Time is a bitch. I know someone with ADD who says that whenever she feels something very intensely -- wait, it's when she feels something negative very intensely -- it may as well be that she has felt that way forever. Somehow, in her mind, the intensity gets translated into a perception of time. The more intense, the longer it seems.

Please explain that in the helpful way you explain such things.
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I agree with you that the "gear" -- or really, the cog -- slipping or not, is an apt representation of the problems we have with Time. But I have also observed, repeatedly, that it is possible to squeak into the parking lot at the office with exactly the same number of minutes to spare (like, minus two) as the last time. And the time vefore that.

Something is working, wouldn't you say? Just on "Delay."

Cont.

It occurred to me that an impulse is an impulse. A medication that helps control impulses may also control the (appropriate) impulse to go get the kid from school. Less medication didn't make a difference. I do not like the mad scramble at the last minute. And, I rarely anticipate it, no matter that I have been through it thousands of times. On the rare occasion that I do things smoothly and at the "right" time, I experience a calm pleasure that makes me ache for its scarcity.

I read somewhere, ten years ago or so, that a sense of Time is one thing that isn't improved much by medications; not as much as, say organization. I was disappointed to read that, yet relieved that maybe it wasn't just me. I do not remember the source of that tidbit and I am glad it doesn't seem to be the case for you.

My only wish? That I didn't have ADD.

Another excellent post, Jeff. I am interested in what you say about Time, for several reasons. Way back, it was Time that constituted the very first noticeable change I experienced as a result of taking medication for AD/HD. In the afternoon of that first day, I looked at the clock and said, "Wow. It's only 2:20." Every other time I had ever looked at a clock like that, my reaction was more like, "Oh shit! It's 5 o'clock!"

However, soon after, I began to notice myself being chronically late to things I had never been late to, before. That problem persists. I had spent more than fifteen years doing therapy in my office, meeting clients every hour, on time, ending sessions fifty minutes later, on time. I began to be late to pick my kid up from school. Often. I saw I was having trouble stopping what I was doing.