Adult ADD - Wondering If That's Your Problem?

So, you've been going through life feeling a bit like an underachiever. Even if you are successful, you may feel as if there's something holding you back, something that you just can't get around to take things to the next level. That's one facet of attention deficit disorder (ADD). Here are some other symptoms. If they seem familiar, you may have adult ADD:

• Trouble getting organized: People with attention deficit tend to live in a cluttered environment, they miss appointments, or they can't seem to pay their bills on time. There's a lack of structure in their lives.
• Chronic procrastination: Do you have trouble getting started with things, especially if it's something that you find boring to do, like washing dishes or mowing the lawn?
• Trouble following through: Are you great at starting projects, but have a difficult time finishing them?
• Blurting things out without thinking first: This is a common characteristic of people with attention deficit. It's not in their nature to stop and think about the impact of what they have to say first.
• Searching for high stimulation: Because people with ADD are easily bored and because they can't tolerate boredom for very long, they're always looking for the next exciting thing.
• Inability to focus unless the topic is of particular interest: ADD people can zone out during a conversation or their mind may drift away while trying to read. However, when the topic is to their liking, they may hyperfocus to the exclusion of all else, including eating and sleeping.
• Are you creative, highly intelligent, and very intuitive?
• Have issues with following proper procedures or rules: People with attention deficit have trouble waiting in line, and don't often read directions, for example.
• Impatience: Attention deficit means that you have a very low tolerance for frustration.
• Often impulsive: You may be impulsive with spending money, with changing plans, or making other decisions.
• Worry: Many with attention deficit worry, even when they have nothing to worry about.
• Insecurity: No matter how secure the person's life may be, they never truly feel secure.
• Mood swings: People with attention deficit can go from happy to sad and back to happy again all within a few hours time. This is also true of people who have bi-polar disorder, but with ADD the moods aren't as extreme.
• Restlessness and hyperactivity: When this component is present, the person is considered to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
• Addictive Behavior: People with ADD sometimes have issues with dependency on drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, or other harmful or negative behaviors.
• Low self-esteem: Probably because people with attention deficit have been misunderstood for so long, adults who still have the symptoms are carrying scars from childhood when their behaviors and actions were thought to be because they were just "bad" kids. This low self-esteem can carry over into adulthood.
• Inability to evaluate their own behaviors: Do you put the blinders on when it comes to evaluating your own life and how you got where you are today? Do you tend to shut others out who try to help you?
• A family history of attention deficit: If you have ADD, chances are that your mother or father or grandparents had ADD, too. It's a genetic disorder that is passed down through the generations.

Of course, if you were diagnosed ADD as a child, there's a good chance that you still have its symptoms and have just learned to control some of them. Yet, more than half of people with childhood attention deficit still have ADD as adults.

If you suspect that you may have attention deficit, take a simple ADD test, and if it comes out positive, then get a proper diagnosis so that you can get some help with the symptoms that are disrupting your life. No one has to suffer. You just need to take action. Remember, you're really smart and creative. Regulate the symptoms that are giving you trouble and shine as the person you were meant to be.