Okay. Let’s start with the last one first. I don’t know you well enough to talk about my sex life just yet.

Loud rock music appeals to my hyperactive self. It’s like being tossed into white-water: I’m already bouncing around at high speeds — immersing me in loud, energetic music just takes me higher, faster, in a thrilling ride towards eventual burnout and exhaustion. I definitely use rock music with caution, and mostly on the very occasional weekend, with a side order of dancing.

Or — when I’m driving on the highway. Especially if I’m tired, I have to have loud rock music blaring. I sing along at the top of my lungs, turning my car into a drum kit, one rhythm in the right hand on the wheel, another in the left, and the gas pedal foot with a third. (You’re not a cop, are you? If you’re a cop and you’re reading this, it’s a lie. I don’t really drive like that. I’m making this up. Otherwise, completely true. Totally.)

Or I’ll fantasize about being the drummer or the singer in the band (or sometimes the keyboardist, just to mix it up) to keep me awake and focused. In my fantasy, I’m always way sexier and more buff than in reality (but I’m getting ahead of myself, I’ll save that stuff for Part III of this series). Alanis Morissette and Janis Joplin are two faves, Janis being the quintessential ADHD chick (or, as I like to call us, a Chick-A-D-D. A sister, God/dess rest her troubled soul).

At home, sometimes I need loud rock music to take me out of my head and out of my problems, to escape, just for a while.

The fact that I love Green Day, Nickelback, The Tragically Hip, and some really screechy contemporary music, often makes me wonder if this is yet another sign of my emotional retardation (as in the formal sense of the French word retard, meaning slow; in this case, slow to mature emotionally). Sometimes I think I’m emotionally arrested at age 16. (See my post about playing air guitar in public, if you think you need some evidence).

Don’t get me wrong, I adore classical music and even opera on occasion, and listen to tons of female vocalists, world music, folk, you name it. In fact, in the grand scheme of things, rock makes up a very small part of my listening repertoire – but sometimes, it’s what I need to hear. It’s exhausting keeping all this hyper energy under control 24/7. Listening to rock music is like throwing gasoline on my ADHD symptoms. Sometimes, you just gotta give in to crazy.



Comments

This post currently has 8 comments/trackbacks.
You can read the comments or leave your own thoughts.

Trackbacks

From Psych Central's website:
uberVU - social comments (March 31, 2010)

From Psych Central's website:
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Part II: Drugs | ADHD from A to Zoë (April 7, 2010)

From Psych Central's website:
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Part III: Sex & the ADHDer | ADHD from A to Zoë (April 14, 2010)

From Psych Central's website:
OMG! I <3 Her Blog!! | Jeff's A.D.D. Mind (June 29, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 26 Feb 2011