My office is a nightmare. The shelves are crammed with what was originally placed on the shelf, plus all of the things that were stuffed on to of those things. There are file folders on top of books, there are books on top of files, the lesser used printer has stuff that can’t be chanced with getting lost on one of those full shelves. Behind me, the floor is piled high with papers, file boxes, laptop bags (I seem to collect them), and plenty more stuff. The irony is that while I have never been a neat person, my office never used to get this bad. It is truly terrible now, thanks to me being diagnosed with ADD, but not for the reason you think.

Correcting ADHD Behavior

Many have noted that being diagnosed with ADHD can actually be liberating at first. There is a great sense of relief at knowing the name for what has been going on for all these years. Frankly, Attention Deficit Disorder isn’t really all that scary sounding. To me, that sounds way better than something like depression or even Seasonal Affected Disorder, with its unfortunate acronym telling you exactly how to feel about that one.

However, after a while, ADD becomes like any other chronic condition. You start to try and fix it, or manage it in some ways. There are often two components of ADD treatment. One is often ADHD medication, the other is behavior modification or therapy, usually in conjunction with a health professional or ADD coach. Either way, the self-aware ADDer will eventually become aware of at least some of the things that his or her ADD seems to propagate within their personality.

For me, the biggest problem I have in the entire world is procrastination. I have no doubt that I could have had success a hundred-fold above and beyond everything I have ever achieved in any arena in life if I could just stop procrastinating and get things done at even a semi-reasonable pace. Many ADDers report being unable to adequately focus and get going until a deadline looms. For me, the deadline must often pass, and the consequence be severe before I can get going. It is the one thing that I would gladly change about myself.

Knowing this, shortly after being told I have ADD I noticed myself organizing my office ahead of a huge, important project, with a very looming deadline. Like many ADDers, I had a reasonable excuse for this ADD trait kicking in. After all, I would be much more productive if everything were organized neatly and I could find what I was looking for right away.

The catch, of course, is that a full office organization of this kind can take hours, precious hours that should be spent on the task at hand. Organizing would have been helpful last week. Doing some of the 20 hours of work that are left before the deadline 12 hours away, would be much, much, more helpful. And so, I stopped.

Unfortunately, that was years ago and I haven’t really organized since. Every time I even think about organizing a list of important things to do floods my mind and I feel guilty for moving around even one scrap of paper, believing that what I am doing is procrastinating. Frankly, that is what I’m doing sometimes, but doing that occasionally would likely be better than getting to where the current state of my office is.

This is a sneaky ADD issue to avoid successfully. Often, in our attempts to better ourselves and “make up” for the various character trait of ADHD that cause us distress, we overreact. Shifting too far is often no better than staying where you were on the behavior spectrum. It can be difficult to see when you have overreacted, but there are some signs to look for.

Signs You Have Overcorrected for ADD

1. You set a hard and fast rule – Life isn’t static. Things change. Organizing isn’t always procrastinating. Sometimes it is good, even necessary. If you have a “never” or “always” lurking in your mind, you may have overcompensated.
2. The new situation is just as bad – Never cleaning leads to a state just as bad or worse than cleaning too often, or at the wrong times.
3. You feel bad about doing something – Adjusting to ADD is about understanding how your mind works and making tweaks to the things that you want to in order to achieve your own goals, which should be primarily about happiness. If you’ve set up a structure that makes you feel bad about doing something, then chances are you’ve overcorrected. Stop and think about what you actually feel bad about. Should you really feel bad about that? Feeling bad about cleaning or organizing is not what I wanted. I wanted to be sure that I was doing it for the right reason at the right time, but it progressed to just feeling wrong about doing it at all. If you feel bad about overeating or not exercising or yelling at a spouse, that makes sense. I’m fine with feeling bad about those things. But if it doesn’t seem right that you feel negatively about something, then it probably isn’t.

Have you overcorrected  any of your ADD traits? What kinds of ADHD symptoms have you gone too far with?

