"Isn't Everyone a Little ADD?"

"Isn't everyone a little ADD?" is a comment I've heard from more than one person who is skeptical (like I used to be) of ADD.  They seem to consider it to be an over-diagnosed/over-used lame excuse. Isn't ADD just bad parenting and too much sugar?!

 Does everyone misplace things sometimes (including your car)?  Yes.  Do most people sometimes forget appointments and miss occasional deadlines? Yes. Do we all have trouble focusing and sitting still in certain circumstances? Hell yes! The difference is the degree to which these seemingly trivial things impact a person's life.  There is a difference between an occasional "senior moment" and a daily struggle. 

If occasional forgetfulness or inability to focus is a minor annoyance then you likely don't have ADD or you've learned to compensate for it. But if these issues negatively impact your daily life - jeopardizing your job, relationships or just making you think you are losing your mind - then you may have ADD. 

All is not lost if you do! I am learning that ADD is not an excuse of any kind and it is NOT a horrible diagnosis which will lead to my eventual doom. It is quiet simply, a miraculously different way of processing information and moving through the world. There are many awesome aspects to it and it is only disabling to the extent the world is not set up to encourage and support this way of thinking. 

So what is the value of recognizing that my brain operates in a different way? One - now I know I'm not "Lazy, Stupid or Crazy" (love the book by the same title). Two, I can make changes to how I live day to day (such as using alarms and timers and a paper organizer) to function better. Perhaps most importantly, I realize now that I need to give myself down time and not over promise, so that I don't set my self up for failure.

No, not everyone has ADD, only a small percentage of lucky people, like me. More to come on what makes ADD a miraculously different way of thinking.