How old were you when you 1st remember your ADD being related to problems?

I was about 10 when ADD started becoming a problem for me. I was also a disorganized as a child and alway thought out of the box but 5th grade was when things really started becoming hard for me.

I started having some problems in grade school ... I already knew how to read when I started, and the slowpoke teachers bored me to tears. My differences became more and more apparent to the other kids every year, with the #$*! hitting the fan at the 5th grade mark. Academic problems didn't hit me until college, though.

I remember having problems in Middle School but my High School was good, being energetic and smart and being different was cool then, while not in Middle School. Mostly Social stuff.

As I look back on it with the information I have NOW, I was four. I remember not being able to figure out why I couldn't keep my room clean.

Of course, the reason why no one could TEACH me to keep my room clean was b/c I was an only child and we all know that ADD is genetic and I got mine from both sides of the family. NO knowledge of spatial relationships in the household.

I got my dx when I was 26 but I've had problems all my life. In kindergarten I was pushed away by the teachers because i was ruining the other kid's play. Didn't understand the rules. Escaped over the fence and ran away etc. I was fighting a lot and climed in every tree I found. Climbed the walls in narrow corridors (foot and hand on each side and then just monkey-climb to the cieling). Always played football or ride my bike in the forest. I buildt myself a bike of pieces I found outside and made the -80's first mountainbike/bmx crossbreed in Sweden ;) D*MN it was cool! :D

I quess I'd have to say when I first started school.....I was a painfully shy kid and had trouble playing with the other kids. I'd sit by myself and not talk to anyone. Out side I'd swing and swing all alone....I remember how I hated school, I left no one understood me. I cried alot, felt scared,alone and stupid. It didn't help any that my kindergarten teacher was a very mean old lady....Back then I was looked at as a spoiled child.....

Socially, I'd have to say as early as first grade. I never had many (if any) friends and didn't seem to be able to interact socially like everyone else.

Academically....well, my grades started to decline in high school, but everyone assumed it was depression or other factors (a lot of bad things happened to me for a few years there) but I didn't get diagnosed until very recently. Like...a week ago!

I'm a junior in college and decided to take pre-med courses as well as my major, and while I was doing fine in my major the science classes were killing me. I couldn't even get the book read. So I asked a therapist and lo and behold.....I was right what I'd been saying all these years and no one listened to.

Me? Bitter? Nah...

emtchick you sound like me in school...although i just took the being alone as a fact of life like i wasnt a likable kid...although in 3rd grade i made a friend and we have been friends ever since....and we are both 30 now....but i loved school until about sophmore year. and then i just didnt feel like being there.....it was boring so i didnt do the work. and of course my parents expected me to do well. i have never been diagnosed and probably never will be...not that i dont want to know i just dont like verbally in person talking about things like that. i have 2 children who have been diagnosed though and thier counselors say that it doesnt necessarily mean that me or thier father has/had it....not always in the family she said that there are other factors....one thing that i have noticed with me though is i seem to drift off into daydreams like space out...but i still know what is going on....its weird anyhow just thought i would put my 2 cents in...

I remember sleeping disorders since babyhood.
I remember at 4 having trouble reading a whole book through even though I was a good reader.
I was eons ahead in grade school till 3rd grade then I realized I couldn't focus. I thought it was because I never had to pay attention before in class. That I didn't learn how.
I never could do homework, just couldn't focus or remember what I was supposed to do..
One summer when I was 8 I took a very special Marine biology course, you had to be a certain kind of kid to get in. I loved it and wrote 2 reports, one on manatees and one on single cell protozoas. I wrote these incredible organized reports with refrences and charts. That class and 1st grade were the high point of my school life.

wow janine...sounds like you had a great time that year.....isnt it kinda fun to think back at how you were as a kid??? LOL

I am not sure if I understand the question:confused:
How old when add was first recognised by self or how old it caused trouble from even if it was diagnosed or not?

I didn't know until this year I had ADD,but I know I have always been out of control and was going to be put in a special school but my parents fought to keep me in a mainstream school.I do not know whether that is because they felt it was defeat to them as parents or denial.

31 :) Paul

i think i misunderstood the question, too. i was diagnosed 5 years ago, but i have always had trouble in school due to disorganization and not being able to pay attention. had my first grade teacher not inspired me to learn to read as well as i did, i would probably have done much, much worse in school. i only "caught up" in 10th grade, and that wasn't by much - just managed not to flunk out.

I can remember being discovered crying and frightened in vacant classrooms and in the far corners of barren playgrounds as early as the second grade. It seems I would get lost in hallways on my way back to class after using the bathroom or I didn't notice the bell ring and a couple hundred kids running in one direction. I also used to get off at the wrong bus stop and get lost all the time. I think I was so tiny and quiet, they didn't notice me missing for awhile. Of course, my parents have no recollection of these incidents. I am sure the school never even notified them.

I can recall actual academic problems from about the same time, like doing the first two problems on a math test, spacing out for probably twenty minutes and being jarred back to reality when all the kids were finished and getting up to turn their papers in. That reminds me, does anyone else have painful memories of teachers shouting things like "Earth to FlakeyGirl, come in"?

Disorganization really took hold in fifth grade. I think that was the year we started having different teachers teach different subjects. Each seemed to want their work done a unique way.
Why couldn't they just let me alone to read my book? I wasn't bothering anyone.

I can remember lying awake terrified on the nights your parents would go and meet your teachers. Would my teachers rat me out for all the missing and incomplete homework? That occured year after year into high school.

my only memory of fourth grade consists of the teacher yelling at me in the hallway. don't remember what he said; it was a regular occurence....
in first grade, even my adored teacher pointed out my messy desk to the other kids going out for recess -- i had to stay in and clean out said desk.
never getting instructions right - caused messy papers.
being called lazy; being told i was bright but just didn't try.
my third grade teacher wanting to hold me back; can't remember why. even my grandfather, who had never heard of ADD saying "she just cannot pay attention".....
incomplete homework, missing homework.... ah, yes, memories, memories - which i had hoped i had blocked!!!!

Yeah! I find myself feeling a little irritated at this thread (not the starter or participants ;) ) I had forgotten (happily) about all this unpleasant stuff. Oh well, it'll be something new for the therapist to write down, anyway.

pem, it's cool your grandfather said "cannot" instead of "will not."

