One day down

My channeling Bono act worked last night . . . no, I didn't pray to the tune of "Where the Streets Have No Name," I used the "hopeless case" inspiration to have a very nice prayer time. As you may be able to tell by the name of this blog, I suffer from what I have diagnosed as Adult Attention Deficit Disorder (and yes I am a doctor, just one a medical one). I have never gone to an MD to have it officially diagnosed (although I am considering it), but I do horribly suffer from the inability to keep my mind on track. I say suffer because it is either pride or fear that prevents me from getting it treated and it causes great stress for me in my profession.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Maybe I do have a little mind but I doubt any statesmen, philosophers or divines will adore it. Then again, who knows, maybe I have my expectations for this blog set too low. :) Anyway, I have foolishly been consistent with trying to deal with this problem without the intervention of medication. I have tried ginkgo biloba and it seemed to offer some relief, but I was inconsistent in taking it. Now I am back on, so let’s see if it pays dividends. If not, who knows, maybe I will venture off and become a pill popper.

Back to the story the point, prayer. I would repeatedly utter the words, "reach me, I know I'm not a hopeless case" anytime my mind would wander last night during prayer and it worked marvelously. That reminds me of my 9th grade English teacher. She used to tell us, a class full of 14 year olds, that if we had writer's block to write the word "sex" over and over and over on our paper until we could think of something to write. Believe me, at 14 it didn't take long for me to come up with something to write about but it wasn't something that was appropriate for my parents to read. In small town Arkansas I guess they had to take what they could find!

Ok, back to prayer. So that little trick worked. I have always found that I have what I would call a two (2) track mind. I could concentrate on something if I had something going on in the background to keep what I would call my "other mind" busy. Some of my law school buddies would pop Adderall during finals while I would O-D on Hendrix or the Blues Brothers. That was always the key, it had to be something familiar, had to be something I knew without concentrating on.

So, maybe if the U2 chants lose effectiveness I can employ my IPOD . . . I wonder if God likes Ben Folds?????