nice sig. by the way.
Glad you’re feeling better about things.
Luckily, I went to a Jesuit high school where a 4.0 actually meant something. The kids who got them usually ended up going to Yale.
But I can…ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!
[sub]runs from room screaming as he is beaten like a red-headed stepchild with freckles and pelted with rotten fruit[/sub]
The anger comes from assholes (not directed at you, Meara) who dismiss legit problems with a “oh, it’s just laziness” or “Oh, you just need to pay attention more”. And there are more of these assholes than you’d think.
Imagine having a broken leg, and having friends and relatives tell you “Oh, you can ski on it. You’re just lazy if you don’t.” over and over and you’ll get an idea of the frustration many people with ADD/ADHD feel.
Oh, and in response to wishbone’s comment about
Yale? Not Georgetown?! 
Fenris
Hey, I went to a Jesuit high school too. Colleges these days seem to look more at class rank and difficulty of classes anyway. Of course, in a big, competitive school like Jesuit (New Orleans), class rank’s a bitch.
My 11-year-old nephew has ADHD. He is sweet. He is bright (albeit a wee bit strange – he may be somewhat drug and alcohol affected from his mother’s behavior while he was in utero). He is adorable. He is, unlike some children who I have heard described as hyperactive, not just a spoiled little brat who wants his own way. In fact, he is not spoiled at all, which I find somewhat remarkable, nowadays. However, without his Ritalin, he can not do his homework at all. He cannot pay attention long enough to get one math problem done, much less a whole page of them. He can’t sit in his seat, he can’t follow a conversation without changing the subject, and when he was little, he would get so frustrated when he tried to do his homework that he would end up crying. I do not like Ritalin. I am very nervous about having Spike grow up thinking that drugs are the answer to his problems, because he comes from a druggie family background. I do not like putting kids on meds. I do not like my own meds, so I have a good idea of the trade off between symptom relief and side effects, and I certainly know that some people respond to meds better than others. But if it weren’t for Ritalin, I have no doubt whatsoever that my nephew would have no chance of ever getting anywhere or leading anything approaching a normal life. Because of his high sensation-seeking behavior and his poor judgment when not medicated, I seriously doubt he would have made it to adulthood without getting into serious trouble. His half brother certainly did not. No, Spike is not a wonderboy when he is on meds. But at least he has a fighting chance.
Small hijack, here: I do not have ADHD, but I do have bipolar disorder. In my job at Family Court, I frequently encounter people whose lives have been significantly damaged by Bipolar disorder in a parent or spouse. Almost literally, a week does not go by without a coworker making a snide comment about what nuts bipolar people are and how they would be all better off (and much more malleable and convenient to deal with) if they would just stop whining and take their meds like good little do-bees. For the record:
1.) Bipolar people were not put on earth soley to inconvenience you. Tough shit if you don’t like the fact that we exist. We don’t enjoy it much, either.
2.) Meds do not always work. Read that three times. Then read it again. When people go off their meds, it is not always because they are stupid people who don’t know what’s good for them. Like ADHD people, bipolars are also known for a tendency toward high intelligence. Sometimes, taking something that works marginally well at best just doesn’t seem worth the effort, especially when the side effects work just fine, thank you.
3.) And this one is for my fellow bipolar people: don’t use your disease as an excuse to not work and pay child support if you are able to! I am bipolar and I work and I am sick of hearing your excuses! They make the rest of us look like a bunch of assholes. Nobody said it was going to be easy, but if you are not either actively psychotic or suicidally depressed, you should be working!
Sorry to steal your forum, Andrew Dupont. Best of luck in your career.
Sometimes, I can turn my disorder into an advantage.
For example, I have a tendency to hyper focus on things, so it really helps when I’m working on a project I enjoy.
I’m also Obsessive Compulsive. I tend to be extra careful when at work, counting my drawer and making sure it is in order. I also make sure everything is organized and done right.
