Welcome to Adult ADHD Unplugged! We're glad you're here.
Our blog, our website, our Facebook page, and our Youtube video channel are all focused on the same general theme: Adult ADHD awareness.
We want to share what we continue to learn in the areas of personal development, productivity, and improved relationships. When we learn new strategies, we want to pass them on. We want to hear other peoples' stories and strategies, too.
We are not going to be all "teach-y." We want to share our stories with people in this online community we're calling Adult ADHD Unplugged.
So please join us. If this community sounds like it could help in some way, then please follow this blog, go to our website to sign up for our newsletter, "like" and "follow" our Facebook page, and subscribe to our Youtube channel.
If you're wondering if you might have Adult ADHD yourself, follow this link for the same free online Adult ADHD Self-Assessment I took when I wondered about it myself.
Here's more of my story and what we're going to do with Adult ADHD Unplugged.
Since learning in early November 2016 that I have Adult ADHD, my life has changed for the better. I found out later in life than most people who get the diagnosis. At the time I was six weeks shy of my 70th birthday. However, that hasn't stopped me from being grateful and looking forward ways I can reshape the rest of my life.
My wife Marge and I keep learning more about Adult ADHD. Marge does not have Adult ADHD.
We were frankly shocked to hear the numbers. An estimated 5% of the adults in the U.S. have the neurochemical condition called Adult ADHD. However, only about 20% of those people have been diagnosed. Fully 80% don't have a clue!
So most people with this fairly common disorder don't know they have it. I know I sure didn't. Almost by accident, I was reading an article about adults with ADHD and it hit me: "Those people are just like me!"
So I got busy and soon found an online self-assessment. I took it and got ridiculously high scores.
But I didn't want to push it. I didn't want to think I had something when I really didn't. So I made an appointment with my primary care doctor. He said it sounded like I had it to him but he wanted to send me to meet with a psychiatrist who specializes in people with Adult ADHD.
I was fortunate to get an appointment quickly and had my first visit with the psychiatrist. He asked loads of questions and then had me take the same self-assessment I'd found online.
The short version is that he diagnosed me on the spot. I was fortunate because it often takes people many steps and much longer to get a diagnosis.
I've told this story in more detail elsewhere so I won't keep going here, but that's how it started.
We have benefited in three ways since we learned that I have Adult ADHD.
Personal Development:
My Adult ADHD diagnosis and subsequent treatment and readings have given me a lot of clarity about who I am. Now I understand why I did and largely continue to do certain things that neither I nor others always understood.I'm getting treatment which allows me to focus longer and not be so jumpy and agitated.
Also, I keep reading and learning. It helps in my personal development, which I believe never stops still our bodies stop. I want to be the best person I can be. Now I won't turn away from opportunities I thought would never work out before.
I am pumped about what the future can bring.
Productivity:
I've become aware of how my ADHD has gotten in the way of my productivity,With that new understanding, I'm now focused on learning strategies and finding tools to help with tasks and projects. Now I can pay attention to one topic much longer than ever before in my life. I no longer have to automatically rule out long-term projects.
I previously turned away from or got very anxious about all assignments or projects that couldn't be handled from start to finish in at most a couple of hours.
Despite having Adult ADHD, I've been fortunate to fall into careers and professions where I could actually accomplish quite a bit. Now, however, my sights are set much higher and Marge and I are super excited.
Relationships:
I'll be forever grateful Marge and I found each other in 1970 almost by accident -- on a blind date.With our new understandings and clarity on how I operate and how Marge and I work together, we're both looking forward to making our primary relationship even stronger.
We're also looking forward to improved relationships with other people including family, friends, work and professional colleagues, neighbors, and people we met along the way.
