Do you remember your inital reactions/feelings/thoughts when someone put a name to all of your "odd" behaviours?

I remember when I intially heard learning diability, I was kind of relieved. All throughout school I really did feel like I had to work ten times harder than everyone else around me, just to produce mediocore results. And there was this constant struggle I had with myself. I "felt" smart if that makes any sense, but clearly I wasn't because well.. just look at my grades! :( :p And I really told myself I should just accept my limits and move on...

And then when my counsellor said those three little letters..

Doing some google searches.. tried half a dozen tests.. have you ever had any of your friends & family try those tests for ADD along with you? My friends would all get very low scores. Me? I'd get like high, super high scores.

I managed to get a copy of that book "you mean I'm not lazy, crazy or stupid" but that title really does sum up what I felt.

Were you surpurised? Were you relieved? Were you dumbfounded? :p :confused: Never in a million years did I ever think I had ADD. Learning disability maybe, but ADD?

Thoughts?

When I found out, I already knew...if that make's sense.:rolleyes: It was like "aha!" I knew I was different all through school. Just didn't work hard enough, wasn't driven unless it was interesting. Those classes I got A's in! The rest, eh. So, when I officialy told, I was relieved, mad, sad, ****ed, dissapointed, :faint: , all in one messy bundle!

I thought of all the missed opprotunites and lack of support growing up. I'm from a very dysfunctional family and growing up was survival of the fittest. Everyone for themselves....ugh. For 33 years I struggled with myself, not liking this impulsive person who couldn't keep track of crap! BTW, I've even lost my wedding rings. That still makes me sick! So, now that I know, I'm "attempting" to get a hold of this thang. I say "attempting" b/c this is soo much bigger than me. I like being able to vent here. Thanks to everyone who reads and responds. I only hope to help someone else as well....

When I found out, I already knew...if that make's sense.:rolleyes: It was like "aha!" I knew I was different all through school. Just didn't work hard enough, wasn't driven unless it was interesting. Those classes I got A's in! The rest, eh. So, when I officialy told, I was relieved, mad, sad, ****ed, dissapointed, :faint: , all in one messy bundle!

I thought of all the missed opprotunites and lack of support growing up. . For 33 years I struggled with myself, not liking this impulsive person who couldn't keep track of crap! BTW, I've even lost my wedding rings. That still makes me sick! So, now that I know, I'm "attempting" to get a hold of this thang. I say "attempting" b/c this is soo much bigger than me. I like being able to vent here. Thanks to everyone who reads and responds. I only hope to help someone else as well....ditto, I was exactly the same ...:o

Do you remember your inital reactions/feelings/thoughts when someone put a name to all of your "odd" behaviours?

I remember when I intially heard learning diability, I was kind of relieved. All throughout school I really did feel like I had to work ten times harder than everyone else around me, just to produce mediocore results. And there was this constant struggle I had with myself. I "felt" smart if that makes any sense, but clearly I wasn't because well.. just look at my grades! :( :p And I really told myself I should just accept my limits and move on...

And then when my counsellor said those three little letters..

Doing some google searches.. tried half a dozen tests.. have you ever had any of your friends & family try those tests for ADD along with you? My friends would all get very low scores. Me? I'd get like high, super high scores.

I managed to get a copy of that book "you mean I'm not lazy, crazy or stupid" but that title really does sum up what I felt.

Were you surpurised? Were you relieved? Were you dumbfounded? :p :confused: Never in a million years did I ever think I had ADD. Learning disability maybe, but ADD?

Thoughts?
Best day of my life; it felt like a confirmation of everything, a culmination of effort and a beginning. I'm different from some, I see ADD/ADHD as an affirmation of a huge amount of untapped potential that only took on a life when I took control of mine. From that point on, my life changed completely, for the better. How did I feel? Psyched! ;)

Best day of my life; it felt like a confirmation of everything, a culmination of effort and a beginning. I'm different from some, I see ADD/ADHD as an affirmation of a huge amount of untapped potential that only took on a life when I took control of mine. From that point on, my life changed completely, for the better. How did I feel? Psyched! ;)
Hey Buffalo, How did you take control? I really feel in control a fraction of the time, but the rest.... It's just so overwhelming to me to deal w/ it all. It just seems like now that I know, I should 'control' it. Or, should I just let go... IT seems easier to just relax,but there's that "mask" thang. (from another thread)
:faint:

I felt a sense of relief when I figured out for myself that this was probably what I had. I'd spent a long time trying to figure out what it was, and almost wondering if I was a hypochondriac in the process. So I finally realized that these were exactly my problems, that this explanation fit like nothing else ever had, and it was a good feeling for a while just because I didn't have to keep looking for whatever was wrong with me. Then when I was officially diagnosed I had a lot of mixed feelings, because there was a sense of finality to it. This was something I had and it wasn't going to go away. My boyfriend and I laid in bed the evening I was diagnosed and just hugged and talked and I cried a bit.