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Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

Jeff Foxworthy does this stand-up comedy bit where he goes through a list of things that, if true about you, might make you a redneck. My personal favorite is, “If you mother does not take the Marlboro out of her lips before telling the state trooper that he can kiss her ass… you might be a redneck.”

My dad’s, who grew up on a farm, favorite is “If you have ever unloaded a pickup truck by driving backwards really fast and slamming on the breaks… you might be a redneck.” He’ll then add, by way of explanation, that that is the fastest way to unload a pickup truck.

I’ve often thought of doing a set of these for ADD. “If you ever <did something>, then you might have ADD.”

Unfortunately, I often forget them before I can compile any sort of list. I figured that if I started chronically them here as I came up with them, then I might get my list of funny ADD traits together faster. Ironically, I had a really great one yesterday that is currently playing hide and seek with my mind. I’m sure it will come to me, again, when I’m somewhere that remembering it will be totally useless to me, like in the shower, or in the car, or while giving a presentation.

Anyway, I had an ADD Moment today that I think would make a decent one. Here goes:

“If you’ve ever been to the fridge to get something you just bought at the store and been unable to find it… because it was still on the counter, you might have ADD.”

It’s a work in progress.

This one came to me because I went to the store this morning. I did not forget the groceries in the back of the car (Score!), but I did have to go to the bathroom as soon as I got them all into the house. After finishing my restroom business, I went about my daily business, only to come back a half an hour later to be surprised by all the groceries still on the counter.

Fortunately, everything was still frozen or cold, as necessary, and I got them all put away.

At times like these, I try and replay what happened in my head. I like to see where I got distracted or where my train of thought derailed. This was one of those times where everything was so rote that I’m not sure I was actively thinking anything at all. At least I can’t remember anything running through my head.

I probably just threw on the autopilot to go into the bathroom and didn’t resume full control until I had moved on to something else.

Update: I just thought of another one.

If you remember that you haven’t eaten lunch yet… at dinner time… you might have ADD.

How’s your Monday?

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Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

Regular readers of Addessories know that I’m all about real research, real data, and real science. I don’t go in for fake ADD cures or treatments, and I certainly don’t believe in miracle pills that claim to treat almost anything that has to do with the brain. So, you’ll forgive me if I head into crackpot territory.

First, this is something that I have noticed for ME. There is no science, no data, and not even the company that makes Wellness Formula makes any sort of claim about ADD. But, for some reason, it seems that Wellness Formula helps with ADHD symptoms from the confusion, fuzzy thinking side of things.

Let’s back up and take this from the beginning.

What Is Wellness Formula?

Wellness Formula is a pill from Source Naturals, sold at Whole Foods, among other places, that helps with overall “wellness.” If wellness seems pretty vague, you are right. Basically, I take it when:

1. I’ve been around or are going to be around sick people
2. I go to the doctors office (sick people)
3. I start feeling sick
4. I get a sore throat
5. I feel a little bit “off”

You get the idea.

Basically, to me, Wellness Formula can best be described as a pill that contains every vitamin, herb, root or supplement that has been shown to have a beneficial effect on preventing or shortening the effects of the common cold. Or, as the company puts it, things that support the immune system.

Echinacea? It’s in there.

Vitamin C? B? A? Yep, yep, yep

Garlic Clove? Check.

Elerberry, Goldenseal, Astragalus, Ginger, Grape seed, you name, it’s in there.

In other words, if one of those things works, you are covered. The rest I guess are filler.

Wellness Formula Helps ADD?

Now, here is where we get from colds to ADD symptoms.

Sometimes, my head just doesn’t feel right. It might be fuzzy, slow, apathetic, blah. Use your favorite word for just not quite firing on all cylinders. When that happens, sometimes, I throw a Wellness Formula pill down my throat with the rest of my vitamins.

What I have noticed as I’ve tried to monitor my ADHD more closely now that I’m off (at least temporarily) the Adderall is that it seems surprisingly effective on that fuzzy, cloudy, uncaring mental state that is an ADD symptom for some people. The reason I notice it so much is that it seems very connected to my ADD, but is not necessarily one of my “everyday” symptoms.

