Expert Terry Matlen's ADHD Diagnosis

It's a classic story, in a sense. The quiet child who never got into trouble. The teacher's pet. The sensitive one who had a rich inner life, worrying about the squirrels freezing in winter and dogs getting hit by cars in the summer. The little school girl who gazed out the window, lost in her own secret world, while the rest of the class enjoyed being read to and learning about numbers, state capitals and the life cycle of a chicken.

I was lucky, though. None of my teachers, let alone my parents, would ever know that I got through my early years school by sheer luck and I suppose, a keen mind. How I was able to get through without doing homework or listening to the teacher; I'll never know. But then I hit the famous "ADHD wall"- that's when undiagnosed, untreated kids with ADHD find they can't keep up with the academic challenges and then fall apart. For me, it happened in 6th grade when, after the death of my father a few years earlier, I found myself in a new house, new neighborhood, new school. We had left the city for the suburbs and my new classmates were light years ahead of me in every way. Academically, they were at least a year ahead of where I was in the city school. Socially, they were becoming teenagers, while I was still lost in childhood, oblivious to the interests of most girls my age.

I fell behind quickly and sadly, didn't catch up for many years. What was the problem? I had undiagnosed ADHD and anxiety.

The rest of my academic career is for another story, another time. What I'd like to do here is to share with you how I discovered my ADHD.

For many of you, that time happens when you, too, hit the wall. It could be in your youth, when your grades slipped or your behaviors got you in trouble. But more than likely, it happened when you became an adult and found you could no longer juggle all the balls: marriage, work, raising children, keeping up the house, paying bills on time, etc. etc. Or perhaps your child was having difficulties and when you explored how you could help him/her, you discovered that it was ADHD behind it all. In reflecting on the difficulties of your child's history, you had a rude awakening..."hey, that's exactly how *I* was as a child, "and you, too, found yourself diagnosed (and hopefully treated) for your own ADHD.

My case was a bit different.

Let me tell you about my own "aha" moment- the events in my life that led to my own diagnosis of ADHD.

It was June of 1989, when every mother's nightmare became a reality for me. I found my 16 month old daughter writhing strangely in her crib in the middle of the night. Her eyes were wide open, but they were held a vacant stare. I instantly recognized what appeared to be a febrile seizure. Having seen this same scenario five years earlier at a friend's house, whose daughter was having seizures, I knew to rush my baby to the bathtub and run tepid water over her to bring down her body temperature. However, in my daughter's case, it didn't work. Her body continued to shake and tremble and her body remained hot to the touch.