My ADD / ADHD Blog

Men with ADHD - Jim's Story

I never fit in as a child in school. I was constantly beaten bullied and picked on. I asked for help over and over but nothing. My parents did not care that I was in the highest 1% in aptitude tests(verbal skills lagging behind, the only exception) and my grades were terrible all the way through high school.

College was a just as bad. Only one person ever stopped to really help me. It was already too late. Some tried a little but they did not or could not take enough time. At about the end of this I knew what was wrong but it was not bad enough to force me to get real help.

After finding a carreer(pays decent) I found the stress of what should be a normal happy life getting to me from time to time. Over a lond period of years I would seek help to find out nothing they prescribed worked. I found my best years working alone in a highly dynamic high stress situation where problems had to be solved fast and I knew how to do it quite well. I can break down and analyze complex systems rapidly, I can do it walking in cold.

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Women with ADHD - Julie's Story

I could not understand the cycles. I have so many interests and what I call "brief but intense enthusiasms," so I'd get involved in a variety of projects (all good things). I'd take on too many responsibilities in each area--sometimes just because I was good at it and desperately needed to feel good about myself. I actually enjoyed these things and poured myself into them...until I got bored. I'd lose interest, procrastinate, and let other people down. Then the activities got to be too much, an overwhelming burden. Somehow everything would be due at the same time!

All of this would have been too much for anyone, let alone someone who couldn't differentiate the important from the unimportant and someone that panicked when under stress and then couldn't function at all. I'd drop the ball and let people down. I’d embarrass myself and live in a world of shame, depression and migraine headaches. I'd promise myself I would never ever let that happen again, so I'd quit everything. But the vicious cycle would soon begin again: boredom, busyness, overwhelm, procrastination, letting other people down, quitting; boredom, busyness, overwhelm, procrastination, letting other people down , quitting, etc., etc., etc.

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Men with ADHD : Mike's Story

I just finished reading the cover story on this site and he was quite a bit more well off than I was. I'm a 56 year young male who was diagnosed with Adult ADD only four years ago. So you can imagine the coping techniques I developed coming up in my childhood years, which were unfortunately not good years of my life and I would rather forget them but for the sake of all the Adult ADDer's out there this story is a must.

I come from a very dysfunctional family. My father's father was an alcoholic and beat my dad frequently. He quite school in 8th grade to help his dad. I grew up in absolute and in total fear of my father and what he might do next. He is an emotionless, empty, bitter old man. Hey, I'm here to tell the truth and if I can't do that then noone will be any better off. I can only remember from around the age of 5 and not much of that. Oh yeah, forgot, my father was a very angry person, at what or who is anybody's guess.

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Women with ADHD - Karen's Story

I'm 29 and got diagnosed last year. After years of feeling like a failure and wondering why people who were nowhere near as smart as I was were getting degrees and great jobs and houses and cars, while I waffled along still living like I did at the age of 18, I ran across an article on msn about how females with ADD tend to miss getting diagnosed because our symptoms aren't as obvious as those of males. I read it and was amazed: it described me and my life! I looked into it and practically had to FORCE my doctor to give me a referral to a psychiatrist who could diagnose me. Then I had to wait four months for the meeting with the psychiatrists.

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Men with ADHD : Greg's Story

I’m 59 years of age. I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD. This was a great relief for me as it answered many questions that had puzzled me for my entire life.

It was not until Psychiatrist no 4 that I was diagnosed. He was able to describe me and my behaviours in great detail.

I have battled all my life with an inability to focus for any length of time, inability to being a task or let alone complete it, and with a mind that was cruising at 1000kpm and permanently in overdrive, my mind was tuned to and receiving all 57 channels at the same time.

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Women with ADHD - Rhonda's Story

Like so many of you, I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, at the age of 39. It answered a lot of questions for me about my childhood, and the way I lived my life up to that point. Let me try to explain, as my story will probably sound familiar, at least to a point. It is so good to know that I am not alone, nor a freak...

