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Photo by stuartpilbrowMy parents moved me to a Christian school beginning in 7th grade. Back in 1987, my doctor cautioned my mom against my taking Ritalin past puberty as it was believed it would have the opposite effect. It would begin acting as a stimulant rather than helping me focus. So…I went off of it. I took Prozac for a month, but the controversy surrounding that drug also urged my mom to take me off of that as well. I haven’t been on medication for ADD since save for a month about a year and a half ago. I’ll write more about that later.

I have mixed emotions about being taken off medication. On one hand, I learned to deal with ADD without being dependent on medication. On the other, my lack of focus has made it difficult to take things through to completion throughout my life. In 7th grade, I fell back into my old habit of bad grades. I spent the majority of junior high barely getting by. My overall performance grades were terrible, but I would somehow manage to pull it off come exam time. My Math deficiencies became apparent during this time as well. Whereas I had received awards early on in school for Mathematics, I could barely comprehend basic Algebra.

I faced some pretty intense ridicule at the Christian school which opened a lot of old wounds. The social problems related to ADD began to manifest themselves during this time. I don’t have very many fond memories of that war zone. Right about the time when things finally seemed to be getting better for me there, I was dismissed from the school for tuition non-payment. That was one of the worse days of my life. It also led to one of my biggest regrets, which is not urging my parents to put me back in public school.

I was home-schooled my 10th grade year. That same year we moved from a bustling neighborhood full of kids my age to a rural country road. Looking back, it was a terrible set of circumstances for a young girl with ADD. I didn’t realize it at the time because I wasn’t capable of that level of critical thinking. There was no way I could look to the future and see how this was ultimately a setback. At the same time, I began to excel academically once again and passed the 10th grade with flying colors. Home school is a very viable option for children with ADD for the following reasons:

• Shorter school hours
• Less repetition
• Teaches independent study

Today, there are all kinds of social programs and groups for children who are home schooled. These resources weren’t available or were just unknown, so I spent many lonely hours at home not really looking forward to much. When I turned 18, I started a program at the local community college to graduate high school in three months. It was and Adult High School program, I finished it with flying colors in late 1993. I completed high school one day and began college courses the next. I lacked any real guidance with college. I wasn’t sure what my options were or really what I should do for a career.

Art was my talent, but I knew nothings of what kind of jobs and paths I could take with that. I didn’t realize that I might want to pursue a career in something else to avoid hating art because I did it for a living. I just took transfer courses. Community college suited me. It was independent enough to be what I had become used to with home school, but there was enough teacher support to get me through the rough spots. I went to college long enough to be a doctor, lawyer, AND Indian Chief.

To Be Continued

I’m doing a series on my experiences with ADD and some interesting facts that maybe you didn’t know. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed.