do keep them in control?
Technorati Tags: addictions, life management, tips, advice, ADHD,
Everyone has cycles. We all have periods where we feel great and are on top of the world. Then we have times where we just can’t seem to get going. For most people it’s a day or two at the extremes. With ADHD (at least for me) I’ve found these highs and lows can last weeks sometimes.
I have learned that when I hit the lows, I am extremely unproductive. No matter how hard I try I just can’t seem to get everything I want done. When the normal stuff (remove distractions, staying on my meds, primal screaming) don’t work the best thing is to just manage collateral damage. I don’t try and get it ALL done, just what I need to.
- Do only what you have to do
- Put off the non mission critical stuff
- Go radio silent
- Don’t respond to unimportant email
- Only go to meetings you have to
- Catch up on your sleep
When I hit these times:
- I quite answering my phone.
- I only return calls I need to (sorry Mom)
- I let the email pile up.
- And I let it be OK
- I flake on people that will understand
- Friends and non work stuff
- I get 8+ hours of sleep (usually I can’t force myself to get more than 6)
While some of these things may sound extreme, the trick to making this work and keeping mt friends and my job is that I know where the limits are. My limits, my friends and families limits and the limits of the projects I’m working on.
I haven’t fully figured out the timing of these cycles. They aren’t just monthly but there something more. I almost wonder if there aren’t two cycles going on; one that’s monthly and one that’s something else (quarterly?). Because some months are worse than others. And it’s very rare that they are so bad I have to resort to all of the measures I’ve listed above.
And the main thing is that I know that it won’t last and when the cycle spins the other way I make sure I’m ready to make up for lost ground.
Technorati Tags: ADHD, depression, Productivity
At work right now we’re going through a re-org. Fun. Not!
I just got out of a meeting with management about what type of job I was looking for in the new organization and the best way I could explain it was this:
Tell me where the goal line is. Tell me what I can’t do. Then let me figure the rest out.
I don’t like structure. Okay, yeah some structure is good. Let me figure it out. Chances are I’ll come up with a better solution than you would have given me.
When I’m left to my own devices (where did that term come from anyway) that’s when I learn. If I’m not learning, I’m bored. HyperBored actually 
Technorati Tags: Learning,organization,structure,work
So this really deserves a much longer post than I have time for, or probably a whole series of posts but it’s on my mind right now.
I start off my day with 54 mg of Concerta, I usually take 10 mg of Ritalin around 3:00pm to get me through the rest of the day although if I know I’m going to have a late work night I’ll just take anther 35 mg of Concerta.
In addition to the prescribed medicine I self medicate with much more caffeine than my wife would like me taking. I usually have at least one diet RockStar energy drink and often a few diet Dr Pepper’s.
Some people when they see how well I function during the day, how much work I’m able to get done each week and how quickly I pick up a new task have questioned the legitimacy of my ADHD claim. Trust me none of this comes naturally.
I haven’t always taken medicine. I *survived* K-12 w/out it. Largely because they didn’t have the kind of medication they have today and the dosages they were giving out then were way out of whack.
It’s also taken me years to get to the point where I know how much medication I needs to function at the level I need to given the immediate task. It took a lot of trial and error, testing and trying various types of medication until I found what works for me. And what works for me will most likely not work for others.
So with that I run off to my next meeting, RockStar in hand.
Technorati Tags: Concerta,Ritalin,ADHD,RockStar,Medication
Welcome to the first post. A little about this blog. I’m starting a this new blog all on my own (with the exception of the help I keep asking my friends for). I installed WordPress myself, uploaded the plugins I wanted, uploaded Sarah’s great free theme, and even used a free online service for the logo. I’ll also be doing my own maintenance so if you notice something that isn’t working right let me know.
The intent is that this will be a site where I share my experiences growing up ADHD and how I “made it.” And what I do everyday to leverage that wonderful blessing/curse that is ADHD to not just survive the world but excel in it. I’ll share tips and trick for managing ADHD, while meant for those with ADHD many tips will still be useful to all you “normal” people.
If you’re interested you might like to learn a little more About This Blog, or you can read about My Story, or even find out a little more about My Theory on ADHD. I’d also encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed so that you can always get my most recent posts.
Technorati Tags: ADHD,blog,WordPress,tips and tricks
