I feel like I can't do anything right. People continually tell me that I am crazy, weird or annoying. Others, call me an idiot or stupid...I feel so depressed because of the daily comments I hear. People don't respect me, sometimes my own family doesn't either. I feel isolated from them as well. I feel happy with my friends to an extent but not my family. My mom just does not understand me. I feel pressured with school. The other day, one of my teachers called me over after class. She wanted to know if there was something going on. She told me I am jittery and it seems like I am all over the place. She asked if I eat enough? I am just upset. I am thankful she at least cares about me. My mom is too wrapped up with my older sister. I just feel that everything comes so hard to me. :( It is not fair, then people make fun of me for it. I don't think my teacher actually understands that I can't control myself. I typically do lose things, lately I have lost so many things I am humiliated to say the least. After, my teacher told me how I have so much energy and need to focus. I left a binder in her room. I look like an idiot to others. I just wish I had some talents. I feel like I cannot control what I say to others and it is getting back at me. I think to myself not to say something then 5 minutes later, I find myself saying it? UGH! I am so frustrated at myself right now. I guess this post is just me crying out to others who may understand me?

I feel alone and people take me as one huge joke.

You just made me remember all the things I hated about school. I forgot how unforgiving and rough it can be and I'm so sorry you feel this way about yourself right now. Try to be with people who like you for you.

You said you feel good around your friends its sounds as if they are accepting of you. Try to stop beating yourself up. I know easier said then done but it gets into a downward spiral. You know that you have ADD/ADHD and that causes a lot of these problems and these problems are not who you are. Forgetting things is something non adders do too, at least you have more of a reason.

Try to laugh it off and don't let them get to you. People who pick and say mean things are usually insecure about themselves and it just makes them look ugly. You "sound" like a really sensitive person and I'll bet you wouldn't treat someone like that. They have the problem not you. Ill bet you would rather forget crap all the time and get distracted then to be the kind of person who intentionally hurts others.

You are not a joke, you have ADD?ADHD so do many people. Are you seeing a therapist or counsellor so you can talk to someone one on one about how you feel? Are you medicated and if so are your meds helping? Hang in there and many hugs to you!

Chelsea:

You've got lots of talent and lots of life ahead of you ... just make the best of them, one day at a time. School's just about the worst kind of place for ADDers or others who don't "fit in," believe me I know. The whole peer pressure, clique and identity thing. Try to hang and help somone who fits in less and has more problems than you do at school. Although it will be challenging, the rewards from that will be immeasurable.

After school's over, looking back, people will remember you fondly and with respect. At reunions, they will remember the bullies and beeoches with disdain and laugh at their toupees, dentures, implants and unhealthy bodies.

I hear you! Sounds you're being dragged along for a ride you don't want to be on. :(

I'm not sure if you're being treated for ADHD, but let me assure you that life doesn't have to be like this. Once you are on a suitable management program, you will be able to regain some of the control you feel you've lost.

Until then, remember that what you feel is not what you are. Despite the fact you are in a rough spot in your life, know that there is something wonderful just bubbling under the surface beneath. Yes you do have wonderful gifts and very special talents, but they cannot get out. Neither you or I know how you will use your talents, but you must find out.

Negative comments are painful, but even more so when you believe what is being said. What the world around is seeing are the beginnings of something special. But it's hard to appreciate something one cannot see. Think of it this way, would you be excited to see the tubes of Picasso's paints? Maybe, but you'd be more excited about what they might create.. not the paint itself.

As for your mother, she is unfortuntely a human. That might be obvious to say, but it bears repeating. We tend to run away from things that we cannot see the end of. As a parent, she may not feel she can guide you because ADHD is something she doesn't about. Perhaps your struggles are too much for her heart to bear witness to, so she turns away and focuses on your sister instead. That's not right, but it might explain why she's so wrapped up in her.

The struggles you're going through are not in vain. The compassion and sensitivity that you will develop through this ordeal will make you a kinder person. Stay strong. You will make it.

