I have attention deficit disorder and have had it all my life. I inherited it and have passed it on, but I am not sorry about the inheritance or its continuation. There have been both difficulties and rewards living with ADD.

There was not any diagnosis of ADD until the 1960s, and even now there are no simple ways of managing it. There may be an overreliance on drugs, especially for children.

I realized I had ADD after one of my sons was diagnosed in his 40s. In many ways we both are glad we have it. Living with ADD is not easy for yourself or others living with you, but it can be done successfully. One of the most helpful aids my son and I have had was in reading two books by Edward M. Hallowell: "Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Children Through Adulthood" and "Delivered From Distraction: Getting the Most Out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder."

All my life I have lived with a "race-car" brain that is turbo-charged. My brain goes really fast, and it can be difficult to put on the brakes. The ideas flow constantly. That is a gift, but not when I have to stop at one idea. But it can be done -- that is when I become super-focused, which people with ADD can do.

Some of the positive and negative aspects of ADD according to Dr. Hallowell are: l) high mental and physical energy (coupled with extreme lassitude at times); 2) a tendency toward procrastination (coupled with an I-must-do-or-have-it-now attitude at times); 3) creativity; 4) disorganization (coupled with remarkable organizational skills in certain domains); 5)irritability (coupled with tender-heartedness); 6) A tendency to be a non-conformist or maverick; 7) a tendency to reject help from others (coupled with a tendency to want to give help to others); and 8) a tendency to underestimate the time it takes to complete a task or get to a destination. Dr. Hallowell lists others in his book.

We often feel everything is happening at once. It is now or never, or maybe later. This can create panic. I often have to write down what needs to be done first, second, and what can wait until another day, as I want to do it all at once.

I hate waiting in lines, and sometimes I blurt out my thoughts without tact. ADD is often found in type A as well as bipolar personalities, but it is also common in creative, intuitive people. There is a special feel for life, a way of seeing into the heart of matters while others have to reason their way along methodically. We tend to jump over the first and second tasks to the third since we believe we have already figured out the first two. Of course that doesn't always make it right or appropriate.

I try to deal with my ADD by building certain structures in my life such as lists, healthy habits of sleep, diet and exercise. Working in small spurts or breaking down tasks into smaller tasks can help.

With suggestions from Dr. Hallowell, I take two capsules of fish oil each day, along with other vitamins, and eat a lot of vitamin C-laden fruits. I also get plenty of exercise that I know is a necessity, not an option for me. I participate in Aquasize; take several classes of NIA, an exercise that combines dance, martial arts and yoga; and take a ballroom dancing lesson each week. Regular exercise promotes mental focus, sustained attention and mental endurance -- no exercising on a treadmill for me as it makes me feel like a robot.

Dr Hallowell said that the most important thing in dealing with ADD is to "Know thyself. Know that you have foibles and gifts and that you need to engineer the environment to promote what's best for you. And you have to work at remembering what you know about yourself, and continue to use it."

I recommend that if you think you have ADD, read both of Dr Hallowell's books and look at all the resources in the back of his book "Delivered from Distraction." Also, the People's Pharmacy has an interview with Dr. Hallowell on CD that is helpful.

Each day I try to get the most out of my life, and part of this is dealing with the positives and negatives of managing my life with ADD.