“The tremendous good news is if you get the diagnosis and you get proper treatment, not only can you avoid all those disasters, you can achieve spectacular success.”

– Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, in A.D.D. & Loving it?! Trailer on totallyadd.com

Woo-hoo! I like the sound of that! I’ve also come across the message that, of all the mental health disorders, ADHD is the easiest to treat. If only. For me, it’s like being the guy who drowns, just before they decide to install life preservers at the beach because of the guy who drowned.

t-shirt from the Chick A-D-D Online Store”]

Kelly proudly displays his Eh!-D-D [I'm Canadian

Where I live, in a small city smack-dab in the middle of rural Ontario, you’d almost think nobody’d even heard of adult ADHD. (Which is a total bummer for me, because I was sure my H is for Hockey post would take off like a hyperactive ADDer in a Ferrari: hockey, of course, being the national pastime of us Canadians. Go, Montréal Canadiens, go!) Oops, sorry, that slipped out … call it an impulsive blurt. I think I forgot my medication today. So much for the 4 Torontonians who are — make that were — reading this blog.

Finding someone to diagnose you (as an adult), much less finding a support group (or even starting your own, something I’ll talk about in a future post), is next to impossible.

A full assessment can run into the thousands of dollars, involve (if you live up in my area) six hours of driving for a return journey to the city to have the assessment, and then, in a lot of cases, having to educate your family doctor about what you’ve been diagnosed with and how to treat you. It’s no wonder that since I started writing this blog, my fellow ADHD wannabes, might-be’s, and definitely-are-be’s, are starting to come to me to ask if I think they have it. It’s been great being treated to all those free coffees and pastry, while goofing off for half the afternoon in a café with someone I hardly know. But — let me state for the record — even though I can pretty much pick up on the signs of ADHD, especially of the hyperactive ADHDers like myself, I’m definitely not qualified to diagnose anyone. That being said, if you can get me to sit still long enough to hear your story, I’m happy to lend an ear to just about anyone who is looking for help, mainly because, as I’m pointing out here, help in Canada is so hard to get. I wish I’d had someone to talk to after I received my own diagnosis.

It’s like there’s a filter on the U.S.-Canada border that stops awareness of adult ADD from coming through (Hey! Maybe they can develop a scanner that’ll pick up the ADD brains, eh?* That would be a whole helluva lot more valuable than seeing me naked, although, admittedly, perhaps not as much fun).

In the meantime, some good ‘ol Canadian ADHDers like Rick Green, et al., are creating some of the most user-friendly, entertaining, and information-packed websites, events, and videos I’ve seen to date. [Please check my blogroll to find some excellent information that is especially (but not only) pertinent to Canadians]. I hope my own little blog effort can add something to the growing voice of positive, informative, and, damn it, funny Canadian ADHDers.

*Eh: endearing Canadianism meaning, roughly translated, “Don’t you agree?” or something like that.

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From Psych Central's website:
Happy Independence Day from A Chick Eh!-D-D | ADHD from A to Zoë (July 4, 2011)

    Last reviewed: 1 Jul 2011