First off for those of you that don't know what ADD is, it is Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is very common among children, and I was one of those and still am today. I was diagnosed with ADD in 7th or 8th grade. My parents made me go to a neurologist because completing homework, chores, or anything for that matter was very difficult. I went in and had a bunch of tests done like the one where you watch a black screen on a computer and then a red dot will appear and you have to click the screen when you see the dot, and so many others. Even getting these articles done is still hard for me.
I was given Riddlin after being diagnosed. Now I am not a huge fan of taking medicine unless its Advil or something when I'm sick. This medicine was gonna have to be taken every day that I was at school or doing work, so basically six out of seven times a week. When I took it for the first time, my mind was literally all over the place and I was super hyper. It wasn't something I was super happy about. I was in class and I still couldn't focus like they said I would be. My grades didn't get any better that year either so my medicine got changed to Adderall.
Things got better, but not like I wanted them to. I was put on medicine by my parents because they thought that it would help me focus more in school. It been working for me since I switched. My grades went up my senior year and everything ended perfectly.
When I got to college I realized how hard it was. I was sitting in the library one night and they have the desktop computers and the keyboard was super loud. That key board sound was taking all of my attention away from studying. It was driving me crazy. The little things would bother me to my core. If someone was tapping their pen on the lower level or anything along those lines, I would lose my mind. Thats what life was like without my meds. I couldn't focus on anything ever even in my own dorm room. Its like no matter how much I wanted to focus on something like homework my brain wouldn't let me.
When I took my med for classes I could never take them past 11am because it takes 45 minutes to kick in then it last for about 8 hours, don't quote me on that though. I would take it before breakfast then go to class and by then it was working. On Thursdays I only had one class and it ended around 11 so when I was done I could go back to my room and get all of my work done easily. When I would take it on the weekends and I didn't have homework, I always had the overwhelming urge to clean everything. My roommate witnessed me many times just cleaning everything in the room.
I wasn't educated on ADD at all really. So I didn't know the things that could happen when people take it. I found out that one of my friends had ADD as well and she took tests in a different room with "no distractions". I had no idea that ADD was a serious enough that you could get extra testing time or something like that. I never felt the need to do things like that.
The annoying thing that comes with having ADD and people knowing about it. If you take meds people will ask you for them. I have had many people ask me for just one or even half a pill just so they can finish a paper. I said no every time. If it isn't obvious already, don't give your meds to other people. Before I got the okay for meds, I had to have an EKG, and an MRI.
These tests get done for a reason so don't give them to others. I don't use ADD as special treatment ever because to me I don't think that there needs to be unless its extreme cases or someone that wants it.
To me, having ADD just means that I learn differently that others. It doesn't make me special or get me special treatment, it's just something that I have to cope with.
