Why Everything ADHD?

Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder.  A long name and yet not long enough.  Not enough to describe everything that happens in the brain of someone with this diagnosis, and not enough to describe what to do with it, either.

I first started learning about ADHD when I was in medical school, and back then, it was simplistic.  Checklists, meds, on to the next disease.

Then I married a guy with ADHD.  And it was an inconvenience, one that we learned to laugh about, most days, when I wasn't totally frustrated about the messes he never noticed.

Then our daughter was born, and she was brilliant, but she was a handful.  She learned to stand up when she was 6 months old and from then on, it was go go go.  Mostly climbing, in fact.  She would focus on things for a long time.  She was intensely emotional.  And she could never sit still.  And that was when I learned that ADHD was a gift, but also a burden to be labored under.  I wondered about meds.  Then I wondered about other therapies.  I read a lot of books about parenting.  I pestered our pediatrician.  And I prayed that I would do things right, for her sake.

I've also published a number of articles on ADHD for Yahoo! Voices.

So I come at this from a lot of different perspectives, hence "Everything".  Hopefully, you'll laugh and cry and think hard with me.