Even when I feel like this!
It is no fun to be diagnosed with any kind of illness – cancer, diabetes, depression, ADHD … you want to be in perfect health forever and anything that impedes that is basically a drag. Sure, we can absolutely focus on how ADHD makes it more challenging to focus, follow-through, finish things, and stay clear of addictions.
For those of you who have a problem with comparing ADHD to cancer or diabetes:
- It doesn’t matter if it is/ is not similar. It matters what the people with ADHD think and how they feel when challenged. And I will tell you that to me on many days it feels as bad as anything else in my life that impedes me from accomplishing what I want to manifest. As much as my broken leg or Lyme disease or depression.
- People with cancer / diabetes / etc. also need to remember why they love their disease, or they will never make it through it and beat it. When we talk about people with cancer often people focus that they are ‘survivors’ — and how getting through that very trying stage in their life made them a better person. So this is exactly what I try to do with ADHD. I am not trying to ‘glorify it’ — but there is a profound positive impact of finding ‘sexy’ in something that otherwise can bring me down very, very far.
Because I don’t know about you, but I have some days when it is all I can do not to run around the house screaming that life is unfair because ADHD has created so many problems in my life (i.e. I feel like that cat!). And how it isn’t FAIR. It is on those darkest days that I MUST remember why I love my ADHD.
Why you might ask?
- I’m extremely creative because of ADHD. I mean really creative! If people have problems, they usually come to me for advice because my mind seems to jump from one solution to the next! I don’t see any problem as ‘un-fixable,’ so my mind just keeps working and working and working until it finds a door that works. I’m fairly certain I owe this to my ADHD.
- I can be extremely focused because of ADHD. Since it is so very difficult for me to focus, when I use everything in my power / resources to focus, I find it is able to grasp many things.
- I’m fantastic at logic. Again, I attribute it to the mind moving so quickly from one idea to the next, seeing what works / what doesn’t work.
- I bring extraordinary energy to projects. Some people are very good at finishing projects and attending to details. Maybe that isn’t my strength, but what I am able to do is bring extraordinary enthusiasm and energy to new projects. If someone has an idea or project they want to get off the ground, often they come to me and I can help bring their ideas to fruition.
Those are just some thing that make me thankful for my ADHD. I tend to pull these out on the days that I get extremely frustrated with the limitations of my ADHD, and realize that if I continue focusing on how it makes me strong I get much further in life.
Why are you thankful for your ADHD? Please share your ideas so we may learn to appreciate ourselves in ways we never imagined!
I own a company called the Mood-factory (www.mood-factory.com), a company that creates products based on how sensory experiences effect moods. I also run a nonprofit for depressio, iFred (www.ifred.org), we are working to change the brand of depression. And yes, I have ADHD, along with PTSD, major depressive disorder, and a host of other challenges, opportunities, and gifts.
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Last reviewed: 26 Mar 2010
APA Reference
Goetzke, K. (2010). Why I LOVE My ADHD?. Psych Central.
Retrieved on May 16, 2012, from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/adhd/2010/03/why-i-love-my-adhd/
