ADD as a child | ADHD Information

Maybe i also have some sort of anxiety disorder:  I worried a lot as a kid about different stuff.

  When I was in the 1st grade, my mother used to always pick me up from school.  One day, she went to get her hair done, and she came to get me late, and I was crying because I didn't know what to do, I thought something had happened to her and she was dead (1st grade, now!).  But she did show up.  EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF 1ST GRADE AFTER THAT, I CRIED ALL DAY UNTIL MY MOTHER CAME TO GET ME AT THE END OF THE DAY!! I stayed worried about her, I always was afraid something would happen to her when I left her and I would never ever see her again.....I got teased from that point on through the rest of my school years.

Ok, I spilled my guts. It was embarrassing, but now you guys know.

sonya_h38421.4454282407I remember bawling my eyes out when I was in kindergarten because i missed the school bus. I came home devastated because I would have to miss school that day. My mom told me over and over that it was okay, that she'd drive me, but I was inconsolable. I cried the whole way. Maybe I was angry at myself for missing the bus...? I mean, is a five-year-old even capable of being angry at herself?

To think when I got older I used to fake sick so I could stay home.
So I was thinking about when I was a kid. One of them was irratibility and another was shyness. I would be shy but then totally outgoing for no reason. It still is with me today. I will be somewhere and just be me and outgoing and have no worries. But then other times I'll be withdrawn. I thought that maybe it had to do with the people I was around but then I thought about it and I act both ways around all people. Also I used to pretend that I was smart. Like I know I am smart...probably smarter than the average person. (lol sorry for being concieted) But when I would get tests back or papers or any assignment I would tell people that I did better than I really did. Or I would be like oh well I didn't study or pay attention in class (Which I didn't). Or I would pretend to know things that I really didn't know. Like one time I remember in the 2nd grade my friend was really smart and knew multiplication tables. All the rest of us hadn't learned them yet. And the teacher thought I was ahead of the game...(probably because I tried to be an overachier...up until the 8th grade...then I gave up.) So she gave us this multiplication table game to play behind her desk. So I pretended to know what I was doing when in reality I was like uh...what's multiplication? Also I had a problem with authority. I disliked anyone who told me what to do. And I hate board games...I've always hated them...they're called BORED games for a reason. I was just wondering if anyone else had any of these things when they were younger and I was wondering what things that stick out to you about your childhood.I started a thread similar to this just the other day:

http://www.adhdnews.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4933& ;PN=2

Basically I always did my own thing when I was a kid. I was very ego-centric (I didn't think about others' feelings) - I tried to make up my own rules to games, I said stupid things, I didn't like sharing, I could not stand waiting in line to go down the slide, and I hated having my schoolwork criticised by teachers. I also hated being told what to do. I thought homework was stupid (I mean, it's just more of the same stuff I spent all day doing already in class!) so a lot of the time I didn't do it.

I started out as a very happy-go-lucky kind of kid. I talked to everyone and didn't care what they thought of me. But after a couple of years of relentless teasing and being thought of as "weird", my self-esteem really took a beating. I became extremely shy and withdrawn. But that's all too depressing to talk about again....
I started out as a very happy-go-lucky kind of kid. I talked to everyone and didn't care what they thought of me. But after a couple of years of relentless teasing and being thought of as "weird", my self-esteem really took a beating. I became extremely shy and withdrawn. But that's all too depressing to talk about again....

Sounds like my childhood. I really remember being this happy fun loving little kid and then having that just crushed to the ground as I grew. Sucky sucky sucky!

I'm trying to make up for it by being a happy adult

To Gypsy - that is why I wrote the sentence the way that I did about childhood symptoms of add/adhd.  It said that, I did not necessarily think that everything we did in childhood were symptoms of add/adhd."  It is difficult to tell because children and circumstances are so very different in each case. 

In regards to yourself, maybe everything that you experienced was related to the disorder of add/adhd.  I just do not believe that we should attribute every action, thought and manner as children to add/adhd, except in those cases where diagnosis and documentation confirms the disorder. 

To think that an entire childhood was all add/adhd related based on material we read is too presumptuious for me.  I would wait for confirmation from the medical community before I took it upon myself to make the claim based on personal belief.  

Note:  These are my humble personal opinions only and should not be interpreted as a code for anyone else on the board to follow, other than myself.       

Got it, Ladyhope! I understand now, what you meant. And, yes, we can't contribute everything to ADHD. And when I think about it, I think I'm I may see which were ADHD, and which were my tourettes, jerking as I walk, my tubby tummy, and just living among mean, little people whose parents never taught them to be kinder to their peers.    Actually, I know even from the best of parents, kids can be cruel, as well as adults.

