I feel so weird | ADHD Information
Hi every one! I just felt so weird posting my first first "problem" and you nothing about me!
I'll try not to ramble to much. I'm 47 and was diagonosed 1 yr ago. All my life, I felt I didn't fit in. Very few friends. Made friends easily, but never kept them. School was a nightmare! I got good grades, but I was an outcast. I have problems keeping a job and I'm always told "your to intelligent to make such stupid mistakes" Heard that one all my life! My husband of 24 yrs is very supportive, but he still dosn't know what it's like living with monster, ADD. Besides dyslexia, I have trouble with dealing with life in general. I know what I want to say, but it dosn't always come out right, can't do math and I'm terrified of social situations. I also felt different because I'm Puerto Rican/Irish mix. now thats not that rare. I'm on adderal 20 mg 3times a day and that seems to help somewhat. but i still don't feel I've gotten it right. I'm working now, but HATE my job! I seem to have soooo much in common with every one here, so I hope you'll except me.
also we're from Florida, and everyone says "how can you be unhappy and live there? ADD, thats how!
Welcome! You will feel right at home here. I am a recently diagnosed 45 year-old myself. This is a great group of folks here!
Welcome!!! (Even though I've been registered on this site for all of 15 minutes....I can't wait to say somethingggggg!!!) You sound as normal as me & it feels good for me to say so! I'm sooooo glad to have found this site. I am 41 (just moved back in with my mom-ugh-starting over AGAIN!) and just found out about my ADHD and my 11 y/o daughters ADD in the past month. Sure does explain why it's been such an exhausting 41 years for me, without much rhyme or reason to it...and why my daughter has seemed like such a "difficult child"...I've been like the blind mom leading the blind child!! No wonder we're going in circles! haha Anyway...looking forward to sharing with all of you.
[QUOTE=LizzFizz]You sound as normal as me [/QUOTE]
I love that you said that.
A big welcome to you too.
Welcome!
You're not an outcast here.
You've come to the place where we all have stars on our bellies and scars on our souls.
Take yer shoes off and set a spell.
Just try to remember where you put your shoes.
Hi everyone! I'm so happy i found y'all(as we say in the south)."You sound as normal as me". It's so good to know I can feel normal here and we can discus our problems and happy moments and not feel like we're weird, because now I really don't think we are! raising a daughter with the same must be hard.Oh by the way, my shoes are off, but i have to remember to set my alarm!I do feel welcome.
AddLatina and LizzFizz,
Welcome home! This is where you come to be loved and accepted, not in spit os your problems but because of them! You fit right in here. Barb
No need to apologize Freedom,
I suspect that at some point we will all come to accept our impairment and even embrace it. This, I believe, is the true value of this forum. I come here and find that there are so many others like me. That can only mean that I am NOT an outsider. Just think. If we make up over 1000 ADDers, how many more are there that haven't found their way into our little community?
Right now, we all seem to be comparing notes and discovering our similarities. The more time I spend with you all, however, the more special I feel. How many others are capable of our sensitivity? What intelligence we must have to be able to limp through life without even knowing what was holding us back. Lesser folk would not have been able to do it. I sense that, at some point, I'll learn how to compensate for my disablity, and then LOOK OUT FOR ME!! Now that we know what our impairment is and where it comes from, we can begin to work through it with a level of intelligence that may be unique to the "ADD Community". Hey, that sounds like it could be a new ethnic group or something
.
After reading these posts a thought occured to me.
Okay, we all "need" medication to feel "normal" and function "normally" in todays society. But you know what . . . this is actually kind of a cool thing . . . we have ADD and if we choose to, we can function with our ADD brain. Now, if for some reason we need to, we can take meds to make us feel "normal." Right.
Well, we have the best of both worlds! "Normals" can't take a med to make them function like an ADD person, but we can choose to be whatever we want! We can be ADD or non-ADD. Just depends on your mood that day!
Of course, that's only with the drugs like the stims and stuff, obviously the antidepressants like Strattera and Wellbutrin won't work cuz those have to be taken every day for several weeks for full affect.
But hey, I think we have the advantage hear! 
I think I finally found
some NORMAL people on this forum! Everything I've
read seems like I not only "get it" because I'm
experiencing it, but also because of the completely
logical way it's written!
[QUOTE=ChiefB] I sense that, at some point, I'll
learn how to compensate for my disablity, and then
LOOK OUT FOR ME!!
[/QUOTE]
Thanks ChiefB for your encouragement. It gave me a
little hope that I can not only learn to deal with this
but make it a real glory story!
New ethnic group... I'm half Puerto Rican, one fourth
Bohemian (seriously), one fourth English and totally
ADDese.