:o My mom would clean out and organize my desk from time to time when we would go back to the classroom after school to get something I had forgotten. Once in the third grade, she had to leave work and bring clean clothes for me. Apparently I was not allowed to go down the hall to use the girls room unaccompanied any more and the teacher couldn't take me when I had to go. :o

teachers can be so awful - and i say this from this side of schoolage, and with a sis-in-law who is a teacher....and even she admits some people shouldn't be teaching. kids are tough. ld kids are even more tough, but it isn't the kids fault - something they should drill into all teachers.
um, yeah - all this stuff gets to go in my journal.... and some of the other teachers/stuff i remembered while at work today.

and as far as the school systems go....i truly think that teachers and administrators are trying to make learning more difficult than it should be for kids....not saying they should be doing easier work but as far as the attitude. my daughter is adhd/odd with underlieing bipolar and her teacher has to constantly remind her to do her work and stay on task even with meds, she is almost 10 in the 3rd grade....my son who is 7 and in the 1st grade can not read....or will not...not sure which....has plenty of time to draw on the back of his paper but no time to finish the assignment. he has recently been diagnosed with adhd and possibly other things after his assessment next week. it is really frustrating....i am soo glad that they ended corporal punishment (teachers ability to punish with spankings) otherwise my kids would have red behinds everyday....i remember when i was in kindergarten and i was 4.....the teacher was tearing pages from a workbook...i went ahead and did it...i dont remember her telling us NOT to do it...and i got my hands slapped. i didnt even rip it...it was perfect but got hands slapped anyhow...she got into trouble with principle ( i was his 'pet') who also happened to be her husband (tee hee hee) but i will still never forget the shame she made me feel.....mean old woman

Please try to keep this thread on topic. If you would like to begin another dicussion please do so in a separate thread.

sorry

I remember as early as kindergarten when I was in a little play and had a crepe flower on my head. I was supposed to pop my head up along with the other children when the "water" and "sun" went over me. I never raised my head when I was instructed too. Eventually the teacher had the child next to me elbow me when I had to raise my head. I was already a "late bloomer" ! haha I also rolled my head at night for hours until I could settle down to go to sleep. I spent a lot of time looking outside at school.

well, I was thinking academic problems when I answered the poll, but now that i've read your other posts I realized SO many more things I did!!!

I remember vividly beign in the BACK of the classroom in 1st grade, and that for some reason it was very difficult. I definatley daydreamed a lot, had a messy desk, didn't finish my work on time... etc... I still have my "journal" from that year - there are some days when I didn't write more than a sentance or two. And other days when I just copied "today's schedule" off the board LOL
I vaguely recall not even noticing when we were supposed to be starting our assignments. And then I would be very confused on what the assignment actually WAS...

and yet, there are some journal entries where I wrote elaborite and extrememly creative stories about unicorns and jungles. I mean... I would continue the stories from day to day until they were pages long - my teacher LOVED them and that in turn made me love writing them.

2nd grade had some pretty vivid memories too becusae my teacher wanted to try a montessouri style classroom (of course i didn't know that then) - she expected us to do our work at our "own pace", going from station to station to do whatever we wanted to do. I remember getting a lot of grief over not doing what I was supposed to be doing, and yet I had no idea WHY... it seemed like I was doing fine to ME. I think that I was mostly confused by the lack of structure, and the noise level definatey was a problem too. I just didn't understand how everyone ELSE seemed to have plenty of time to get their work done, but I was always way behind. My teacher really didn't like me much that year.

Socially.... oh man... I had two friends through all of elementry school. I was really shy, but i always played pretend-type games by myself (if my friends werent' around, like at home) I walked home from school everyday, and i have tons of memories of talking to myself/making up stories.... singing... playing... all the way thorugh high school actually LOL

I used to stay up really late at night (for my age at least) - just thinking or reading. And also for a long time I had a top bunkbed, and I would always put my feet on the ceiling and "walk around" lol -t hat was so much fun... It always took me an hour or more to fall asleep. looking back I'm pretty srue that was ADD at work again.

Christiana, your story sounds so similar.

I always thought most of my academic problems started later, but I realize that even in elementary school it was a problem. I never stayed on task and didn't know what was going on, but I knew the answers if I listened so they tested me for vision problems not a learning disability or attention problems...

Turned out I did need glasses (blind as blind can be, sadly) but...yeah...

Does anyone else here find that they need to talk things through outloud to understand them sometimes? I often find myself talking to lamps and other inanimate objects as I try to work through things...it's one of the reasons I don't like living with roommates...they think I'm insane and tell me to shut up

LOL I talk to myself too (even htough i have a roommate :D )

I've done it ever sicne I was a kid, adn I do it all the time still.

Usually the talking is directed at a person who isnt' there, it could be anythign from being mad at them to wondering what they think about fuel cells. For a couple of weeks in high school, i "composed" a book about the ideal lawn care while walking home from school, LOL - alhtough most of it was just me saying the same thing over and over again trying to figure out what to say next (sicne I would loose my thoughts a lot)

but anyway, yeah, I don't even need an object to talk to ;)

I can remember as far as four years old when I was in nursery school. My mom had come on some parent-visiting thing, I guess, and was sitting watching us all. The teacher was explaining some task or book, and I was getting into the toys, and kept going back to them even after the teacher told me not to. My mom came over and took me to the bathroom and gave me some kind of lecture..
There were other instances, but that one sticks out.

I suffered socially from ADD since I entered school. By the middle of kindergarten, I was convinced that all the kids hated me. Not irrational, considering all the kids teased me and never wanted me to play with them. My mom says that I cried pretty much everyday after class.

I was so depressed about not having friends, and I believed the kids because they called me stupid, fat, and dumb all the time. I didn't know about suicide back in 1st grade, but the teacher apparently saw my doodle of a "r.i.p" grave stone with "I hope I die" written next to it. She came up to me, grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me, and told me never to talk like that again. So I didn't. And I blame her for not getting the help I needed back then.

My grades started slipping in second grade. My memory started slipping in sixth grade. I got my first F in seventh grade. I nearly flunked out of high school. The longest I've been able to hold a job was for 11 months, when I was 15, jobs have been down hill ever since.

