A Quiz, for which there is no answer key; it is meant to evoke thought, ideas, conversation and maybe action:
| A briefcase is for: | ||
| ___ | storage | |
| ___ | transportation | |
| ___ | temporary housing | |
| ___ | stand-in picnic basket |
| When you are at lunch with friends or colleagues and your watch alarm rings, signaling you the time for your next dose of medication, you do the following: | ||
| ___ | turn it off and quietly take your medication | |
| ___ | turn it off | |
| ___ | turn it off, excuse yourself from the table, and take your medication in the ladies room | |
| ___ | fumble about, go red in the face, explain to everyone about your medicine, your diagnosis, symptoms, and get mixed up before youre through, forgetting whether you actually took it, or not | |
| ___ | what alarm watch? |
| When you are late for a meeting again, you: | ||
| ___ | decide there have been too many of these, and just skip it entirely | |
| ___ | go ahead and enter, but say nothing | |
| ___ | apologize quickly and sit down, trying to get up to speed | |
| ___ | make up a plausible untruth (stalled car on the freeway, emergency phone call, etc.) |
| If you are asked by a community or social group to contribute to its effort something that you do not do well, you handle it in the following way: | ||
| ___ | agree to do it, figuring to find someone else to hand it off to later | |
| ___ | simply refuse, saying that is not something you could possibly handle | |
| ___ | ask for a different job, and make a suggestion of the type of thing you can do | |
| ___ | explain how you have AD/HD and all the ways it impairs you, how you just cant do one more thing, and hope they dont ask again |
| If you are in a public meeting and some one makes a joke about AD/HD, you: | ||
| ___ | burst into tears | |
| ___ | take umbrage and stand up, immediately registering your displeasure with the humorist, describing the difficulties you and your family live with daily as a result of the disorder | |
| ___ | find the person afterwards and quietly tell her or him in a few words what it was like to hear that “joke, and offer to share accurate information | |
| ___ | do nothing, but knit faster |
| When you realize, on the way to pick up the dry cleaning before a couple of other errands, that you have missed a dose of medication by an hour or so, and the other couple of errands are foggy in your mind, never mind what comes next, your response to this is: | ||
| ___ | agitation, weeping, taking the medication and forging ahead, locking your keys in the car outside the bank | |
| ___ | a sinking feeling, taking your medication, then sit in the car awhile with the magazine you keep handy for such moments, and in 20 minutes or so a slow approach to the drycleaners, talking yourself through the steps carefully until you can tell you have your brain function back | |
| ___ | give it all up and go home, since you dont have your meds with you anyway |
| One day the phone rings, and its a friend, some one you like a lot, and you know she likes you, though youre aware you confuse her some; and she asks you for a book you borrowed from her last spring. You dont exactly remember borrowing it, youre pretty sure you must have because you do know youd be certain that you hadnt if that were the case, but not recalling anything about it provides you no information on its current whereabouts. And, this is a friend you want to keep. You: | ||
| ___ | gasp audibly and apologize for the awful delay, tell her youll hunt it down and call her back about it before nightfall | |
| ___ | tell her you are about to leave for the day and will get it to her the next day, only later realizing you didnt actually take down the name and author of the book | |
| ___ | ask her specifically for the name and author, write them down, tell her youll get the book to her today (and cancel an appointment in order to do so), and purchase a new one; when she inquires about it, you tell her that her copy got too much use and since you were so tardy in returning it, you wanted her to have a new one. | |
| ___ | gasp, tell her youre having a hard time remembering the book, ask for the name and author, ask how urgent is her need; then decide to search or purchase in a given timeframe, and do it. Along the way, you can give her some minimal information about the trouble you have with organization, memory and other executive functions, and then work out a system for handling borrowed items in the future to prevent such goofs; and thank her for the opportunity to figure out a problem thats been plaguing you for years. |
| Its almost suppertime, and you havent any idea whats for supper; or what ought to be for supper; and there isnt anyone to ask. A scan of the fridge is both a poor way to get inspiration and results in that leftover demoralization you could do without; your ability to project your mind ahead by three hours has you agitated about late bedtimes, again, and now here comes your husband. In the door, his eyes take you in, and right away, they sweep to the stove, the table, he sniffs the air, loses his smile, and you SNAP. Angry words erupt, and while youre immediately sorry, the damage is done, you feel inadequate, again, and supper is still a question mark. Now, your solution is: | ||
| ___ | to disappear upstairs for a long while; they are all old enough to fend for themselves | |
| ___ | apologize for your outburst, declare it Family-Get-It-Together-Night, and assemble everyone to forage, and share, from cereal to soup, ice cream to cheese sandwiches, cole slaw and apples with peanut butter; cleanup the same | |
| ___ | make a pot of oatmeal, light some candles, call everyone to the table, and bring out a pad and pencil for brainstorming What we can have for suppers | |
| ___ | tell everyone to leave you alone in the kitchen awhile; the adrenaline has just given you enough brain activity to think of something, and you cook a regular meal, which is fine, though late, and you just go on as before with another too-late evening, but its better than fighting about it |
| For the skillionth night in a row, you cant get to sleep. You are lying in bed, your thoughts jumping from one thing to another. Having followed your doctors advice when you began stimulant treatment, you have not taken any medication since 6:00 p.m. so it should have worn off long ago; your last look at the clock told you it is I:45 a.m. Actually, youve had this sleep trouble since childhood, so it cant be blamed on stimulants, and when you tell your doctor about it, he wants to prescribe sleeping medicine. | ||
| ___ | it seems to you the jumping around of your thoughts is exactly what they do in the day, but your body is idle now, so you notice it more, and it prevents sleep | |
| ___ | you wonder if maybe you have some other disorder besides AD/HD | |
| ___ | somewhere you read that stimulants help children get to sleep because they dont stimulate, so much as they regulate by stimulation of the part of the brain that handles the sleep-wake cycle, or arousal, something like that | |
| ___ | maybe a cup of coffee wouldnt hurt, as an experiment; it never could wake you up, or keep you awake; maybe it would help you sleep! |
And now, because there is a list a mile long of other items about which we could ask a question and ponder multiple answers, and because the one pressing in on me at the moment pertains to how much is enough, and when to say when, and it is confounded as always with matters of Time, and Priorities, and Doing Other Things at the Right Time and not Later On — I am going to wind this up with some of the rest of the notes from my list, and you may generate your own finish. Here goes:
Family gathering, too much noise, you cant think
Taking medication, still hyper-reacting to everything, emotionally reactive, doctor thinks its anxiety and you know it is not
Your house, which if you lived alone could be tidy and organized now that youve been diagnosed and take medication, is a wreck, again
Conversing with people, you keep interrupting
Many phone messages to call back on, cant seem to do it, what to do
Saturday, last night you had lots of good ideas, now youre inert
As above, and your doctor thinks its depression, you dont
Every night the same, supper almost on time, and still the kids are getting to bed too late, hard to get them going in the morning, tempers flare
School notices come home saying permission slips were not sent back, responses from you about projects were not sent in
Do jot down your ideas and answers, and more if you’ve thought of them, and send them directly to me. I’ll see that they get published. Please include whether you will be willing to have us include your name, or not.