Dont know if I have it. I am 18, and i have earned my way to medical college.

[phoenix16]

I can never concentrate on lectures no matter how hard I try. But I can read , and almost concentrate properly. I am having a real difficult time here in college. Cant go for diagnosis, I just cannot discuss my problems with my parents. Can anyone help?

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[shutterbug55]

College is a scary, different place. Especially if you are going to college away from home. You are now responsible for so many things your parents used to do for you. Add to that, demanding subjects, competing deadlines, and professors who assign work as if theirs is the only class you are taking. Did I sum it up OK?

If you think you have ADD, then see if your school has a psych clinic. Make an appointment and get yourself tested. I don’t know what your school’s schedule is, but take a quarter off. Testing takes a while. It takes a lot of time and energy to get the diagnosis and assimilate all the information. You might want to take some time and get some counseling in to help you develop tools to help you with your classes. Taking that time now, might save having to re-take classes or find another major.

I look at it as building a foundation. A house will not stand (for very long) unless it was built on a foundation. Most NT’s out there, have that foundation already built. We need to work on it.

Of course these are all suggestions. I did none of this, and I didn’t discover I had ADD until I was in my early 50’s.

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[phoenix16]

I had difficulty listening to lectures in high school also. Here in college ,i cannot concentrate to the slow paced teachers who are considered the best one. I never gain anything through lectures, butreading the book even once helps me pass the written test. When it comes to viva, i totally fail to give one. I know the answer but the words seem to escape my mind. I just keep to moving my hands trying to explain by hand gestures instead of speaking
Also, i have had impulsiveness almost always. I was the most talkative girl in school. I use a lot of hand gestures. Socially, i have been bullied by my friends from 7th to 9th grade, those were terrible days… Now i have learned to cope with people, but still i am always scared to meet new people. I feel so vulnerable, yeah i used to blurt out answers and my teachers hated me for this. On the top of it, i didn’t realize that they disliked me for the whole 2years. Things got better in 10 th grade when i became timid and stopped being blunt. I was good in maths and literature, and never exceled science, but my father wanted me to become a doctor so I did what he told me. Also, i never remember dates,i never completed my homework, i can get distracted during examination even, sometimes sitting in the examination hall, i lose my concentration(totally get blank) and need few minutes and something to eat to get back to what i was doing. I always get highest marks in speed and lowest in concentration/attention in the i.q test. I speak way too fast, and if someone speaks slowly with me, i’ll get impatient, or wont be able to understand him. I do nail biting(only when tensed or when nails grow too large), skin mostly face picking, also i eat plastic,again only when i am trying to think. I do fidget, and also shake my legs when i try to think. I also have difficulty with time . I can never remember time. 4months in college and i havent memorizedmy timetable, i will not know which lecture hall to go if a friend of mine is not with me even now. I daydream alot and talk to myself when alone(inherited from father) and forgetfullness i got through mother. What do you think now

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[chump]

I think you should get a professional evaluation, don’t wait!   You may be finding that college is much more challenging than high school for people who have trouble with concentration and attention.

In high school I had big trouble doing my homework but was successful because 1) I had good teachers, 2) I was very interested in most of the subjects, and 3) I had the same schedule every day and this regular schedule kept my head in the game.

So I was smart enough and interested enough to wing-it in high school, getting pulled along by the fixed daily routine and the good teachers.  But in college you have to supply your own discipline, and most professors are not trained teachers so you have to supply the questions, the dialog and the attention.

First semester of college as an engineering student was fine, worked hard in English, and all the rest was review from high school, so it didn’t matter that my engineering professers were generally not very good teachers. And I was good at focusing when I needed to to do my homework.  And what I didn’t know I could learn from the book.

Second semester was no longer review, I wasn’t smart enough or disciplined enough to learn everything from the boook, and so my bad habits of not paying attention in (or skipping) lectures caught up with me.

