So society has given you the lovely label of having Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Congratulations! You will now be viewed by others as a person who is not capable of understanding concepts compared to the average person.
Well if you are anything like me, then you most likely deal with this on a reoccurring basis.
I was in the 6th grade when I was first diagnosis with ADHD. Honestly, I had know idea how much ADHD would impact my life. It wasn't until college I noticed that I have difficulty in paying attention for a certain amount of time. I mean academically, high school is a piece of cake compared to college. That's a given. So when it comes to having ADHD in learning, it is a constant struggle to try and pay attention to learning concepts you just do not have any interest in.
When you have ADHD, its not that you can't concentrate, its that you have to have complete silence or maybe be anywhere but on your bed to pay attention to your work. Now I will outspokenly say that anyone can pay attention to anything for a long period of time depending on how they prioritize what is being done. Let me clarify this. Anyone can take the time to pay attention to a subject in which they deem most important to them. To further explain that, if you enjoy reading about medieval English literature, then you are probably not going pay attention that much to learning about the cells of a leaf. Its prioritizing what you want to learn about.
Well if it is not already hard enough to learn something that you do not want to learn, then try imaging it being 10 times worst for a person with ADHD. Its not like we enjoy having the disorder just so we can be prescribed Adderall. This disorder effects us in a way that any thought, noise, technology, or any other distraction can interfere with our ability to complete a task. Yet that does not mean that we can't amount to anything. I mean Richard Branson is a multi-billionaire and is said to have ADHD.
My point is that although it might take a person with ADHD longer to complete a task, but it does not mean they are any less capable to make it in the world. Having ADHD just means that you have an overactive attention span that tries to pay attention to everything at once. There is nothing wrong will the disorder. In fact, its not like it really is a disorder for me. Although I have had difficult from an academic standpoint, I have also have much success on developing relationships because of ADHD.
At the end of the day, would you rather have a conversation with someone who can jump from subject to subject or have a conversation with a person with dry humor and can recite a specific line from an unpopular tv show? I think most of us would pick a the first person.
If you have ADHD, then don't let anyone EVER tell you that you won't amount to anything because who knows when the world will have another Richard Branson and it might just be you.
