Editor, Interrupted
By Abby Bowman
Sometimes, I wish I could get my brain recalibrated. It doesn’t stay in its lane and certainly doesn’t brake when I need it to.
Unfortunately, I don’t think running diagnostics and aligning myself with lasers and targets will help. This is more of a factory defect.
You see, I have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a relatively common but frequently misunderstood condition that causes the inside of my brain to feel like a three-ring circus in the middle of a racetrack.
ADHD can cause many symptoms, including titular attention deficit and hyperactivity. One of the most crippling is executive dysfunction. I’d encourage you to look up the clinical definition yourself, but essentially executive dysfunction means that even simple tasks require almost herculean mental strength. Even tasks I enjoy can be difficult to start.
I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until I was 17, so I spent my childhood struggling with executive dysfunction and thinking I was lazy. That didn’t stop me from doing well – I was the annoying child who always knew the answers to teachers’ questions and got straight As in everything – but that’s only because I worked as hard as I possibly could to achieve the results expected of me.
I’ve spent countless hours since my diagnosis researching ADHD. During that research, I’ve developed coping skills that allow me to move through life a little easier. I take walks daily because indulging the hyperactive part of ADHD helps me focus. Listening to music while I work keeps the corners of my brain not occupied by my task from wandering.
I’ve also learned that some facets of the disorder can be strengths. The name ADHD is a little misleading because people with ADHD don’t actually have a deficit of attention. We have far too much. Our brains absorb everything around us at all times and process each piece of information with equal importance. Imagine listening to all verses of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody simultaneously, but instead of hearing a wall of noise, you can discern the individual lyrics all at once.
This is useful, though exhausting. I can process information and react to emergencies much more quickly than others.
Despite this, the insecurity of a little girl who thought she was lazy hasn’t entirely left. Which is why the article on page 20 of this issue means so much to me. I set out to tell the stories of three individuals in the auto glass industry who have ADHD. Describing their success reminded me that I had some of my own. Now, I write this column with renewed confidence in my ability to succeed.
As you read the article, I hope you find it as inspiring as I did when writing it.
Abby Bowman is the editor of AGRR™ magazine/glassBYTES.com.
abowman@glass.com
To view the laid-in version of this issue in our digital edition, CLICK HERE.