If you ever have to sort of discombobulated feeling going around in your head and you want to try and do something for it, and are willing to go a little out there on the ADD alternative treatment branches, try Wellness Formula. It might not help, or it might just be a placebo affect, but it can’t really hurt, and it might just keep you from getting sick

Have you ever tried Wellness Formula for ADD? Do you have other kooky, regular, vitamins or supplements that seem to inexplicably work for you?

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Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

For those of you who spend a lot of time on the internet (and let’s face it, a lot of us with ADD do), you may have seen something called the “What I Do” meme. It’s basically an image, usually two rows of three columns with pictures depicting things like, “What my mom thinks I do,” and “What society thinks I do,” finally ending with “What I really do.”

Here is an example of one I found for writers:

As you can see, the whole thing is a joke that pokes fun at both the perceptions of someone as well as actually poking fun at the person the meme is about. There are thousands of these things out there about just about any topic or profession you can think of. Ironically, a significant number of them show Moms thinking that the  person in question hangs out getting drunk. I’m not sure what that says about many professions and hobbies, or what it says about mothers, but that is not our topic for the day.

Someone sent me a What I Do – ADD / ADHD one of these. Now, before anyone goes crazy about how attention deficit disorder and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is no laughing matter, let me remind you that

a) I have ADD

b) laughter is the best medicine

c) it’s a JOKE!

So without further ado, the What I Do ADD Joke Meme:

By the way, I think this could be funny without using the cliche of getting lost in the middle of doing something. ADD isn’t really always like that, of course. Still there is some comedy gold in ADD and ADHD if you are willing to remember that your life is not only as full and rich as everyone else’s, it can also be just as funny as well That being said, when I get some free time, I think I’ll punch out a few of these that are maybe just as funny, while being a bit more clever.

Related articles

• Do I “Wiki-Meet” Diagnostic Criteria for ADHD? (psychologytoday.com)

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Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

I sat down nearly two hours ago to write a post for this oft neglected ADD blog. What happened? Well, not to put too fine a point on it: ADD.

Let me start by saying that I don’t “blame” my ADHD for things. That is neither productive, nor completely accurate. However, it is often the case that I look back and smile when I can see the ADD traits unfolding as I recall recent events.

Let’s start by clarifying what I mean by sitting down to write a post.

What I really mean is that I was looking at the analytics for my personal finance blog at FinanceGourmet when I noticed that the traffic had blipped back up here at Addessories. Curious, I got distracted (Hey, look! Something shiny) and started looking at what posts here were getting increased traffic. Eventually, I hit the big Addessories text at the top of the screen to get back to the home page where I noticed that is has been a very long time since I last wrote here. Doh!

Thus, I decided to write an ADD tips post for this ADHD blog.

To write the post, I entered the WordPress dashboard. So far, so good.

I noticed that a few of the plugins needed to be updated (Uh, oh.)

Of course, I don’t want out of date plugins, so I checked them all and clicked update. When they were finished updating, I should have gone right back to writing, but it seemed like one of my usual plugins was missing. Unable to determine which one, I went and logged into my freelance writing blog in order to look at what plugins where installed there.

If you don’t know how this ends, you must be new here.

Anyway, long story, short, I ended up installing a new plugin, writing a blog post about it (Zemanta WordPress Plugin for Online Writers) at the writing blog and then found about a dozen other things to do including checking Facebook, looking to see when the Broncos play this weekend and checking my Google AdSense earnings.

If it makes anyone feel better, that graphic came from the Zemanta plugin, so it was worth installing

At this point in time, it is well after 10:00 p.m. and I have numerous things I must do before going to bed, some of which have been urgent for an hour or more, including getting a drink, and ironically, going to the bathroom.

What is the point of all this?

Nothing, other than further proof that I am definitely one of us. Oh, and, now I don’t feel so bad about not actually writing that update even though this one isn’t really too much of an update.

Don’t worry, I’ll be back tomorrow (or the next day). Procrastination is the enemy of all, but especially those of us with the inattentive form of ADD.

See you later.

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Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

Apparently, there is an ADHD Awareness Week. It’s going on right now.

