It's About Time

Tuesday (June 30, 2015) was one second longer, due to the addition of a "leap second", to synchronize the infinitesimally precise atomic master-clocks to the Earth's anything-but-precise rotation. These leap seconds are added arbitrarily, when the difference in synchronization reaches more than 0.9 seconds. This will be the 26th leap second to be added, since the procedure began in 1972.

Let's think about that, shall we?

This adjustment to the human-imposed arbitrary system of breaking time into ever tinier and more obsessively accurate segments, to ensure that our computers and other machines run in perfect synchronization with our arbitrarily imposed schedule, is necessary because THE EARTH'S ROTATION IS ANYTHING BUT PRECISE, AND FREQUENTLY EXPERIENCES RANDOM WOBBLES DUE TO THE MOON, EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOES, AND STORMS.

Which means that the real problem is that the silly humans are trying to impose their neat & orderly system onto something that has its own system that cannot be made as obsessively neat & orderly as the silly humans want to make it.

No wonder we ADDers have trouble with time! 

To us (and every other living species of plant and animal, except for "civilized" humans), "time" is what we see and experience around us. Not the frequency of the vibrations of microscopic atoms that have to be scattered by a laser beam and counted by a machine that then gives us the "time", accurate to within nanoseconds over a period of 60 million years.

So, don't bitch at me if I'm late for an appointment, okay?

Get Your Story Straight

So many of us hear only part of what's being said, leap to the worst possible conclusion, and have such a strong emotional reaction that we completely miss the rest of the details that would tell us the exact opposite of what we'd concluded.  Especially those of us with ADHD.

I was reminded of this when I attended the ADDA Conference, in Orlando, in 2014.

On the second morning of the conference, the lead TV news story was that a flight was diverted back to the Toronto airport and stormed by a SWAT team, after a passenger made terroristic threats. But the threats had turned out to be false.

My first thought was, “What @#$%*! IDIOT would do that, on a plane???”

My second thought was to go to the online version of the Toronto Star newspaper, to get the details that I knew were missing from the CBS News report.

It turns out that the passenger who’d made the threat was NOT “some @#$%*! idiot”. He was a young man with a long history of depression and other mental issues, which often caused him to lose his temper and make threats, especially when he felt he’d been wronged. 

He’d stopped taking his meds, and his parents had been trying desperately to get him into a mental health program, because they knew something terrible would happen to him if they didn’t. In the past 2 years, they’d contacted emergency services at least 30 times, but the answer was always the same.

Under Ontario, Canada law, anyone over 15 is responsible for their OWN medical treatment. Nobody can force them into treatment unless they commit some criminal act, or have a major crisis. So, the parents couldn’t get any help for their son.

He was 25.

And of Middle-Eastern descent, which, of course, made him appear to be even more of a threat. He and his girlfriend were en route to a romantic vacation together, and he’d found out that Duty Free cigarettes cost less on the plane than he’d paid for them at the airport.

This triggered his outburst, which diverted the flight, which was escorted back by U.S. military jets, then stormed on the tarmac by a SWAT team, who took him into custody, where his parents were FINALLY able to get him the psychiatric assessment and care that he needs.

In the days that followed that initial report, I didn’t see any follow-up stories on the TV news in Florida. Nothing to explain that it wasn’t a case of someone being stupid or drunk, but of a very ill person who couldn’t get the help he needed, despite his parents efforts, until something terrible happened.

So, most people will still believe that it was just a case of “some @#$%*! idiot” doing something stupid on a plane.

It's a Gift

One of the biggest debates about ADHD is, “Is it a gift?”.

There are those who say, “It makes me so creative and enthusiastic and empathic that I wouldn’t change it for the world!”

There are others who insist, “It’s a curse!  I can’t keep a job; I’m on my third divorce, my fifth bankruptcy; I’m an alcoholic, and my kids hate me.”

So, is ADHD a gift or a curse?

I say, “Yes.”

You see, ADHD is a paradox of incredible strengths in some situations, and monumental weaknesses in others.

I love to play with words, and I discovered something very interesting:  The word “gift” is also a paradox.

In English, a “gift” is something wonderful.  It’s a present, a surprise, a talent, a bonus.  Something that makes life better.  And, in some situations, that’s what ADHD is.  

In an emergency, we’re usually the ones with the laser-focus to spot what’s wrong, and the quicksilver brain to almost instinctively know exactly what to do and the impulsivity to spring into action without hesitation.  In the world of entertainment, having ADHD is almost a pre-requisite.  There’s an electricity in the air when we’re around.  

In those situations, ADHD is absolutely a wonderful “gift”.

But…

In German, “gift” means “poison”, a destroyer of life.  

And “poison” is exactly what ADHD will do to your life in the wrong situation.   

You’re stuck, anxious, miserable; you can’t think straight (or worse, your mind is running madly off in all directions, while you’re trying to do something important but deadly dull, like your taxes).  You keep screwing up, and others keep telling you you’re lazy or stupid or impossible to work with, and even when (by some miracle) you actually manage to do something well, you’re convinced that it was just a fluke, and any minute, someone will figure that out and expose you for the fraud you know you are.   

People with ADHD have higher rates of obesity, Type-2 diabetes, dental problems, alcoholism, addiction, divorce, bankruptcy, job loss, sleep disorders, convictions, and even premature death (whether by illness, accident, or suicide). 

You're damn right that ADHD can be a “poison”!  Or, in German, a “gift”.

Same word, but two completely opposite meanings.  It all depends on the situation.

Just like ADHD.

So, yes, I’d say that ADHD is a “gift”.  But whether I’m saying that word in German or English, depends on when I say it.