ADHD And The Masterpiece.
Once a week at work, I do a journaling group. To make things interesting I look up or make up various prompts that can help stimulate the thought process. The prompt today was "What is the one book you wish someone would write. I thought about it for a few moments and suddenly I thought, I've got it! ADHD and The Masterpiece.
Now I know a lot of you who are partnered with someone with ADHD are thinking, "Masterpiece? How about Master Disaster?". Well, yeah that too but here's the thing. We are super creative. We can be so creative, we make a masterpiece out of master disasters. I call it "Inattentive Creativity". The act of developing an epic design due to simply being inattentive.
Look at it this way:
Sometimes the dishes left in the sink are their own Tower of Pisa. Leaning every which way, but somehow we are able to balance another dish on top of the already mountain of dishes. It's kind of like Jenga for dishes. Or who knows. Maybe some artist will visit your house and think they have found the next award winning sculpture.
Not a good enough creative genius for you? Okay, how about this? We can make really fun games out of ordinary items. Say for instance the socks we leave on the floor and never notice to pick up. We could make an awesome maze in the house. We can even use all the project supplies we have sitting around as dead ends.
Not only are we good at games, but we can create new items. For instance, scented candles. I'm not big on too many scented candles, but there are a couple I like. The one I've thought about inventing? The "Left too long in the washer" scent. You know when you do laundry too late at night so that when the laundry is done and you hear the buzzer you think "I'll just put it in the dryer in the morning?". That's actually ADHD speak for I don't need anything from the laundry right now, so I'll probably get it sometime tomorrow" which is really, if you're lucky, in about 3 days. By the time you do get it, you need to not only wash the laundry again but you need to put some bleach in the washer to get rid of that musty, moldy smell. I haven't marketed the candle scent yet as I need to find an investor but for some reason, no one seems interested.
We come up with creative one liners. I was once asked how I could possibly leave all the cabinet doors and drawers in the kitchen open without noticing. Easy the cabinets and drawers are the stars of a new show and it's now opening day!
Perhaps one of our best works of art, is the art of getting out of trouble. If you are going to get in trouble we are certainly the people you want with you. We think fast on our feet and can make an explanation out of thin air. I've surprised myself many a time. I don't lie, I just say something creative. Thankfully people have always told me my charm saves my ass more than anything. Thinking fast on my feet really saved me once when I was doing a theater show. It was a 24 hour film festival and the cast and crew had 24 hours to write, direct and act a play. The writer gave me a monologue and I was terrified I was going to mess it up. I had the most wonderful supportive cast mates and director. I mean this thing was a good paragraph or two and I had approximately 8 hours to learn it. Well after much rehearsal, we went on stage. I waited for my cue and entered. As soon as I got on stage, I got the first sentence out and then every actors nightmare happened. I forgot ALL my lines. Did I mention this was a monologue....meaning, there was no one to jump in and save me. One of my fellow cast members told me earlier on during rehearsals if I forgot my lines to just talk. No one would know the difference. So, quick on my feet, I began to talk. I rambled about everything that I could think of panicking that I was never going to be able to figure this out. If only I could remember the ending line. Holy shit I was scared. Then as suddenly as they left, the words came flowing back. I did the rant, followed through with my scene and when I was finished, the entire audience erupted in the most joyous applause. It is one of the most memorable moments of my life. Sure I know lots of people can process quickly, but those of us with ADHD can produce thoughts at the speed of light and that's what gets me by sometimes.
In all seriousness having ADHD is very challenging for people around us but believe it or not, for us too. We don't want to be disorganized to the point our house become a maze of socks. We don't particularly care for being regarded as lazy either because we're not. We're just missing a wire that connects to that part of our brain. If I could instantly become a more organized less of a last minute person I would most certainly do that. But since that's so difficult for me and I can only try to work on it, what I will do instead is write that book but only in blog form about how in being ADHD we are also a Masterpiece.