(Ahem!) Okay, here goes! | ADHD Information

The most brilliant doctor ever in the world said to me
"You strike me as very intelligent. sometimes it seems as if you keep
changing the topic. you are talking about one thing, and then it seems as
if you've changed the subject. But if I wait long enough, i find that you do
tie it all together and come back to your original thought. You just move
so quickly it seems unrelated at that moment. I wonder if other doctors
interpret that as agitation, when in fact, it isn't."

Oh my goodness, i wanted to give him a big kiss! He just met me, and
summed up how most people misunderstand me.

Kristen, there are many positive aspects to adhd. understanding yourself
better is a relief, and use it all to your advantage.

Hey! When your able to start with an original idea then go off the wall but somehow have it all be connected and come back to your original thought your in for some gold material.
Here's just a few books that did just that:
-The Great Gatsby
-Catcher in the Rye
-To Kill a Mockingbird
-Julius Caesar 

I'm not saying you'll become the next J.D. Salinger or Harper Lee but at least that potential is there.

Have you ever tried writing a book?
If this is true you can become one of those great authors and do us all a favor and send one of those subpar authors like Danielle Steel into bankruptcy and into the streets so she'll shut up and you can declare yourself the lizard queen!
Ok I got carried away but besides becoming a journalist have you tried writing a book?

*Yes, the Aussie girl with her hand in the air would very much appreciate some help!  *

Hi there. For those of you who don't know me I'm Kristen. I am 21 and live in Australia. I have just been diagnosed with ADD and well...it's kind of scaring me! I feel like I am supposed to be elated, but I also feel as if I've been asleep and someone has pulled off all the blankets- "It's frickin' freezin' in here"!

I think I've been trying to convince myself I'm fine and living in my own world now it's quite terrifying to adjust back into "The Real World".

Did anyone else feel like this? As a bit of background I got through the whole of school and to second/third year uni without failing due to my off the scale IQ and photgraphic memory. I failed the entire last semester as it was practical and I couldn't sit through lectures and tutes. I work part time at a doctors surgery and feel completely drained after just one or two days a week.

In a perfect world I would follow my dream of becoming an entertainment/lifestyle journalist, but it seems so hard as you have to travel extensively. At the moment I have moved back in with my mum as I can't really cope all that great living on my own. (Well, I think I do, but visitors are stunned by the mess!)

It's hard to know what to do. I know I would love to work but right now I cant, so going back and doing last year uni is kind of a safety net until I get back on track. In some ways I am glad to get the diagnosis now but I kind of feel a bit ripped off as my mum kept asking at school what was wrong with me and the teachers all just assumed I was very bright. In fact the only thing that alerted docs to the fact I had problems was the crippling 8 years of chronic depression I went through- odd as I am actually a very happy person, but my body didn't seem to think so

So yeah, I'm kind  of not sure what to do next. I am incredibly blessed as with some work on my behalf I have a family that supports me, a few fabulous friends and a sweetheart of a boyfriend. Any ideas or feedback would be so appreciated.

Thanks so much for listening, just getting it all off my chest feels fantastic! Hope you are all well.

I could really relate. My problem never got diagonosed in school  because I was smart enough to do well enough to get decent if unimpressive grades without doing the "boring" stuff.   I then proceededto flunk out of college  because i had noewn of the tools needed to succeed  and  when not forced to go to class I couldnt stay in class ..  I wish you well!.... I am back in school now in my 40s and although I may shake the foundation of the building   vibrating my leg under the desk  and  have  4 margins of doodles  in my notes  I    have managed to pay enough attention and   have the disipline to not leave or skip  to get As...I bet  you do better   next semester,  My biggest problem now is slowing down enough to write    well worded as well as well fact supported essays on tests... I just write too fast to be neat or well organized.  I think I got cut some slack  becuase I clearly knew the information but as I progress I am sure how I present it will count more

Thanks heaps for that. Yeah, I procrastinate too when things seem really big or hard. I find writing stuff down helps a lot.

I'm also into music (it seems to be a common love of people with ADD- interesting, hey?) and I was never hyper either. I saw my specialist again today, he is absolutely awesome! I feel more like I'm talking to a very clever mate rather than being talked down to like the others we tried. I am starting meds at the end of the month (combined with excercise, diet and so on) and we'll see how we go.

Thanks so much for your positive words 

Well, I'm going to be starting on a low dose of medicine in two weeks time. Does anyone have any advice on what to expect?

I am pretty gosh darn excited but a little apprehensive too. I feel really good lately, maybe because the surf is great at the moment. I love it, it's my little time out from the world.

