by Vicki
ADD. It has taken me almost 5 years of therapy with numerous health
professionals to finally put a name to the problems I faced in my daily
life. I had been diagnosed from having O.C.D. and suffering severe
depression, to being hormonally imbalance, to being at the start of
menopause. My doctor has agreed that I have been misdiagnosed for many
years and that I am a classic ADD/SAD sufferer. The SAD would increase my
depressive state in winter until I was basically not functioning on any
level. To compound my problem of having ADD/SAD, I also have two children-
both girls- aged 12 & 13 and both diagnosed and medicated for ADD. Both
children suffer different experiences with their ADD. One is academically
gifted and hyperactive while her sister is slower to understand and
didn't talk till she was 4 nor did she have control of her gross motor skills
until age 5. All my life I have been labeled: Lazy, intelligent, forgetful, restless, disorganized, over sensitive, insane, mentally defective, moody, uncooperative and a non finisher of tasks. I have been married 3 times; have restarted my education 5 times; never finished a course and can never seem to stay in the same house for
longer than 6-12 months. This has caused me a great deal of pain and
anguish. The most horrifying time was when my children, at ages 3 and 4 were
taken away from me as I was considered an unfit parent that had no
control over my children and was not raising them with proper values. I
have had a long struggle in life with undiagnosed ADD as it has run my
life and I have had very little control. Can you imagine what my home is
like with 3 female ADD sufferers in it? Chaotic is the best word I can
describe it. We as a family, have never had a normal life. It has
always been one situation after another. To make matters worse, when my
children were diagnosed with ADD, I had a lot of trouble dealing with
them and coping with the situation as I would forget to give them there
tablets or forget doctors appointments or forget to refill their
prescriptions and they would go un-medicated for periods of time. I am
now medicated and have been for a week. In this time, I have finished four
jobs that I had attempted to do for almost a year. I find the medication
increases my anxiety levels sometimes but I just have to remember to
breathe. It is worth a bit of panic to feel so much better and more
organized and not so forgetful. It has been a wonderful and enlightening
time for me and my family. I don't think I could have made it without the
understanding and support of my 3rd husband. He always said I was as ADD as
my kids and maybe I should take their medication. Well he was right and
I am glad he hung in there. He can not believe the improvement in me and
how much more settled our life has become and how it feels to have some
form of routine and familiarity in our lives.