ADHD – Confessions Of A Neurodivergent Sixty-Year-Old
- Brainz Magazine
- Feb 20, 2024
- 4 min read
Written by: Dani Green, Senior Level Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It is 2023, the day before Christmas break. In a high school Learning Strategies class, the empathetic teacher played a video from YouTube called How to ADHD by Jessica McCabe. The first part of the video spoke about a ‘wall of awful.’ I sat in my chair, stunned that someone could understand how I felt about everything. I must overcome an emotional roadblock to accomplish anything at all. I have built a ‘wall of awful’ because of my struggle and what I feel might be a possible failure, even though I am very accomplished.
Do I have ADHD?
My lovely 30-year-old daughter was diagnosed with ADHD in her senior year of college. The school counselor shared the results and wondered out loud how she was getting straight A's. She did not get ADHD from her father. If it is genetic, she got it from me.
My symptoms. Can you relate?
I must always have more going on than I can manage, or I get terribly bored. I am a wedding and funeral officiant, hypnotherapist, paraeducator, author, volunteer, wife, mother and grandmother.
I am good at everything except for the wife ‘role’. Whoops!
I am very emotionally independent. I connect lovingly with people but can walk away happy to return to my survival bubble.
I am often a few minutes late because I try to finish more than I have time to do.
I love to talk. Writing is the most challenging task for me.
If I go to a social event, I am there, connecting with as many people as possible, but I would rather stay home.
I can putter around quite happily for an entire day, getting little seemingly meaningless but meaningful-to-me things done.
I must have all my work visible, or I'm afraid I will forget to do it.
I am easily distracted and fall prey to stress-relieving activities like scrolling online. To my credit, I took solitaire off my computer and Facebook and Instagram off my phone to help with this problem.
I learned six different hypnosis strategies because to do only one would be so boring.
I listen to a book if I do something boring like cooking or driving.
I would love to learn something daily that changes my worldview about everything.
I always have global ideas, and it is sometimes hard to return to reality.
I make a list of things to do to get everything out of my head, keep related items in a stack under my to-do list, and then create a must-do list with the top three things highlighted that I must do today. I check off and cross off what I finish to celebrate!
I am working all the time, trying to get things done. For me, work is play, and play is work. I am super bad at relaxing,
Reading a book is so slow and tedious! I buy my author friends’ books because I am so proud of them for finishing something. I have the spirit of all of their hard work with me to inspire me.
I keep my word unless it is impossible for me to do so.
I always get everything done that I promise others I would do.
I love to take notes!
I am gullible and very open-minded. (I really have to stop buying health products from Facebook.)
I have listened to over 10,000 hours of books this year and love sharing what I have learned. I sometimes ’info dump’ because I also like to hear myself talk!
If I say something that makes sense, I sometimes repeat myself because I am so happy my thoughts landed.
If it isn’t super convenient, I will not maintain it.
I do the essential part of a chore and leave the rest of it until I am emotionally ready to tackle it again.
I am super organized.
I am very determined to live as healthy as I can.
I only like to be outside if the weather is nice.
I do what is doable. I do not challenge myself in any way that would cause stress.
If I fail at something, I do not try again.
I mostly fail at cooking. As my husband would say, my favorite thing to make is reservations!
I will never, ever do a cold-water plunge. Never. I cannot manage the stress.
I am never lonely.
I love to be alone.
I can always find something to do.
Vacations are hard. Why would I want to leave my safe bubble?
If I want to see the world, I am okay to find photos on the internet.
One benefit of being with people is learning from each other.
I am happy for people when they die. A lifetime is such an accomplishment!
Well, that’s some of how I roll. I am proud of my achievements since everything is emotionally hard for me to accomplish! I am well-liked and successful in my own little world, and someday, I will emerge from my safe bubble and change the world, just as I dream of doing!
If you can relate, let’s chat
As a hypnotherapist, Dani offers a free 20-minute The Emotion Code session, which helps energetically remove an inherited or current emotion.
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Dani Green, Senior Level Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dani Green is a certified hypnotherapist, speaker, author and spiritual activist. Dani’s core focus and passion is to guide clients to rewrite the past, present, and future Story they tell themselves at the subconscious level and to discover their own Inner Mantras.
Dani has a 12-session course called The Soul Power Experience. The courses, Be Smoke Free and One & D.O.N.E. Weight Release are each six sessions. Dani also offers Intuitive sessions.
Dani opened her hypnotherapy practice in 2015 and uses client-centered hypnotherapy, as well as The Emotion Code, PSYCH-K, and RIM.