Please put me in the camp of “ADD and ADHD are real, but grossly overdiagnosed”.
As a brand new teacher, I’ve already had a couple of kids who were diagnosed as ADHD, both of them thinking of going on medication. What I saw in classroom, however, was not the inability to concentrate on a problem or the hyperkinetic need to get up and move around.
What I saw were two very bright young men who, apparently, hadn’t ever had someone say “you will do this, or you will fail my class. Now, what do you need to accomplish this?” As soon as I made it clear that they HAD to do it, one way or another, both of them settled down to their work and cranked it out. No wandering attention span, no disruptions, no frustration. Just the realization that there was no getting out of the work.
At the same time, I’ve tutored a boy who literally couldn’t stay in his seat. I spent half of the ten minute session redirecting him. “Leo, back here. Leo, what do you know about this? Leo, what’s the answer?” And this was a kid who desperately wanted to do better in class.
What seems tragic to me is that in the cases of honest-to-goodness real ADD/ADHD, the parents are reluctant to involve themselves in diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. It’s a huge, messy can of worms. The parents of children who are mis-diagnosed as ADD/ADHD seem to view the medication and diagnosis as a crutch so they don’t have to be the mean parent who sets limits and insists that their kid do their work and behave. In both cases, it’s the kids who get screwed.
When my son started school, I was praying that he took after his mother and didn’t have it(myself, my father, and probably his father all did). We did what we could to make shure that the problems he was having couldnt be something else. Unfortunately for him, he does have it, and is now on meds for it. He made the honor roll every time around this year. One of the other kids in his class(the little girl who sat behind him), took it upon her self to tap him on the shoulder and get his attention whenever she noticed he was drifting off, so he would get his work done. I think that is about the coolest thing I have ever heard a second grader doing. I know what you mean about parents trying to use meds as a crutch to fix things. They find out real quick that it doesnt work that way. We fortuneatly have a great doctor, and he started him out at a very low dosage and carefully increased it until things got manageable.
I have great hope for my son, because when I was kid the schools did not have to do anything to help kids with ADD(it was called MBD back then). Now they do, and his teachers have been more than willing to help(his first grade teacher didnt know what to do, but was willing to learn, and we loaned her a book on it).
Hi andrew and a warm welcome to the Boards. I think you have a good contribution to make here, based on what you’ve written in this thread.
One of the great strengths of this place is that among the key people, the folk who write thought-provoking material or who express an unfamiliar point of view vividly, many of them have revealed themselves as dealing with challenging illnesses or conditions.
So you are not alone with your personal challenge, and you certainly have already earned the respect of many of us.
Which is something not all of our newer posters have been able to do.
Oh listen to me, so pretentious, I sound like Father Time. I’m really just trying to say “good on you mate!” and please keep contributing.
And of course, whehter or not ADD is often misdiagnosed or the medications are unsuitable does not matter. The fact is whatever condition you say you have doesn’t entitle the listener to tell you their opinion of that illness. it’s a matter of simple courtesy, isn’t it?
Redboss
i have ADD, diagnosed a couple years ago, cant remember when. since ritalin had no real effect on me, i got off it in about fifth grade. ive learned to take advantage of the chaos the ADD imparts to my ideas and writing- gives it a bit of a flair that teachers seem to like. it may take a while for me to write anything, but it generally turns out nice- go chaos!
anyway, i only posted this just to say that, for the record, i REALLY like andrew’s Sig. it’s certainly more inventive than mine is.
How do you beat someone with freckles? And wouldn’t it be more effective to beat him with a baseball bat?
It’s more like being told that the reason you need glasses is because you’re not trying hard enough to see.
Stimulants can actually have the opposite effect on some people. On normal people it could turn them into zombies.
My biggest mental problem like that is that I focus too much. I once got in a car accident where the front end of my brothers car was smashed in completely and I briefly looked up then continued reading. I also don’t notice things like “pain” whenever I am focusing.