REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION from The Jewish Star Times, p. 19

I swear it really happened this way. Not a day goes by that my husband doesn’t “lose” his glasses, his keys, his wallet, and often his shoes. (How you even manage to lose shoes, I don’t know.) He’s got ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) but that’s no excuse. He gets the whole family in an uproar: “I’m late! I’ll miss [you fill in the blank-carpool, the plane, the appointment, etc.]. Where are my [choose from the following: glasses, keys, shoes, socks, important papers]?” Notice that the papers he’s missing are never ordinary papers like you or I would have. Oh, nooo. They’re always “important” papers. And he’s missing them just when he’s late. (Of course.) And, to make matters worse, it is our fault. His family, whom he loves, is at fault because we hid/moved them. Oh, even if he knows we were not home to do that terrible deed, we know he has a “problem” so we should be looking after his belongings so he doesn’t lose them. That’s pretty clever, eh?

So anyway, on one particular day when hysteria had reached unparalleled heights, his keys were really lost. I mean lost. And I, his loving wife, had to sacrifice my own set of keys with the lanyard my son made and the ivory piece carved in the shape of Africa knowing full well that I might never see them again. Reluctantly, I handed my precious set over because he really, really did need to get to work. And, as he started the car, there was a distinctly peculiar sound. Confused and irritated, he turned off the motor, got out of the car, and lifted up the hood only to discover, sitting daintily on the engine block-his keys.

ADHD Breeds Chaos And Confusion

Needless to say, I was quite happy to get my own set back. It isn’t every day that one of his lost items is so easily found. My sons were on the grass, rolling. That was a novel place, even for him, to lose them. Never, with all this chaos and confusion had he ever done something like that. Not unless you count that time his missing eyeglasses turned up in the freezer. But that story would take too long. You get the idea: chaos and confusion. And that doesn’t include all the other exciting qualitites that go along with adult ADHD: impulsiveness, not thinking things through (also called “thoughtlessness” depending on how kindly disposed–or not–you are that day), and high energy often accompanied by irritability or corny humor (depending on how he is disposed that day).

ADHD People Are Creative And Add Pizzazz To Life

It seems like we’ve been hearing about more and more cases of ADHD these days from children right on up through adults. And there are those who say there is no such thing as ADHD anyway, just that we as a society have simply grown intolerant of differences. But I disagree. Having been married to such a “case” for 24 years, I say it is real. Now, you wise-guy, you’re going to say “she’s the crazy one for putting up with it all these years.” That is one way of looking at it. Here’s another: ADHD people are more creative, often accomplish more than the rest of us because of their energy, definitely add pizazz to otherwise boring existences, and are known to be of above-average intelligence. And hey, I’m not perfect–are you?

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