:(

Cyndi

Originally posted by neuroangel
I didn't know about suicide back in 1st grade, but the teacher apparently saw my doodle of a "r.i.p" grave stone with "I hope I die" written next to it. She came up to me, grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me, and told me never to talk like that again.

What kind of suicide intervention is THAT?! Grrrr. :nono: It kills me to read these stories and see how dense adults can be.

Well, now that I know what it IS, I know that the problems started when I was four. I remember wanting to scream with frustration when my parents told me that I couldn't go out and play until my room was clean (never mind that they never showed me how to organize things, 'cuz NO ONE in my family is diagnosed, but we won't go there now) ... so of course I never went out, b/c I literally didn't know what to do to make it clean.

I didn't even know or remember how it would get messy.

It's making me sad to remember. I wish I could go back and teach my sad little self organizing skills.

The least that teacher could have done, was to contact my mom or tell the principal she was worried about me. If I could go back, I'd call my mom for her, after giving her a lesson on adhd, depression, and suicide. I know that 15 years ago, a lot of teachers were uneducated about things like that, but this thing was a common sense issue. I guess she didn't have any common sense.

Out of all the people who I've ever held a grudge against, she's the only one that I'll never forgive or forget...I was only 5, and she let me ruin my life.

Cyndi

The first page of my first reading workbook in the first page had an "N" on it for Needs Improvement. The real problem, I knew at the time, was that I hadn't heard the teacher say to color Dick, Jane, and Sally. I did hear her give a "hint" that we should color a boy and two girls and that was what I had done. I knew I must not have been paying attention when she first read the directions.

In the second grade I repeatedly got licks with the paddle because I had daydreamed away the morning and still hadn't done the math problems we were to copy from the black board.

In the third and fourth grades (split class with the same teacher) I remember the "reading circle" in which I tried desperately to listen to my classmates stumble through telling the story we had just read independently. I doubt the teacher ever called on me first--if she had I could have told the story from beginning to end without any problems. But she always called on me after I got bored and stopped listening. Then I had to sit in her lap while she called me a baby because I couldn't pick up and continue telling the story. I had two years of this.

I became aware of how much I struggled to read history in the sixth grade--a problem I still have not conquered. As I grew older the list of subjects I struggled to read included literature as well.

I became concerned about the "C's" on my report card when I didn't have the grades to get into the National Honor Society and tried hard to bring them up in High School. I tried to read my text books but continued to struggle with them. I even spent $100.00 of my own money (in the early 60's no less so it was a LOT of money for a HS student) that should have been spent on clothing to buy a speed reading course in the mail. When it didn't seem to help I became aware that my problem was mostly in focusing on the text, not in recognizing words or seeing enough words at a glance.

I learned techniques to help me focus on my textbooks enough to get through college and even a masters degree. (Basically I just underlined the main idea in each paragraph as I read. Then when my mind wandered off I could find where I left off and could pick up and go on from where the underlining stopped.) I went to a counselor because I knew something was wrong, but he wasn't any help. He just said that I was very intellegent and that once my curiosity was satisfied I lost interest in the course. That might have been partly true, but it didn't solve the problem. I wish he could have connected it with ADD as well. That was in the mid-sixties.

I self diagnosed my own ADD after hearing two or three radio programs about it. At the time I was struggling with employment issues and didn't have the money to persue a true diagnosis. About three or four years later when I got my present job with good insurance benefits I found a doctor who would evaluate me and he confirmed my diagnosis. I am 57 years old now and was diagnosed at age 52 or 53.

Janice from S.C. who wishes she could find a support group in Florence SC

I can remember at 5 -
The problems
- being set away from other students
- talking out of turn
- unable to focus
- art I loved and was successful in
- my desk was always dirty
- I forgot instructions
- some agressive behavior
- aways in trouble for not staying on task

Found a few old high school reports earlier today. Boy do they make a lot more sense now I've been diagnosed with adhd! The reports are over grades 7 - 10 & all comments are all along the lines of:

"very talkative & easily distracted"
"great potential ... she tends to waste her time too often"
"extremely capable student ... she must concentrate more in class & do her best in assignments"
"capable of a better standard of work"
"does not bring her book to class, needs home supervision to ensure that her work is done"
"variable effort ... has a lot to give but is often distracted"
"this report is most heartbreaking ... she is a very capable student who must learn to concentrate ... is a very keen student but can be very disruptive"
"must try to settle down to do her practical work"
"has not handed her book in for marking at all this year ... must get a book, bring it to class & do the work required"
"spends a lot of time organising herself instead of doing the task"
"has trouble settling down to work & can be very disruptive in class"
"must learn to get herself organised in class & concentrate on the work that has been set"
"application to set work would be appreciated"
"unfortunate attitude to direction from teachers concerning her studies has resulted in very poor grades that are not reflective of her true capabilities"
"is a law unto herself ... she has no inclination to follow directions or accept guidance & finds concentration impossible"

Nowadays these reports would likely have a kid in the psychologists office in a moment. Unfortunately in those days no one knew what to do about kids like me. I'm just lucky I managed to get my act together after school. It's frightening how close I came to being really messed up. Many other adhd kids of my generation were not so lucky.

For some reason my account is malfunctioning and not allowing me to vote on polls, as well as adding people to my ignore list that i never put there-- hmmm. So here's my two cents: I first noticed ADD being a problem for me when I was four. I was always lost in a dream somewhere in my head, or yelling too loud, or making messes, or being too shy or too bold (yes, this is a contradiction that can actually exist, especially with ADD kids). When I went to school I did all sorts of crazy impulsive things like running away during recess with another ADD friend of mine (who was actually diagnosed-- I didn't get diagnosed until I was eighteen) and being generally borderline crazy, not paying attention, and being disruptive.

In grades one through five I was always seperated into a small group with the other 'slow' children who had trouble reading and writing. Every year I was the only girl which made things even more uncomfortable. Later I had trouble with making and keeping friends, partly because I was shy and partly because I was a bit tempermental.