And, why not? There is an awareness week, day or month for pretty much everything that exists, good and bad.

I’m not a big fan of "awareness." It’s not that I don’t think it is a bad thing for people to be aware, it’s just that these days, weeks and months accomplish just about as much as those anti-smoking commercials on TV. I mean, seriously, is there anyone left anywhere in a America who doesn’t know that smoking is bad for them? Is there really someone in Cleveland right now, who, if he just saw a commercial that showed a bunch of people pretending to die in front of a cigarette company’s headquarters, that he would stub out his last cigarette ever?

Likewise, are there really teachers, bosses, parents, students who have never heard of ADD/ADHD?

The reality is that people are aware or not aware of what they choose. Furthermore, even if they are aware of something, they care or do not care according to how they choose. Awareness, at least the kind of awareness practiced by the PR types who run these things, accomplishes nothing.

Next week, most people in America will know what ADD is. The same amounts of those people will think it is a sham or not, and the same amounts of people will have it.

Let’s call these things what they really are. Feel better about yourself by connecting with others who have, know someone who has, or otherwise is affected by ADHD, and raise some money while we are at it week.

If you are interested in the official version, you can check it out here: http://www.adhdawarenessweek.org/

Related posts:

1. ADHD Depressing State of Affairs for Attention Deficit Disorder Awareness

Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

There are a lot of programs, applications, and online services to help you be more organized and have a better schedule. There are ways to manage to-do lists, to create to-do lists and to create and print calendars. I’m even working on an ADD Planner application to help with people with ADHD improve organization and scheduling. However, there is an unfortunate side effect to some of these time savers, they can make procrastination worse.

One of my toughest procrastination challenges comes from internet browsers. I generally use Firefox because I have built up a suite of plugins and add-ons that allow me to get things done faster and more efficiently. I also use Google Chrome. Some of those Firefox plugins block annoying things like Flash, ads, and JavaScript, so when I want to see the un-sanitized version of a website, I use Chrome where I have resisted the urge to add all of my usual blocking plugins.

However, bookmark management is absolutely terrible in Google Chrome. There are no tags for bookmarks, which is just dumb. Furthermore, when you open your bookmark manager, every one of your bookmark folders is expanded by default, which defeats the entire purpose of folders. In other words, bookmarks are useless in Google Chrome. When I want to bookmark something, I literally open Firefox and paste the URL into it, and then bookmark it there.

Too Many Bookmarks?

The strange thing is, that for all of the technically savvy, demanding internet users that use Google Chrome, there is a shocking lack of complaints about how bookmarks are implemented in Chrome. That got me thinking.

Do I have too many bookmarks?

The answer is a resounding YES. I not only have bookmarks that I have no idea what they are for, I have FOLDERS of bookmarks that I don’t know the purpose of. I opened some of these mystery bookmarks and still don’t know what I ever saved them.

Did I think it was a good webpage design?

Did I really care about Colorado crystals at some point?

Do I really want to sign up to be a volunteer for a non-profit organization five states away?

It was about this time that a little light bulb went on.

The reason I have many of these bookmarks is because I meant to do something with them LATER.

I have another extension for Firefox called Read It Later which essentially bookmarks webpages for you to read later. It is so full that I could never hope to read half of what is in there. What’s worse, is that while I regularly add pages to Read It Later, I never actually go in an read any of them.

Computer Enabled Procrastination

Everyone procrastinates but people with attention deficit disorder have a whole extra layer of procrastination tendencies. Procrastination for us with ADD comes in two very sneaky forms.

1. Procrastinating to avoid uninteresting tasks
2. Procrastinating to avoid being distracted

The first is not uncommon whether you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or not. However, for those with ADHD, it can be tougher to notice.

My wife, who does not have ADD, knows when she is procrastinating. Sometimes, she does it anyway. There are many times when I don’t even realize that I’m procrastinating.

It is most common when I’m online. One moment I’m diligently researching a freelance writing article and the next I’m reading about World War II bombers thanks to an intriguing link from the Smithsonian website. Having been unknowingly distracted, it isn’t until I manually check in with myself that I realize I’ve moved off task.

