ADHD / ADD Support Group

Hmmmm--I'm both, I guess. But I'm not sure how to explain myself here, either. There's spellcheck on my computer here and it red-underlined Hmmmm. I guess I spelled that wrong.

i suppose so, i mean, being passionate means feeling intensely about something, having strong feelings about a thing or person...being moody is like, feeling strong negative feelings about a lot of things. so i guess moodiness could be passionately negative??

haha, wow...thats deep.

I thought moody was going back and forth, not just negative. I also thought it had bi-polar connotations: moods shifting for no known reason, whereas being passionate could appear "moody" to people that cannot see how the inner-wheels turn (especially if there are so many of them spinning rapidly at all times).

Moody is associated with the word "morose" which is "sullen". It indicates a personality that goes from neutral to negative rather easily.

Passionate, on the other hand indicates one who is excitable. Usually if someone is "passionate" about something, it becomes the focus of their life, such as "passionate about painting" or "passionately against people who write these long comments". :)

The first thought that came to my mind is that moody has no direction, whereas passionate does. If you played the word game and someone said "moody", I would say "depressed". And if someone said "passionate" I would say something like "driven. I just asked my hubby to tell me the first thing that came to his mind. Moody made him say his sister's name (not a good thing) and passionate made him say love. So, I guess he agrees with me. One has a negative mental response and the other has a positive one.

So, for what its worth, that is Penny's 2 cents!! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone.

ArizonaPenny gave me clarity on this subject--thanks :)

The reason I'm so "passionate" about all this is because a doctor asked me a bunch of questions that led him to believe I have a "mood disorder". They asked me if I was "moody" and I made the mistake of saying that if you asked anyone that knew me, they'd say I was moody. "Moody" is kind of my personal trait among friends.

But this was WRONG! How OTHERS perceive what is going on in my mind is not what IS going on in my mind. They saw that I would snap and become angry, sometimes even being destructive, though never harmful.

When I think about WHY I have been this way, I know that it is not because I have a mood disorder but because I am very passionate about what I try to achieve and when something hinders me or when people misunderstand me, I become angry. During other times I am driven by this same passion and can appear very happy and inspiring. Just like when someone opposes me and how I will risk everything and fight to the death. It's passion. And you can also call this moodiness, but not a "mood disorder".

Happiness is a mood. Anger is a mood. Sadness is a mood. To be "moody" it should mean POSITIVE as well! Why does "moody" have these negative connotations with everyone? It's like how I keep hearing that the positive points of ADD are so often ignored - Are they really?? Is the majority really that blind to all the good in the world, and is it because of these differences of perception that I got "clinical mood disorder" attached to my doctor's file??

I have always been able to see the good in this world. I could fall in love with a dead tree in the bleakest of winter days just as much as I could sit mesmerized at the beauty in a blossoming orchid. If anyone has a mood "disorder" it's the rest of the goddamn world as far as I can tell.

Now, if I'm "moody", tell me I'm not "passionate"...