A Beautiful (but Disorganized) Mind

Hmm. . . . I started this as a post about my closet and how order can help me choose clothes in the morning, but it went in a somewhat deeper direction and I went with it. Enjoy.

One of the speakers* at the ADHD conference I went to last week said, "It's time for us to stop apologizing about medication." Now he happened to be speaking as a doctor who prescribes it, but I think the same is true for those of us who take medication. I gulp down my thyroid medicine for hypothryroidism and take my Enbrel shots for RA with absolutely no shame because I have measurable conditions in my body, and treating them allows me to function normally. So why shouldn't I take Wellbutrin for Depression and Adderall for ADHD with the same attitude?

Well-meaning Christian people talk about "spanking deficit disorder" or "Jesus, not Prozac". Sorry, I have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and rely on him daily. I believe in the healing power of God, but when I go eat lunch with my mom today I will not tell her, "Jesus, not insulin" (She is not even obese, so lets not go blaming the consequences of mom's actions either, O.K.?).  I'm not angry at the people who say things like that, and I have even said them myself. I just think we really need to not be flippant when the well-being of so many people hang in the balance.

Is it really too much of a stretch to think that when Adam and Eve sinned and the world became broken, our brains became broken and fallen too, not just our bodies? The same forces of decay, brokenness and sorrow that leave creation moaning for Christ's return are at work in our very brain chemicals and synapses. So, yes, I will pray earnestly for healing, but I will also give thanks for the eager minds of physicians, researchers and psychologists and the way God instilled them with the drive to try and understand the mind. I will thank him for people with the desire to help those suffering with conditions no one talks about. And I will stop hiding and apologizing because I know I'm not alone.


*The speaker--John I. Bailey, Jr. from The Center for Attention & Learning in Mobile, AL



Now back to our regularly scheduled musings about clothing and appearance.

What Should I Wear to a Conference, Day 2 & 3

This is what I wore to the Symposium on Saturday. Since it was the weekend, I chose jeans and the sneakers are because I got tired of my feet protesting when I went out to walk during breaks. The mix of sitting for long periods and periodic jumping up for walks was really irritating to my feet somehow.

I wonder sometimes if people think I'm faking when limp out and stroll smoothly back in. It's an opportunity to educate about Rheumatoid arthritis, right? But not entirely fun for me. I believe it's the plantar fasciitis that makes my feet act a fool after sitting a long time.

An Exercise in Frustration
After hearing Dr. Ratey speak about exercise, I'm ready to storm my local school superintendent's office with research to show how STUPID it is that my kids have PE only certain 9 weeks as an elective when I had it daily 1-12th grade. I really think daily PE and ballet is how I got through childhood so well. Now I'm in the curious position of being a big advocate of exercise, but being the voice of reason as an arthritis sufferer. I simply can't "just do it" and push myself till it hurts. From experience I can say that if I don't really guard my joints, I have to stop exercising for a while to heal up. So for me, moderation is key. Even my dear husband who is super-understanding about my arthritis recently asked me why I don't add jogging to my exercise routine. Excuse me, shall I carry you to the Rheumatologist's office and show you my foot x-rays? I take it as a complement because hubby who believes I can do anything doesn't see my limitations, and he honestly just forgot.

There are still lots of people out there who think you're just lazy if you don't push yourself with super intense workouts. So let me be the voice of reason that says get out there, move your body the best you can and find things you enjoy. Swimming and kayaking seem ideal for me, but my co-worker thinks paddling all day would be torture. Yet she would do boot camp type stuff at a gym. Who is right? Both of us are! O.K. Now stepping off my soapbox. Besides, Kelly at RA Warrior says it so much better than I do. Worth a looksee!

What Should I Wear. . . to A Conference?

Well, considering I saw people in everything from suits to jeans, apparently anything. I felt under-dressed at the conference I attended this Summer in Montgomery, AL. Yes, I felt under-dressed in Alabama. Get over it. We have stuff like dentists and universities, honest we do. Actually, I think it's because my mom was there and this time I was alone, but we are so not going off into that. It's also entirely possible that I'm much more confident in how to dress myself now. So we'll just go with that.

Yes, the ADHD conference was totally worth sitting still for 3 days. And yes, I still think Dr. Barkley really "gets" ADHD like so many experts do not. Well, I did wander a little around the conference center but the schedule was so jam-packed I'm going to have to visit Tuscaloosa again to really get reacquainted with my old home town. After graduate school in '91, I left and haven't really been back.

