Tammy’s Story

I am 41 and I am ADHD, I think that fits me best. Before being diagnosed as ADHD in 1993 I had been so many other things. I been told I was bi-polar, over anxious, slow learning, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. ADHD fits me best and the medication actually helps me function.

I feel like my life has been very ADHD. I see all the ironies in myself. I procrastinate yet want instant gravitation. I tend to be sensitive to what is said to me but what happens to that sensitivity when it is my turn to speak. I will strike up conversations with strangers standing in the same line at the grocery store but find it difficult to pick up the phone and call my family for a chat. What’s up with that?

I see life has a lot to do with perception. I am not saying that my life couldn’t have been easier or more successful had I been diagnosed and helped as an ADHD child in school as opposed to being put in the special education classes. Academic success may have lead to a lasting profession instead of a long list of trades. I could have become a specialty nurse and even sought the education needed to become a PHD in nursing. Being able to stick it out in one profession may have made me more successful in the eyes of society. Being a bouncy hyperactive individual has exposed me to a variety of different trades.

I still know how to be a nurse, but I know how to roof, do some repairs to motor vehicles, recycle pallets, I can draft, write. I have a lot of energy and have learned from my latest employment adventure that being 41 years old and weighing 120 lbs I can still out workmen twice my size and half my age. Not all small middle age women can pull as much weight as a 6 foot 225 pound male of 21 years old. HOW?? I have ADHD of coarse!!! I believe my hyperactivity keeps me young. Being unable to sit still means I don’t have to join a gym or set up some program to get a healthy amount of exercise all I have to do is wake up in the morning.

Yes being ADHD had led me to poorly planned road trips. Where do you think my auto mechanic skills began? Yes I have up and moved 200 miles to a town because I liked the lake. I have dated on line, I have opened my mouth long enough to insert my foot luckily the passage of time renders my verbal blunders funny. My perspective on ADD I will be one of those spry active elderly ladies with a life time of interesting stories, and a bit of wisdom on many matters all thanks to being ADHD.