Personal Narrative: Dealing With ADHD

Did you know that Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity disorder is a very common mental illness, there is up to 3 million cases of adhd a year in the united states alone. ADHD is a serious mental illness and can cause many problems to your health. Such as compulsive eating, low self-esteem, substance abuse, anxiety, and chronic stress. ADHD can also affect your surroundings as well, you may lose attention in important lectures or mess up on a quiz, and it can make you misunderstand a situation socially and that can cause problems within relationships. ADHD seems to affect not only your mental health but your physical health and your relationships around you as well. After finding this information, I believe that ADHD is underdiagnosed in

Being a child with ADD I found school to be very challenging even at an early age. My first year of high school was a big leap from elementary and middle school. It was very hard for me to get use to the tests and work that were given to me. During that time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and that made it very difficult for me to really want to do well in school. Once freshmen year past I went on a trip to Europe which changed everything for me after that I knew I wanted to do something with international travel. I heard about a family friend who was involved in international business and how he got to travel everywhere and at that moment he was living in Brazil. To me that was everything and I had found my goal. I started to do better

Attention Deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopment psychiatric disorder which affects the executive functions of the body. For many people suffering from the disorder, they have issues with paying attention to a particular issue for a long period. They also exhibit signs of hyperactivity and impulsiveness which is not in line with an individual’s age (NIH, 2014). The symptoms of the disease normally occur in the children aged between six to twelve and have to persist for approximately six months for a diagnosis to be made. Many school going children that suffer from ADHD develop symptoms such as lack of attention which normally lead to poor performance in their tests and exams. Many people do not know the implications of having ADHD and for some the cases go undetected for a long period (ADHD Health, n.d). There are those individuals that do not suffer from the disease but since the medication enables one to have more concentration on an issue, they abuse the drug for their benefits. Before I was diagnosed with the disease, my parents could not understand my poor performance and I could not understand why it was so hard for me to concentrate in class no matter how hard I tried. The dismal results that I continued to display in school and lack of attention even when I was at home made my parents take me to the hospital for tests that indicated that I suffer from ADHD. For me, I did not quite understand how this happened but I was put on medication that

Society demands more from a person than it has ever before. Day by day, people move at a lightning pace to keep themselves afloat in a never ending sea of tasks and goals. For individuals with ADD, managing to keep their own personal boat on course is difficult. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is a condition where a person may have trouble focusing, sitting still, or performing day to day executive functions. To those affected, everything is interesting and prioritizing objectives become an afterthought. Several kids are placed on medications in order to combat distraction. While there is no known definite cause of ADD, there has been significant increase in people diagnosed

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is a neurobehavioral development disorder diagnosed by a number of symptoms. ADHD cannot be diagnosed until seen by a doctor. There is no simple test for ADHD, however there is a standardize way that ADHD is diagnosed. For someone to be diagnosed with ADHD the person must have six inattention and six hyperactive impulsive behavior for it least six months. To a degree where it’s inconsistent with development level and that negatively impacts directly on social, academic and occupational activities. There is a number of symptoms such as fidgetiness individuals with ADHD have. Unfinished

Being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder has been a major obstacle and inspiration for me. I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder when I was in first grade; from that time through high school I received services and medication to alleviate its effects. The day I entered college as a first year student I stopped taking that medication and I have never used the services offered at the Office of Students with Disabilities. My goal was to succeed in college on my own. My experiences with my disability have influenced to become a teacher.

I had always been the quiet kid in school, when I was a young boy I was prescribed with ADHD medication. I was consistently quiet and soft spoken, always keeping my mind on my work. As I grew older kids at school found out about my conditions and I had altercations with them on the playground. After these incidents I became more aware of what the medicine was doing to me and I began to have headaches and feel like a zombie all of the time. I requested to my mother that she would take me off of the pills and she said it was not a good idea. I began to avoid taking them whenever I could, I would take a cup of water and drink it with the pill in my mouth and have it lodged in the side to spit out later after my mother walked away. I began to feel

Salt water droplets tickling my cheeks as they make their way down to my empty heart. I always knew something was off about me, but I didn’t know exactly what it was. That is until fourth grade when I found out that I had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD for short. At first I didn’t want to accept that I had something wrong with me, even though it’s always been there. I would read a short passage fluently, but as soon as one of my teachers asked me what I just read, I totally forgot. You hear people being diagnosed with ADHD every year, and you may not think that it's a big deal, but when a disorder like this affects the way you learn and comprehend things, it turns into one.

