Do You Have ADD?

Denial is more than a river in Egypt.

I recently had the occasion to speak to a man who coaches business leaders with ADD.

My results were startling… I fit many of the parameters of impaired executive function associated with ADD syndrome.

It was frighteningly clear that some of my tendencies are associated with ADHD… here are a few…

1. Activation… organizing tasks and materials, estimating time,, prioritizing tasks and getting started on work tasks. I have experienced difficulty with excessive procrastination.
2. Focusing… sustaining focus and shifting focus to tasks. I have difficulty in sustaining focus as I get distracted easily by things around and by internal thinking in my mind. Reading also is a chore as retention and understanding are a challenge for me.
3. Effort… regulating alertness, sustaining effort, and processing speed. I’m great at the short-term project, but have great difficulty in sustaining effort over longer periods of time. It’s tough to be a complete a task.
4. Emotion… managing frustration and modulating emotions. I discover challenges in managing frustration, anger, worry ,fear, disappointment, desire, and more. When these takeover, it is very difficult to get these emotions in perspective and get my mind back on track and do the really important things.
5. Memory…utilizing memory and assessing a recall. I’ve discovered great difficulty in being able to remember many many things… including names, situations, circumstances, and other memories of those around me describe what these. I find it difficult to access memory information at the moment I need it. Was it the teen drugs or my 9 kids that did this?
6. Action…monitoring and regulating function. Distraction, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are tendencies which I need to watch. Whether an action, word, or in my thinking these become a danger. When I failed to notice what is happening I can easily jump to inaccurate conclusions and I have difficulty in regulating the pace of my actions and slowing or speeding up as needed for specific tasks.

So these are the big wake-up call for me… now I need to figure out how to regulate and leverage these tendencies in my life.

One area is procrastination: I see now the need to activate my brain for at least 30 minutes a day to write and blog.

It’s easy for me to be faithful. Once I’m intentional.

Now i need to leverage my tendencies in these areas!…