Living with ADD: Not the worst thing in the world

I was born on April 29, 1982 at Georget Washington Hospital in Washington, DC. Growing up with ADD has been a challenge for me, but there have also been many good times in my life as well. I am well aware that I have had special privileges and access to more things that most kids probably don't, but I can tell you from growing up with a little extra money that money only distracts the pain, it does not erase the pain.

If you ask me, ADD or ADD/ADHD as it's often called is just a label. I believe "we fear what we know not", and when we don't know what something is or we think something is different, we will label it. Everybody is different and everybody reacts differently to different foods, medicine and to certain situations. Say you are a person who may have a lot more mood swings than the average person: well first when does the average person get upset and second of all when is it normal to have an "average mood swing?"

When you are labeled as "different" it makes you feel different and then you may feel that you are not normal and people won't want to be around you. In reality, having ADD or ADHD is not the worst thing in the world: i remember getting on an airplane to go to boarding school for the first time and I was absolutely terrified. So my mother told the ticket lady about my learning disabilities and they upgraded my seat to first class without any charge. There are many other memories that I have of learning disabilities like that. I am not going to lie to you and say that having learning disabilities isn't tough, because it is - but then again so is life. Life is tough for everybody, but because lots of times people who have any types of learning disabilities are thought of as stupid, at least during their childhood years, we have it in our heads that we are stupid or that we can't do it. Well, I've learned that we have average or even above average IQs, and we can do anything we want to.

To read more about my life or to visit a community of people living with and caring for others with learning disabilities, visit FriendsOfQuinn.com: Where learning disabilities meet support.