Now comes the difficult part.

After two virtually structureless weeks, weeks in which I could go wherever my whimsy took me, weeks in which someone else cleaned my room [...]]]>
Well, I’m back from France. It was awesome for all kinds of reasons. The food, the art, the food, the history, the architecture, the food …

Now comes the difficult part.

After two virtually structureless weeks, weeks in which I could go wherever my whimsy took me, weeks in which someone else cleaned my room and cooked my food, I have to return to my normal routine. But before I even do that, I have to recover from jetlag. At the moment my body has no idea what day or what time it is, and my mind has no clue about where it should be directing itself. I haven’t felt truly hydrated since getting off the plane Saturday night.

Overseas travel is a challenge to anyone, but for adults with attention deficit disorder, it presents unique challenges. We’re more sensitive than others to disruptions in our normal routine (as much as we may struggle against the very idea of routine). This is particularly true when the disruptions are physical. Changes to our diet, our sleep, our intake of water, alcohol, or caffeine — all of these can wreak havoc on our ADHD symptoms. And all of these are an inevitable part of travel.

I’m trying to give myself some slack as I recover from this trip. Of course, I feel like I should be hitting the ground running; but this isn’t fair. I’ve been trying to think in French for two weeks. I’ve been eating a lot more fat and carbs than usual. I’ve had more caffeine and more wine than I normally do (because you just can’t have pain au chocolat without coffee, dammit, even if it is decaf!). And my body clock has had to abruptly re-set itself by nine hours twice in the last two weeks.

Yesterday I gave my brain the day off, and spent the whole day watching tv. Today I worked out, which has already helped, and made sure to drink an electrolyte beverage afterward. That seems to be helping with the hydration issue. And I’m working in my studio, with all its daylight spectrum lighting, and letting the light work its magic.

I’m writing this post from JFK airport en route to Paris.  I think I made it out of the house without forgetting anything critical (I obviously have my boarding passes and passport, right?) and I even managed to get a few hours of sleep last night.

I just realized that my last two posts (including this [...]]]> 

I’m writing this post from JFK airport en route to Paris.  I think I made it out of the house without forgetting anything critical (I obviously have my boarding passes and passport, right?) and I even managed to get a few hours of sleep last night.

I just realized that my last two posts (including this one) have been really light on content.  That will teach me to play with my Wordpress theme … anyway, I will resume posting when I return after February 27th.  Hopefully I’ll have a lot of great stories about France and dysclaculia.  Or something.

If you’re bored, check out my series on ADD and travel at Well-Ordered Chaos.