I have been reading Sari Solden’s book “Women with AD/HD” and while a lot of the situations she describes that pose do not really apply to me at first glance, a lot of the difficulties do. Reading it, I can look back to my childhood, and see signs of my type of AD/HD manifesting – the predominantly inattentive type – despite the fact that I never really had problems at school (actually, I was at the top of my class from 2nd grade to the time we returned to Israel and I started 8th grade).
“Qu’est-ce-quelle est lente!” – She’s so slow! – is the thing that stands out most to me as something that I kept heard said about me in anything that didn’t have to do with schooling. No wonder, since predominantly inattentive types have problems with activation! At the time I didn’t feel particularly slow, and didn’t quite understand what people wanted from me. To tell the truth, I still don’t, but reading this book at least explained to me the why of these exclamations.
Another big problem of mine is multitasking. Not multitasking as in doing several things at the same time – I am actually quite proficient at that. Multitasking, as in doing things alternatively. Working on a translation while still remembering to put laundry to wash, then hang it up to dry and taking it down when dry, and still remembering to make that important phone call to reschedule my appointment with my therapist.
Whenever I have more than one thing to do per day outside the home that has to be done at a certain time, it’s stress galore.
In addition to that, I react badly to stress. Very, very badly.
Today was one of THOSE days, despite it not having started that way, really. What prompted the downslide? The endless nagging. My father whom I love dearly has also some form of AD/HD, I am positive. Unfortunately, whenever he gets stressed and wanders off from his work he takes it out on me, deciding to remind me of every little thing I have to do. If I’m finally working, he reminds me about homework – kicking up my stress level a notch. If I switch to homework, he comes in twice to remind me to do laundry. If he has to go to work, he will call at every break to remind me about laundry, and work, and homework, and dishes, and what am I having for lunch and did I call the psychiatrist and do I have enough medication to last me through the month oh and I am going out tonight, right? If I complain it’s always about “letting myself go”.
I know it is all out of love and caring but it is not helping. Not at all. He gets stressed because I get stressed so he ends up stressing me out more trying to get me to do things but stress makes me lock up so he stresses out even more.
On top of this, I’m PMSing.
