Dancing in the Stars

Speaking of brains, I'm trying to win a dance contest being held by Dance 101 in Atlanta. Not a marathon, or a ballroom shootout, but one where I need to have a picture of me dancing in a public place, hopefully in a "traffic stopping" moment .

As I was cajoling my web-meister/editor/photographer into taking my picture for this dance contest, the riskier the venue I could think of and more trouble I could get into, the better I liked it. At the same time, the more I suggested the more he was balking, trying to dig in his heels and thinking at desperate speed for alternatives. "How about taking a picture of you here, and we paste it into a Times Square scene?". "No. How about the Atlanta Downtown Library?" Mind you I'm planning to carry a boom-box, hee,hee.

He blanched and came back with his best bargaining face on. "It's too far and too hard to park. Uh, how about the empty school down the street?"

"I neeeed a crowd! How about a church when it's letting out?" I'm thinking of my feather-boa dances. He apparently could see where this was heading and began to crumble. "Okay, today's Saturday and no one's at church. We ought to do it today. How about a gas station?"

Daniel Amen, MD taught me that when ADHD teenagers do risky things, the excitement increases the bloodflow to the neo-cortex, the same way that stimulants do in my brain. Having a conflict also creates an increase bloodflow. There must be a similar syndrome happening with bi-polar people, because risky activity just feels so good.

"Suzi, isn't that why you take medicine?" Yep. I take stimulants so I don't need the riskiest behaviors to feel good, but they aren't a complete "cure." I
get so happy and excited when I know I'm going to do something controversial.

If I love doing something, I can do it forever. If I don't love something, I just can't drag up the energy or focus to get it done (housecleaning,laundry,
etc.) "So what makes you any different than anyone else?" It's not that we ADHD folks don't WANT to have clean clothes,clean floors, organized desks, etc..

We just can't without the stimulation coming from somewhere, such as imminent disaster or medication. I stopped taking insurance payments in my practice
because I couldn't do the paperwork. What normally takes one of my fellow therapists 15 minutes would take me hours. Fortunately, the gift of ADHD enhances my therapeutic interaction with my clients, and clinical insights are heightened by my passion.

Anyway, I went to get dressed as my web guy chatted with my husband. When I came out, they looked up, and my trusty web-meister just rolled his eyes, and groaned softly "We're in trou--ble!!"