Given that my last post was 4.000 words (that’s long even for me), I thought I’d give you all a break today and keep it short (I know, that makes it sound like I inflict my blog posts upon you, lol). As I announced on Tuesday, I was invited to participate in a live discussion on ADHD on HuffPost Live this week, and I thought you might enjoy watching it. While it may seem a bit weird for an LOA expert to be invited to speak on ADHD (it was weird to me), it seems that I did offer a unique perspective – that ADD an ADHD aren’t afflictions or something negative. Apparently, that view isn’t expressed often, or at least not publicly. So, you know, go me.

And so, there I was, on a panel with an actual ADHD expert, an employment lawyer, another writer, and a person “suffering” from this “disorder” (oh yes, the sarcasm quotes are coming out today!) And even though they were all lovely people (I mean that, the panel was truly awesome), they were expressing the mainstream, doom and gloom view that ADHD is a “mental disorder” and makes it difficult for people to function in this society. About half way through the whole thing, I could no longer contain myself and the Bullshit fairy popped out (figuratively. Not Alien style). If you ever wondered what it might look like if I got up on my soapbox in person, well, here’s your chance to witness it.

After the show ended, I immediately watched it again (it’s the obligatory booger/swearing/did I make a total asshat of myself check). The Huffington Post allows people to leave comments during the live show, and, in a slightly masochistic moment (let’s face it, it could’ve gone either way, my views aren’t exactly mainstream), I read them.

Here’s a little sampling of the comments that appeared during my little rant:

Apparently, my words were hitting a nerve! I imagined people being roused from their seats, sitting up a bit straighter, perhaps even starting to feel just a bit better about themselves. Were my words making a difference? The following comment would suggest that they did:

Well, you know you’ve made it when Big Pharma sends their ninja assassins after you. They don’t just do that to anyone, you know (she says, slightly condescendingly). My head was beginning to swell. My first big-ish media appearance and I had nailed it! Who cares if I stuttered a bit and waived my hands about as if I was getting attacked by bees? I had reached people! I could see them now, the attention deficient masses, taking to the streets with their newfound confidence, and their smartphones, finally able to see themselves not as broken, but as the new wave of our human evolution! Maybe they’d be wearing T-shirts with a little Bullshit Fairy logo on it. And there would be a song! Yes! A song! Like a “We Are The World” kind of thing! And there would be flash mobs doing a dance, like the Macarena, only way, WAY cooler. The Bullshit Fairy Jig. Or something. I hadn’t worked that part out yet. Whatever. It was going to be so cool (yes, cooler than the Bullshit Fairy Jig. It was just a first draft. Stop judging me)! I had arrived! Love and light were streaming through me. The energy that creates worlds was bringing it all together before my eyes! Universe, here I come!

I felt like I was going to burst!

And then, I saw this:

And suddenly I’m an alcoholic weirdo on a rickety soapbox. Ah, media, thou art a fickle mistress.

Seriously though, I had a fantastic time. If nothing else, I was reminded of the fact that I really do live in my own little reality. Being exposed to these radically different views is kind of like taking a little vacay to other people’s realities, where fear reigns, people are actually looking for ways to feel badly about themselves (it’s not a characteristic! It’s a disorder!), and it takes lawyers to remind employers that they are human beings. Now, you might not think that I’d enjoy this little foray out of my own Universe, but you’d be wrong. I loved it. It was like going to Mars and meeting an alien race. I wanted to tap on the glass and study them. It was absolutely fascinating (just to be clear, I don’t mean that in a condescending way at all. I really get giddy with fascination around people who think so differently from the way I do.)

What also made me happy was how willing people are these days to switch to a more positive viewpoint. Even though I never mentioned energy and vibration (it wasn’t that kind of forum), I was expressing a point of view much different from the other panelists. At first… And my views could easily have been dismissed as the rantings of a delusional dork (let’s face it: My only “qualification” for being on that panel was that I’d written a blog post on ADD. On a scale from Guy with Tinfoil Hat to Einstein, that put me at about Psychic Catlady). And yet, much of the panel and, it seems, the audience, were right there with me, nodding along, and even building on the points I made. Had this exact same scenario taken place just ten years ago, I’m convinced it would’ve gone quite differently. What a wonderful time we live in! It takes less and less to nudge people in a better feeling direction. Imagine if all of us nudged just a little? What could we accomplish?

If you’d like to watch the full discussion, you can do so here:
UPDATE: Unfortunately, Huffpost removed the full video a couple of years ago, but I found an excerpt of my rant, so here you go…