I am the youngest of nine children, with only 11 years between my oldest brother and I. I have always been hyper, talkative, friendly, and extroverted. I excelled in everything that I put my mind to, and entered Kindergarten at three, and graduated at 17, half-way through my Senior year. I actually could have graduated as a Junior, but that would have given my parents three graduations in one year (my sister was held back, so was in the same grade as my older brother), even though I had enough credits. So, I just took classes I enjoyed, graduated early, and went to the Army.

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Men with ADHD : Ryan's Story

Im a 30 year old male, who has lived with ADD through all my life, and really am sick of it.

Throughout my grade school years, I had trouble with focusing in on my teachers and couldnt help day dreaming. In the first grade I was a little ahead in math, but had trouble with my reading. As time went on, I started liking reading more than math, to where I was placed in a special classroom for my math, which really hurt me with my self respect. At one time in grade school, I had many friends, but the more I had to be pulled out of my home rooms to go to the special classes, and not doing good with tests, my flow of friends, soon slowed to a trickle at best. I was teased, allot of times during my grade school, actually through out of my k-12 school years as being stupid/dumb, which also hurt my self respect.

My parents concerned with my poor math skills, and problems with organizing my notes, able to follow simple tasks, paying attention, soon had me tested, and I was diagnosed with a learning disability during my time in 3rd grade.

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Women with ADHD - Maggy's Story

As long as I can remember I was the 'emotional one" the "trouble maker", that one bad kid who never had her homework finished on time, except history class. I got only A+'s on that topic, including names, places, dates etc.

Got an IQ test when I was 12, and scored above average. It was a clear sign for teachers, parents and study leaders that I must be very lazy, have no backbone, and lack any interest in academics.

My high school diploma was a huge drama, I got a grade 10 dimploma (Europe) never graduated according to the North American requirements. I started to work and had some good paying jobs, but often felt not complete. Usually I moved on to another job since this must have bin the cause of my feelings of sadness. Often I had to listen to the stories my parents told others about their children but especially the one who was sooo difficult. I felt guilty, truly guilty for what a horrible period in their life I had given them.

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Men with ADHD : Mike's Story

I, like so many others, had a hard time concentrating in school and life. I am 24 years old now and have had a heck of a life dealing with it. Beginning from preschool and kindergarden even, my mother says that I was so eager to learn to read. I would come home every day and want to know more because I was getting bored. Eventually I got frustrated and put up a mental block and had a hard time with language arts the rest of my life. I was put into the gifted program in the first grade. I stayed in there until 7th when I chose to get pulled out because I was frustrated that I couldn't pay attention/stay on task long enough to complete tasks. I was almost failing. It only got worse when I was put in the mainstream classes because then I wasn't challenged at all. I hated school from then on.

Throughout this time I started playing music but could never stay on an instrument. I played: Violin, piano, flute, bass guitar, guitar, and percussion. I finally stayed on percussion and the guitar work. Music was my passion, my calling. Unfortunately it only was consistent a few times a year.

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Women with ADHD - Joy's Story

I am 45 and have been diagnosed with ADD for about 15 years. As a child, I was an average student, but daydreamed all the time and had a hard time finishing things and turning them in. My desk was always a mess with half-done papers, etc. I would even fake being sick so that I could go to the "sick room" and daydream! I went to college and managed to do okay, but always finished things the night before or turned them in late.

Socially, I was well-liked, but I was afraid to get too close to people, because I was pretty insecure. As for guys--I knew how disorganised and scattered I was, so I felt inadequate to ever get married. I seemed to end up with guys with problems, as this made me feel less insecure about my own! I made some bad choices following that pattern! If I was with a really great guy, I felt too "flawed" and broke up. But I still was looking for Mr. Right. I taught school for 5 years, but eventually quit because though I was good at some aspects of teaching, keeping up with grading papers and such was a disaster. I felt like I was about to be found out and fired!

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