I have functioned with ADD my entire life, but only recently was actually diagnosed with it. I don’t even think it was considered a real medical issue until I was probably in my teens or at least it wasn’t diagnosed as often. And, as a child, I was only taken to the doctor if I was dying.
I’ve never been able to sit down and watch TV like other people do and finishing any task is almost impossible for me. I do almost everything in my life in short five minute bursts. I read four to five books at a time. I work on seven to ten projects at a time. Now that I have started taking medication, I am able to focus for longer periods, but still not a full hour eight hour day. Or much beyond four hours if I’m honest.
I constantly getting distracted when I’m doing something. That’s usually when a big idea hits me or I remember that the oven is on. My husband lovingly calls me a squirrel. Because I have been known to point them out mid-conversation much like the dog in that cartoon movie.
Before trying medication, I tried many other ways to gain more focus in my life including vitamins, mindful breathing and meditation. Meditation is basically shoved down my throat constantly via friends, the internet and doctors. Let me assure you, I am the worst meditator that has ever existed.
I am not a quitter and I never have been with the exception of my prior marriages. So I continuously try to do this and never get any better. I have tried guided meditation. I have tried it with my eyes open and I have tried it with my eyes closed. I’ve tried it laying down and I have tried it sitting up. I am starting to think I am the one person in the world that absolutely cannot do this.
So tonight, while you are in a place of zen, think about me over here giving it a good solid try for the four millionth time. Maybe your consciousness can reach out and bitch slap mine into submission.
I have always had a nervous stomach. At least that’s what everyone called the constant vomiting and diarrhea I suffered from when I was growing up. My brother nicknamed me “Vomit Lips”. Any stress at all would cause me to lose my appetite or get violently ill when I ate.
I quickly developed a tough exterior after being called skinny everyday. I got used to being told I needed to eat a cheeseburger on a constant basis. I was told if I turned sideways and stuck out my tongue, I would look just like a zipper. I learned the rules for picking on people’s weight only applied to the fluffy not the underweight. One of a million of nonsensical rules formulated by God knows who.
I frequented several doctors throughout my adolescence and at one point got force fed Jell-O because my best friend told the principal of my middle school that I was anorexic. I was actually confused at the time if I was anorexic or not. I wanted to eat, but I just could not get past the nausea. It made me literally sick.
I was twenty two years old when I experienced, what I termed, an episode, but it didn’t go away within a few hours like it normally did. I was on my hands and knees in pain because I couldn’t stand up straight, I was alone, and I had a small child to take care of. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and go to the emergency room.
Upon arriving at the hospital, they took my weight,which was 87 pounds, and all the other entry vitals. They did some blood work, determined that my inflammation rate was very high and that I needed to get a colonoscopy and an endoscopy immediately. Which, I might add, is not the most pleasant experience in the world, but extremely necessary and something I continue to get done every five years. I do remember pleading with them, jokingly, to do my throat first.
The surgeon and doctor determined that I had Crohn’s disease in my large intestine during these procedures and removed several polyps and had them sent off for a biopsy. I ended up being in the hospital for ten days. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off of me. I wasn’t weird or attention seeking. I was actually sick, but with something that could be treated and managed.
I spent the next couple of months trying out new medications and responding the best to the steroids which made me feel horrible in a thousand different other ways. As I got older, I realized I could control it with diet and probably could help control it with my stress level but that wasn’t going to happen with four kids. So I just focused on the diet.
I kept a notebook of what I ate and how it made me feel. I quickly learned all fried foods made me feel the worst with dairy foods coming in a close second. I would not recommend living in the south with that kind of diet. There are a lot of really informative books out there on gut health and eating an anti-inflammatory diet. For me, it has been all about trial and error, but I never stop trying to learn. My triggers seem to change and grow as I age.
Overall, I have learned to manage my health and I look and feel healthy more often than not. Since my diagnosis, my sister has been diagnosed with Diverticulitis, my mother has also been diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and my brother has gotten Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I’m not a doctor, but there seems to be a genetic link here.
I spend most of my work week either selling homes, listing homes or helping people repair their credit in order get them into a position to buy a house. I also do financial consulting on the side. So if you follow me on Medium, you will notice I am usually joking around and writing humorous articles. But this time I thought I would actually lay out some helpful advice.
I learned about credit the hard way as many of us did that came from my generation. In school, they taught us how to make a good apple turnover, but not how to balance a checkbook. I turned eighteen, ran up a bunch of credit, and didn’t pay it off. What was the worst that could happen? Throw in a couple of bad marriages and I was prime bad credit candidate number one.
Luckily for me, and my children, I got my act together and figured out some tricks to make repairing credit easier than we think it is. Like anything else, there is a method to it. It is still a lot easier to ruin credit than it is to fix it, though.
Seven Years
There is a rumor that all debt falls off your credit after seven years and while some debts do fall off (and some don’t), one debt in particular never goes away. So please make sure your children know this before they get way more student loans than they need. Student loans do not ever fall off of your credit. It is extremely rare to have them forgiven. They are a government backed loan and as we all know the government is going to get theirs. Nonpayment of student loans will keep you from buying a house, even if your student loan is 35 years old. So first and foremost, pay your taxes and your student loans.
Credit cards
Reduce your debt to income ratio by only having one or two credit cards. Make the minimum monthly payment on all of these credit cards except for the one you owe the least amount of money on. Pay as much as you can on that one alone, the minimum only on all of the others, until it is paid off and then do the same for the next smallest one. This is called the snowball method.
You can pay them off according to the smallest amount or the highest interest rate. The highest interest-rate would be preferable, but if you don’t have access to that information or don’t want to spend the time to find it then just pay off the smallest amount first.
Secured credit
If you don’t have any open credit cards and still have a bad or low credit score, take $300 and go open a secured credit card with your bank. Do not open a secured credit card with a lender that is offering you a 47% interest rate!
Once you have opened your secured credit card, go make a purchase of $100 or so and then wait for the bill to come in. Once the bill comes in pay above what is due but do not pay it off. You want to make at least three monthly payments so it can reflect well on your credit score. You want to pay above the minimum payment to knock off some of the interest.
Do this every month until it is paid off. Please be aware that at the beginning, right after opening this new account, your credit score may dip before rising. This is normal. After that, you will see a steady rise as long as you make your payments on time.
Time
Think of the due date as the date you will lose points on your credit rating. Make sure that your payment gets there way before then. Allow for the mailman to be late or the post to get stuck in a pile on someone’s desk. In a perfect world, you would pay the bill online immediately upon receipt, but we all know that just is not feasible with debts and children and other bills. So just make sure you pay it before the due date.
Collections
I could write ten more articles on how to pay off collections, how to dispute collections, etc. I will keep this brief and just say use the snowball method mentioned above and pay off the most recent debt first and then refine that group to pay off the smallest balance.
Paying off old debt is not fun, but seeing that credit score rise is. And in today’s world, good credit will get you a lot further than just a nicer pair of shoes. Be diligent and you will reap the rewards sooner than you think.
This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decision
Kylie’s Rants 