My earliest memories of struggling with ADD were in third grade.
From then on Math would never be my friend. Although I held it together in school , it wasn't until college that it feel apart. Although I was shy,still am, making friends, and having friends weren't a problem.. I think I probably entertained them.
My brothers and sister however had a lovely nickname for me "spaceman" And guess what? I still am.. .... Dee

it started becoming a problem for me when I was in the 2nd grade...I would become quite frustrated at myself for not being able to understand the word and I couldn't concentrate...and still have that problem today, but I think I have something else too...

Although recently diagnosed, I too remember struggles thruout child hood. My main problem was talking to much! In fact, my 2nd grade teacher called my parents because I walked around and talked to my friends too much. :p They threatened to duct tape me to my chair!

I started having problems as soon as I started school. I was held back in Kindergarden because my teacher didn't fell I was socially read for 1st grade. I only spoke when spoken too. Never raised my hand and only talked to 3 of the studients. I was incredibly shy.

I Had problems with reading when I got in 1st grade but they just though I was a slow learner and no one even thought of me maybe being dyslexic. Which I don't understand because my main problem in spelling was getting my letters backwards. Always has the right letters in the words but in the wrong order or got d's and b's confused as well as g's, p's, and q's. I had a hard time remembering left from right still no one put it together.

It wasn't until I was 20 when I decided I needed to know what was wrong that I knew I had ADD. I didn't know much about it so I just though it was dylexica the whole time. I never got tested for dylexica though. My first psy didn't think I had it at all and my 2nd charged too much for me to get tested though she thinks I have it too.

I plan on getting tested for dylexica after I get married when I have insurance to pay for it.

I' always had problems in school...Teachers always wanted to hold me back a year and gave me extra classes in speech and handwritting(messy messy)....in Junior High.,..I was just deamed RETARDED by my Teachers and they left it at that :mad: School System isn't it wonderful:rolleyes:

My mom started saying "you're not funny, you know" to me at quite an early age! At age 5, everyone had to do a full check of their dashboard buttons, steering column and mirrors before starting their car if I had been playing in it . Early one saturday morning I wanted to play with some paper dolls and needed scissors. My parents were still in bed so I popped on over to the neighbour's and woke them instead! In first grade I challenged a parish priest to explain to me how exactly was he related to God and was my guardian angel male or female and why. My parents had their work cut out for them! LOL!

In fifth grade i was diagnosed with a langauge and math learning disability, which plagues me to this day. The same doc also thought i was just unmotovaited and lazy.

I often wonder how things would be different for me now, if i was properly diagnosesed back then. :(

I can remember feeling overwhelmed and stressed out as early as kindergarten/first grade. My dad thought moving every year for no reason, giving me no explanation and no chance to say goodbye to the few friends I had was acceptable. School became a small problem in 5th and 6th grade but by 7th grade I just wasn't keeping up. I watched my friends excel and felt stupid and left behind. I was terrible at math, my parents knew it and my mom's philosophy about everything was "If you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to do it." I was "flakey" and my Dad, in a fit of anger, yelled at me that I was a "stupid bimbo". I really hated being a child.

The earliest memory that i could recall in having asperger's related problems was at about 12 months when i was having my hair cut for the first time. Im not sure whether or not it was normal for infants not to respond to other people via eye contact or being totally unable to read facial expression but i never kept eye contact as a young toddler nor find it easy to understand people's emotions.

My first memories of possible issues with ADD are from when I first entered school. At the time I was not diagnosed, that didn't come until I was 24. I remember sitting in a class or a group setting and wondering how it was that all the other kids could sit still and not fidget constantly, and what was wrong with me that I couldn't do the same no matter how hard I tried. Also, I recall getting in trouble at times for talking during class, while the teacher was speaking and such.

I'd say about 28, or so.

I always remember being disorganized and can recall my mom freaking out about this when I was very young 3-4 years old, but I don't know if I was ACTUALLY that bad or not so I'm discounting everything that was a problem between me and my mom... so that would mean that I first had some ADD issues in school when I was in 2nd grade, I was constantly talking, and mostly in 3rd grade I remember that my math was so sloppy and disorganized that my teacher finally made me have a special column on one side of the paper where I wrote the answers to all of my problems that I had solved in the other column (because even circling the answers wasn't helpful). This sticks out in my mind because the teacher originally made me re-do the entire paper that was sloppy and I had a near-nervous breakdown crying and all of that about it, so it was just as bad as the first draft, and finally she just had me do the column. I was lucky enough to be good at math so it didn't matter that she check my actual work I guess...

i think i was 12 or so... my brother has adhd and man he was hyper... they found out he had it at 3. i was so shy that they didnt catch me untill i was almost halfway threw school... lol i am still having problems dealing

I know my difficulty with control problems started at least during kindergarten, when I was 4-5 years old.

I didn't get my Dx until I was about 26, however.

I remember when i was in 4th grade and always being alone in recess.sometimes i would hang out with my sister's friends,but never made my own.kids (girls)would talk to me one day and the next day I didn't exisist.I thought oh well,so i would just hang out myself observing everyone else.one thing i never felt sorry for myself,i always knew that i was a sweet girl and i never did anything to hurt anyone and those kids that used me or made fun of me they ended up wanting to talk to me in high school,cause by then i wasn't as goofy,i had my boyfriend and as hard as school was for me(socially and academically)I know I ended better off then those kids.I mean in a spiritual way,all that i went through in grade school made me a better person now.I always tell my son who has add too(don't worry )if you don't have friends now,later they will be there.he's very sweet and spiritual as well.

As far back as I can remember, I have been a very fidigty person. I am always moving, bouncing, tapping (don't give me anything that clicks or make noise, you'll be sorry!!!). That is my earliest memories.

Since I have recently been diagnosed (8 months ago), all I can do is look back and go...."Ohhh yeah, that explains that!"

I dropped out of High School in the middle of my Jr. year. Not because I am not able to do the work, but I didn't do it because I was horribly bored. Had this been looked at a different way by my parents, I think it could have been avoided.

