Statement: My intent in this newsletter is to express as quickly as possible my own beliefs and opinions on matters. I have no problems with people who disagree with my opinion and have even been swayed to rethink my position from time to time.
We are still taking book orders for my new book "ADHD and The Criminal Justice System" and you can get my author's discount from the AMAZON.COM price...
Patrick Hurley was recently appointed to the Professional Advisory Board of the Attention Deficit Disorder Association. For more information you can go to www.add.org
Patrick also spoke on October 15, 2007 at the National Conference on Correctional Health Care
in Nashville, TN on his book. The Conference is sponsored by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC), which has an impressive membership.
If you need a good planner, you might want to check out the Delta Planner
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It's not so much how busy you are, but why you are busy. The bee is praised; the mosquito is swatted.
-Marie O'Conner
I heard this quote last week, and I thought it was very descriptive, and very applicable for those of us with ADHD. I am sure you can relate to being in the position of being a bee, and getting things accomplished with an occasional annoyance to someone else, but in the long run receiving praise.
And then there are those times where it seems that almost everything we do, or say, seems to annoy others, and we are constantly getting swatted.
We would all like to have most of our days be like bees, where we accomplish much, and get the things we need to do accomplished. Like the bee pollinating a flower, we want to be productive. It seems that having these days are both difficult to attain, and seem to be far too infrequent, even though, after we have had one, we have some good feelings about ourselves. Why then can't we recreate these days at will. I am afraid I don't have the answer. If you have a hypothesis on this, I would love to hear from you.
On the other hand, our days of being the annoying, seemingly worthless mosquito seem to be the norm for a lot of us, and for some others, the only kind of day they can ever seem to have. We seem to annoy everyone we come in contact with, and probably even worse, we seem to annoy ourselves. As you know, mosquitos make an incredibly loud noise for such a small insect. This is like the noise in our heads that we try so hard to suppress. We cant shut it out. We go around bothering others, and sometimes seem to be sucking blood out of those we care about, like spouses, friends and co-workers without seeming to give much back.
We know we are capable of being bees and being productive, but cannot seem to just conjure up these productive days at will. If we could only be like bees, and spread pollen to other plants and help with the creation of beautiful flowers and other plants, and have something to show for our days work. Our innate intelligence and God given gifts of being creative or talented in a particular area, which seems to be a common element for all those I know with ADHD, cannot seem to always be harnessed at the correct times.
I am not sure what purpose or use there is in the existence of a mosquito, I know of nothing. But their annoying and blood sucking ways, and spreading of illness and disease may have an unknown constructive purpose in life. All I know is that no one likes them, and they do not seem to produce much but misery and suffering.
Another common problem for us is when we convince ourselves that we are busy, when a careful examination of our day would probably reveal that we actually wasted a lot of time. This activity, which is very common, usually leads us to self criticism and lower self esteem. Hopefully, we can have fewer days where we can relate to the mosquito, and more that we can relate to the bee.
Thanks and talk to you next month.
Patrick Hurley
addcorridorcoach@aol.com
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