How did you find out or begin to suspect that you may have AD/HD?

I was taken by my parents to a team of doctors when I was 4. They diagnosed me with minimal brain disfunction (at the time called something other than ADD). They were given the choice of trying an experimental medication (Ritalin) or holding me back a year before I was put into Kindergarten. The theory was that I would "grow out of" my hyperactivity.

Needless to say, I didn't. Additionally, my parents "forgot" about my diagnosis! It wasnt until I stumbled across what ADD was after I graduated from collegethat I figured out what was wrong with me, and found a couple of doctors who properly diagnosed me, and then started me therapy and meds.

While researching my daughter's "problems" with learning, etc., I discovered the same, if not more, in myself.

Well I first heard about it on one of the night time news programs. Me not knowing anything and expecting one of my college professors to know something, I asked him. He looked at me like I was stupid Well, since I have ADHD, I forgot about it until a girl at work told me about it and suggested that I may have it. That was 4 years ago and I was 36.

I was first diagnosed as a first grader back in the early 1970's. The school informed my parents they were considering holding me back a year due to some problems I was having. I was taken to a child psychologist who diagnosed me as Hyperactive and given Ritalin. I took it until adolescence when I reached puberty and the signs of it went away and I was "cured".

Fast forward thirty years later. I was married with a baby and had done okay. Then my wife decides to divorce me. I start seeing a therapist in hopes of getting her to join me and saving our family. After a couple months she says not interested. So the therapist says maybe we should just concentrate on me for the time being and try to get over the shock and awe I was experiencing at the time.

So I begin to tell the therapist about my childhood and how I used to be Hyperactive and took Ritalin. I will never forget as long as I live the expression on her face. She said "Omigod Mark, you mean your ADHD!". I reply that I never heard of anything called ADHD before, and all I had was Hyperactivity, but it disappeared. She explained to me that if I had it as a child, I still do have it, and over the years the name for the disorder was changed. I'm like yeah, whatever. She say's listen to me, and reaches over and hands me a book called Driven To Distraction by Hallowell. I went home and later that evening I started reading the book. I never put it down and read it cover to cover. I couldnt believe that someone had written a story about my life and never asked my permission to publish it!

What a shame that the medical experts of the era believed ADHD was just a temporary childhood condition that eventually went away. I have since found out how typical and common my story is. And I fear for the many other adults walking around today who are also "cured" and have no idea of what the source of so many problems in their lives are due to. So anyways, thats the story of how I got to be where I am today, posting on this website with all my new friends who share something in common.

Great story Mark....not to mention great therapist....you started seeing her for marital issues only....and it ended up she recognized your ADD sympoms and enlightened you in ways you never even imagined -- did she not???? :)

I get a news letter from Web MD and it had an article about ADD in it one month. Reading it was a revelation. I didn't know anything about the disorder before but it sounded like my life.
I had an appointment coming up with my internist, who had been treating me for depression for almost 2 years, so I took an online test, printed it and wrote a short letter explaining why I thought I might have ADD. I mailed both together about a week before the appointment so he would have time to read it and get any information he needed. He set up an appointment with a local ADD clinic for me and from the time I read the article to the time of diagnosis was only about 4 weeks.

Oh my word, Cobweb!...That's unbelieveable! Amazing...reminds me of how I found out.

I'd heard about ADD from my ex-wife's aunt, who had a son with ADD. The description sounded like me! So I found out all I could about ADD, and it turned out that that very year, there was a big conference on Adult ADD in Ann Arbor at University of Michigan, and I went, and was stunned. Listened to Dr. Hallowell describe the symptoms and characteristics, and couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before. I had always skated through life just on intelligence (no studying, always procrastinated till the last minute, and never cracked a book), and couldn't figure out why I was the way I was. (Report cards always said "not living up to potential," even though I did not cause problems in school and read far beyond my grade level.) It was a revelation!

No kidding -- you were listening to Dr. Hallowell, the guru, and didn't know it??? Great story.....you sound really smart, very creative and very resourceful...."not living up to potential", huh? could have fooled me!