At that point in time, I will either:

a) Chastise myself, close the window and return immediately to work

b) Decide I’ll do better later, and keep reading

c) BOOKMARK the webpage so I can read it later when I have free time

Which, brings us to procrastination type #2.

After being diagnosed with ADD you begin to try and not indulge your ADHD habits. ADD medications don’t solve everything they say, over and over again. You also have to change your habits and ways of exhibiting ADD behaviors. To do so, you try and notice when you are ADDing and then, stop it.

One method of trying to accomplish this is to put aside distractions until “later,” in other words procrastinating.

If you are putting off something that is distracting you from work or other important tasks, then that is good procrastination, even if it is technically procrastinating.

What I have noticed is that my bookmarks and my Read It Later list are filled with things that I meant to get around too, either productively or leisurely. For example, there are dozens of programming tutorials or tips that I have bookmarked to look at later. There are also dozens of “interesting” things to read.

Either way, those bookmarks are procrastinated tasks that were never completed.

It’s time for a new standard. From now on, bookmarks are reserved for known-useful references and functions, not for things to get back to. If it can’t be done now, I will leave a tab open in the browser. When there are too many tabs, choices will have to be made. In the end, virtually none of the “get back to” tabs will ever be read. After all, life is too interesting and new distractions appear every day.

Whenever I have free time, I can be assured that there will be numerous useful, interesting, entertaining or provocative things ready and waiting before my eyes without every clicking a link or opening a bookmark folder. Thus, those that were saved will be forever on the to-do lists, at least, that is, until they are finally purged as too old.

Do you procrastinate with bookmarks? Do you productively (or not) use Read It Later, or the like?  Let me know.

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Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

An interesting ADD research review from November 2010 ask whether the proper criteria are being used to diagnose adult ADD.  Attention deficit disorder, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as it is officially called, has three clinically defined types.  Each type of ADHD has its own symptoms and potential treatments.  However, the criteria necessary for a diagnosis of adult ADHD is laid out in a manual known as DSM-IV. One group of researchers reviewed clinical interviews to see how the ADD symptoms criteria should be re-examined for the upcoming publication of DSM-V.

Diagnosis of Adult ADD

One interesting result of the research was that almost half of the people who had ADHD as a child still meet the DSM-IV criteria to be diagnosed with adult ADHD.  Of those, almost all of them still report a current attention deficit disorder (94.9%) while just over a third still report a hyperactivity issue (34.6%).

In other words, the persistence of ADD into adulthood is correlated much more with attention deficit rather than with hyperactivity.

To put it another way, you are much more likely to outgrow being hyperactive than you are to outgrow an attention deficit.

The main issue raised by the researchers is that many consider ADD to have three factors. Two of the factors are recognized by the DSM-IV as requirements for a diagnosis of adult ADD, while the third is not.

According to the researchers, the three factors of adult ADD are:

1. Inattention / Hyperactivity
2. Impulsivity
3. Impaired Executive Function

Executive function is not a recognized criteria for adult ADD, however, as the review shows, it is the least likely of the three to be outgrown.  In other words, it is the key component of an adult ADD diagnosis and it is not currently used as a criteria.

Whether anything will come of this research remains to be seen, however, it does provide some useful information for us adults with ADHD. Just because you are not hyperactive, doesn’t mean you don’t still have the core issue that comes with ADD. Furthermore, perhaps as you age and choose your ADD treatments based on solid scientific data and medical research, you may want to prioritize those that focus on executive function.

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Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

Research Suggests Using Zinc to Treat ADD

Alternative ADHD therapies are a big area of interest for many adults with ADD and parents of children with ADD who, for one reason or another, wonder about natural ADD treatments that might be used rather than prescription ADD medications.

As someone who accidentally went off of Adderall for a while and found out that I actually do not have insomnia, I watch with considerable interest the current research on ADHD treatments and potential natural therapies for ADD symptoms.

