It never occurred to me to go to the doctor, or that it might be related to my childhood classroom experiences.Īnyway, it is always scary and I dread having to drive long distances. This happens to my dad too (hello, heritability) and his doctor thought it had something to do with blood sugar.
OH, the driving! Put me behind the wheel of a car and I'll be lucky to make it 45 minutes before I am passing out. Exhausting.Īnd in adulthood, driving has been the problem. I finally had to record most of my classes and play them back later. I have history notes from high school where all the periods are lines going across the page due to my struggle to stay awake until the end of the sentence. When the ADHD brain isn't interested, it completely disengages, and sometimes shuts off completely. Once again, the interest-based nervous system explains this. The key word here is "certain." My math and history teachers had this problem. As I was growing up, my parents constantly had to meet with certain teachers to discuss why I was always falling asleep in class, and what could be done about it. This was the biggest "ah-ha" moment of all for me. ADHD can cause drowsiness and an inability to stay awake or alert in the classroom or even while driving.
#Adhd hyperfocus driving movie#
Remember Dug the golden retriever in the movie Up? SQUIRREL! Yeah. My closest friends and relations have learned that having a conversation with me outside will result in regular interruptions of me gasping "BIRD!" mid-sentence. My husband is regularly irritated by the fact that I can spend HOURS intently focused on a Macaroni Kid project, completely ignoring the entire family and whatever household chores are calling. Career-wise, I have been a small town newspaper reporter, an outdoor educator, a snorkeling instructor, a tall ship hand, an aquarist, a book saleslady and now a publisher.
My degree of expertise is directly related to the length of time the hobby has held my interest. In fact, one of my "ah-ha" moments was learning about how an ADHD brain can hyper-focus, to an almost obsessive level, about certain things.Ĭould this explain why I am a notorious hobby-hopper and career-jumper? I mean, I guess it is kind of weird that I am a dive master in SCUBA, can play five claw-hammer songs on the banjo, can paint fairly well (when I feel like it), and can identify just about any southeastern bird by sight or sound. I love this article, which describes the condition as an "interest-based nervous system," meaning if you are interested in something, you can pay attention. ADHD is more about the fact that it's difficult to pay attention to some things more than others. It is not really a disorder, nor is it really about attention deficit. When I learned this, I asked my husband innocently, "So which one of us do you think might have it?" He practically guffawed, "It's definitely not me!" Oh? Huh.Ģ. If your child has it, it is very likely either you or your spouse has it. ADHD is extremely hereditary. Many adults with ADHD are diagnosed after one of their children is diagnosed. Maybe this will help some of you to recognize it in yourself or others.ġ. Here are some surprising symptoms of ADHD that you may not know about. And sure enough, as the classic saying goes, the apple did not fall far from the tree. Just about one month after Evan was diagnosed, I asked his practitioner if he would evaluate me. The more I learned about ADHD, the more I began to wonder. But, in an effort to make the best possible decisions for Evan, I started reading, watching, and listening to everything I could find on the subject. I figured I knew most of what there was to know. Up until this point, I hadn't done too much research on ADHD. Things started to get tough this year (3rd grade), so we decided it was time to do something about it.Įvaluations at home, school, and with our practitioner resulted in a straightforward diagnosis and we were soon on our way to figuring things out. As long as he was doing well in school, we didn't worry about it too much. It was really no big surprise we'd suspected it might be true since Evan has displayed many of the classic symptoms from a very young age. A few months ago, our oldest son, Evan, was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
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