This last year has been a rough one for me, mentally and physically. The beginning of the school year I was dealing with some medical issues, which were preventing me from attending my classes. It’s a gastral and thyroid problem that causes me to vomit frequently. I have been having this problem for the last year or so, but it had been progressively getting more intrusive. I'd wake up every morning either light headed or nauseous. Some days I would power through it and go to classes; others I could barely pull myself out of bed. I have a very independent personality, so I didn’t go to the doctor until it got significantly worse. I have attached a copy of my discharge papers from the hospital. My health is still an issue I am dealing with, but I am taking medication and have a health plan in place with my doctor. So far I have yet to experience the vomiting that was once a daily occurrence.

One of the most difficult things I have ever Experienced has been My ADHD and when I was younger I had a hard time controlling my bowels. This was the cause of a lot of ridicule throughout my life and had built up a lack of confidence. The Problems were even at home, although my parents were and are very supportive my siblings were not as kind. My older brother had made me feel almost worthless and when my younger brother started to mock me it destroyed me I didn't like feeling like I was lower than my younger brother I wanted to be his role model. There were also problems at school it had effected my school work I wasn't able to perform to the best of my ability which left me feeling dumb and when I had to constantly go to Doctors appointments

There are certain criteria’s that can be described inside of a family’s home with one that is dealing with ADHD. Chronic behavioral symptoms of inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity are certain criteria’s that takes effect (Tannock, R. 1998). A lot of people use the line “Oh I am ADHD”. Honestly they are not, and it isn’t nice that they think being ADHD is a great disability to have. That’s even if they know that having it is a disability. It takes someone who has been diagnosed with ADHD to actually understand what someone goes through. I can state this fact because I am ADHD; I was diagnosed when I was 5 years old. The teacher told my mother not to return me to school till they find something that can keep me keep stable at all times.

This is problematic because many patients diagnosed with ADHD have a very mild case, and may not experience clinically significant impairment (Merten et al., 2017; Thomas, Mitchell, & Bastra, 2013). Since the DSM-IV and DSM-5 mention clinically significant impairment in their inclusionary criteria for mental illnesses, all healthcare professionals should focus on the degree of impairment their patients experience as a result of their ADHD symptoms when making a diagnosis. In the future, psychologists should work with the American Psychiatric Association when writing the DSM-6 to ensure that ADHD’s diagnostic criteria is more exclusive by emphasizing the degree to which a person’s functioning is impaired by ADHD symptoms (Bruchmüller, Margraf, & Schneider, 2012). Doing this may lead to more accurate diagnoses of patients with a potential ADHD diagnosis, which will ultimately lead to better diagnostic treatment and healthcare services (Gualtieri & Johnson, 2005). More exclusive criteria should help to reduce to risk of over-diagnosing children with

Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, otherwise known as ADHD, is the most common psychiatric condition effecting 9.5% of school-aged children in the United States (intuniv, 2013). If the disorder goes untreated, it will cause more long-term side effects and difficulties for the individual as an adult. Adults who have this condition face several adversities in every day life, such as impulsive behavior, low self-esteem and poor work performance. People are not aware of the complications that come with ADHD in adults. Not knowing the symptoms of the disease can cause people to not be sympathetic when they are interacting with someone with disorder.

“Rachel has trouble focusing in the classroom and staying awake” is a sentence that has been plastered on my school report cards since I was 7, and it clearly addresses concern about both of my disorders. Narcolepsy and ADHD.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.