What was I just doing?

It was probably the late 80's or early '90's when I first heard of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in children and I thought it was just another label for parents to slap on their lazy and/or ill behaved children to excuse their behavior. Put them on meds to control it? Even better. You get the Parent of the Year Award.

 

Then I became friends with a woman whose child had the latter diagnosis and I was tempted to keep a bottle of Ritalin in my purse in case she ever forgot to refill said child's prescription. Okay, so maybe it was a real thing.

 

Later in my professional life, I heard the term thrown about in terms of employees with productivity issues. ADD in adults? Are you kidding me? It just sounds like a lame attempt by an employee with no motivation to not work as hard as his co-workers. As IF!

 

I'm now eating my words (and thoughts) because I'm pretty sure that I have ADD. Certainly not ADHD because God knows I don't get hyper or overly excited about anything. Yay. Another mental illness to add to my already case study worthy psyche.

 

At first, I thought that my lack of concentration was just a product of my stressful job. But that job is but a memory now and yet, I still find myself unable to focus on one thing for any period of time. I have a load of projects that I want to pursue and I'll start one but get sidetracked and never finish.

 

And it's not like I'm getting sidetracked by a significant life altering event. It can be something as simple as a squirrel outside the window. It  goes something like this:

 

BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!

 

"Will you dogs please stop barking! It's just a squirrel!" Then I think to myself, Maybe it isn't just a squirrel. Maybe there's a prowler. Then I think, Do people still say prowler? Is burglar a better term? But if they're not trying to break in, then they can't really be a burglar. How about stalker? No, that would indicate that someone was keeping tabs of me for some period of time.

A wanderer? Oh, that's a good song! He's a wanderer, yes a wanderer, he roams around and round and round...Or is it, they call ME the wanderer? I better look up the lyrics on Google. I was wrong the first time. It is They call me the wanderer...

 

BARK! BARK! BARK!

 

I go into the family room and sure enough, the dogs are barking at a squirrel but it's not a brown squirrel like we usually have around here, it's a black squirrel. I remember seeing black squirrels down in Kent but I've never seen one around here. I think I'll go Google black squirrels.

 

And so it goes...

 

I don't want to go on any more medication than I'm already taking so I looked into some natural remedies for ADD in adults and I found this.

 

 

It touts itself as being "a 100% natural supplement suitable for children and adults which promotes focus, concentration, memory and stable mood. The recently enhanced formula is great tasting  (UM, no it's not) and comes in a dropper bottle, making dispensing easy and accurate. This remedy is formulated to the highest therapeutic standards and manufactured under strict pharmaceutical conditions, using ingredients specially chosen for their safety and effectiveness."

I figured for twenty bucks, I could give it a shot. So far, I'm not seeing much change but I've only recently been able to see the proper dosage with my new reading glasses so I'll let you know how I do.