can I! My name is Michelle, I am 28, and there is not one part
of my life that is not affected by Attention Deficit Hyper Activity
Disorder ( I feel like I'm at a 12 step program). You see, I am an
adult with ADHD, my 7 year old son is ADHD, and I am a special education
teacher who mainly teaches students with Behavior and Learning
Disabilities (can you say LOTS OF ADHD/ADD).
Now, where to begin, there are sooooooo many parts to my story, and
being ADHD I won't sit here that long to tell the whole thing. I guess
then, I will focus on myself. Flash back to a time when Ritalin had
just came onto the market, and a doctor tells my 21year old mom that her
daughter is HYPER and needs to take this new WONDER DRUG. She declined
the good doc to fear of unknown side affects. After being held back in
first grade, being tested for being EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED, and dealing
with family disfuction 101,201, and 301; I entered my adolescence.
During my twelfth year of like and the onset of puberty; I tried to
take my own life ( yes, it was a feeble attempt at recognition, which
there was none). Then came the drugs, sex, rock -n-roll, and you know
the rest... However, in my 5 minute of attention span and residual
delirium I managed to graduate with a 3.3 gpa. All of the time my
mother swore something WAS JUST WRONG with me. This information was not
any surprise to me.
By God's good grace I went 2, 000 miles away from college, to get myself
"together". There I did fairly well, until I began have fainting
attacks. When I went to a Neurologist for testing and told him of
"LOSING PARTS OF MY LIFE". He blamed everything on the stress of doing
poorly in my Physical Science class. I new he was full of how was!
Now fast forward through a lot of other ADHD life choices to the birth
of my son ( who was DIFFERENT interuterial), through being to experience
failure in my teacher career due to disorganized, overly "flexible",
unstructured approach to teaching, to my daughters' seventh month of
life. When , she was burned over 10% of her body from my heated
curling iron, because I "lost track" of what I was doing. THAT WAS
IT!!! I had suspected by now that I was an adult with ADHD and I was
going to do SOMETHING ABOUT IT! I made an appointment with a doctor to
be tested right after my daughter got out of the hospital. The tests
all come back "significantly" in favor of my having Attention Deficit
Hyper Activity Disorder. It has been 1 year of medicating myself and my
son with Ritalin, and I can't begin to explain how it has helped me. I
have seen so much personal growth in myself EVEN I'M IMPRESSED! With my
experiences as a person with, mother of, and teacher of people with
ADHD I have even become our local Ritalin poster child. By the way,
before a year ago, I was anti-medication therapy.