(ADHD) I'm not Crazy: There's Party in my Brain and my Emotion Neurons won't Shut Up

Driving home tonight I realized something that seems so obvious now. ADHD mixes up my senses so that what I hear distracts me from what I see, what I see from what I hear, and so on.

I also started to wonder how I could be a better driver than so many people who aren't ADHD. I guess I have fast reflexes. And I can pay attention to many things at once, though not one of them in particular for very long or very well. But you know what? That's not a bad thing while driving. At least not for me. I hear the firetruck from a distance, I see the car approaching to my right, the pedestrian crossing the road on a red light, and I am able to avoid all these obstacles. But don't ask me what the pedestrian was wearing or what color the car was. I wasn't paying attention to them, I was perceiving the movement of objects.

I do that well. This, along with my quick reflexes (toot toot the horn), might explain my abilityto drag race with the best of them (in my youth).

But a smell can make me cry. So can a commercial. They've got anti-depressants for that but I'm not depressed.

I'm not crazy: My senses are simply too closely associated with the bundles in my brain that control emotion, and/or my emotional responses; it depends on which expert you ask.

Someone I like a lot can make me angry as all hell by speaking loudly, or just by changing the volume of their voice several times. I have to control my anger, lest they think me insane. I'd rather be alone at that moment. So I leave.

Leaving a party without saying goodbye is rude--unless you feel like sticking around to say goodbye would virtually kill you. No, it won't kill you, but it's painful when your brain has overdosed on perceptual stimulation. It has to stop. So you leave.

For some people, the brush of a hand is a passing and momentary sensation. For others, it's a lingering sensation that affects how we see, how we listen, and yes, what our mood is like.

I'm not crazy. The emotional neurons in my brain just won't let my senses be.

To make things worse, my senses interact with each other like there's a party going on in my brain and there are no rules as to who gets to talk first.