My first reaction to comments about ADHD not being real is that people who say this have not experienced true ADHD. I am a 48 yr old parent of an almost 16 yr old ADHD child. My daughter was diagnosed at about 12 yrs old but I knew something was amiss since about the 2nd grade. (She also was diagnosed with NLD, Non-verbal Learning Disorder which is an overlap condition to ADHD) My family situation and circumstances at the time did not allow me to seek out the help she needed. Let me add that I am also the parent of a 24 yr old daughter who is not ADHD. I consider my husband and me to be above average parents. My husband and I have fulltime jobs and he also teaches part time for a university and, we have a very spiritual and disciplined family structure. The process for getting Jessica the help she needs medically, educationally, structurally has been a tough road. It's not easy discovering what works and doesn't work for your child. Each child is different. Each one has different levels of ability and inabilities. Of course I understand my daughter the best because I'm relating with her more than anyone else, even my husband. Jessica has the attention type ADHD. She has difficulty focusing on one thing for very long. She also can not process information like the average person. If you give her too much information her brain goes into overload and she gets frustrated and confused. When she was little she used to hold her hands over her ears and cry "no, no, no, no." And what I mean by too much information is in most cases more than one or two steps at a time. Beyond basic math is virtually non-existent for her. My husband can personally vouch for her math struggles. He tried to coach and teach her himself when the teachers and tutors couldn't and he became so flustered when he could not get through. I tried to tell him (been there done that). She receives or processes things in her brain literally so understanding of social interactions or situations sometimes can be confusing for her sort of like not being able to connect the dots in your brain. This deficit causes concern for safety judgment. Because she is not always connecting the dots she has difficulty with foreseeing the consequence of an action or decision. I used to work as a correctional officer for a prison for a short time and witnesses first hand untreated or undiagnosed ADHD people that we're probably doomed to prison because of this disability. This really scared me by the way. I could see Jessica making a bad decision innocently in her mind and no one understanding how that happened. In addition, Jessica has been extremely unorganized, forgetful, not very coordinated, and other ADHD characteristics, left handed but ambidextrous, etc that I don't have time in this forum to cover. These are her main issues, the ones that tend to incapacitate her. Before her diagnosis in the 6th grade she was failing all of her classes. She was so depressed and her self worth and self esteem shot. It wasn't until we were able to get her the help she needed to be successful did she bloom into the beautiful, fun loving, intelligent (yes intelligent) young lady that she is. Among the things we did to help her was an IEP at school to assist her with her special educational needs. Medication; straterra for about 3 yrs and now recently Vyvanse. She went a spell without meds because she wanted to try and we allowed her that time to see if she could do it on her own but we could see she wasn't going to succeed independently of it and put her back on meds. She is back on track with her life and the meds which helps her focus and organize. Structure in the home is a MUST for Jessica. The routine helps her know what is expected and therefore she can feel complete and succeed daily at home. Let me just add that ramping up our spiritual activity in our lives at church and at home has given her a relationship with God that is all her own that she has come to be filled with the hope and love of Christ. All of these combined efforts can help a person with ADHD be successful. But you can know for sure that ADHD is real. I've lived it with my daughter. Jessica is learning to take responsibility for her disability because we won't always be there to do it for her. For instance this year when she started the 10th grade and was having some difficulty in Spanish she asked her teacher if she knew she had an IEP. (The teacher did not) I was so proud of her for asking and not waiting for me to intercede on her behalf. Will she succeed in Spanish this year? I don't know. Her teacher tells me if you have difficulty with math you will have difficulty with foreign language. I never knew that. But Jessica is trying her best; she told the teacher a B wasn't good enough. :) Oh, and I have to add this to the notion that ADHD kids are just lazy. Not true. Let me explain. First of all she has to work her brain twice as hard as the average kid just to keep above water. She would come home after school and sleep a lot and I just thought that it was maybe an ADHD symptom (which technically it could be but the reason for it is more important) It dawned on me one day when I asked her about the swim team (she had gone to practice for about a week thinking about trying out) and she said "Mommy I just cant do it, it takes everything I have just to get through school. My brain just has to work so hard, and I'm just so tired when I get home". My poor baby. You who have mental jobs can probably relate. You can come home at the end of the day brain dead, no? She does this day in and day out. She tries so hard to do well. Most people take this for granted. And lastly I want to mention some of the misunderstandings of ADHD by people who are unaware or uneducated about it. All I can say is get educated. The first time I read about ADHD/NLD I was floored because I was reading about my daughter things I hadn't been able to put words to for years. Just knowing your not alone - helps.

Jessica wants to go to college and thankfully there are more and more colleges out there that will assist with the ADHD student. I would be very skeptical of her success in college without it. Let me just close with telling you that if you don't believe ADHD is real I would love to introduce you to my beautiful daughter. You know the saying "that which doesn't kill you will make you stronger"? Growing with Jessica has made me very strong but is that not how God works? He takes us through the wilderness so we learn to depend more on Him and by doing such we gain great strength.

ADHD Mom