For me, my ADD began now that I think of it, the minute I was born!!! (So my mother would tell you) I personally did not seem to aknowledge any difficulties until I began the 7th grade. None of the teachers liked me (or course, I didnt make it EASY to be liked) I had very few friends, and what friends I did have, I began to alienate.
High School was difficult, but I studied hard because I knew that I wanted to go to college and "BE SOMETHING". I just didnt know what. Once I got into college, I changed majors 3 times, (in one semester) never quite deciding what I wanted to do. And, even now, at the age of 22, I have NO EARTHLY IDEA what I want to "BE" when I grow up. I have aspirations to become an attorney, we will see where that road leads me when I go to enroll for classes! Great Poll Tara :)

I remember even earlier than 5, because this was when I was living in Montreal, that I'd continually keep pestering family members--my grandad or an uncle for instance--and not be able to help myself even though once they started getting irritated I'd feel awful. I suppose this might be regular toddler behavior if it wasn't for the fact that I just always remember that I'd think I'd had enough but it was like I was caught in a cycle and couldn't stop it, I felt crazy, it didn't feel good. I was always impulsive like that.

Of course, when I started having to go to school my symptoms came out even more, but because I wasn't always hyper (I'm a combined ADHD/ADD type--I'd either be bouncing the walls or lost in space) I didn't know these problems were related to ADD. I remember thinking that maybe I was mentally retarded like the really mentally handicapped kids in the "special" class because I couldn't seem to get a hold on my behaviour and I'd do things I'd regret right away and felt behind everyone socially, and in certain subjects like math and French, mentally, because I just couldn't seem to stick with them. Actually, a friend of my mom had suggested that I had ADD but my mom chose not to get me tested until I was 17 because her sister convinced her that there was no such thing as ADD.

In fact--this was in the 80s--my mom had a psychologist come to my nursery school to "observe" my behaviour, and the psychologist came to the conclusion that the reason I ran from activity to activity and didn't stick with one for very long and talked at people randomly was because I hadn't been breastfed, or my mom had been too detatched from me or something.

Sometimes I don't know if it would've made things more difficult to have to have taken a pill every day for ADD, but I think that would've been preferable to worrying about being mentally retarded. It would've been nice to have been able to sail through math class (after taking enough of the right medication and taking a few accounting and math courses, I found that I actually was good with numbers because I could stick with it and focus).

Anyways, you live you learn. If anything, not knowing I had ADD all that time has at least made me sympathetic for the "weird" kids.

I didn't realize it until the meds wore off... Even after the diagnosis, I didn't notice it. As I think about school and why I change my majors so many times, it makes more sense... All the issuses were there, even back in elem. school (obviousely) but it jsut never "clicked" why...

I've been giving this a lot of thought. Most of my problems were social which began very early in elementary school. My family all called me Dizzy Daisy. I guess I must have been a space cadet even if I didn't believe that I was at the time.

I think that I had a tendency to be on my way to do something and then never make it there. I still do that.

I have no idea what my teachers thought of me. My mom never went to school meetings so I'm not sure she would no either.

The office secrateries all knew me in Middle School because I had to stop there every morning for a late pass....that is on the days that I bothered to go to school at all LOL I didn't "skip" I just stayed home and my mom never made me go(she is probably ADD also)

i nearly broke someones neck when i was 4 at pre-school. then blamed it on someone else...

does someone keep doing something fkn stupid to this thread? it keeps saying ive written to it today , and yesterday....... when its been a few weeks.........

Threads that contain polls, like this one, will pop back into the "New Posts" section whenever someone votes in the poll, regardless of whether they post or not.

:( I realised from about 6 or 7 that I was bloody hopeless at school & had hardly any attention span. Now after 13 years of antidepressants they have finally worked out im not depressed for any other reason but the fact that my life has gone nowhere. Everyday I have to write a note to tell me to do what has to be done or it will be half done.Has anybody ever been misdiagnosed with another illness & then found out it was ADD.

Has anybody ever been misdiagnosed with another illness & then found out it was ADD.According to my parents they thought I was retarted until I learn how to use a computer by myself...(when I was 18)They took me to many doctors askind why I don't have any friends or why don't I move for 6 hours and stay in the same spot.Unfortunately in my country ADD is a mith in the girls.So they told my parents I was just LAZY.But my paresnts came to a conclusion that I was a retard...

I was so impulsive when I was little (by three at least) that no one in my family told me secrets. I'd blurt out things that I wasn't supposed to (I accidentally told my brother what he was getting for his birthday and Christmas many times) without even realizing what I was doing. My parents called me "the newspaper" because telling me something was like putting it in the newspaper.

In kindergarten I got in trouble a lot for daydreaming instead of doing my work. I actually spent two weeks in the principal's office so his secretary could keep an eye on me and make sure I was getting my work done. In subsequent years I took much longer to do my work than other students, although I generally got good grades until high school.
Also, I don't really remember this, but my grandma was telling me a story the other day about something that happened when I was four. She was teaching me a card game and I picked it up quickly but she said she could hardly get me to sit still. I'd sit there for a minute but then be up and bouncing around again.

Sheesh, I wonder why no one ever noticed there was anything wrong? :rolleyes:

First I remember is in kindergarten--which is probably typical b/c that is the first time we are *expected* to sit and behave. I would lean across the table to talk to and pester the other students, wouldn't stay in my seat, would flit around the room talking to other kids. The teacher thought I was cute and social, so it wasn't considered a real problem, but it was discussed with my parents. First grade I was given bad marks in behavior for not sitting still at my desk. I also was always a disorganized mess. Teachers were constantly making me stay in during recess to clean out my desk and throw away my junk. By 7 I started impulse eating and gained a significant amount of weight. I didn't have any close friends--the other kids didn't seem to know what to do with me. By 8-9 that had progressed to being actually picked on, bullied, ostracized. I had a problem with agression at times--for instance, I remember slapping a girl on the playground for no reason at 7. I remember at 8 being given a book report, reading the book, standing up in front of the class to give the oral report and having a complete and total blank. I don't really think I had focussed enough on the book or the assignment itself to understand what I was supposed to do, even though I was considered a "smart kid". In general, I got good grades on tests (I've always tested well) without really studying. And my parents had us eating healthfully and living a very time-structured life, so I'm sure that helped. In retrospect, these are incidents where I see my ADD starting to manifest itself, although I seemed like a normal if somewhat weird geek at the time.

