Teacher, teach! – The African way.

Teach me, teach me, teacher – Burning Spear

So i am checking my tweeter updates and there  is all this talk of mentoring, coaching and CBT for ADHDers.

Ok, I’ll admit I’m ignorant of  what it entails, though I can understand it is all about training me on my behaviors and improvement. Now this may sound like the best idea ever but for the life of me I have no idea how I can access such services here and furthermore from the few online coaches I have googled, the rates are just too exorbitant for me. (I don’t know about the rest here as I’ve tried to reach out to my fellow Kenyans but either I’m the only one here, or they want to stay silent)

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is I have noticed that of late my levels of procrastination have been  rising steadily, deadlines are passing me by too often and I have been withdrawing from people. I know the next stage is usually anxiety and depression, which is why I’m sending this SOS.

If anyone has an iota of an idea how I can access this kind of material, whether second hand or otherwise, kindly give me a shout.

Wishing all a peaceful Easter Monday!

Chris.

PS. My biggest challenge so far is prioritizing. I see it as the major hurdle I have to overcome so as to be able to address all the other issues that are affecting my performance and my life. the reason I feel this is because whenever I procrastinate, the motive behind it is that whatever i put my mind to in the midst of what I was doing is more important. Sure enough halfway through this ‘important’ emergency that has been discovered an even greater discovery is made. So at the end of it all  I have like a long list of projects that were abandoned at different stages scattered all over my workspace (kind of reminds me of government projects)

My boss is pissed off at my incompetence, already I'm in the self destruct mode by then and depression always seems to know i;m ready for his so called ‘motivational talks’ and BAM!! Another one bites the dust.

Bye,, My Stilnox just kicked in.

Changes that are welcome….or so I hope.

I need some sleep

Time to put the old horse down

I'm in too deep

And the wheels keep spinning 'round

Everyone says I'm getting' down too low

Everyone says you just gotta let it go

Eels – I need some sleep

So my meds seem to be working in a way, but with my ADHD I can’t be too sure. At least now when my angry moods pop up, I can walk away to depressurize.

But the major challenge is my job which requires me to stay connected from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm, handling calls and queries from at least 60 outlets at a rate of a least 10 to 30 calls per hour. the problem lies in the fact that with my condition some queries are of the kind you feel like asking the caller “Are you serious?” or “Duh!”

For us we are blessed with this condition, it is easy to see solutions so fast at times that our peers end up looking dumb (from our point of view). The challenge is avoiding projecting that to them in a way that demeans or puts them down.

Remember that advice we always hear '”When you are angry, count to 10 before speaking?” Guess what, I do count, but with so many channels working simultaneously it takes less than a second. While the other channels are still carrying over the heat of the argument. So I end up opening my mouth so soon and BAM!! We’re at it again!

So I’m trying out telling people on phone to give me a few minutes to get back to them so that I can get a few minutes to lower my pressure. Problem is, I may forget who I was on the phone with or find more calls awaiting me so its kind of back to square one.

Chris

P.S. So I found out one of my meds was sleeping pills, though I find myself up 4 or 5 hrs later. Need to have a talk with my doc about that.

P.P.S. on further reflection it may be the anxiety that was caused by having to travel while a decision was about to be announced that the outcome would cause friction and dissatisfaction to one part of the nation or the other.