Re: Can you have ADHD but still excel scholastically?

[Anonymous]

YES ABSOLUTELY GO FOR IT! even despite tremendous obstacles EMPOWER YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!

I tried to read through most of this thread but AGHHHH why do we the ADD afflicted ramble on in writing and speech so often? Well, my turn eh?

I have a BA in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College with an Emphasis declared in Counseling Psychology. I graduated in 2005. I am 35 now and planning to go back for an MSW. I consider my life a tremendous success and school/education is the key.

In grade school I went to 20+ schools – no that’s not hyperbole! In almost every one I was in “behavioral” classrooms. I fought like a rabid bear against bullies on the schoolyard or in the neighborhood, and many-many-many times in the classrooms during lessons. I was a very lean and mean little kid if you picked on me – which was nearly everyone – or so I felt. I even broke into and burglarized a house at 5 years old because I was mad at the neighbor kid for picking on me. I tried to commit suicide that same year by running out in front of a car at night (so you think YOU’RE impulsive eh?). Hey folks I am FULL THROTTLE WIDE OPEN ADHD COMBINED TYPE. I was first diagnosed in 3rd grade by a pediatrician (he was cool – he was funny and could throw a tongue depressor into the trash from across the exam room). He put me on “Dextroamphetamine” aka speed or pink hearts, and back in the 70’s I think it was a main ingredient in diet pills (DexaTrim). My mom was way into Dr. Shackley’s products as my grandmother was a distributor of this multilevel marketing firm’s products. They specialized in organic stuff before it became the cool thing to do. Anyway, Mom was terrified of me having negative side effects from the drug like “stunted growth” and took me off after a very short trial. I don’t remember what it was like – all I have left is “swiss cheese” in my memory banks due to alot of trauma back then. Seriously I had a very rough childhood – not enough time to share that. Mom was even afraid of Fluoride toothpaste! OH and the sugar restriction was UNBEARABLE. I remember going so totally desperate for access to candy it drove me to door to door labor to earn money from my neighbors mowing lawns and other odd jobs. That work was actually very good for me though.

After Mom took me off the meds the school took me out of the classroom – literally. After 3rd grade (wait was it 2nd grade?), I was not back into “normal” classrooms (it called integrated education) until 9th grade. I went to 4 different high schools by the time I got to the one i finally dropped out of at 18. at age 20 I got a GED (I aced reading and comprehension, got a good score in nearly everything – I was shocked at how smart I was) so I could go to a Portrait/Commercial Photographer course at a local technical school. I enrolled one quarter late but the y let me in anyway. After the quarter was up the instructor told me: Mike I’m giving you a choice, either I’ll give you an F or no credit – what’s your choice? He informed me that I was “too creative” and needed to go to the Art Institute of Seattle to study art photography. Furthermore, the purpose of his program was to teach people how to take pictures as an occupation. There were certain “rules” of this occupation that must be followed, and I was not following them. All of my submissions were worthless in his program – “too creative”. I left after that (took the no credit option – wise choice).

I didn’t return to school until I was 24, broke, and eligible for financial aid after spending an inheritance intended to pay for my college of choice (it was over $100,000 and I still regret spending it).

I was fired from ACE Hardware after 1 year of faithful employment – I was late the third time in 12 months and the third offense was actually literally on daylight savings/spending day. I was off by an hour in my internal clock. They called me and asked where I was, and I was like “I’m getting ready to come in what’s up?” Uhhhh mike your already late it’s…. ARhhhhh!

I was fired on the spot after sprinting 2 miles from my house to work.

Within the same week I remembered that I could go to school now because I had no money left (i grew up dirt poor on welfare and got money from my trust fund to live off of from 18 to about 22 ). I decided to go to my local community college and sign up.

So i got signed up for community college, took classes like Reading and Writing Improvement (didn’t need to because I tested into English 101 but was too scared to take that the first quarter) , College Success 101, and weight training (exercise helps me study). I was still wading through some intense mental trauma and disorder left over from my first 15 years of life, so school was a powerful maturing experience. I really blossomed in college. I developed a voracious appetite for psychology and social work (go figure eh?). This came from a coping mechanism i used before going to college: I often went to the library and studied my way out of depressive episodes and panic attacks – I read alot of stuff about personality psychology and then the fire just spread to the rest of my brain. Next thing I knew I was signing up for any Psychology class i could get my pen on.

I transferred to TESC while 10 credits short of an AA. Who needs it I figured – yah well… it would have been nice considering i DID walk in graduation ceremony… Oh yeah I went to the community college when I was 20 and paid for it myself but then walked out and never came back to class. That pulled my GPA down to a 3.45 rather than 3.55 (honors – sigh – no cords for me!). Ok so back to Olympia – TESC. I graduated in 2005 (we geoducks don’t assign “grades” we wrote evaluations instead).

OK I have been writing too long; some of your attention spans are hanging on by a thread just like me by this point so I am going to stop my rant now. Thanks for reading. I have lot’s of fun stories like this – all true too. I feel like a walking miracle every day yet life is a constant struggle with ADD. Thus I am here reaching back to you as you reach out to me. Welcome me – welcome you.

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