So many memories, but these stand out. Kindergarten was a nightmare for me. I was withdrawn and a loner because I hated the noise, the cloakroom, the pressure of trying to figure out what I was suppose to be doing there. It was also the time where you had to start learning lots of new "rules" and, of course, I wasn't very good at following them.

I continued to be the difficult, relatively uncooperative child. Then in the second grade all hell broke loose after we were to share with the class what we wanted to be when we grew up and I said I wanted to be a "hermit" or a "hobo"...you can imagine the parent/teacher conferences that took place after that.

I was always the odd one. Overweight, over reactive, under performing, hanging with the "wrong" kids, etc. I was constantly skinning my knees, was totally uncoordinated, and never had friends.

Thank God, in the 6th grade I had a teacher that accepted me the way I was. Let me stay after school, took time to motivate me and build up my self-confidence. Encouraged me without being judgemental. I blossomed.

Unfortunately, in the 7th grade my mother told me that I had no right to continue to "pester" him, and "what makes you think he should continue to care about someone like you?". She said he certainly had better things to do than talk to me and I bought it. I shut down, decided the only way to survive was to be numb because that was the only way I could cope with the painful loneliness. I did what I had to do to survive.

I will never forget that teacher, though, because he showed me a different life, and that glimpse kept me alive somehow. Eventually I went looking for it again. Only after years of therapy was I able to return to a point where I could believe that I was "worth" knowing.

Second grade was the 1st really "bad" year for me. I remember having to sit beside my teacher's desk to keep focused. I would intentionally break my pencil so I could roam around the classroom on the way to the pencil sharpener. I would habitually daydream and stare out the window. My mother has kept several of the notes from the teacher that year about my behavior, my lack of focus, incomplete homework, whatever. That was the year (I will never forget this assignment) that I had to write all my numbers from 1-100. Yep, that was the assignment, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, . . . .I didn't hand it in. And I got in a bunch of trouble. So goes the story of my life. LOL

As for friends, I never did make good friends. I had aquaitnences that I would hang out with. In high school I had a gang of outcasts that I ran with. I was just one of the "dweebs". High school was a total nightmare for me.

I was about 12 when I got my first glimmer...I knew I was different than so many of the other kids and was not as successful as they were...At about 12, I read an article about Tracy Gold, the child actress, who was describing her ADD symptoms and I really identified with her...I didnt do anything with the info as my mom was an overworked single mother and not really approachable at that time. I havent thought of reading that article in many years..........kind of makes me want to cry......oh well, onward and upward...:)

Remembered someone is always bullying me in class, always forget to bring this and that, always forget to do this and that, doesn't remember to study my spelling tests, chronically late or hurrying to school, always didn't wanna go school, always lied on not feeling well whenever there is tests or difficult classes, attempted to fall sick on purpose......etc........

umm kindergarten YES. i have ALWAYS been in trouble for talking too much and misunderstanding directions and interrupting.
i even in early elementary school used to sing and skip to the pencil sharpener..


my fourth grade teacher put tape on my mouth i wore my dress to school inside out a few times in early elementary
i never did homework
i went from remedial math to regular math to remedial
and i was banned from raising my hand in i don't know how many freaking classes.

I was about 27... I new little about ADD... so the news were not welcome. I thought it was only a phase, thought that I was just depressed. ffice:office" /><O:p></O:p>

I don't remember what grade it was, but I remember sitting at the dining room table doing my math homework, and I was SO mad, because the teacher had put the same addition problems all over the page:
3
+4

4
+3

I remember getting so mad that I broke every pencil on the table, yelling at my mom who said I couldn't go play until my homework was done that this was too stupid. I was at the table until we had to clear it off for dinner, and it was just one page of single digit addition. I've always had a problem with repetetive tasks....

I can't remember when...meaning I really can't remember! Alot of my childhood is 'vacant' from my memories. Of course there are a few memories like first grade and having to sit in little chairs in a circle and take turns reading, standing up to read and Randy Blackburn pulling the chair out from under me when I sat back down! I agonized enough over having to stand up and read in the first place! I was a sensitive kid and the laughter traumatized me! If I learned anything in the first grade it was with fear and loathing! After that and throughout the remainder of my public school life I felt like 'odd man out', never a part of the class. I didn't feel I fit in any where.

Definitely grade school, in the 5-9 range. Among other things, excessive talking was marked on my report card in the earlier grades, and messy desk in the later elementary grades. Disorganization carried right on through to junior high and high school.My locker and my bedroom were a mess as long as I could remember. Bedroom got worse as I got older. Not much has changed, but at least I now know why and can finally start getting this chaos addressed.

somewhere around 2nd-4th grade, i was diagnosed in 5th grade. i remember playing with erasers and stuff while everyone else was learning cursive or whatever it was.. and i kept getting detention because i wouldn't do any math. :P

and finding descriptions for like 10 words was torture! haha

I was diagnosed with ADD (inattentive type) just two years ago (I will be 23 in March). I have always felt there was something different between me and all my friends. Everything was much harder for me (especially socially). It wasn't until many small accidents with two major wrecks (totaling the car), when my dad finally thought to get things checked out fall of 2001 (wasn't diganosed until spring 2002). Once diagnosed, everything made so much sense. So, to answer the question, I have always felt different since I was a little girl.

I remember always getting the report cards of "not working to potential, gifted, seems to daydream". I think my first real memories of being "different" are from first grade. I really didn't have that many friends and was sort of a weird kid through out grade school and middle school. All through grade school and middle school...my desk or locker could have been a federal superfund, hazmat site. High School was when I think I learned how to deal with my ADD ( I didn't know it at the time) and I had some friends then and fit in sort of well. I didn't date at all until my senior year of high school. By college...I really figured out what I needed to do to really be one of the group and fit in really well.

Alot of my childhood is 'vacant' from my memories.
I find that really interesting you said that....I feel the same way. I really have to struggle to think about my childhood.

It amazes me how differently each of us can be affected and yet have some of the same issues.

I've always had trouble going to sleep.

I got through 1,2 & 3rd grade because I could hyperfocus and spend 4-6 hours a night doing homework every freakin' nite! This is also how I played, the same paperdolls for 2-3days, then dead grass clippings in the yard for 2-3 days (I drew lifesize playhouse "blueprints" with them).