As is almost always the case with any alternative therapy or herbal supplement, there is no conclusive evidence that any natural ADD treatment works.  That being said, the bar for saying that is very high, and only really achievable by a major company willing to pump millions of dollars into ongoing clinical trials and research efforts.

Use Zinc to Treat ADD in Children

There are several governmental websites that provide the results of scientific research.  One of those is PubMed.gov which does a good job of providing the abstract, or summary, of medical research papers on ADD and other conditions.

While procrastinating with my ADD instead of working through it today, I came across an interesting tidbit of information that had escaped my attention before now.  (Please excuse this article if it is a bit rough. I am tired, my work day is coming to an end, and I am really, really apathetic today, which is why I started doing medical research in the first place. However, I wanted to get this out there so that I would not forget, and so that if it might help someone, they could find it.)

It seems that a 2009 study suggests that zinc deficiency may be one issue in children with ADD. The study used a dose of 55 mg/day of zinc sulfate, which equates to 15 mg of zinc, to treat kids with ADHD.  Over the course of the trial researchers observed statistically significant improvement in ADD symptoms of the children, before coming to the conclusion that zinc deficiency has a role in the etiopathogenesis of ADHD. (Yeah, my spell-checker just threw up too. I’ll look it up later…)

Furthermore, a new study started in 2010 aims to investigate whether zinc supplementation may be beneficial either in conjunction with prescription ADD drugs, or as a replacement.

This study offers some very important items about the current state of ADD research that I will need to catch up on when my mental state is in a better place.

1. A dysfunction of the dopamine transporter is involved in the "pathogenesis" of ADHD (Last I checked we were still at that, maybe, maybe not, phase.)
2. Some, but not all, ADHD patients may be zinc deficient. (That means that this treatment would only be useful for some.)
3. The human dopamine transporter has a high-affinity zinc binding site. (This is just interesting.)

Alternative ADHD Treatment in Adults with Zinc

I don’t have a dosage for zinc supplements being used in ADD research for adults.  The only reference I have so so far is the study on children which used 55 mg/day of zinc sulfate.  I’m guessing that the number for adults might be higher, but I’m no doctor. The recommended daily allowance (that percentage you find on vitamin bottles) is 15 mg, which I would assume corresponds to the 55 mg/day of zinc sulfate = 15 mg of zinc in the ADD in children research study referenced above.  That makes as good of starting place as any.

Of course, your average multi-vitamin has 100 percent RDA of vitamins and minerals, including zinc, so if you are already taking a multi-vitamin, you are getting your 15 mg of zinc already.

Anyone have any other research or studies regarding zinc that they want offer up?

I’ll be back with more extensive research soon…

Related posts:

1. Nature Relieves ADHD Symptoms – All Natural "Cure"
2. Alternative ADHD Treatments Herbal Studies Research
3. Alternative Medicine Treatments for ADHD and More

Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com

Twitter is a case lesson in ADD.  Tiny snippets of thought appear out of nowhere, exist for a second or two and then are buried beneath an avalanche of new snippets that pour in.  Each snippet claims to be interesting or important enough to exist, although that is actually true for only a handful of them. 

Some of the snippets have links that point in another, supposedly, interesting direction.  While following those links to glean information or entertainment, the snippets of thought continue to pour into your Twitter stream, each with their own information, entertainment, or links to other stuff.

In reality, the more people you follow on Twitter, the more tweets you have to ignore.  There are methods for determining which tweets should get read and which ones should be dropped into the ether or nothingness.  There are lists to help you organize your tweets, programs that allow you to flag certain people or topics as important, and methods for sending yourself emails or reminders.  Sounds a lot like organizing life!

In the end, however, there is only one lesson to be learned from Twitter, and that is that you can either pay attention to the endless stream of thoughts and distractions that continuously beg for your attention, or you can pay attention to that spreadsheet in the window behind Twitter.  Which one wins out at which particular time determines how productive you will be.

Guess who is writing a blog post about how distracting Twitter is because he just spent a bunch of time ignoring the spreadsheet instead of his new Twitter client?

Have a productive Wednesday!

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Original content from among the many ADD tips and tricks at ADDessories.com