Smells right to me . . .
In case you wondered if the whole smell as the key to memory thing is true . . . I have proof. Taco Casa smells just like it did the last time I set foot in one about 20 yrs ago. No, it is NOT a generic Mexican restaurant smell; it's a Taco Casa smell, trust me. And the fact that there was a Galaga video game in the corner did not help my sense of reality. For a second I thought it was 1986. The fact that I could look out the window and, thanks to the tornado, there was nothing between me and DCH Medical Center was something of a reality check. But this is a style blog, not a Catherine goes down memory lane blog. So . . .

Comfy pants, comfy shoes, comfy, comfy, comfy. Did I mention comfy? That is the key for sitting on your butt for hours on end. The most fascinating speaker can't compete with pinchy shoes, tight collar or a tag rubbing your neck. I believe I mentioned I have clothing sensitivity issues? Well, all this probably applies to all conference goers, not just weirdos like me. I was experiencing serious butt fatigue here and two days to go.

Organized Medicine Cabinet

Before and after photos of the medicine cabinet. This thing was stressing me out every time I opened the door. It was super-deep cavernous, narrow place. Very difficult to navigate. Nobody could find anything in there but me which meant "Mom, where are the bandaids?" People rifling through and tossing stuff around had it looking like this:
Before

                                       
                                                                                 After

Now each family member has a basket for their prescriptions and supplements they take. Then there's a basket for cough/cold remedies, a basket for OTC pain medicine, one for ointments/topical meds and one in the back for my kids' asthma medicine and home nebulizer which, fortunately, we rarely use. Best of all, we can see all the categories at a glance and instantly grab what we need.

I'm so proud! Becoming an organized person at 44 feels amazing. O.K. So I had to start taking an ADHD medication to get this far, but I'm also learning some new skills. It takes all these resources to address the disorganization but I think it's worth it.

Organizing is fun?

 

I'm mighty proud of this drawer. Of course the wood glue shows in the flash photo. If my husband had done it, there would be no visible wood glue and it would be done correctly. But where's the fun in that? Me, I just grabbed some balsa wood, glue and an exact-o knife. Presto!

I'm on an organizational kick big time. Since I started taking medication for ADHD about 8 months ago, my organizational abilities suddenly kicked in. I'm on a mission to re-do all the badly planned storage in our house and, believe it or not, I'm kind of having fun. I just wish I could take a week off from work and do it all at once, but that's not going to happen.

Energy to complete the task is another big thing. For whatever reason, things that used to seem insurmountable don't any more. It's not perfect and medication seems to be helping way more at home than at work, but it is helping.

And here is my nemisis--a medicine cabinet so deep we can't tell what lurks at the back. Every single member of the family takes supplies in and out of this space too. All of this is a recipe for total chaos. We eventually want to install those sliding drawer things, but I really need to tame this beast now. Stay tuned for after photos hopefully coming soon.

Considering my husband almost didn't marry me based on how my apartment looked when we were dating . . . I've come a tremendously long way. Of course my twins were 3 at the time. Feel free to address comment to him about it. Ha ha.  He had his reasons which  I really can't go into. And he is amazingly understanding now that he knows my brain just doesn't work to organize automatically the way his does. Some people are born organizers and some have to learn.

Tactile Defensiveness and Clothing Sensitivity

Last night I spoke to a group of foster parents about parenting and ADHD.  Somehow I forgot to even mention clothing sensitivity. How could I forget that when both my son and I have that? I think the fancy smancy term for it is "tactile defensiveness" but I just call it "I'm not wearing THAT!"

This would include anything stiff, itchy, tight anywhere on the body, anything with tags, a tight neck, etc. No turtlenecks, no pencil skirts for more than an hour or so, high heels, shirts that button up, structured jackets that don't allow totally free arm and shoulder movement, spanx, thongs, anything that squeezes anywhere, etc., etc. In short, anything remotely fashionable. Or at least that's what I used to believe. After becoming determined to dress myself more attractively, I began to search out comfortable things that still look nice. So while I'm still cutting tags out of my clothes and thanking whoever decided boys tees should have no tag . . . I'm really trying to be more mindful of fit and not just comfort. 

Here's an example of how comfort can either look sloppy or stylish. No, I did not lose 20 lbs. between the 1st and 2nd picture. In fact, they were taken the same day. The 1st is my uniform for Mom cleaning and running errands on a Saturday. The 2nd isn't perfect but it is a step up. Here I have a very soft shirt as the first layer with a soft cardigan over it. I think the jeans are still slightly "mom jeanish" but all my dark wash jeans have disappeared.