CHS student speaks about living with ADHD

October 9, 2012  
Filed under Student Life

Editor’s Note:  Recently, a Coronado student wrote a short paper about what it is like living with ADHD.  We have reproduced it here with permission from the author.  ADHA Awareness Week is October 14-20, 2012

Life has obstacles and bumps and curved edges.  But, no matter what life throws at me I will not fall.  If I fall, I will never know what I will amount to.

Being a kid growing up with “ADHD” is hard, well…at least for me it was.  I never paid attention, EVER!  My teachers use to put me in the corner because I was always distracted. But, by them putting me in the corner, it made me block them out, not listen, and not do anything.  It made me feel small, a waste of space. 

As I became older, my ADHD became harder to deal with and my dad helped me out a lot.  I would ask him questions like, “why do I have ADHD?” All he would was, “God made each person differently and he just made you special.”

ADHD stands for “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”  Having ADHD growing up, I was told, “don’t do that, sit still, behave, and don’t touch stuff.”  I’m used to hearing all of those things, even now I still here them once in a while.

Me having ADHD, I don’t really look at it as a disability; I look at it as a challenge.  What is a challenge? It’s something by its nature or character serves as a call to battle, contest, special effort.  For one who has ADHD a little task can be a big battle, my challenge was to prove a point. The point is that I can do things on my own without people having to tell me.  Every day when I wake up a new challenge awaits me.  I ask for help a lot because I don’t like to be wrong. BY THE NUMBERS

5.2 million-Number of children 3-17 years of age ever diagnosed with ADHD

8.4-Percent of children 3-17 years of age ever diagnosed with ADHD

11.2-Percent of boys 3-17 years of age ever diagnosed with ADHD

5.5 – Percent of girls 3-17 years of age ever diagnosed with ADHD

7.3 million- Number of ambulatory care visits (to physician offices, hospital outpatient and emergency departments) with ADHA as primary diagnosis

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/adhd.htm

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