I am now realizing at 22 years old that I could have been anything I wanted to be in grade school, but I let a lack of motivation and low self-esteem stop me all of which I partially blame on the ADD. However, when I started high school, I started a new medication named Adderall. At first, I could not see what it was doing to help me. But, it gave me a slight boost and helped my confidence significantly. For the first time in all of my years in school (I was a sophomore), I was passing standardized test. I even started placing in other spots besides last on my high school track team, and I even achieved honor roll. However, I needed more than that medicine, I need some guidance and my parents could not afford it, I was urged not to talk about my disorder to family and associates by parents because they would apparently sneer at me.
The problem with all of this is that I waited to see the light at the last years of my high school life. If only my parents and the teachers knew how to handle me, I probably would have a scholarship playing basketball and achieving my dreams towards being a teacher. Now, I have taken the past five years of my life post grade school to work to get in some type of college so I can become a history teacher. It is my will to want to help students that have been cast asside with ADD/ADHD and bring great attention to this disorder.
All told, I did graduate in 2003 with my high school diploma. I a regular diploma, not a special one like negative people thought I would have to earn when I was younger. The whole moral to this story is awareness of ADHD is pivotal. I will do my part in bringing awarness to it. If anyone on here would like to know of potentially benefical treatments of it, I will post a reply blog.
Walt
