TotallyADD question posed and my answer

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Do you become furious at people who have no idea, know zero information, are clueless about the facts and yet have a very strong opinion about ADHD? Do you find yourself immediately going into the attack mode, wanting to set them straight? Or at least stuff their mouth full with a knotted tea towel?

My answer:
I have a unique angle for dealing with blowhards… First, both parents, my brother, at least one cousin and one aunt on each side of my family and myself all have ADHD. It runs thick in my family, and we all have different abilities, different non-abilities. Mine is primarily a broken circadian clock.. I have no accurate sense of time. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years…what I think was just a few days ago was actually a couple weeks ago. What I thought was just one more hour was actually 4 hours. I have to set reminders to eat lunch and to go home when I’m at work, or I will forget. I am not shy about letting people know that I have ADHD, but I spin it as something I’d never want to give up, ever. It is because I can’t tune out odd noises and notice small movements, I see wildlife that most people would walk by without knowing it was even there. I am able to take awesome photographs because of an eye for the aesthetic that people think is amazing to them, and they ask how I can always get the good shots, how I always seem to catch beautiful photos – It’s because of my ADHD, not being able to tune anything out. If they can appreciate my photography, then they have to accept the reason that I am able to see what I do to photograph it, which is my ADHD.

My appreciation without fear of wild animals is another thing I can point to my ADHD… I go into hyper-focus, where I am so keenly aware of that creature, their actions and reactions to my actions, that I can get closer than most people would dare. 10 yards from a bobcat as it eats? I did it. 15 yards from a Javelina family with babies? I did it. Rescue Rattlesnakes out of people’s yards, then release them back in the wild areas nearby? I volunteer! Impulsive? sometimes, but when it comes to dealing with non-human wildlife, I’m in my element, I am completely focused on that animal, whether it’s a bird, bobcat or rattlesnake. “How do you do it Kat?” My answer, “I am blessed with ADHD!”