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Hi Scottieflying,
I was diagnosed with ADD last year at 49 years of age which was bitter sweet at the time – sweet because I finally knew why I felt different all my life but bitter because I found out so late.
However I let go of the bitterness pretty much straight away due to my journey of self development and knowing that our paths are already set out for us.
There are three things that have helped me with my ADD:
1. Accepting myself for who I am and not allowing anybody else’s opinions of me change that – this comes from education, mostly self development and learning about ADD.
ADD is not a disorder, I believe there are two types of people in this world – the right brain thinkers and left brain thinkers. The right brain thinkers are the ones with this thing they call ADD, they think outside the square, believe anything is possible, aren’t afraid of taking risks, challenge the outdated belief system we’ve all grown up with and are creative. These are the people that are changing the world. Up until now our socio-economic world was designed by left brained thinkers, that’s why ADD is apparently a “disorder”.
We wouldn’t say that Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson….among others….has/had a disorder, but they were all diagnosed with the label of ADD. (By the way ADD is the same as ADHD – we’re all hyperactive in our brains, some of us show it on the outside as well.)
So what your partner needs to know is that no one is better than anyone else, we just think differently and that’s more than ok. Oh, the other thing is that the majority of ADDers are highly intelligent, it’s just that sometimes our brains are going too fast for us to verbally express what we are thinking and can sometime come out all wrong.
We are not good at left brained thinking tasks, like organisation, filtering our thoughts, arriving anywhere on time (due to living in a non linear world) or working in a boring job just to pay the bills. We also live more through our emotions and senses and can be quite sensitive, that’s why this world can be tougher on us than the lefties.
There is a website called ADDitude.com which has some amazing articles and conversation between other ADDers, sign up for the emails, their free.
2. Taking medication – now I know by taking medication it’s sending a message that I don’t accept myself for who I am, but that is far from the truth. We still have to live in this left brained world, we still have the high cost of living like rent, bills, food, petrol etc., so we still have to work and the medication has helped me focus more on my work to get things done.
The medication also helps calm my mind which stops the overthinking…..something that might help your partner.
3. Meditation – something I’ve never been able to do until I started the medication. Meditation is not hard, it just takes a bit of practice and once you’ve got it, you’ll never want to stop, it’s all about controlling your mind and feeling calm. There are many different programs out there, try this one, it’s free: http://www.manifestingmagnet.com/signup/Gypsigyrl the program will also help your partner learn more about self acceptance.
Well Scottieflying, I hope I’ve helped you and not made you more confused