I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, also known as A.D.D., when I was 12-years-old. I was in sixth grade at the time and that was around the time where classes were beginning to get more difficult. I was having trouble keeping up in math class and even paying attention when I was getting help from my tutor. I became so bad and noticeable that my tutor was the one that had finally brought up the issue to my parents. I never noticed it because it was just normal for me. No one actually enjoys being in school so I figured that it was just the way that every one was. I figured that everybody day dreams, especially in school.
My math tutor at the time would help me about once a week for whatever chapter in our math book that we were learning about. She was very helpful in making sure that I kept up and understood what was being taught to me. She had a breaking point though. One day it was just becoming so obvious that I was non-stop daydreaming or not listening to what she was trying to teach me.I was definitely made aware that I didn’t seem to be paying attention to her. She became worried and decided to bring it up to my parents after our session. She suggested that I may have attention deficit disorder.
My parents have five kids and three of us ended up with type one diabetes, including me, but none of their kids had a learning disability. I was the first one. A.D.D. is very common but my parents have never had to deal with it before. Immediately, my mom scheduled me to get tested for it at Nemours DuPont Hospital in Delaware. I wasn’t really sure what was going on or why I had to sit in a room with some random woman that I had never met before. All I knew was that she was asking me a whole lot of questions and she was going over a lot of assignments with me like ones that I would get in school.
As far as I can remember, that was the longest day of my life. I was in that room for a good five to seven hours, I think. Sitting at a table and being absolutely grilled with every subject that I was learning in school. From English to math to social studies to science. We went over everything by her reading me the directions and I would have to answer all of the questions on the assignment being given to me. I have never been so tired in my entire life. I can’t really remember what we did after all of those tests but I think that is because I fell asleep as soon as I hit the seat in my parents car. To this day, that was the most exhausting day I have ever went through and that is considering taking the SAT’s.
Some days went by and we finally received the results. It was clear that I had A.D.D.. My parents sat me down and talked to me about it and I was understanding about it. It has been apart of my life since then. I have had to take medication for it to keep me focused such as concerta, vyvanse and other medications that are in the same category as adderall. I started taking those in sixth grade and continued to take them until about halfway through my junior year in high school when I decided that I did not like some of the affects that the medications had on me.
Since then, I have been off of them. Would I be doing better in my classes if I was still on one of those medications? Most likely yes but I still prefer to just keep up in school without it. It is hard to deal with how much I procrastinate things at times but I would rather be myself and not have to rely on the medicine that I could get prescribed.
