Hello I know I lot of you are like me and didn't realize you were ADD until you were an adult, or maybe you didn't want to admit it. For me I have always known I just never thought it applied to me because I am not hyperactive. But recently after my 2nd daughter was born a year ago I found I couldn't keep up with everything in my life now that I had another kid. Before her I had always coped.Things were getting worse. I couldn't keep my house clean, I couldn't get up, I was late to work. I was constantly loosing things including important things:my wallet,keys, credit cards, my hearing aids(I have bad ears). some of the things I lost cost me and my family thousands of dollars(hearing aids). I was also catching it from everyone at work about all my mistakes including maybe being demoted or even fired. I realized it was time to get help. so I did.

I want to know what made you go and get treatment. What was your breaking point?

i am in my last semester at school, (my 6th year). between the adhd and seasonal affective disorder/depression i can't get anything done. and there's a lot to do because it needs to be done, and because i always take on too much. i am usually very 'productive' though my work is always rushed and only thought through to a certain level. the seasonal affecticve disorder depression is really bad this year especially combined with the adhd. i was just getting overwhelmed with not being able to do things, mainly work/school, which is design/illustration and which i love, so it's odd for me to not have a desire to do it. i have always felt like there was something very physical that was stopping me from reaching my potential. and it needs to not be an issue now, more than ever. also, the anxiety that goes along with all of it. i get worked up and can't handle myself. i'll stop babbling now.

Well, I was always a classic underachiever (high IQ! high test scores! so much potential! but inexplicably terrible grades). Of course, in those days people didn't think girls could have ADD so I was just told I was a spaz, a space cadet, unmotivated, etc.. I did just enough to get thru school, dropped out of college (twice), and started working. Oddly enough, I did very well at work (I do fine if I have a lot of external structure and if there are clear consequences for screwing up, i.e., getting fired). Though I was a champion job jumper (got bored and would move on every eighteen months or so).

After my first daughter was born, it was rough adjusting to staying home, but I did OK probably because my daughter was the world's most predictable baby. She liked to be fed and to nap at the exact same times every day, and was remarkably insistent on me conforming to her schedule -- so that gave my day enough structure for me to handle cooking, cleaning, etc.. Then I decided to increase the challenge by having another child, and baby #2 pretty much put me right over the edge. She was the worlds' most random infant -- never had any idea when she'd be tired or hungry or whatever -- and my older one had become the world's most terrible two year old, and the mess, chaos, and constant screaming left my nearly homicidal. I was diagnosed as having post-partum-depression, and put on Zoloft which made me gain fifteen pounds but did little else. I struggled through and somehow got things somewhat under control again after two years, when I found out I was unexpectly pregnant with my third child.

My third baby was a lot easier than my first two, and what with the older ones in preschool and playgroups and ballet and soccer, we had enough structure so that I could cope. People marveled at what a mess I had been with two kids, but how I seemed to get everything done somehow with three! I had no real explanation of why ...

I still felt cranky and frustrated and like my brain was wearing a sweater, however, and my constant disorganization was starting to really cause problems when my oldest started elementary school and my second was in preschool. Now, I had three different schedules to keep track of, plus all the extracurricular activities, plus the housework and cooking etc., plus I was working free-lance...Somehow I got everything done, but it seemed like I'd have a couple good weeks then suddenly my brain would shut off and I couldn't do anything at all for a while.

I was reading up on ADD because my oldest has a medical condition which puts her at a higher risk, and realized that *I* was the one who had it! I found a therapist who specialized in ADD coaching, and was relieved to find that I was not in fact lazy, crazy or stupid.

I was working my butt off and making a lot of sacrifices for my career but instead of getting promoted into the dream job I expected, I was steered into a dead-end job with barely any responsibility (and BORING to boot!) The whole career future I had planned started to implode in my mind and I had to do some hard thinking.

I realized my work quality was good, but I wasn't ever able to get on top of my work enough to take a big-picture view of what was happening in my office. I was sitting in my little corner struggling finish what I started while all my peers were networking their little hearts out. What made me sick when I really looked at it was some of them who were a lot worse at their jobs (a couple of them completely fake airheads) were bypassing me. I started to get flashbacks from five years before that when I failed out of a training course and had to find a new career. I had no clue about ADD then. I had thought I found something I was good at this time. I just couldn't take failing again without doing something about it.

Once I realized that ADD was treatable I got a lot more honest about where I was lacking. I faced all the unfinished projects, running late most of the time, not following through important things, and not volunteering for high-visibility projects (too overwhelmed). I also realized that I had to put so much into work to stay "afloat" that now that my career was in the dumps I had NOTHING-- no fun social life either. That made me finally willing to ask a primary care doc to send me to a... gulp... psychiatrist.

When all other medical things had been ruled out and former docs weren't understanding why the anti-depressants weren't helping my "depression". I found a different p-doc and asked, no, told them I wanted to be tested for ADD. I "passed" the test with flying colors and have been treating it ever since.

For me, it was an extremely crappy, stressful, overwhelming school semester that did it. Finally I hit this wall where I simply could not do it anymore. I couldn't struggle along, I just hit full STOP.

That's when I knew something was wrong.

A visit to my counselling office for what I thought were personality problems turned into tests about my academic performance.. one thing lead to another and boom.. found out I had ADD. :)

My upcoming 25th birthday.. And the fact that I began to think there was no point to wake up the next day living such a dysfunctional life.

A where do I go from here feeling and a what's it all about..AGAIN..and AGAIN..being in square one for the 100th time...

For a long time I treated ADHD like it was just something I might have, kinda like a joke. Like oh that's just my ADD that's why I can't sit still or pay attention. After doing a lot of research I realized that ADHD was much much more part of me than I realized. There was an embalance in my brain that needed treatment. I remember reading books and just laughing because it was like I found someone like me. I wasn't crazy. It was both a relief and concern. The more I learned of the different subtypes the more I learned I had several of them. That was when I knew it was time to get help.

When my 9 y.o. daughter started underperforming at school, and was showing signs of ADD. While starting on treating her,I've been reading up on it and I started remembering stuff I did as a kid-impulsive, hyper, blurting out stuff in class.

the past several years have been it, spead so thin with fulltime work at a demanding career, and caring for my confused Mom, and my family, and feeling so damnably overwhelmed and tired and depressed and stupid so much of the time; despite the massive and bounteous blessings my life has given me; feeling so inadequate to the life I'm finding myself living; so many people depending on me, and my being such a fragile axle for the world to spin around; when my daughter said she thought she had ADD and I started to read about it, I had this A-HAH!!!! moment. Actually, my A-HAH!!!! is an ongoing event, I'm learning more and more about myself as I investigate this.