Copings skills are anything that we utilize to cope with life. Those skills can be positive or negative with the positive skills aiding you within your daily routine while the unhealthy skills (in reality) make the ADD/ADHD person’s life more chaotic.
There was a time, when I hadn’t been diagnosed yet with ADHD, and I was so depressed, because I could never seem to progress past the point of menial jobs/their less challenging responsibilities. I knew I was capable of SO much more, because I also had this HUGE dream inside of me that Christ had put there, (I guess) to drive me to Himself. I needed answers though and I was not coping very well with life so to me – at the time- everything I did took me nowhere. I was in dead end jobs that didn’t stimulate me and I didn’t know I had a condition that hindered my abilities to advance or succeed. When I tried to advance without the correct coping skills the job I was in would overwhelm my brain and then I would get fired. I lost 40 jobs within 15 years and because of that my self-esteem had taken a nosedive. I didn’t feel like I would ever amount to anything and yet I “supposedly (according to my family) had all these gifting’s. I actually am very gifted in design and have worked in the movie industry for 7 years, and in live production for another 17 while maintaining an Admin job on the side.
I don’t know if I necessarily hated the admin positions but I hated the turmoil I experienced when I would try to do the job functions without a brain that fired consistently. This “lack of firing” would cause a stop/start process which would keep me from getting the job tasks done, or I’d forget what I was doing and make careless mistakes which would eventually lead to end result of getting fired. I don’t even know how I made it through all those years. I know I was drinking a lot to cope (See- there’s a negative coping skill) which only caused more chaos to my life. ADD/ADHD people are notorious for doing this (or having unhealthy coping tools) because life can get overwhelming to us when we can’t figure things out. BUT! I was determined to OVERCOME the lacking Brainiac tools I needed to succeed in these jobs. All of these “tests” as I call them eventually forced me to overcome and face my biggest fear: The fear of failure. You can acquire all the coping skills in the world to cope with life but if you don’t overcome your fears first- it won’t matter. Because fear will always be in the background heckling you in your mind saying: “YOU’LL NEVER BEAT ME OR SUCCEED- YOU WILL NEVER OVERCOME THIS!” That’s why we must always face every fear we have in our lives so that we can push through and climb over into our promise land blessings.
The HEALTHY/CORRECT coping skills are then put into place to allow your brain to function and continue climbing and moving forward spiritually. Have any of you been around and around the same mountain twice only to come back around and wonder how you got there AGAIN? When the same things happen to you that happened to family members from generations past- this is called a generational curse (based on Dt. 28- Blessings and Cursings). Things such as heart attacks, diabetes, divorce, early death, ADHD, failure, poverty etc. etc. These cursings allow the enemy of your soul to steal, kill and destroy and only YOU can choose to allow Christ to break them off and set you free, while also setting your mind free!
Come back next week as we delve deeper into the things of the spirit but until then- YOU BE BLESSED!
Love to you in Christ,
Missy Hood
copyright © 2012 Missy Hood
