Question about ADD/ADHD! I need your help!

<p>Hello! I'm an old member who has recently started posting on CC again. This is my second year in college and I have a fairly good GPA (3.83, to be specific). I was accepted into the nursing honors program at my school. I also hold several leadership positions around campus, including being an RA in my residence hall. Outwardly, I'm successful. The problem? I have horrible concentration problems and I'm beginning to suspect that I have ADD. I've always had these problems ever since I was little. In elementary/middle school, teachers would complain to my parents about my inattentiveness, the amount of time that it took me to complete my work, my disorganization, and my excessive talkativeness. I was in no way, shape, or form a good student. While other children easily made A's, I was plagued with B's and C's, with an occasional A thrown in the mix. However, in 8th grade something snapped in me and I became an extreme perfectionist. I worked hard, but I still had residual problems with concentration and procrastination. Even though I graduated 14th out of 534 students, I never felt that I had a grasp on conducive studying habits. I always thought this was because I wasn't trying hard enough. </p>

<p>I got through my first year of college with a 4.0, which was miraculous considering my issues with procrastination that year. I continued to blame the procrastination on myself, though. Last semester, I had a very, very rough time with disorganization and procrastination. I tried very hard to concentrate on my work, but I felt like I was constantly running in multiple directions and my mind couldn't focus on one task at a time. I was able to scrape by with two B's and three A's. </p>

<p>I entered this semester telling myself that I would not repeat the mistakes that I made last semester. However, try as I might, I CANNOT concentrate on my work and things have gotten worse than ever before. My room is in a constant state of disorganization and I have been forgetting academic/work requirements. I've barely picked up a book this semester because every time I try to read, it takes me an hour to get through a short amount of reading. I can't even get all the way through a conversation, movie, or TV show because I get distracted and impatient with it. I have a reputation for being a "quirky" and "scatterbrained" person. (In fact, my coworkers voted me "most scatterbrained" last summer.) I do not like this reputation, however, and I would like to rid myself of these concentration issues by the time I start ACTUAL nursing school next fall.</p>

<p>Anyways, to make a long story short, I've scheduled an appointment with my psychiatrist to discuss these issues. I would like feedback from others, though. If you have personal experience with ADD or ADHD, would you mind telling me your opinion on my situation? On a side note, I also suffer from bipolar type II disorder. It has been in remission for quite some time, though, and I feel very happy and satisfied with my life overall (except for the concentration problems, of course). PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK.</p>

<p>At this point, I’m still in high school, but I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD since I was 7, so this is my 11th year with it. I was also diagnosed with depression several years back. So I completely understand where you are coming from. What I have found to really help is to do a few of the following things.</p>

<ol>
<li>Make & edit a list throughout the day. At the beginning of the day, write down basic things you want to accomplish that day. As the day progresses, write down assignments and long term projects and plan out exactly when you will do them.</li>
<li>Set aside an hour or two once a week to clean your room. </li>
<li>Get a system of organization going. I have folders and baskets galore, all of which I’ve labeled or organized in some way to keep things from getting too messy.</li>
<li>Calendar events in your phone. Whenever I have a long term project, or something to do, I will put periodic events in my calender so that my phone will alert me whenever its getting close, that way, I can’t forget. </li>
</ol>

<p>Scheduling an appointment with your psychiatrist is definitely a good step forward. You just have to focus your mind. I’ve found that when I’m interested in something, my tendency to be impulsive or for my mind to wander seems to dissipate a little bit. Hence why I worked hard to find something that I am GENUINELY interested in, and have passion for, to study. </p>

<p>You’ll never be able to completely eradicate the concentration issues, as far as I can tell. If you are on medication, I’d recommend talking to whoever prescribes you your medication and talk to them about finding something that helps you a bit more. Don’t be embarrassed to admit that you’re having trouble with your life. </p>

<p>I hope you can sort it all out! :slight_smile: Keep us updated!</p>