Lisa, Life with ADD, part 3 — ADD tip o the Day 405

“I’m also terrible with money. My dad had me write down every penny I spent, including cash…that was extremely difficult for me, but it did show me some major “leaks” that I’ve had to fix. Now I keep better track of my debit card usage, and my overdrafts have gone from 5-10 per month (YIKES!) to almost none. We’ve also worked on paying bills FIRST when I get paid, so now instead of paying my utilities when they threaten to shut them off (or when they DO shut them off!), I’m able to get them paid when they’re due or even a few days before. I’m still working on the impulse spending, but at least if I pay my bills first, I won’t be in such bad shape! I’m glad to know that I’m not the only intelligent person who understands money concepts from a logical standpoint but still struggles with putting them into practice…it really makes me feel stupid sometimes!”

“Getting diagnosed can be a challenge for adults! The first time I mentioned it to my primary care physician, he looked at me quizzically and said, “You don’t just develop ADHD at age 32.” Well, duh! So I had to explain my whole history going back to grade school of messy room/desk/locker, unfinished assignments, chronic tardiness…and once he was satisfied that it was indeed a long-standing problem he tried me on ritalin. I take strattera now…dealing with the regulations around ritalin was a real PITA, so I went with a non-stimulant. It works well, but it takes a while to ramp up (weeks) as opposed to the very quick results you get with ritalin or adderall.”

(In response to the post on how to fail.) “Yep, I’ve tried all of those! And they are super successful at keeping you from finishing the project…lol. I’m particularly guilty of #3…I once had a web design project that I did for my church (for free, of course). It was pretty much finished, at least to the point where I needed to get feedback from the group sponsoring the site, but I kept putting off showing it to them (even though they were asking about it regularly!) because I was afraid they wouldn’t like it and I thought I could do better. Of course when they finally saw it, they were happy with it. It’s hard to accept “good enough” sometimes!”

Tips: these are the last comments from Lisa.  She beautifully conveyed life with ADD. 

I am so grateful for all your comments!

doug