Melissa’s ADD / ADHD Story

Hi. I am 23 years old and in college. I am hoping to be a nurse once I’ve finished. I was diagnosed with ADD about a year and a half ago.

When I was in grade school I always got in trouble for talking, or moving. I always had a hard time focusing and paying attention yet I got good grades, I even ended up in a gifted and talented class.

This lasted until the seventh grade. This is when I started losing my homework, or forgetting to bring it in. I even had a teacher who told me I’d forget my head if it wasn’t attached. It was also al ot harder and I started struggling in learning it.

My teachers had started telling my parents that I was nothing like my siblings. See, I have one brother and four sisters who all did very well in school and were much more focused. When my teachers would tell my parents this, my parents assumed it was just because I didn’t want to be like my siblings.
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Then, I got to high school and things got even harder. In less I was interested in a subject and I liked the teacher, I didn’t do well at all. I had went from an A and B student to flunking classes and graduated with only a 2.57 GPA.

I also worked as a waitress all through high school and always had some tables that I would forget about, or forget to even turn there orders in. Some how I’ve been able to keep waitressing. I guess it’s because I am a hard worker at it but it’s only because I enjoy it and I get to socialize while doing it. But forgetting to turn in orders, etc. lasted until I was diagnosed and started taking strattera.

I got pulled over alot too and had lots of tickets because I wasn’t paying attention to how fast i was going.I even got a speeding ticket in a construction zone that I knew was there but I hadn’t noticed I had reached it yet, even though I was almost out of it.

I was diagnosed because I had started college and was really struggling with it. Again, if I liked the professor and the subject I was doing extremely well, but otherwise, I was not. Also, my memory had just gotten worse. I could be asked to do something and the next minute I had forgotten about it. I even started forgetting when tests were and didn’t study. I had talked to my mother about it. She is a nurse and had wondered to herself if I wasn’t ADD. So, I decided to talk to my doctor about it and low and behold. I am ADD. !


I haven’t known much about it however until lately I’ve been doing research on it and I am discovering why I am the way I am and why I do some of the things I do. It’s also helping with my relationship with my husband because he’s understanding it a little bit more.

I have noticed a huge difference in school since taking the medication. I can focus so much better and I am not having as hard of a time. I am happy I was diagnosed before I actually enter the LPN program.

Even though I am still ADD and I still have symptoms from it, I do so much better now that I am doing something about it.