Everyone have a good Sunday, and take it easy.Dear AddLatina!
I can totally I am half Puerto Rican and half
"White-American-mix". In fact, I thought this cultural
weirdness accounted for *half* of my numerous
problems with life, until I was recently diagnosed
with ADD...only a few weeks ago.
I have been reading all kinds of gratifying
descriptions of my life on the internet, but this is the
first time I've ever talked to anyone about it, other
than 4 or 5 people I've had to...and of course... the
pharmacist knows :)
Does everyone else feel like this when they find out?
There have been so many different things going thru
my head *more than usual*, and so many strong
emotions. I hardly know what to do with myself.
I totally hate my job too. But I don't want to leave it
because I believe in what I'm doing. That's why I
sought help. Now I know why it doesn't seem to be
working out, but the situation hasn't changed, and
I'm afraid I won't be able to "put it back together" even
if medication helps me sleep and work better.
The best part about all of this is to know that there
are other people out there that have had the same
rough road in life, and all the same labels blithely
applied to their foreheads. It sure is gratifying to
know that I'm not just a loser or a lazy-bum...which is,
of course, what I always thought even if I knew in my
heart it wasn't true.
It's hard to get thru this initial shock. I feel ashamed,
justified, stupid, really really smart, doomed, hopeful,
misunderstood, finally understood, strong and weak
all at the same time.
Besides all that, I want to tell my family soon, but I
think everyone but my mom probably have ADD too,
so I know it will slowly dawn on them that they have
the same thing, and will have to go thru all this too!
Praying has helped me a lot, but sometimes I just
feel so alone...more than I did before. How did you
guys get on with life after being diagnosed?
Thanks everyone for contributing to this forum. It
does make me feel at home, too.Whoa... I did not realize that was so long. It just
started coming out and then before I knew it I hit the
"post reply" button! Sorry... Hi all! I too have been recently diagnosed with ADD. My childhood was a complete failure and i hated school and all teachers! So with that said i don't need to get in to any more details about my typical ADD school experience. The wost part of ADD is the "coping mechanisms". Sometimes they are good and sometimes they are bad. I'm seeing a psychologist now and she suggested that my tumultuous child hood caused my ADD, and that I have it so i don't have to feel anything anymore. She went on to tell me that she used to have a hard time listening, that pissed me off! She was making it sound like i have decided to have ADD and that it was convenient to live with it. Anyone else heard of this kind of garbage? I look forward to hearing from all of you.
ADDese?
or maybe we could be ADDian, or ADDi or ADDisian or ADD-American.
People who can't figure us out just need to brush up on their ADDish.
Chief, I just loved that "I sense that, at some point, I'll learn how to compensate for my disablity, and then LOOK OUT FOR ME!! " What a wonderful "ADDitude" to have!
Elton,
FIRE THE PSYCH!!!! She obviously doesn't understand ADHD and will spend your time and your money trying to make you feel like even more of a failure at life than you already do! 
If you are going to a clinic, tell them you either need a different psych or you are walking! If you are going to an independant psych, cancel your next appointment and look for a new one.
I don't know about you but my self esteem is not so strong that I can take someone battering at it when I don't need to. She isn't someone you have to live with, so tell her good bye and report her to whoever you report psychs to. You have nothing to lose at this point, so run, don't walk as far and as fast from her as you can!
Oooooh! That makes me mad! 
Has any1 wondered what we would be like without ADHD,I sure would like to know but will never find out as this is something I have to deal with for life.Since I was 7yrs old I have been a nightmare for my Mum.I'm 18 in 2months & still I can have my moments of smashing the house up,getting angry if I can't get my own way.I repeat myself all the time,always talking about things that are not going to happen for ages but I like to plan ahead although I get let down alot in my life(Maybe cos people don't give me a chance some of the time) It's like most of the time I'm not me its like Im always talking through my ADHD,the things I say I sometimes think If I didn't have ADHD I would not have said that but I can't help saying things that are out of the ordinary Cos it's not me really its the condition I've got.Only family & close family friends know about my ADHD.Sometimes I wanna tell people but it's hard cos once its been said there's no going back I may lose people forever & I need to hold on to the people I got cos its hard for me to make friends,Most of my school life I was on my own I had one mate who gave me a chance although she knew nothing of my problems but still wanted to know me after the weird things I did at school,But now we are no longer mates.When I do get close to people I always think that I'm gonna lose them so maybe over-crowd them always wanting them to put me first,always needing to be centre of attention,competiting to be the only mate when their others mates are important but me needing to be if you know what I mean.