Adult ADD

While visiting Patrick's sister in Houston for Thanksgiving I read an article about adult ADD (attention deficit disorder) in Vogue magazine. I can't remember all the symptoms they listed because I was half reading and half texting and half thinking. But I have some of them.

Things like being forgetful. Ex: I left Santa Fe with our car loaded down with stuff and dogs. Twenty miles down the highway, I realized our three bikes were still in the entry way of our rental house and added an hour to my morning.

Another symptom is piles. People with ADD start projects and never bring them to completion. They leave piles of materials all over the house. Ex: Sitting on the couch at our place in Austin I see the book I'm reading splayed face down on the coffee table- didn't take the time to bookmark it because I was going to pick it back up. I see my yoga towel and sweatshirt on the kitchen counter- needs to be dried out. The pieces for my homemade Christmas gifts are all over the dining table. The mail my sister forwarded from the PO box in Portland lays on the kitchen stand, spread out, partly sorted and opened. I often find I interrupt my actions and verbally walk myself through finishing a task I've started. My sister has said this about my behavior. "It's like you forget the end of your sentences. A task to me, is like a sentence. You open the cupboard, take out the box of crackers, get some, close the box, put it back in the cupboard, and close the cupboard. In your case, you leave off the period." It's true. After getting coffee, cereal, morning stuff, etc., I returned one morning to the kitchen to discover a scene from a ghost movie. Every door, drawer and cupboard was wide open. Kinda creepy to haunt yourself.

The article also said something about having to read and reread text to comprehend it. Ex: It has taken me six weeks to get to page 11 of I am an Emotional Creature by Eve Ensler and eight days to finish the almost 400 page Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (so good). I am reading 2 more books at the same time- does that say something about my attention?

People with adult ADD get really excited about things and have long, seemingly unreasonable list of goals. Check. They get emotional quickly. Yup. They're more likely to have addictive behavior. That's me- addicted to busy. I had Patrick read the article to tell me if he thought I was ADD. He said no. He thinks everyone has a little of it. My mom dismissed my self diagnosis and said we're living in a culture of doing, doing, go, go, task lists and moving forward. I was disappointed they didn't think I had a disorder. It would have given me an out for all my faults.

The reason my blog readers need to know I may have adult ADD, is because I am shifting my focus for twenty days. I never finished my Denver countdown and told you nothing about Santa Fe or Houston. (those topics are still on my seemingly unreasonable list of goals.) Now that we're in Austin, I plan to describe my yoga practice for twenty consecutive days. That means I will do yoga for twenty consecutive days. Which takes focus and attention.

I've joined a studio, called Yoga Vida. Now we can put their sticker on our cargo box. They practice heated, power vinyasa flow. That's my favorite kind. Along with improving flexibility, power yoga gets your heart rate up and works your core. I will do my best to include details in my short posts that make it interesting for yogis and non-yogis alike. And, even with a good reason for not completing this task (my self diagnosed ADD) I WILL follow through!