I think I tried too hard to be accepted as a child, and have as an adult also. I'm learning now that the way I went about it is not the way to make friends.

Have a good day, Deb!! GypsyWomyn38422.47125

Man oh man, Zorg and Gypsy I can so relate to you guys posts.  I was very shy and withdrawn because I could never make the first move to make friends and feel comfortable.  But if someone would talk to me and pay a little attention to me, then I would open up and talk. 

I too, was always the very last in everything and I never fit in.  In grade school was the toughest experience and probably the reason why I came to adulthood as a cynic, depressed and basically negative.  Lets see - these are the things that the kids gave me a very difficult time over; FRECKLES, DRESSES TOO LONG, BUCK TEETH, SKIN TOO WHITE, BRACES AT NINE, HAIR NOT LONG, UGLINESS, CRYING WHEN MY FEELINGS WERE HURT.   

Note:  I got the best of most of them though.  I stayed thin after blossoming later in adulthood.  Most of the women got fat and let themselves go and most of the guys are now bald and out of shape.   HA HA!! 

Hell, I didn't even go to my senior prom because the only guy that asked me was gay.  Now that's bad!  He was a very good friend of mine and we were close, but I knew that the entire senior class would make us the laughing stock of the prom.  I politely declined the invitation. 

However, I do not think that how we were personality wise as children are necessarily symptoms of add/adhd, but rather just normal childhood growing pains.  Thank God I never have to endure childhood again! 

[QUOTE=surfgirlie5] I would be shy but then totally outgoing for
no reason. It still is with me today. I will be somewhere and just
be me and outgoing and have no worries. But then other times
I'll be withdrawn.[/QUOTE]

I'm like that and have not been able to understand why. I can
be totally outgoing and crazy one second, then become really
quiet and shy the next. Is this from ADD? Sometimes I just
become clouded in the mind and unable to think of what to say. [quote=Ladyhope]However, I do not think that how we were personality wise as children are necessarily symptoms of add/adhd, but rather just normal childhood growing pains. Thank God I never have to endure childhood again![/quote]
Ladyhope, I'm not so sure about that...at least for me. I believe my personality as a child was most definitely symptoms of ADHD. I know a lot of children have the normal growing pains, but then and now, I always interrupted, even teachers in class. Could not sit still in my chair/desk. Talked incessantly! Remember that teacher who put tape over my mouth in 2nd grade? Would lose my temper. Etc., etc.,etc.[QUOTE=ZORG]...I had such a crummy grade-school time. I was always the last in the group when kids were picking teams for a game. Because I was last, the team that was to pick next got stuck with me by default. The other teams would even laugh at the team I was on and predict that the team I
was on would lose whatever game we were playing because of me.

I was picked on relentlessly. I was put in a special program for the Educationally Handicapped as soon as I entered JR. High (now called middle school). It was good for me. But I have learned to keep my mouth shut more than talk in any group so people these days get offended at my quiet nature. They tend to feel like I am anti-social. I am often told that I rub people the wrong way just by trying to keep from looking like a fool.
[/QUOTE]
I sympthasize, Zork. I also was the last one picked, by default. And I also was picked on relentlessly! Besides being ADHD, I also have Tourettes. So I was picked on for my behaviors, my big mouth and my jerks and tics. Too bad in the 50s neither was know much about. I wish they had, perhaps I could have had the opportunity to be in some special education class. I might have learned to cope better.

About learning to be quiet, we're damned if we are, damned if we aren't. Oy!

[QUOTE=GypsyWomyn]
About learning to be quiet, we're damned if we are, damned if we aren't. Oy! [/QUOTE]

Ain't that the truth! After I learned to shut up, and became extremely quiet, I got picked on for being quiet! If I ever did say something, people would say, "oh, so she can talk!" followed of course by laughter. Then I was sorry I'd said anything at all.

Hey SurfGirlie what you said sounds like something that would have come out of my mouth word for word. To this day I can be either extreamly outgoing or very reserved. I also shared the same childhood traits you spoke of and stopped being an over-achiver until about 8th grade. Anyway.......your not alone

The posters in this thread could all start a club of our own.

I had such a crummy grade-school time. I was always the last in the group when kids were picking teams for a game. Because I was last, the team that was to pick next got stuck with me by default. The other teams would even laugh at the team I was on and predict that the team I was on would lose whatever game we were playing because of me.

I was picked on relentlessly. I was put in a special program for the Educationally Handicapped as soon as I entered JR. High (now called middle school). It was good for me. But I have learned to keep my mouth shut more than talk in any group so people these days get offended at my quiet nature. They tend to feel like I am anti-social. I am often told that I rub people the wrong way just by trying to keep from looking like a fool.