I love my job! ADHD/ADD bizarre story

[GrrrlPwr]

Has anyone else found themselves in a job that actually plays to their ADD strengths?

I've got a job that I love. After many years struggling in, what turns out to be, exactly the wrong job for me!

Has anyone else got a ADHD/ADD success story?

My brain does drive me mad quite often, but learning how to play to the strengths of it is proving to be a really good thing!

Another ADHD speechie here 👋

I feel like my hyper focus is failing me as I get older sadly. It’s definitely harder to tap into. I thought about going into project management but it seems like there’s a lot of excel stuff and my brain doesn’t cope well with that! All my life I have felt there is an adhd superpower in me somewhere, in that I can pick random things up and learn a little bit of everything. Recently I picked up a friends guitar and was playing a simple tune and they said “ I didn’t know you could play!” And I can’t really play, just I find it easy to learn a bit, same as I can bash out a tune in the piano, or speak a bit of Italian and Spanish and I can do caricatures.. all very useless stuff in the workplace. Im always somewhere near the bottom of the pay structure, and it seems where I work detail and process is all. People who are great at spreadsheets, they get promoted! Sorry, that was a stream of consciousness moan ! Im glad some of you have found ‘ it” though.
Also, piano autocorrects to potato which made me laugh so, silver linings

It's so lovely to read all these inspiring posts.
I think I have ADD - DD has a dx of ADHD and she is me as a child.
I was a teacher for over 20 years and, to start with it was a brilliant career for me. I felt inspired and I taught interesting things, some of it planned as I drove to work, some of it planned as I walked in the classroom and some of it planned waaay in advance. I was the Queen of the elaborate art project/ stunning display while also being the Queen of "Where the hell is that vital piece of paper"
But as teaching became more and more prescriptive and the requirements for formal planning and data analysis became greater and greater I kind of lost my mind.
I thought being a SAHM was the answer and was for 3 years but, frankly, I was shit at that too.
I am now a TA. I specialise in working with children who are struggling, designing short term specialised series of lessons to solve a specific problem. I have found a line manager who alllows me a great deal of autonomy in how I fill in the gaps.
My house is a shit tip - I cannot work and keep it under control.
I float from task to task, leaving a wake of chaos behind me.........

@JeffVaderneedsatray, it's sad that teaching has become so micro-managed. I don't flourish in places where there isn't a decent amount of autonomy.
My house is also a shit tip, even with a cleaner. I can't seem to get it all nice at the same time. I live in hope though!

I suspect I have ADHD - certainly recognised myself a lot in these descriptions. (I actually have a referral to be assessed but haven't got round to doing anything about it, which is kind of telling in itself )

I'm also in IT project management/strategy and the mix of multi-tasking, deadlines, creativity and occasional hyperfocus really suits me as well. I've evolved some good strategies to keep track of stuff over the years and also learned to recognise and avoid traps that fool me into thinking I'm being productive when I'm not.... xkcd.com/1906/

I've described the attention shifting / multi-tasking / hyperfocus thing to DH as being like my brain is full of waving threads with fishhooks on and they just hook into anything that looks interesting. So when the task at hand doesn't have much to hook into, spare hooks are flailing about and hook into other tasks I need to do next, or just irrelevant but easy to access stuff (hello Mumsnet!). But when a task is complex and there's a lot to keep track of, then all the hooks have something to do and I get hyperfocused.

I'm quite open that I'm good at working out something new and getting it into place with enough i's dotted and t's crossed to get it up and running, but I'm bloody awful doing the same thing a second time so it's best to use me to get the processes into place then move me safely away from the people trying to follow them before I try and tinker and "just improve this little bit"

I've found this thread very reassuring. My DD is 11 and I suspect she has ADD, she's been referred for assessment. She's due to move into secondary school this September. What advice can you give me to support her education and ultimately ensure she finds the right career?

I'm finding it so hard to believe that one day she'll be able to hold down a job... It takes her forever to get ready in the mornings and she's really quite messy and disorganised. She struggles with school work too.

Any advice will be much appreciated