inspiration

Making Big Stuff Happen With Hands-On Learning (an ADHD Favorite)

Came across this awesome project on Kickstarter – X-SPACE: A Library Designed and Built By Its Students. The idea sounded awesome and I wanted to learn more about it, so I watched the video.

Such an amazing Kickstarter project. Seriously…I’m a bit blown away over here.

I did some more research, to really understand the back story. …even more blown away.

Realm Charter School in Berkeley, California offers these super elaborate hands-on design courses to its students through a program called Project H. Holy crap, the awesomeness. Project H students are the masterminds behind the X-SPACE library designing/building Kickstarter project.

“108 eighth grade students are designing and building their own library, and you can own a piece of it.” – X-SPACE on Kickstarter

Anyway, of course I supported the cause and donated…because SO awesome…how could I not?

For some ADHD / ADD learners, hands-on learning is the ideal learning style, the only (or the best) way to get things to stick. I am one of those ADHD learners, which is why I am so enamored with this project and Project H in general.

Even if you can learn something by reading it just one time, you need to check out the Project H website (http://www.projecthdesign.org/). They even provide lesson plans and other tools for several of their projects (I can’t even pinpoint just one because they all look so awesome). The potential impact of what they’re doing is just huge. I highly recommend you take a peek, guys, especially if you’re a teacher or student (and obviously if you have ADHD, ADD or other learning differences).

I am in awe of the big things these kids are doing and I am super proud of the adults that are making all of this possible. I mean, all you have to do is read the first sentence on their website and you’ll get it:

“Teaching youth to design and build their future with heart, hands, and hammers.”

You can even buy this awesomeness, which I am SO doing.

Painted Skies and ADHD Optimism

“…because blue skies should always be acknowledged.” – Enough said. (Okay, not really because I have a little more to say.)

I mean, we’re all going to have bad days (ADHD or not). There’s no getting away from that. But, the trick is…to keep hanging on for the good days. They’ll come…they always do.

The thing about ADHDers, though, is that, for as much as we struggle, we tend to have this underlying optimism. Maybe it’s just that we’ve forgotten about the bad by the time something good comes along, so we can embrace the good easier than most. But I don’t really think that’s it. I think that our ADHD struggles, as with most struggles in life, have made us thankful for those moments when the sun is shining and things are good.

To be clear, I didn’t exactly have the best day today or anything. In fact, I didn’t like it much at all. But the sky kind of speaks to me when it’s all painted and awesome like this and I’m a little obsessed with attempting to capture it in all its glory. Awesome skies do have a knack for cheering me up, even if only briefly. Most of the time, I feel called to share the pictures, too. Like, somehow, if the painted sky is making me happy in the moment, maybe it’ll work for somebody else out there who might need it, too.

So, guys, after last night’s wicked long blog entry, I leave you with the first (of likely many) sky pictures. I hope you’ll find some inspiration or hope…or maybe just appreciate that there are a lot of really good blues in the shot.

ADHD, OCD and T-Shirt Designs

ADHD and OCD – All About The Awesomeness

ADHD and OCD are complete opposites in a lot of ways. OCDers are all about the details and ADHDers are all about the derails. It may seem like these two thought patterns would work diligently (and with much force) against each other.

And, sometimes that is the case. For example, when my OCD pushes me to get all dressed up for a presentation…and then my ADHD pushes my coffee cup in my lap. Or when my impulsive ADHD organizational purchase doesn’t fit exactly right or won’t hold the things it’s supposed to, so my OCD perfectionism declares the purchase worthless…but my OCD hoarding tendencies won’t let me throw it out…so the mess just gets bigger.
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Go Ahead and Laugh at Yourself (and Your Friends with ADHD)

10 Things Only People With Attention Problems Understand: ADHD video shout out thanks to BuzzFeed

This video made me laugh, so I thought I’d share it here. I like how it addresses ADHD problems in a humorous way. And they cover a lot (10) of the problems in just two minutes. (Smart on their part to keep it short.)

They cover impulsiveness, forgetfulness, restlessness, difficulty studying, medication (adderall) issues and more.

My favorite, though, is number 10: When your friends say, “Sometimes I think, like, I have ADHD…because I don’t want to do homework.”

While everybody can relate to some of the symptoms of ADHD, to some degree, it’s really not the same as not wanting to do your homework…or losing your phone one time…or struggling to sit at your desk for 8 hours.” Someone who legitimately has ADHD suffers these symptoms way more frequently and way more intensely than the normal person. The symptoms are so intense for someone with ADHD that they seriously impede the ability to function on a daily basis.

It’s not something that can really be explained. Either you get it…or you don’t. This video made me laugh at my own ADHD self and made me feel like I was part of an inside joke that only a select group of super awesome people can truly understand.

Every Day is Groundhog Day When You Have ADHD

As I was sitting here trying to figure out what my next blog post should be about, I noticed (thanks to my Facebook feed) that today is Groundhog Day. While Groundhog Day is a national holiday, and one that usually gets a decent amount of news coverage, I immediately thought of Groundhog Day, the Bill Murray movie, instead.

