People Sure Are Forgetful & Meaning Flowing Retroactively & a PWIP Tattoo

I was just perusing the TotallyADD.com forums (I get notifications of new posting via my Google Reader, so I'm just seeing the latest... I'm not just sitting around wasting time, honestly!), and came across this thread about being diagnosed in one's adult life with ADHD.

I chimed in with the following:

"I've just turned 40, and was just diagnosed myself. After a few weeks on Strattera, I actually caught myself thinking yesterday "Boy, that person sure is forgetful...". Oh the delicious irony of it all.

Irvin Yalom wrote in "Love's Executioner" about the idea of 'meaning flowing retroactively', in explaining why he enjoys working with adults and the elderly and helping them reach a new meaning in their lives - in part because he believes that it is never too late to reach a new understanding of one's life. In reaching a new understanding, the new meaning can act as a new lens or 'organizing process' to someone's past, flowing back in time and re-organizing or re-interpreting the past in a more fair and dispassionate way.

This is certainly the case for me. I consider that my diagnosis has provided me with a clarifying narrative, one that helps explain all those problems and struggles and shame filled moments and difficulties throughout my life. It in some ways acts as a salve on the pain.

I was always a late bloomer, but better now than never!

Mungo"

Today I took my Strattera in the morning, after the toddler's breakfast. I am feeling a bit dizzy, like I have spun around a few too many times on my chair, but I am not feeling messed up. That is, I feel the somatic symptoms of dizziness, but not cognitive effects of wooziness. This is a big deal, I think my body is beginning to adjust to this dosage. Excellent.

Yesterday I felt jubilant with my newly trademarked acronyms PWOP and PWIP. I have the week off on vacation (except for Friday) and was doing some house chores. One of them involved lifting a 200 lb + treadmill up the basement stairs. I had to remove the banister to do this. I couldn't drag it, so I had to use my shoulder muscles and arms to literally hoist the beast up the stairs. It was hard work. Not so much because of the weight (I am as strong as an ox) but because the awkward angles I had to negotiate, and the acrobatic positions I had to place myself in to fight gravity to wrestle the accursed mass up the stairs.

I had a few other things to complete on my 'to-do list'. From time to time during the afternoon, I would also start tidying other things, and one thing would seem to lead to another. But very quickly, my brain reminded me of the critical difference between being Productive WithOut Priority (PWOP), which this 'other things' stuff clearly was becoming, and being Productive WIth Priority (PWIP) - so I'd get back on track quickly. Perhaps I should tattoo 'PWIP' on my arm. Or even on my knuckles. That would be cool. Or on my neck. That would look wicked.

Today we're off to see a movie and have a yogurt drink or icy drink somewhere, to combat this oppressive humidity and heat. I prefer it when it rains or when it is cool.

Cheers,

Mungo

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