When I was 14 I spent weeks designing a machine for playing NIM based
on telephone company dialling circular switching relays, about 14 of
them. I then managed to acquire about 7 of them from local electronic
scrap merchants, but having solved the problem already, I lost
interest and never made the machine. At school I used to read all the
new textbooks of the year with great interest in a few weeks. Then for
the rest of the year I was terribly bored. I was always being punished
for not doing my homework. The problem was it was boring. I used to
set myself more difficult homework problems for fun. I liked difficult
problems that took at least hours to solve, preferably days.

Many years later after discovering computers I wrote a computer
program based on the same principles as my telephone relay machine
which worked very well.

much snipped

exactly, Michelle, this happens with teenlet

guess what the teachers say?

"well, obviously, if it suits him he CAN pay attention"

sigh

ps, this kid took 2 books on HTML programming out at the library for
over a month while he was 'working on a design for a game'
he was 12
he would work on that for hours!
but, he has his computer to look at, and NO school bells ringing, etc

pps.  he designed a section of the game that was added to the original
game :)

kate

Hi Quentin,

I can't answer for PP, however in my observation of my dad, it's easy to
distract him from mundane things like paying bills example.  A stray
thought, (or an interruption) causes him to lose his place and he has to
backtrack to remember where he was in the process.  (He has a routine
that must be done in order.) However if the thing he's focused on is
novel, then stray thoughts are much less likely.  In fact, sometimes
what I call hyperfocus comes into play.  He can think about a
problem/puzzle/interesting idea for hours.

Best regards,
Michelle C., T2

Hi PP,

Help me understand this more fully please.
Does novelty distract you or assist you?
I'd like to understand ADD better.

Thanks,
Quentin.

Thanks.  I have the typical ADD ability to focus when there's novelty
involved, so I have that way of assisting myself, too.  A cubicle move
at work helped a LOT, giving me changes in my physical environment to
jangle my novelty detector.  Management's becoming somewhat more rigid
in terms of time reporting is also helping me by forcing me to keep more
lists and notes.  So, it's not all about meds, for me at least.

PP

I hope you're able to find something that works better for you, Priscilla.

Best regards,
Michelle C.

On weekends I often either take only 1 Adderall a day instead of 2 or
just skip it.  My psydoc says that's why I haven't built up a tolerance.  
I don't think I have.  I just need something else maybe.

PP

Peppermint Patootie wrote:

ADD as child--back when no one had a clue about it and just thought he
was incorrigible.  Also highly intelligent.  He remembers his dad
shouting at him, "Your IQ is higher than mine.  How come you can't do
your school work?"  Pretty much describes the whole issue in a nutshell.
 The failure of his family to understand (not that they had any
resources for understanding ADD back in the 50's) shot the hell out of
his self-esteem, which added to the problem.

Starting in elementary school my mother would repeatedly back me into a
corner.  "What do you do these things?" she'd rage, and I had no answer.
 So they concluded I was lazy, irresponsible, obstinate and, yes,
incorrigible, and I had nowhere to go but end up agreeing with them.
It's a horrible feeling, to think you have no recourse but to say it's
your fault you did those things you had no intention of doing.  Wears
out any self-esteem you've got.  Shame city.

Yep, you've described it exactly.

Surprisingly, since my grandparents have come to live nearby (in a house
behind ours), I've realized that my grandpa--my dad's dad--has ADD too.
  He has trouble following conversations, often goes off on tangents,
and frequently fails to acknowledge what was just said, because he's
thinking his own thoughts.  Looking back over the years, I can see that
he's always been this way, but seeing him nearly everyday has brought
this home to me.

Unlike my dad who had such trouble in school, my grandpa did okay
though.  However, his school experience occurred in a one room school
house with 13 kids ranging in age from 1st grade to 8th.  Much less
stressful environment with individualized attention.

My dad's brother shows some symptoms too.

medication until his early 50's.  He takes the Parkinson's med,
seligiline for it.

sometime.  I'm starting to have problems at work again.

Although the seligiline is a long-acting med--he takes a tiny dose every
 3 days--sometimes, he finds taking a break from it helps him "reset".
 Of course, the "reset" period has to occur when there isn't much going
on that requires his attention.

Michelle C.