Living with ADHD is seriously just like that movie. This very day is a perfect example. I’m here on the couch binge-watching some random show on TV in the background, trying to make myself decide on a single topic to post about, trying to make myself actually DO IT…and one of my best friends, who is also extremely ADHD, is sitting next to me trying to make herself work on her dissertation. Both of us are pretty paralyzed by the fear of starting and not creating perfection. That fear, in and of itself, is a post for another day (or later today), so I’ll try to stay on topic here. The point is, we have, in so, so many ways, lived this same day so, so many times before.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized the comparison was totally spot on. So spot on, that I knew there was no way I was the first to consider it. It just made too much sense, so I Googled it. Turns out, there were plenty of people writing about how the ADHD life resembles Groundhog Day.

Here’s a sample of what I found:

A man in his late forties posted about his ADHD Groundhog Day and the aching familiarity of associated struggles. Several people commented on that very post, many totally agreeing with, and relating to, the Groundhog Day sentiment.
A mom with ADHD noted the Groundhog Day comparison as a common theme in ADHD blogs and described how her struggles were totally in line with it.
An ADHD coach/doctor talked about how certain symptoms of ADHD always seem to persist, kind of crushing hope, and creating a Groundhog Day feeling.
Another ADHD coach discussed the Groundhog Day effect and provided helpful tips for making positive life changes.
A woman posted about her ADHD and hit the nail on the head when she said, “The job and my life with ADHD are like Groundhog Day. The toxic thinking, that old feeling of being a failure: It’s creeping up.”

Obviously this is a common theme among people (adults and kids alike) with ADHD or people who love people with ADHD or, you know, anybody affected by ADHD in general. As I mentioned in my first post, the world isn’t structured in a way that’s suited for the ADHD brain. If you have ADHD, chances are you’ve spent a good deal of energy trying to, often unsuccessfully, find ways to fit your out-of-the-box self into this pretty rigidly structured world.

You’ve probably told yourself (a million times…and with some pretty strong optimism) things like:

“I won’t be late again.”

“I’ll finish what I’ve started.”

“I won’t forget my keys, my phone, my debit cards, etc.”

“I’ll tackle that one project that I’ve been putting off for so long.”

“I’ll have more patience with other people.”

“I’ll stop being impulsive.”

“I’ll get more sleep, eat better, learn to relax and take better care of myself.”

These are just a few of the things we ADHD-ers tell ourselves on a frequent basis. A diagnosis of ADHD is helpful because it tells us that there really is a reason we’ve been having so much trouble keeping up with the rat race. However, a diagnosis, while helpful, definitely isn’t a cure-all; nothing is. Medication, exercise, therapy, education, etc. can help certain people cope with and manage their ADHD.

Too often, something seems to work at first and you get super hopeful, but then you wake up one day and you’re back at square one. It was one thing to struggle as an undiagnosed child, adolescent, even young adult with ADHD because everybody else around you was struggling to find their own way and grow up, too. As an adult with ADHD, it can be really painful to look around knowing how hard you’ve tried and seeing that you haven’t really gotten that far. The same stupid issues seem to always find their way back to the surface, no matter how much of a roll you seem to be on. It can be really frustrating.

Your past is decorated by a lifetime of failures, not the professional, familial and various personal successes of your peers. There are so many basic life skills that you struggle with, that seem to come so easily for everyone else.

It’s not like you haven’t tried a million different things to try and fix your persistent issues. You’ve tried so much you don’t even know what’s left to try. You’ve spent decades problem solving things that most people never have to think twice about. …oftentimes to no avail.

But you pick yourself up and dust yourself off…because that’s what you’ve always done.

As someone with ADHD, you owe it to yourself to figure out what works for you. Once you figure that out, you can start implementing those tactics that work, so you can get busy being awesome. It will likely be a long road, at least for certain things…and it probably won’t all sort itself out at once. You’ll have to stay in survival mode for a little while longer, meaning you’ll probably have to live through quite a few more Groundhog Days.

The world won’t stop for you to be able to figure out what works for you. It’ll just keep spinning…and you’ll keep spinning with it. You have to keep living the best you can until you can find the solutions that truly fit with your brain. Be proud every time you discover a new solution, even if it seems insignificant.

Solving a small problem will actually clear out a decent amount of real estate in your brain. And with that new real estate, you will be free to focus on whatever you want.

People with ADHD have to keep learning and relearning basic living skills and we usually have to try a lot of different things before we get it right. This doesn’t make us any less than our “normal” peers. To be fair (and unbiased), it doesn’t make us any better than our “normal” peers either. It just makes us different. And there are definitely some things that come easier for us than for them.

Once we conquer the day-to-day living skills, we can embrace those things, that we’re innately good at, and get on with the business of saving lives (or whatever it is that floats your boat). Hang in there. One day you’re gonna wake up and it’ll be a new day…and it’ll be awesome. I mean, seriously, Groundhog Day can’t go on forever, right?

Crap, I feel like I’ve said that before…