Hello! I am 16 and have ADHD, I'm... confused..?

[loony74]

I was diagnosed at a young age, though, I was never treated.. I was doped up for a good 2 years until my father got custody and got me off meds (not abruptly of course). I was around 9 or 10 at the time, I never really thought about my condition up until VERY recently. And honestly? It's kinda weird, I dunno why but it just is. I had the sudden urge to start researching and I realized that my entire life I've been living with severe ADHD symptoms and never really thought about it too much!

I used to be a gifted kid, get straight A's with a fat grin. Then.. I just stopped being good at stuff. I couldn't focus, well, on things that I should be focusing on. I am a lazy person who is usually unmotivated to do anything and I don't know if it's because of ADHD or just because that's who I am.

I started researching a bit (please keep in mind that i am not an expert please take the following with a grain of salt)(I seriously don't get that expression) and found out that Neurotypicals think differently than people who are neurodivergent. That was a mind-blowing thing to hear, all my life i've just been /thinking/ the fact that I can get lost in my own mind is sick, and then I realize that other people don't think like that. ITS JUST WEIRD!

Oh yeah hi everyone I'm new here and I wanted to talk about somebody about ADHD but the circle of people that I'm around usually are too judgemental for me. I thought maybe talking to people who relate to me might help, Anyway here's a nice picture of a gecko I found on google!

I'm sorry for my post being too unorganized.

[loony74]

Also thank you for all of your help.

[fillycheesesteak]

I LOVE THE GECKO!!!

HI! I can assure you that everyone here can relate to most, if not all, of this post!

I'm glad you could find a place to talk about this. I definitely understand the feeling of feeling like you can't talk about your ADHD with people who don't have it. It just feels so good to know that there are others who can absolutely relate and are here for you and all of your run-on sentences and ramblings!!!

Also, I can almost guarantee that you're not a lazy person! ADHD is HARD, whether people want to argue it is or not! It's not just us, it's our brains (mean brains...but they make us cool so it's okay 😎).

[loony74 in reply to fillycheesesteak]

Thank you for the support, it means a lot

[petlover16]

Heya!! Welcome! Good gecko post!

I remember having a similar chat with friends where I mentioned the "brain layers". The state where I am overly aware of surroundings, the middle/most normal state, and the state where I am completely in my head and not aware of my surroundings. They did not get it at all. They always lived in the middle stage.

As for school, I am in a very difficult course and I can tell you that you aren't lazy nor are you stupid. If you are finding you are really struggling with school it may be worth talking to a doctor or specialist about going back onto meds. Personally I started on them early in university and it was amazing to suddenly be able to actually finish projects.

If you ever need to reach out please feel free and I hope you find even more people to chat with!

-s

[loony74 in reply to petlover16]

Thank you, my family doesn't believe in medicine so I'm not sure what to do next. I am almost finished with highschool but I am overly anxious if I am going to make it to graduation.

[MommaRae]

1) you are not alone, 2) you are the good kind of weird, 3) anxiety and ADHD are common. I've learned, while helping my combination ADHD son with his struggles, that I have been dealing with the same thing undiagnosed for most of my life. My mom is a retired teacher and she taught me ways to handle the overwhelmed, lazy procrastinating. 1) you can use caffeine to help focus, but moderate your intake and avoid sugar with caffeine, because sugar will likely make you more hyper and irritable when it wears off. Dark chocolate is a decent alternative to coffee, or you can use water flavor packets that include caffeine. 2) make lists for visual reminder and so you get a sense of accomplishment for crossing off an item, 3) you can do almost anything for 15 minutes, so set a timer for yourself and break down larger tasks into smaller ones (lists help) so you can accomplish something quickly and walk away. I'm super visual and tactile so these help me immensely even now. Meditation is also very helpful for those of us who get lost in our own thoughts and overthink. Addressing anxiety helps you manage the ADHD symptoms! There are tons of people with similar struggles, so I encourage you to try not to be so hard on yourself, and look at it as a challenge you are finding solutions for. Every day is a new day with no mistakes in it, so learn from things you've done or others have done and forgive yourself and them so you don't get weighed down by guilt or grudges. Focus on solutions that you can use that creative intelligence on, it's both fun and rewarding to help yourself, but also even more to help others. You can do it!