Hey , im 19years old, so maybe I can relate to you a bit more. Ive been there before. I believe your at that stage right before you find out you have ad/hd. People used to call me stupid, weird, dumb, crazy, etc. It's like a feeling of being different, and not knowing if you are or everyone thinks they different so maybe your just dumb. The fact that you can rationally see that people are saying this to you means in itself, you aren't dumb. So you can throw that worry out. Now the way I became from being the weird, stupid, dumb, laugh at himself, un-organized, dirty, anti-hygiene guy was meds.

Ive read tons of self help books prior to taking meds. If trying meds isn't your cup of tea I recommend reading a self-help book on ad/hd, not for normal time management, etc but for ad/hd. Try to relax, think(VISUALIZE[if you don't know what im talking about pm me]), meditate(search google for how to, honestly for an individual with ad/hd meditating can become extreme boring and hard to make into a habit), self talk for as long as you can(I say josh calm down, over and over sometimes, but it can get boring also.)

Meds are like getting glasses for the first time, you can see leaves. If you take meds you can see clearly, take this time to remember the feeling. So when you want to get off meds you'll remeber what you gotta do. Neways gL. You'll make it out !

Chelsea.. it's been a long time for me since 17. But I can remember all the heartaches of growing up. If you need to pm me.. feel free to. Hugs!

Chelsea, It too has been a while since I was 17. Addaway is correct about how it will be in the future with classmates. I wish I would have known I had ADHD when I was in school, it would have put many things into perspective.

I know this is going to sound really awkward for the time being. You need to be yourself and not try to mold yourself into something you are not. I know, I have lived almost my whole life attempting to conform to what I perceived as the correct way to be. All it does is make you unhappy.

You probably possess many qualities that others wished they had. Sometimes when people are uncomfortable or don't understand someone or something, they pick on or make fun of people. It is their way of coping, so instead feel sorry for them.

In regards to your family, have patients and I am sure things will improve, I am glad to hear you have friends you can connect with. It is important to be able to speak with someone who understands you.

Hang in there and keep your chin up

DIFFERENT DRUMMERS




"If I do not want what you want, please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.

Or if I believe other than you, at least pause before you correct my view.

Or if my emotion is less than yours, or more, given the same circumstances, try not to ask me to feel more strongly or weakly.

Or yet if I act, or fail to act, in the manner of your design for action, let me be.

I do not, for the moment at least, ask you to understand me. That will come only when you are willing to give up changing me into a copy of you.

I may be your spouse, your parent, your offsping, your friend, or your colleague. If you will allow me any of my own wants, or emotions, or beliefs, or actions, then you open yourself, so that some day these ways of mine might not seem so wrong, and might finally appear to you as right -- for me. To put up with me is the first step to understanding me. Not that you embrace my ways as right for you, but that you are no longer irritated or disappointed with me for my seeming waywardness. And in understanding me you might come to prize my differences from you, and, far from seeking to change me, preserve and even nurture those differences. "

Awesome, Suzzanne!!

PS Highschool is a time of development.
in the real world, your differrences will define you
and you'll learn to love them.

I have only just found out how different I am. Now I know I am different I can be myself and have more confidence because I know that it's not my "problem".... it's other people not realising that I am different and wanting me to fit their rules.

Now I'm older I can look at younger people and see the INCREDIBLE pressure to conform to social codes.... dress, music, speech all things which appear SOOOO important but really are only markers to show ones conformity to the "group" norm.

Who sets the group norm..... now there's a question worth answering.... just how do some people set rules to which others conform....???

It's about hierarchy.... because underneath our clothes we are apes.

Ultimately the path to adult respect is to be comfortable with yourself, independantly minded but also chameleonlike in ones ability to blend in quietly at the back and sense how things are going.

The one thing to remember is that you can either bust a gut to dance to someone elses tune, and suffer the consequences of a rapidly changing beat designed SPECIFICALLY to keep you worried and on the back foot....

or

become the cat who walks by himself.

I like cats... they have an independant air and are respected for it. Dog on the other hand are pack animals and have the nature of a buffon... constantly trying to wangle a nod of recognition from their pack leader/owner.

kilt

PS In a bit of a rush as I've been asked out to the pub....Wooooow quite something for someone as independantly minded as me in this most conservative of towns.