ADHD Adventure

Dealing with ADHD is formidable but it is also an adventurous trek that I would not be able to experience any other way. I thank God for the gift of ADHD, even on the days that it makes me appear (and feel) super flakey. 

There are so many people in the world that think it is just a label we use to cover the fact that we are lazy. There is truly nothing more infuriating. Most people that feel this way have not taken the time to really even try to understand what it means to be an ADHDer. There is so much to it. It is such a fight and at the same time, quite delightful. 

Some of the main symptoms that adult women with ADHD struggle with are disorganization, feeling overwhelmed, anxiety, depression, issues with money management, struggling with time management, trouble staying focused, putting off boring tasks, and forgetting where you have put things.

I have definitely experienced all of the above but what has been the worst for me has been depression,  feeling overwhelmed, and my time management. I feel like a lot of my issues actually come from time management problems. This is the one thing that affects every other aspect of life. So if time isn’t being managed, nothing is. 

Most ADHDers, including myself, deal with time blindness. We literally have no idea how much time passes by. Has it been some minutes? Has it been some hours? Who even knows. 

I actually set an alarm to buzz every 30 minutes at work to keep me on track. If I don’t, I can easily start to hyperfocus on tasks and end up working in one store for four or five hours when I actually have four or five stores to get done. When that happens it truly throws a wrench in my daily plans. The alarm helps keep me alert. It snaps me out of hyperfocus and it snaps me out of procrastination.  

Now hyperfocus is actually a wonderful thing that many of us use to our advantage. When we engage in something that interests us we get so focused that NOTHING can stop us. We block out the world. Then the creativity can flow; and there is no one more creative than a neurodivergent. Seeing the world as differently as we do, turns us into people who pretty much always think outside the box. 

There is all sorts of other stuff that us ADHDers have to deal with such as learning differences, challenges in social settings, relationship issues, headaches and stomach aches that are linked to mental health, eating disorders, executive functioning problems, communication issues and visual-spatial intelligence issues. Not everyone struggles with every symptom but everyone one of us deals with enough of these symptoms to make life quite a challenge.

No matter how challenging life may get, we must remember that God has a plan for us all. Call out to Him. Surrender all. He made us just as we are and knows exactly what we are going through and every single bit of it will be used for good. 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28