A.D.D. and A.D.H.D.

Several years ago I was running a small bookstore and did a lot of special orders for people. I was asked to order a book called Driven to Distraction and as was my habit when confronted with a book I hadn't seen before I gave it a quick scan. As I leafed through the first few pages I read some things that made me say "Oh oh, I need to read this one". I had heard of A.D.D. and A.D.H.D., but knew almost nothing about it. Suddenly here was a book describing what I'd been dealing with my whole life. Here are 20 symptoms they list that are often evident in a person with ADD or ADHD. They are:

1. A sense of underachievement, of not meeting one's goals (regardless of how much one has accomplished).
2. Difficulty getting organized.
3. Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started.
4. Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow-through.
5. Tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timeing or appropriateness of the remark.
6. An ongoing search for high stimulation.
7. A tendency to be easily bored.
8. Easy distractibility, trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune out or drift away in the middle of a page or a conversation, often coupled with an ability to focus at times.
9. Often creative, intuitive, highly intelligent.
10. Trouble going through established channels, following proper procedure.
11. Impatient; low tolerance for frustration.
12. Impulsive, either verbally or in action, as in impulsive spending of money, changing plans, enacting new schemes or career plans, and the like.
13. Tendency to worry needlessly, endlessly; tendency to scan the horizon looking for something to worry about. alternating with inattention to, or disregard for, actual dangers.
14. Sense of impending doom, insecurity, alternating with high risk-taking.
15. Depression, especially when disengaged from a project.
16. Restlessness.
17. Tendency toward addictive behavior.
18. Chronic problems with self-esteem.
19. Inaccurate self-observation.
20. Family history of ADD or manic-depressive illness, depression, substance abuse or other disorders of impulse control or mood.