Challenging stories

What story have you been telling yourself. Stories about your challenges. What labels or descriptions do you give them. Do you describe them with words of love or words of hate? Do you label them "impairments"? What are the themes and plots of your stories? What is the narrative you tell yourself?

All human beings tell themselves a story about themselves and how the world works. We are the authors of our lives, we get to choose what our stories say. We get to choose the plot, the scenes, and the settings. We get to choose the narration of the story. We might not be able to choose what challenges we face and we may not be able to choose what others say or do to us, but we can choose our lines and our reactions.

All human beings have challenges, talents, strengths, weaknesses, positives and negatives. We all have things we can do well and things we can't do. We come from different cultures and speak different languages. We all have different perspectives, different tapes, and different stories. We also share a lot of our experiences and borrow lines from others' stories. We have things in common as well.

We need to get better at accepting the beauty of our differences and similarities. We need to also realize that people with challenges, like ADD/ADHD, have differences and similarities. We ADDers are different from non-ADDers. We have a different brain wiring, which means we are going to see the world differently than non-ADDers. Being different doesn't mean we are bad. It doesn't mean we are inferior. It doesn't mean we are "impaired". It doesn't necessarily mean that we are less able than others. It does mean we need to learn to do things a different way than others. It does mean we are going to think differently and be creative in ways others are not. It means we are a minority and will have to fight to be accepted as we are. Accepted as a people group.

The Brilliant Gifts of Hyper Focus and Positivity

Here's a blog post by Bryan Hutchinson about hyperfocus and positivity. I recommend reading it.

The Brilliant Gifts of Hyper Focus and Positivity

My ADD/ADHD Gurus

This is a list of ADD/ADHD people, who've made a difference in my life.

• Joe Schlesinger my coach
• Dr Stan Yantis my psychiatrist
• Bryan Hutchinson my friend and founder of ADDer World, both the social network and the blog
• John McCurry my friend, member of the church I frequently attend
• David Giwerc my friend and founder of ADDCA
• Terry Matlen my friend, author, co-founder of Women With ADHD ADD, founder of Moms with ADD/ADHD and ADD Consults.

A list of people, who may or may not have ADD/ADHD themselves, but have been supportive of me.

• Shelley Kesselman My cousin
• Dr. Charles Parker my friend, author of Medication Rules of ADHD Meds, CorePsych Blog
• Prince Kakungulu Ggobango Ismael my boyfriend from Uganda
• Charlotte Gogstetter my mom.

I want to thank all of these poeple, who have made a difference in my life, in one way or another. The two things all these people have in common are (1) believing in me and (2) encouraging me.

Who in your life would you like to thank for being there for you? Take time to go back and thank them. Let them know you appreciate what they have done for you. In this way you are encouraging them too. We all need encouragement, whether we have ADD/ADHD or not.