by Christina Peavler

Created on: January 19, 2009   Last Updated: January 28, 2009

AM I A SUCCESSFUL COLLEGE GRADUATE, A TOTAL SPACE CADET, OR BOTH?

I have attention deficit disorder. I have probably had it all of my life but was only diagnosed as an adult. I am able to function very well at work because I have installed serious coping mechanisms that I never deviate from.

This is not the case at home. At home I can be very unorganized and forgetful and I always lose things.

My fourteen year old daughter is a smart girl. She will get double and triple copies of things that are important. This means the basketball and volleyball schedules.

She knows I will lose them. I always lose things. This is extremely annoying because I ALWAYS PUT THESE THINGS SOMEWHERE SO I CAN FIND THEM AND THEN I STILL CANNOT FIND THEM.

My daughter keeps copies for me and will pull them out as I need them. She NEVER lets me have the last copy. Like I said, she is a smart girl.

She has also been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. I believe she has developed coping mechanisms for home and is still learning to incorporate coping mechanisms for school.

I am a nurse. I wear scrubs. They have to have specific features in order for me to incorporate my coping mechanisms.

The pants must have pockets so that I can keep my work keys in the RIGHT one. The left one is not used but pants usually come either with or without pockets.

My scrub tops have to have two large pockets at the bottom. I keep specific things in each pocket. If I go to look for something I need and it is not in the assigned pocket, I PANIC. This does happen from time to time so I suppose I should say I never intentionally deviate from my proposed plan. Incidentally, the things I am missing are usually in the unassigned pocket.

Once I put these items back in order the panic subsides. My coworkers know of my situation and will say, "Calm down, you know it's probably in the other pocket. You will find it."

This happens very rarely because I am very serious about keeping things where they belong while at work. I wish I could use this tunnel vision coping stategy at home to keep my house in order, but I have not been able to do so. My house is clean because I have a housekeeper but it is not organized.

The people who are very close to me know that somestimes I have a hard time staying with a conversation. If they suspect that I am not really listening they will say, "I NEED YOU TO LISTEN TO ME." I will then tune into the conversation to the exclusion of everything else.

I did very well in school because I could tune

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