I was able to recover a bit my second year but by third year when the courses were tough it was a disaster (from 3.92 GPA my first semester to a 1.00 my 5th semester).  I adapted by adding a second degree (Journalism) and another year, which gave me smaller and more interesting class time and professors who where better teachers, and this also allowed me to space out my remaining engineering classes more.  But looking back, i was compensating for some serious issues and  it took a lot of good luck and a lot of pain for me to finish college.

Since then I have caused a lot of pain and frustration for me and those around me both at work and at home.  I didn’t ask for help and didn’t get diagnosed until last year, at age 49.  But I have been helped immensely by proper treatment.  It took perhaps 4 months of therapy for me to realize I had ADHD and has taken about 4 months to sort out the medication and get that working for me.

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[chump]

I think you should get a professional evaluation, don’t wait!   You may be finding that college is much more challenging than high school for people who have trouble with concentration and attention.

In high school I had big trouble doing my homework but was successful because 1) I had good teachers, 2) I was very interested in most of the subjects, and 3) I had the same schedule every day and this regular schedule kept my head in the game.

So I was smart enough and interested enough to wing-it in high school, getting pulled along by the fixed daily routine and the good teachers.  But in college you have to supply your own discipline, and most professors are not trained teachers so you have to supply the questions, the dialog and the attention.

First semester of college as an engineering student was fine, worked hard in English, and all the rest was review from high school, so it didn’t matter that my engineering professers were generally not very good teachers. And I was good at focusing when I needed to to do my homework.  And what I didn’t know I could learn from the book.

Second semester was no longer review, I wasn’t smart enough or disciplined enough to learn everything from the boook, and so my bad habits of not paying attention in (or skipping) lectures caught up with me.

I was able to recover a bit my second year but by third year when the courses were tough it was a disaster (from 3.92 GPA my first semester to a 1.00 my 5th semester).  I adapted by adding a second degree (Journalism) and another year, which gave me smaller and more interesting class time and professors who where better teachers, and this also allowed me to space out my remaining engineering classes more.  But looking back, i was compensating for some serious issues and  it took a lot of good luck and a lot of pain for me to finish college.

Since then I have caused a lot of pain and frustration for me and those around me both at work and at home.  I didn’t ask for help and didn’t get diagnosed until last year, at age 49.  But I have been helped immensely by proper treatment.  It took perhaps 4 months of therapy for me to realize I had ADHD and has taken about 4 months to sort out the medication and get that working for me.

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[Cassatt]

I remember being totally stressed trying to focus on studying and getting final papers done in university …feeling totally overwhelmed and frustrated that no matter how hard I tried I could not get the grades I wanted (unless I was SUPER interested)

and thinking if only there was a drug that would help me through this!

but then it was called “minimal brain disfunction”   and was really only looked for in boys

Go to Student Services, your family physician,etc – find out if medication may be an option and get the academic support you may need to succeed.

(Many fantastic doctors and nurses are ADHD – don’t give up your dreams)

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[gianmaria]

Hi phoenix16

I’d also try to get a proper diagnosis.

Don’t be afraid to be inquisitive about it with whoever you manage to get an appointment with.

(actually a good Psych/counselor will be inquisitive as well, won’t rule anything out and will give a diagnose only when there is strong evidence to support it)

I’d like to know why discussing it with your family is so out of the question.

If you want proper screening, it is likely that you’ll have to involve them as well, especially to document your behaviour in early childhood.
If you are just afraid of how they may react, well… this site provides a lot of tutorials for such situations. And give them the chance to surprise you positively.

If there are other issues, well, you best discuss these issue with a counselor.

On a personal note, I had also issues to adapt to university, but I wasn’t in college, I’ve studied in the same town I used to live in with my parents so I wasn’t totally on my own.

I had to come up with several strategies to help me through it. And even if the grades were excellent, it stayed hard all the way through.

(My underachievment started right after university ;-))

good luck and keep us posted.

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