Be ready for a rant, kids.
Surprise, yet no surprise, for people who don't know me; I have ADHD! In movies, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is most commonly portrayed as the kid who is constantly jiggling his leg in class, staring out the window, and has failing grades. Although this may be the case for some people, it is not the case for all of us suffering so society needs to stop looking at us in that way.
There is one thing I immediately want to get out of the way as well; if you cannot focus in class, it does not mean you have ADD/ADHD. It may simply mean you are bored out of your mind or just don't want to pay attention, not because you physically can't. Personally, I find it offensive when people joke about having ADD/ADHD because they miss something the teacher said. I want to learn and I want to hear what the teacher is saying, but I cannot help it if my mind wanders.
There are many other misconceptions about ADD and ADHD that need to be cleared up as well. Another mistake people make is thinking that adderall is the best medication for someone who is suffering from ADD. Although it can help, it has far too many side effects that make taking it worth it. It makes you feel like a zombie. Depending on the amount of milligrams, it makes you so concentrated that it might make you space out more than ever. The medication is also a nutritional disaster. It makes you not hungry whatsoever, and then once the medication wears off you'll eat everything in your kitchen. It is definitely not a good time to start a diet to say the least.
Lastly, the biggest myth about ADD/ADHD that people believe is that someone with the disorder(s) is stupid or slower than the rest. We can be just as smart, or even smarter, than the other kids in the same class. My weakest subject in high school was English. I was still in a regular English course but for some reason I just struggled. I would have to stay after weekly not because the class was that hard, but because some kids with ADHD (and even some without) need the different way of learning in order to be taught the material correctly. I'm personally more of a visual learner, which is why math is my strongest subject, so having a teacher talk about a subject I could not physically see half the time made the process of learning something twice as slow. And although I would get the other method, it would still take me some time to process it. So even though I was not the best in English, I still excel in math compared to my other peers. We all have our strength and weaknesses like a lot of other people, which do not make us any more "dumb.
Because I am diagnosed with ADHD, I'm defensive about the topic because I want to get the facts straight, especially if I have the personal experience, not because I'm sensitive.