I've had a lot of different feelings about it since, mostly on the negative side, but it's also good to know what the problem is, because you can't fix anything if you don't know what's broken. And I feel like I understand myself better now, although I'm getting to know myself all over again. I've gone back through a lot of things that have happened and looked at them again in a different light, and with a different sense of understanding. I feel more able to forgive myself for a lot of things now because I understand the cause better.

My situation was slightly different. I was diagnoised as a child - took ritalin for 5 years but my parents decided not to continue treatment.

When i reached the age of 28 - my life just seemed to keep getting worse with alot of ADHd type symptoms and i was diangoised again.

I don't speak to my mother but when my sister told her what i had she repsonded with yah we knew that.

My 2nd diagnosis, the one i was aware of made me feel cheated. My parents never thought it important enough to enlighten me with the fact i had ADHd, even though i struggled.

Now im happy as punch

How did I feel? Utterly shocked. My self concept was based on qualities which seemed to me the opposite of ADD (I didn't know much about ADD except for the way it manifested itself in pre-adolescent boys who were my students). But as has been pointed out to me many times, I am incompetent at self-perception. When my pdoc gave me a little folder, and I read the symptoms in the folder, I thought "Oh" and then I cried.


But ever since then, I think every so often, "Nah, I'm just lazy, crazy (well, I know I'm crazy) not trying hard enough or suffering from early (well, not that early anymore)onset Ahlzeheimer's."

I played back my life from my earliest memory and found that all those little stupid things i have done - which made me stand out - didn't happen because i'm weird or stupid. I have ADHD and it's OK with me. And i also want to say that I..... oh look, a cat!

I played back my life from my earliest memory and found that all those little stupid things i have done - which made me stand out - didn't happen because i'm weird or stupid. I have ADHD and it's OK with me. And i also want to say that I..... oh look, a cat!My Hubby will jokingly say to me when I'm 'off someplace else'... "Oh, saw a butterfly, didn't ya?":D

My son always says when I change topics abruptly, "Oooh, look, there goes a bright shiny thingy." He has no repect for his aged mother -- shocking, isn't it?

most say its a dormy momnt oh he hes gose again about something noraml they find it funny ....when a rush ofve ideas go though my head lol......ohhhh pigs can fly look over >>>>there lol dormy yeh with a rocket pake on there back ;.))))

I was glad to finally figure it out and not believe I was crazy.
But I also feel like a failure.

Hey Buffalo, How did you take control? I really feel in control a fraction of the time, but the rest.... It's just so overwhelming to me to deal w/ it all. It just seems like now that I know, I should 'control' it. Or, should I just let go... IT seems easier to just relax,but there's that "mask" thang. (from another thread)
:faint:
Hi thewfh!
I think I understand what you mean by the "mask", kind of stifling yourself a bit. When I was diagnosed, it wasn't a surprise, but it was a metaphorical opening of a door that I needed to make changes in my life. The most important thing for me in the beginning was to sit down and make concrete goals for myself that I wanted to achieve. I already had a good idea what the "speedbumps" were that I was encountering, but for every road that has one, theres always another path to choose to get to the goal. Sometimes you have to pave that path yourself, but its that way for anything worth striving for. I was overwhelmed too. Many times, I sat paralyzed, with a million things to do but no knowledge or motivation to do anything but think about what wasn't getting done. I wanted to be in complete control, and yet, as much as I tried to control things, I was out of control and out of touch with my own resources. You are exactly right, letting go was what I did. I said to myself "ok, I can't do all of this, and i'm no longer willing to expect myself to do so, so I choose to pick something, figure out the steps I needed to take to achieve it, and also (most importantly) decide if any of the steps needed to be adjusted to fit the way I work. I guess it was more or less a customization of my process of achievement and it works wonders!

Thanks for the reply... Ever since I posted, I thought about my 'letting go' comment. Your responce makes sense to me. I've been frustrated w/ myself for a long time. Even before diagnosis... I actually had accepted myself and worked on changing the things I didn't like about myself. (my undiganosed ADD symptoms; foot-in-mouth, impulsiveness...) But ever since I was diagnosed 3 years ago, I think I regressed or maybe I'm focusing too hard on all those things I still don't like about myself. I need to learn to "let go" again and focus on one thing at a time. I accepted myself before but I've forgotten how. Now isn't that an ADD moment!..another post..:o

I was 4 years and the Doctor I had called it the "Hyperactive Child Syndrome" he was old and in 1984 I think it was ADD with hyperactivity and when he said that I remember the defiant child routine and the two of us exchanged looks that would if it were a scene on TV it'd probably have the stand off music playing like in the old westerns. The War had just begun

I watched this movie called "thumbsucker" where this boy didn't do so good in school and he was diagnosed with ADD and i thought "hmmm that kinda sounds like me" so i went to my mom and mentioned it and she said "it could be that you have it" so i went to see my psychiatrist and yeah it turned out that i had it and i remember "ahhh now i know why i suck so bad in school"