<p>and cause great harm in our increasingly competitive college admission environment. Don’t wait parents, seek out the specialists early in your child’s life and/or work with the school system if it’s wise enough to accept ADD, ADHD as real. </p>
<p>Indeed, how does one get physically organized if one’s brain is not organized? Well said, other poster.</p>
<p>if ADD/ADHD were not real disorders, then how come medications improve functioning in people who “allegedly” have the disorder to levels one would see in “normal” people?</p>
<p>Bias, subjectivity, prejudice and insufficient acceptance of symptom clusters and variants (i.e., lack of insight, diagnosis) may play a role in society’s acceptance or rejection of ADD/ADHD as a real diagnosis, improved by the stimulant family of drugs. </p>
<p>As a new comer to this forum, I can say that my teen (we have two) just started for the first time ADD medication (a long-acting stimulant type), and it is as though a light bulb clicked on. It’s actually somewhat shocking to see, almost makes a mom cry out in delight and recognition of years spent unseemly. Enjoyment of school, agreement to homework and grades improved, amongst other. Still, I know our family has much work to do to catch up and modify habits and compensations.</p>
<p>Good luck everyone.</p>
<p>Never mind Cowman–some people just love to be ignorant and perverse.</p>
<p>I have severe ADHD. By the time I get to my sixth and seventh period classes I cannot physically sit in my chair anymore. I spend most of the day after lunch standing. Without medication, I can’t focus on one thing at a time–if two people are talking, I can’t understand either of them. At all. I can’t even talk to people with music on. Without medication, I zone out to the point that if–and this frequently happens–someone were to say something directly to my face, I wouldn’t hear him. I’m almost incapable of figuring out what I should do first on a to-do list–should I clean out my closet, or write an essay due tomorrow? Well, I’m sure cleaning out my closet will only take an hour, and then I can write the essay later, right? That’s how I make my decisions. If I have more than one or two things to do in a day, I can’t figure out how to plan it out; I get overwhelmed, and I do nothing. Without my medication, I lie awake at night for hours, my mind racing, unable to fully clear my head. Without my medication, my brain works like severely myopic eyes. I am unable to see the ideas I know are there. When I read, I skip lines and read things without fully understanding them–and this isn’t just a textbook. Without medication, I skip lines in Harry Potter and panels in comic books. All the times I have driven without taking my medication have resulted in running red lights, speeding, hitting curbs, and swerving dangerously. There are always at least four things running through my head that <em>individually</em> would make sense, but together they sound like a foreign language. Speaking of language–I speak fluent in malapropisms. In class, I blurt out answers despite fully knowing I shouldn’t. If I don’t take my medication, I have to write down what I will say in English or else I won’t remember what I’m talking about. At home, I leave cabinets open despite knowing full well I’ve been yelled at for that before. My room is a mess and I know it, but for some reason I’ll go to sleep thinking I can clean it up in the fifteen minutes I have before I need to leave for school. I am unable to figure out how much time something should take, and therefore have no less than fourteen first period tardies. I misread things and reverse the order–not like dyslexia, but fully reading the opposite meaning of something. </p>
<p>That is the face of ADHD. Attention deficit is just the surface of a horrible, life altering problem. I know I’m feeding a ■■■■■, but cowman? Do you see the above in normal people–in normal people every day? </p>
<p>You know what’s funny, though? My brother suffers none of these things. He is a year younger than me; he’s been raised exactly the same way I have. So then–how on earth is it my parents fault for my ADHD? </p>
<p>And before anyone says I’m the “odd one out” or “the one who actually has the disease,” I’m not. All the people I know with ADHD have the same problems. I know no one who can claim his only difficulty is attention. If there is someone out there like that, then he got off lucky and I wish I were him.</p>
<p>m62442, have you tried medication yet? My S started recently and it was like a light bulb went on in his brain: it was that dramatic. I understand this is more unusual however. If you haven’t, I hope you might seek help as you may find a similar response. It would need to be with a physician to enable prescription writing. Due to availability and cost factors, some primary care physicians nowadays are training themselves on ADHD and more willing to help out. Good luck.</p>