Hi Kristen, don't despair, you sound very similar to my experience, except
that my diagnosis didn't occur until about 25yrs after yours did, so feel
fortunate, you have that many more years to do well....

I too, did just fine in school, got good grades w/o effort, and even did the
same in the very good college I attended (till I got too bored to remain...).
I also was NOT hyper, or a discipline problem, so no red flags....

However, my inattentiveness, distractability, and severe procrastination
did affect school some (would've done even better had work not been
done at the very last minute), but also my social life, work life, & even
athletics. I was always falling short of my evident "potential", and THAT
was what depressed me for decades!

I went to many therapists, low-energy, cloudy thinking, procrastination,
etc., yet they all told me I was just fine; which I see now, was basically
true. None of them, or I, ever even considered ADD. A psychiatrist friend
of mine, let me at least try Prozac for awhile, to see if it would do
anything, but of course, it did nothing, as the few anti-depressants the
MD who first diagnosed me prescribed....

So, nope, no clinical depression, just beating myself up over not realizing
my potential, not following through with gameplans, & putting everything
off....

Hopefully you'll find the right meds to help with your focus, and even
more importantly, you need to choose a job or career path that is in tune
with the challenges & strengths of being ADD.

I fortunately landed in music, and as the bandleader, approach the music
we perform with a great deal of improvisation, and emotion, both aided
by my "condition"! Now, the nuts & bolts part, marketing/booking,
writing tunes & getting in the studio in a timely manner, that's another
story......

But don't stress Kirsten, read up on how others w/ADD have excelled and
coped with the various quirks we share, and see a good doctor......oooh so spooky. i have another friend who wants me to write a book.
there really should be a good work of fiction to show what it's like inside
our heads.

I have a hard time finishing anything, unless somebody is holding my
paycheck until i finish. I can write well, but not for long. how could i do
it? i should have a partner

i love all those books, btw. the poet who does that same thing is albert
goldbarth. (?) he talks about 6 different things that are totally unrelated
than brilliantly ties them all together in one crazy sentence. devastating. I
know i always like that kind of author/artist/music. I am 35yrs. old and I can remember NEVER passing a test in school. They would say we have a test on chap.3 at the end of the week. I studied EVERY night.I probably
memorized the whole thing. Come test day,I panic!!
Nothing looks like what i've been reading all week. It is
now "F" time. My school never said anything about
attention problems, just told me I was lazy. Now they say
that my son Cree who is 7 is adhd. He has been on 3 different meds.,but sometimes he just sits and stares at
anything for a while, then jumps up and is out of controll. I forget things now. Right in the middle of a conversation & my mind goes blank. Sometimes even first grade work is to hard for me now & my son is in special-ed classes&I can't figure it out! I always yell at myself,"why do I have to be so stupid!?" How can I help my son if I can't even think right!? Nobody will test me for anything now.For 1 i"m "too old."For 2 they want to get Cree figured out first. Since when is 35 old? My 6yr.
old is so smart. She helps out a lot. Sometimes he's ok.
last week he came hmoe with 100% plus the bounus word on his spelling test.I wondered what that looked like on paper.Wow, it looks good.

To Kristen,

I'm just finishing my first two weeks on meds and a variety of things have happened.  First of all I feel like I'm my age finally.  44 and I'm finally thinking like an adult. I can start a task and not feel guilty about the other 10 things I think I should be doing. Ijust choose something to do, I finish it.My anxiety is way down.  I walked around constantly worried that I was going to be in trouble for something - forgetting something, taking too long, not being able to prioritize and afraid that I would put my energy into the wrong thing and have people up set with me.  I can mingle within a group of people without worrying that I'm going to say something stupid or overwhelm people with my presence. Another thing, last year before I was evver diagnosed, I wrote a 300 page memoir.  It took 15 months but I finished it.  I did it by creating a small group of writers around me, meeting once a month and having people hold me accountable to incremental points of progress. That small group still meets.  ADD people should write if they feel like they have a book inside their heads.  It's wonderful.  I even wrote ADD poetry before I knew I had ADD.  I encourage NICKEL and DIME and anyone else considering writing their story to do it!

L.A.,

Who's nobody that's rediculous, 35 is NOT old, there has to be someone out there that will listen.  Besides if your son is add they should have support services at school to help him with that. 

Nobody should have to feel like there mind goes blank in the middle of a conversation.  People at any inteligence level should be able to finnish a thought.  I'm very inteligent,  but the same things would happen to me, before add meds my mind would blank and I wouldn't be able to pull the simplest words out of my head.

I really hope you're able to get some help.