After 3rd grade I finally had the basics down and never did homework again. Resulting in too many B's and a few C's that never should have happened. GPA of 3.45 in highschool that should have been 4.0. (Never told Mom that first C in English "Writing" was for not doing homework, SHE was the one that volunteered a comment on the poor state of my handwriting! just kept my mouth shut!)

All the time comments about talking too much...and I was such a shy kid!! And the occasional "doesn't apply herself"... I learned to mask this one by 6th grade.

Crashed and burned repeatedly in college, not being able to do homework, mentally beat myself up repeatedly for being lazy, never occurred to me that something was wrong since I always fell asleep when I tried to read most of my textbooks. Took my 2.45 GPA in the end and ran with it.

Not one date in highschool! But became a social butterfly of sorts in college 'cause the legal age was 18 and alchohol turned me into a hyperactive party animal. Cut back on the alchohol and remained social after learning how. But never mastered the ability to recognize if an interesting guy was actually interested in me.

After that...life got worse.

Now to make it better.....................................

My first experience was when I was in 2nd grade. I thought that was when the ADD stroke on me. I did fine in 1st grade. But suddenly on the first day of second grade school . I just didn't feel want to be there. Mom took me to school. I escaped and walked home. The whole family was frantic because it never happened before and they were afraid I would grow up illiterate. They drove me to school but I refused to go to class, just sat in the schoolyard and cried. Even the headmaster came down to pursuade me that if I didn't go to class i wouldn't be anything important later in my life. I made quite a scene. I didn't understand why I felt hating school so much at that time. Luckily I never rebeled a second time, although I never loved school I did fine. Now all my uncles and my parents still remember it and laughed at me.

I remember very vividly getting in trouble in kindergarten for talking during “quiet time”. That was a huge shock to me, because I was usually very well-behaved (and very quiet).

I think I have spent a shockingly small amount time on homework throughout all my school years. Even to this day in college. I am just very bad a studying and it is a struggle for me to even get started. But the first time I realized that my ADD was causing me problems was when I was diagnosed in high school. My whole life I felt different, but I always thought it was because I was just lazy and unmotivated.

My first visit to the principal's office was in the 2nd grade. I was there quite often.

Wow.. you know I have a friend who just made me think and I relate to all the issues of a person/adult with ADD... scared me when I realized it was actually me that he was speaking of. It was a good realization. I think back and can not really remember when I had my first eppisode .. I keep thinkin around 4 or so. I just keep remembering how I spaced out into a different zone while I knew I was getting yelled at for something again... something I didn't realize I did.

F wcomboadha: Wow, I thought I was the only one whose teacher (2nd grade) put tape over our mouth! That should have given my family some clue, you'd think? She did it at least twice. BTW, teachers sure couldn't get away with that these days. :eek: I wouldn't have even given it a thought to throw harassment charges at her. Those are the things they did in the 50s. What decade was that for you?

Elementary school... every report card was scribbled with either "not working to potential" or "talks to her neighbors." Guess I was too busy talking to my neighbors to work to my potential?

II remember always having ADD but was never dx'ed until a few months ago at the age of 30. I was starting to realize that I could never focus at work and that I could never get anything done. This was also when my wife and I started to have some real problems, so I figured it was in my best interest to figure out what was going on. I am glad that I did.
I have always been the biggest procrastinator. Every girl that I ever dated said that of me.

My mom saw my pre-school teacher when I was around 18 years old and asked if I was in jail yet. I was so bad to her and the rest of my teachers throughout school. I was always talking or passing notes, never listening to the teachers, but giving them as hard of a time as I could.

When I was 4 or 5 they ran a bunch of test on me, but said they couldn't find anything wrong with me. They said I was just very spirited as a boy and full of energy. So I went through life never really thinking of why I was always having trouble in school or being shy. I sure wish I could have figured out what I had a long time ago; it would have saved me from at least a few bad memories or the 'I should of and could have done that" (I have had more than I wish to remember of those).

I now find myself rethinking my career choice. I am a computer programmer sitting behind a desk all day with no one to talk to. I am finding that I really don't enjoy doing this, but now I need to find out what I really like and that is scary. I am to old to just go out and start looking for a job that I will want to do for how many ever years I will be doing it.

I wasn't sure how to answer the questions so I didn't. I've known as long as I can remember that I was hyperactive. I remember being unable to sit still and getting spanked every week at church, but I never put that together with ADHD until just this minute in my head. LOL. Guess I'll go back and answer the question now!

Scattered

3 or 4 years old at nursery school. I was banned from using the water play table. I was interested (sorry fascinated!) in the mechanism of the stopper in the table used for draining it. That led to gallons on water being dumped on the floor. All the other kids were interested in was splashing each other! I couldn't understand their game and got traumatised when I got splashed. Over the next years I noticed that when social groups started to form I was completely ignored/left out.

First academic problem I have memory of was when I was just old enough to write a simple story - about 30 words or something. I misunderstood what we had to write about and wrote about the wrong thing. I even tried to clarify with my teacher what I had to do because I thought it a bit odd. I was just told I should not have been daydreaming or something. When I handed the work in the teacher angrily gave it back and make me rub it out and start again. I found this traumatic because I was a perfectionist and couldn't bring myself to write a story on a piece of paper crumpled and full of pencil indentations. That in turn got me into trouble again. Even today (I am 26 years old) I am overly anxious about doing almost everything wrongly.

It was a case of I knew what got me into trouble but I couldn't help it because it just happened - all I wanted to do was be a good boy. In fact I felt so victimised by that teacher that when were we told she had left because she was dying of cancer I was relieved. I couldn’t share in the others sorrow because so much unhappiness was removed from my life. When we had to say good morning to that teacher I used to say ‘good morning you f***ing b*tch’ in my head as loud as I could. Thinking back, if I wasn’t such a shy child and said that out loud like I wanted to, I would have been a typical ‘disruptive child’ and possibly diagnosed with something.

I had it since i was 3. but they did not have a name for it then. I did not get a name for what i had until i was 21.

I was incredibly shy when I started Kindergarten. I wouldnt talkt to anyone unless asked and I didnt talk alot to the other children. I was held back in first grade because everyone said I was read y in my social skills not for second graders.

