Head in the Clouds

Recognizing the Gifts of ADD in a Spouse and a Child

A non-ADD wife and mom really gets it! Check out this lovely essay in ADDitude magazine.

Days Off Are Never Boring

One evening, when my daughter was little, I asked her to brush her teeth, then went downstairs for a minute. When I returned, she hadn't brushed—but she'd drawn a detailed picture of her Winnie the Pooh toothbrush, marked with a red circle and a slash.

I totally relate to her urge to create art instead of brushing her teeth. And it highlights for me the role of boredom in ADD. Around here, we can pretty much always cook up a fun project or engage in interesting conversation, whether out loud or inside our heads. You won't find us sitting around on the couch complaining that we're bored because there's nothing to do. 

On the other hand, when we have to do something that's not so interesting, we're likely to drag our feet and moan and groan about it. Like picking up toys or filing papers or brushing our teeth. Ugh. Boring.

My daughter had a day off school last week. And she was busy all day, relaxed and cheerful except for the few times I made her pick stuff up. She helped me plant some seedlings and rode around on her scooter. She played two kazoos. She put the gerbils in their balls a bunch of times so they could run around.  Here are a few of the other things she did to entertain herself:

 

Later, she held a lovely outdoor wedding for these gloves, then threw them in the air so they'd burst on her bicycle-helmeted head.

 

The bumper-car (gerbil-ball) arena needed a sign.

She made a beaded bear and a beaded star before assembling this Pegasus. 

Ten Things I Know as a Person with ADD

 

 

1. Piles of magazines on the floor are dangerously slippery. 

 

 

2. Stuffed closets make great habitat for mice. So do stacks of paper against the wall.

 

3. A clean can opener when you need it is a pleasure not to be taken for granted. Same with a clean garlic press or clean water-bottle lids.

 

4. You don’t need to sort laundry (as long as you take a few precautions).

 

5. It’s easier to find clothes to wear if you fold and stack the clean laundry—even if the stacks are still on the couch.

 

6. Talking timers are not just for the blind.

 

7. Being late does not mean you don’t care, you didn’t try, or you’re passive-aggressive.

8. It’s possible to work really, really hard and accomplish about as much as you would have if you'd sat on the couch watching soaps and eating bonbons.

9. Inattention is in the eye of the beholder.

10. People with ADD plan the most creative and fun birthday parties.

Further reading: I also know that it’s possible to lose a baby outfit or an indoor basketball hoop in a pile of papers.

ADD in Victorian Literature—in a Girl

When I was growing up, a poster advertising the novel Jane Eyre hung in our family room for ages. My sister had made it for a school project, and I loved the slender figure of Jane she’d drawn in black and white. Despite the great marketing, though, I’ve never read the book.

But my friend Sharon has, and she e-mailed me about it. Turns out my sister might have had something in common with Jane Eyre. My sister’s sister (that would be me) had ADD, and Jane’s good friend might also have had ADD. In both cases, it was way before anyone would have thought to put a name to the condition.

Here (with her permission) are Sharon’s astute observations of Jane’s friend Helen:

I always find it interesting when I see a character in literature who probably has ADD or ADHD. It's easy enough to spot boys with ADHD (Tom Sawyer, amongst others), but I hadn't noticed any girls with ADD until just recently.

I'm rereading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Jane's good friend in the school she attends is Helen Burns. Helen is called a "slattern" by her teacher. She talks of intending to tidy her drawers, but forgetting. In classes where she is interested, she does very well, but in others, she goes into a dream state and has no idea what is being taught. This picture of ADD in girls struck me as quite clear, and it's fascinating to see it in a novel first published in 1847.

Most analysis of this character deals with her "angelic" duration of the hardships in the school. I couldn't find any association of her with ADD through Google—perhaps no one has seen it, but I don't think I'm reading in a false interpretation. Interesting.

Yes, definitely interesting! Anybody else noticed characters with ADD in novels you’ve read? The main character of Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler pops into my mind. 

The News in Brief

Great news for those of us who want to keep up with world affairs despite our short attention spans: Britain's Guardian newspaper announced today that it's transferring its entire distribution onto the social networking site Twitter. All Guardian articles will now be in the form of 140-character "tweets."

It'll be a great way to bone up on history, too, without having to slog through a whole book or something. "A mammoth project is also under way," reports the Guardian, "to rewrite the whole of the newspaper's archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include '1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!'; 'OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more'; and 'JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?'"

The full story is here. Definitely worth a read, especially the additional archival tweets at the bottom.

You might also be interested in a related post I put up last year, about Gmail Custom Time, and this more serious follow-up post.