Thanks, Cant---and everyone else (sorry it's long, I can ramble)

My dad wanted a long chat away from kids and distractions. At first, I thought he was going to tell me that either he or my mom were sick, or something like that. Thankfully, that's not the case.

Mom at some point mentioned to dad that I was seeing someone about adult ADHD. I told her this after Thanksgiving. Dad, knowing I was diagnosed with this as a kid grilled me about the symptoms..what ADHD feels like and how meds affect it. I don't mind talking about it-since he remembers what I was like as a kid; it's no shameful secret like certain other things.

During the interrogation, he finally said that he thinks he is ADHD and always has been...and that my grandfather was the same way. He wants to bring it up with a therapist. Being diplomatic about it, I asked him why he wants to do something about it now--just as he nears retirement. He said that he is seeing a T to be better able to adjust to retirement---and that the possible ADHD trait could be a real problem for him...but it seems it would be the opposite---but I'm going with it.

He then got very serious and asked me about childhood---if I was happy or not. I got very nervous and almost dropped my fork. I thought he could see through me and was about to ask me to cut to the chase as to what happened at camp. He didn't so much do that...more later...

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay

Dad is going through a tough time because he is 65 and is contemplating retirement. He feels like the sand is falling faster and faster through the hourglass. He has regrets...not the middle-age kind of stuff like holding onto youthful exuberance and ability...more like wistfulness about life as a whole. He feels very guilty about traveling so much when I was a kid. (Cue Cat's in the Cradle). For the better part of 25 years, my dad traveled for his company which held a number of federal government procurement contracts...often at overseas military facilities---and troubleshooting manufacturing problems.

The episode where we moved to California is weighing on him like it weighed on me back then. He is really struggling with several things:

1) Moving to LA and uprooting the family in the process
2) Working and traveling so much to the point where he missed swim meets, baseball games, teacher conferences, and on and on...
3) Sending me to boarding school
4) Fear that I will do the same thing to my family
5) Why I called home from West Texas on a river rafting trip at age 15 asking for a plane ticket home. (When I was 14, my parents offered a no-questions-asked bailout from any bad situation-day or night and from anywhere).

I let him talk and get it out. He went back to the summer of 1985 and said that he really missed me that summer while I was at camp...and....that he thought I acted differently when I returned...that he wasn't sure what it was, but he sensed something. He reminded me of the knee surgery I had that fall (I thought it was the next year, but he corrected me). He said when I was wheeled back into my room from recovery, I was of course loopy. Damn. He really snuck up with this. I thought we were talking about ADHD and regret.

This surgery was somewhat triggering because of the lack of dignity...with a hospital gown, the prodding and poking and a bladder catheter and all.
He said I once objected to the nurse checking my catheter and I announced to her that, "I'm through with that touchy-feely business...I need a 'No Trespassing sign'" The nurse laughed, but dad thought I was serious. He filed that away.


I just sat there at lunch of seared tuna with my dad and all I could do was laugh and say it must have been the morphine drip. I always thought I came close to telling all right then and there, but didn't realize I came that close.

I almost told him right there over lunch--and maybe I should have. My dad in true ADHD fashion can grab certain things (to the detriment of others) and hyper focus until he gets results. I know it well. That's me too. Hopefully, this will pass soon and he will find something else to worry about. I plan to tell, but I want it to be on my terms and not over seared tuna in the middle of the lunch crowd.

Am I unreasonable? Dad is on a fishing expedition and I almost took the bait. If nothing else, maybe this is an indication he is primed to hear bad news when I do decide to share. I was really worried about him more than mom, so maybe his own T is helping him take on 1985? I reassured him that boarding school was good for me and the real reason invoked the get out of jail free card on that river trip. I kept the reason to myself since 1987---and now I finally told and he agreed I did the right thing.

I'm amazed at what seem to be coincidences about this whole CSA seems as everything is coming at me at once..opportunities to at last come figuratively clean. It feels harder to contain inside the bounds of my wife, my T to the great people on MS.

Anxiety anyone?


Edited by Suwanee (02/01/13 04:42 PM)
You take a walk and you try to understand
Nothing can hurt you

My Story: Cruel Summer