In 6th grade I was in ld class ...made me feel stupid.. in college I work my butt off nothing is easy not even asking aquestion. It sometime comes out the wrong way. auntchris

In grade school was when I first recall having problems. I'd always get sent home with a report card that read:

"Does not listen and follow directions."


Oh, God, how I hated that. I'd often drift while the teacher was giving instructions on the assignment. Or I'd listen and still miss some key portion of it and someone would have to whisper it to me.

Funny thing is, I was an "A" student. They even wanted to skip me up a grade but decided not to. But I simply could NOT master verbal instruction.

I still struggle with that today. I'm definitely a hands-on learner.

Oh, wow, all your experiences sound all too familiar.

I've had sleeping problems, even as an infant. My mom said I used to climb out of my crib in the night bc I wasnt sleeping and she'd find me in all kinds of strange places the next morning.

As a small child I remember not being able to sit still at dinnertime or for my dad to read a story. I also remember being stuck in the top of gigantic trees bc I'd climb all the way to the top.

Elementary school was hell for me. I remember being allowed to play maybe one or 2 times in K thru 4th grade- my nose was always in the corner or later I was stuck writing sentences. I had my own table in the lunchroom away from the other kids and I had a desk right in front of the teacher's separated from the other kids. I was in the principal's office a lot and my mom was constantly being called to school. Middle school was awful bc I just didnt understand a lot socially. I remember crying a lot. I really liked high school, though-lotsa friends, lotsa art classes and such a big school that I had long distances to walk between classes and burn off energy.

Geez, that's a depressing trip down memory lane!!!

I wasn't professionaly diagnosed until I was like 29. When I was 29 and working at the same nursing home as my mom she handed me a book titled "Adult ADD" I read the first three pages three times. I think I was on my fourth time when some of other workers started making comments like: "She gave a book about ADD to some one who is too easily distracted to read it!!" It was kind of in joking manner but I wasn't stupid (just easily distracted) I knew what they were saying,they were right. I couldn't sit there long enough to read the book. Later on in that shift another nurse gave me the name of a doctor that treated adults with ADD. I still see that same doctor and I am 41. I wasn't able to read the book until I began medications!---> life is full of irony

Now I believe the question read how old was I when my ADHD became a problem. I might have been school age when I began having problems but my Dad was a preacher. Preacher's kids were to attend every service and be good. My Mom would have been happy with quietly bad, or noisely still. It hurt to sit through a services---> sitting still sucked and I remember wondering how adults could do it when I was 4 years old. To an undiagnosed ADHD 4 year old church was hell!! Pun intended. Who ever came up with the idea of a childrens church that runs concerently with services should be classified as a saint!!! Wish they had come up with that idea when I was a kid!!

I was 6 and had just been entered into the first grade. I remember the teacher giving the class directions, and I just wasn't interested so I just did whatever I wanted, doodling, playing with toys. Mom told me when I was older that she had been called into the school by my teacher many times because I was not listening to the teacher and just doing my own thing. :p Hee-hee, a rebel at 6! I love it!

First grade,age 6. Was when I first started to feel different from the other kids.
I was the only one getting in trouble for daydreaming over and over again. And I just wasn't understanding things as fast as the rest of them. I actually started to hate school by 2nd grade.

i think i was always diff from other kids. I would "bug" them so to speak to play , always at someones house at like 8am if they "couldn't" play off I'd go to the next friends house. tis is not to say that i never played w/ anyone, I was just the 1st one out every morning!!
i never REALIZED I was diff until ummm... some time around Jr high age. never knew there was a "label" for it till it became "popular" in the media. Looking back in hindsite... well they say it's 20/20!!!

I was very young i remember being in special classes in grade k.I am 27 years old and still am struggling but they say once you have it it is you for life.

Sandra

I have always had big organization problems as long as I can remember, but somehow I managed to get through elementary school OK. Sixth grade sticks out in my mind as the time when things went downhill quick. Maybe because that is when I started junior high school, where we had to switch classes like 8 times a day and we were responsible for ourselves a lot more than in elementary school. I can remember sitting in sixth grade classes and feeling so lost, not able to keep up with the teacher or the assignments at all. Unfortunately, my mother and the school decided that I was doing poorly because I was bored so they put me in all advanced gifted classes. So I then sat in the gifted classes not knowing what was going on there either, got called lazy a lot, and was kicked out of those classes. That started a pattern through the next few years- the school would keep saying I was bored in regular classes, put me back in gifted classes where I would do even worse and get kicked back to regular classes.

Looking back now I can see what the problem was, but back then I had no idea of why things were so bad. I think if I had ADHD with the hyperactivity then someone may have noticed what the problem was, but I have never been hyper at all so it just looked like a big problem of laziness.

but they say once you have it it is you for life


Have what ADD/ADHD,struggling or both????? :confused:

i didn't talk until 5. doctors diagnosed me as mentally retarded, maybe b/c they saw my clubbed feet first and just assumed. once i started talking tho i didn't stop. in class i would get up and walk around the school b/c i was disinterested in the topic. dang, at 5? that just isn't normal. but dr's were dead wrong anyway. oh well, so it's 5 was the earliest undiagnosed though until 29.

victor
:)

Under 5, it had to be, bearing in mind that in my time there "was no ADD" and I can only make this choice utilising retrospect...but I was highly verbal at a very young age and clearly remember being embroiled in battles with adults before age 5, usually over the question "WHY??" and my subsequent refusal to accept answers like "Because I said so!"...that was me then and to a large entent is me now.

Under 5, it had to be, bearing in mind that in my time there "was no ADD" and I can only make this choice utilising retrospect...but I was highly verbal at a very young age and clearly remember being embroiled in battles with adults before age 5, usually over the question "WHY??" and my subsequent refusal to accept answers like "Because I said so!"...that was me then and to a large entent is me now.
Crazy Feet,

I was also extremely verbal at a very young age. I started talking really early, in complete sentences, and could read better than all the kids my age. I was also very creative, preferring to write plays and direct them (with my friends as the stars) than watch TV or play Nintendo. I wonder if being really verbal is usual in ADD kids, especially the ones that talk to much (ADHD, maybe?).