Almost every mom today has heard of, is familiar with or deals with the acronym ADD or ADHD. Be it dealing with our own kids or spouses’ conditions of attention deficit disorder, or knowing of others who do – because it seems every second person is getting diagnosed these days!
Our home is full of these acrimonious acronyms. Just to mention a few: GAD, OCD, ADD, heck – even my dog has OCD! She lines her toys up neatly in her basket – that’s when we knew for sure she was definitely a part of the family. RI is my main one, GAD is hubby and ADD is the little one. Apparently hubby and I also have OCD and ADD. And boy, the drugs available for all of these, is astounding! You can even get something today for your child’s defiant behavior!
OCD is obsessive compulsive disorder – A very dear friend sent me a bbm, reading: “I have CDO, it’s like OCD but all the letters are in alphabetical order… As they should be.” So the standing joke is that we all have CDO – But the A-type in me reads it as “compulsive disorder obsessive” and the whole thing gets confusing and frustrating all over again! Just as it should be! I guess we really just do make life a little more complicated with all this paraphernalia, but hey, it makes it so much more interesting as well.
If we all look hard enough, we have one or another of these ‘conditions’. When we are told this news it jolts the system and scares us a little. But hey, I wouldn’t have my hubby or son any other way – it adds to their amazingly versatile personalities (apparently mine too) and makes us all who we are. We can curb it as much as possible through diet and various exercises, but we learnt the hard way with our little one that we can’t switch them off, which is what the meds did for him. Not to say meds is not a way to go, I think if you find the right one for your child/hubby it can make a world of difference, there are just so many options to try. For us, our son’s happiness is the most important and the meds were making him sad. Later on we will try some others – but for now, we live with his ADD, and take each challenge as it comes along, and enjoy his personality – which really is larger than life, as his therapist put it!
I guess with all the various diagnosis it is really just a question of knowing what you have to deal with, arming yourself with the necessary tools to deal with it and not to use any of these conditions as an excuse when tough times loom. Our family has learnt to live with our little conditions, armed ourselves with the tools and because we are all now familiar with the fact that we have these, it makes it just a little bit easier to deal with each other.
If I delve further there are even more variants of these little conditions – There is ADHD-PI, ADD-RT, and you even get BEH – also a known condition – behavioral/emotional handicap!
So be it (in alphabetical order), ADD, BEH, GAD or OCD – I bet every family has someone diagnosed or someone who should be diagnosed – you can bet a member of the family has at least one of these, and if it hasn’t a name already , just “acronymise” it! Make your own and wear your title proudly! It’s part of who we are!
Love live and shine!
