ADHD from the perspective of an 8 year old

Caroline and I were sitting on the swing outside the other morning, talking about things, and she wanted to try to explain to me what it felt like when she doesn't take her Attend. (Attend is an all-natural supplement that we give Caroline to help with her ADHD. Apparently it works!)

So anyway, she wanted to put into words basically what it feels like to have ADHD. Here's pretty close to what was said:

Caroline: It's kind of hard to explain. There's a big wheel. When I don't have my Attend it's kind of like everything is just in a jumble in my head on the wheel. Like it's all kind of thrown there and all mixed up and I have a hard time just picking one thing out even if it's the one I want because it's all mixed together. And the good stuff and the bad stuff are all mixed together.

Me: What kind of good stuff and bad stuff?

Caroline: Good choices and bad choices. It's all mixed together and I have a crane in my head that picks things up and it just picks the first thing it grabs because I have a hard time finding what I want.

Me: Oh okay. I see.

Caroline: So it's all mixed up. But when I have Attend then the Attend has little hands that come and it puts everything into bins so that I can find it with my big crane. And it puts the good bins in front of the wheel and the bad bins in the back. The good bins are green for go and good and the bad bins are red for stop. With the Attend everything is organized so I can see what I need and pay attention because it isn't all a mess. It also helps me to clean my room and have it nicer too.

So that's ADHD from the point of view of an 8 year old. It did help me to understand SOOO much though. How her mood and her room are interconnected. How she just has a horrible time keeping her hands to herself. How she can't pay attention to her math to finish just one division problem in a timely manner (because it has several steps). To me, it also confirmed that what we are dealing with IS real, most likely ADHD. This was completely unprompted by me, aside from the little bit that you see on here. I was amazed that she is this self-aware. My sweet girl!