ADHD Overwhelm: How Many Balls Are You Juggling?
January 21, 2009 
1 Comment
Before leaving the office last night, I took a few minutes to just “shoot the breeze” with Dr. Cerulli. Our schedules very rarely overlap, and it’s always nice to catch up and talk about things unrelated to ADHD.
Anyway, we were talking about how things are going and what both of us are juggling at a given time. I made a comment that right now, I am juggling the following roles:
- Full Time Stay-At-Home Dad
- Part Time Advocate and Coach
- Full Time (And A Half) Entrepreneur
- Full Time Husband
- Full Time Me (Me Time)
For anyone keeping track, that’s a lot of balls in the air. Now, please don’t confuse this with my looking for sympathy or pity. I chose these roles, and I am very aware of the commitment and sacrifice that go with each. But it was talking about these all at once that made me realize something very important.
How Many Roles Are You Trying To Juggle?
One of things I focus in on with my clients is trying to evaluate how many different directions or demands are pulling at us for attention… How many different roles are they (my clients) trying to juggle? And how effective can they be in all of them?
Most talk about ADHD focuses on the individual and the symptoms, but those of you who know me understand that ADHD is just a piece of who the person is. On top of the challenges faced from ADHD symptoms, we all must balance multiple roles and competing demands for our time and attention.
Attention!!!
Let’s look beyond ADHD symptoms for a moment, and understand that we live a messed up, crazy world that typically places unrealistic demands on our time, energy, patience, and availability.
It’s reality… So let it sink in for a minute. Whether or not someone has ADHD today…attention is HUGE!!! Attention is everything, and everyone wants a piece of it.
So what does this have to do with ADHD and Overwhelm?
I want you to consider that just maybe…you have every reason to be overwhelmed today! And it’s okay!
The challenge – the process – what life is all about… Figuring out how to prioritize, how to know what you should pay attention to, and when you really are overwhelmed because you should be.
I invite you to take a moment today to consider the
multiple roles you juggle in your life!
And go ahead and leave them in the comments!
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It was interesting reading your comments on demands on out ‘attention’. I also have many demands on my time and it is difficult at times to balance the load. My situation is similar to yours but it includes looking for a position to augment my financial situation.
It is the ‘me’ that seems to sufer must of the time in my situation because it is the path of less resistance. I wonder how many other people do the same.
One of my goals for this first couple of months of 2009 is to find what I can do to satisfy the ‘me’ so that I can give more attention to all the other demands on my time. In many situations it is not so much the demand but how we manage the tasks in our minds to ensure that they do not become a problem.
I will let you know when I find a path or approach that helps with the prioritization of the demands.
ps My son and I have mild cases of ADHD and we are both taking concerta. He is in the lowest dosage and we are hoping to have him off the medication within the next 2-4 months.