HELP ME PLEASE | ADHD Information

hi i am in need of desperate help my name is kyle and im 18 and i have had always hadtrouble with concentrating its like i have a bunch of differnt thoughts going on in my head at once and i can never seem to concentrate on stuff and all my freinds and family execpt my parents say i have a.d.d. or a.d.h.d. but my parents have denied it since i was little and it seems like eveytime i have talked to my parents about it they say that i shouldnt rely on a pill to solve my problems and that i should be a man and concentrate i havent brought up any thing about it since ive turned 18 and in the past few years i will admit to takin adderall to help me illegaly but it seems that when i take it my mind clears up and i can focus on stuff alot easier so if you could give me help in a way to talk to my parents about it or who i need to see to see if i actually have adhd but im concered about the problem because im goin to bootcamp for the marines in late january so PLEASE HELP ME

PS

i am a smoker and i have read that adhd people tend to smoke so im just throwin that in there to see if that helps any

PSS

i have taken many of the online tests for add/adhd and have scored highly likely to have add/adhd in all of them

kyle7339378.8857060185

Pretty_lost

That's a great suggestion, we have a tendency to get lost in the details.  Since we have trouble with concentration and memory we leave out the details and become confused when trying to explain ourselves to a doctor.  If we write it down esp on the computer we can go back over our thoughts because I've noticed that some times of the day are better than others when I'm trying to express myself.  But then if you keep a timed log it would give a Dr the opportunity to see when you are functioning at your highest level.

Parent's sometimes don't want to admit that their children are lacking in some way.  I've never understood why they would rather think their children are lazy than admit they might have something like ADD or ADHD.  Since disorganization or laziness is a learned trait and ADD/ADHD is genetic or neurological it seems that the former would be attributed to bad parenting.  Shouldn't they want to not be seen as bad parents rather than possibly just be uninformed parents? 

Hi Kyle. I'm 24 and I was in your situation at round about your age.

My parents would often scold me for my "addisms" yet when I brought up the topic of diagnosis, they suddenly appereared to think that I had nothing wrong with me. I found that really hard to deal with and frustrating, which only made me feel more alone in the world.

After a couple of years of trying to talk to them about it I figured that I wouldnt have their support. Which was fine, they're only human right. I decided to pursue the diagnosis myself. Due to the health system here it took another couple years of determination and self doubt to finally speak to a specialist in adhd.

It took in total five years to get my diagnosis. But it's not always that long!

In the end, what worked was for me was this; I printed off an online test but instead of just ticking yes/no/often etc, I opened ms word and under each question I wrote a paragraph as to what specifically effects me and why, how often etc. This took two weeks to do and I answered afew questions a day. Then I wrote a personal letter to my doctor briefing how I felt etc. In the end I went in with a 30 page document of "evidence".

THe fact is, this makes sure that you're heard because no doctor can dismiss a diagnosis without having looked at most of the available info. My doctor was great and she really did read it all and promtly referred me to a specialist with an apology for it taking so long.

Doing it this way helped also because I didnt have to keep repeating myself and I knew that once it was on paper, I didnt have to remember off the top of my head each and every symtom I had.

Whether or not you have ADHD I'm sure you feel that you would like a desicion either way. Anyway that worked for me dude and I feel proud that I continued in my belief despite all the knock backs.

And remember, for anybody who thinks they may have ADHD..You don't necessarily deserve a diagnosis, but you DO deserve an accurate assessment.