Re: I think I have it but they don't. What do you think about that ?

[Patte Rosebank]

Chere Niwa,

From what you say, it definitely appears that you have ADHD. Especially if your brother was diagnosed with it, and your mother seems to have it.

I suspect that you had those symptoms before the age of 7, but nobody noticed them. Girls with ADHD are often not diagnosed correctly because when they are little, they are more quiet. They don’t make trouble in school, so teachers don’t think the girls have a problem. They just think the girls are very good. Boys with ADHD are more likely to be hyperactive and disruptive. Teachers think this is a problem, so they give their attention to those boys.

Your list describes me too. In school, I was always very quiet and studious, but if I had the answer, or a relevant story to tell, I’d raise my hand, desperate to tell the class. But when I was not in school, I was very excitable and hyper.

I can spend hours at a computer. This is called “hyperfocus”, and people with ADHD can do it very well, if the task or subject is very interesting to us. But when we become bored with it, we leave it, even if it is not finished. I have many things that are not finished.

Before my diagnosis, I was often very tired, and did not sleep well. My doctor thought I had depression, and then he thought that I had mild bipolar. A few months ago, I found out about ADHD, and when I took the tests, I scored very high. I realized that I was tired because I was struggling to fit into a “normal” world, and because my thoughts kept racing so much that I could not sleep well. And when you are struggling by day, and cannot sleep at night, you will be very tired!

There is much new information about ADHD. Many doctors do not keep their knowledge current, so they do not know this new information. And they do not fully believe what patients tell them. But if your brother and your mother both go with you to the clinic and tell the doctor about the things you did when you were little, and about their own symptoms, the doctor will recognize that you have ADHD too. It is a genetic condition. My mother has symptoms of ADHD, that are worse than mine. But if my doctor had just looked at my school report cards from when I was very young, he would not have seen any evidence that I had ADHD.

Bonne chance!

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