Question: Hello,

I’m 19 years old and In my first year of college, and I’m very confident that I have undiagnosed adult ADD, but obviously there’s no way to tell for sure. I was wondering if you could guide me by telling me your opinion on it so I know if I should consult my family physician or not.

To start, both of my brothers, my sister, and my mom have ADD. my oldest brother is diagnosed and my sister and other brother have VERY apparent symptoms.

Anyway, in my junior year of high school, my school counselor suggested I may have ADD and recommended I go see my doctor, but I put that idea on the back burner and avoided it because I was afraid (and still am) that my physician will think that I’m just some kid looking for pills.

Anyway, I was fairly high achieving in school, with just about all A’s and a couple B’s, however I had to work my ass off double time just to keep up with some of my classmates. I realized that textbook assignments/readings that were taking the average group of my friends maybe 2 hours, was taking me 5-9 hours to complete because I would get distracted and could not focus.

To this day, I hate reading with a passion solely because I’m so slow at it. I listen to audiobooks because if I actually try to read, I’ll read the page, realize I wasn’t actually “reading” it, re read it, and repeat and make no progress.

Also, I took the SAT 4 times and never completed the test a single time because I have terrible testing anxiety and simple things like hearing someone shuffle in their seat or the clock moving or literally any of the smallest distractions would cause me to completely lose focus.

In high school, I chose to stand in class next to my desk instead of sitting because I would get so incredibly bored and restless. Many many times during the day, I would ask to go to the bathroom just so I could walk around a little bit. Sometimes 3-5 times per class.

I am the worst procrastinator that you will ever meet as well haha. Up until my school counselor brought up that she suspected I had ADD, I assumed that the reason I was bad at reading and so slow at doing things was simply because I was a procrastinator and that was it.

This doesn’t only affect my academics, but also other things like how my room is NEVER clean regardless of how much I try to keep it organized. Without failing, it will always end up looking like a tornado went through it within 1-2 days after I cleaned it.

There’s also other small things like laundry. Laundry is my worst nightmare both at home
And In college. I usually never end up folding it, and I often don’t even do laundry until I have literally nothing left to wear.

These are just a few things that I have noticed, and I’ve definitely become more conscious about it over the past few years. I’m afraid that my doctor will look at my academics, see that I did well in high school, and see that I am now in a decent university and think that I’m lying or just trying to abuse the medicinal route for drugs. However I am sincerely hoping for some help to make my daily life more productive and efficient because I am very confident that I have undiagnosed adult ADD but have no idea how to even approach the conversation with my doctor.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and let me know what you think!

Best regards, XXXXXXX

Hello,

I’m 19 years old and In my first year of college, and I’m very confident that I have undiagnosed adult ADD, but obviously there’s no way to tell for sure. I was wondering if you could guide me by telling me your opinion on it so I know if I should consult my family physician or not.

To start, both of my brothers, my sister, and my mom have ADD. my oldest brother is diagnosed and my sister and other brother have VERY apparent symptoms.

Anyway, in my junior year of high school, my school counselor suggested I may have ADD and recommended I go see my doctor, but I put that idea on the back burner and avoided it because I was afraid (and still am) that my physician will think that I’m just some kid looking for pills.

Anyway, I was fairly high achieving in school, with just about all A’s and a couple B’s, however I had to work my ass off double time just to keep up with some of my classmates. I realized that textbook assignments/readings that were taking the average group of my friends maybe 2 hours, was taking me 5-9 hours to complete because I would get distracted and could not focus.

To this day, I hate reading with a passion solely because I’m so slow at it. I listen to audiobooks because if I actually try to read, I’ll read the page, realize I wasn’t actually “reading” it, re read it, and repeat and make no progress.

Also, I took the SAT 4 times and never completed the test a single time because I have terrible testing anxiety and simple things like hearing someone shuffle in their seat or the clock moving or literally any of the smallest distractions would cause me to completely lose focus.

In high school, I chose to stand in class next to my desk instead of sitting because I would get so incredibly bored and restless. Many many times during the day, I would ask to go to the bathroom just so I could walk around a little bit. Sometimes 3-5 times per class.

I am the worst procrastinator that you will ever meet as well haha. Up until my school counselor brought up that she suspected I had ADD, I assumed that the reason I was bad at reading and so slow at doing things was simply because I was a procrastinator and that was it.

This doesn’t only affect my academics, but also other things like how my room is NEVER clean regardless of how much I try to keep it organized. Without failing, it will always end up looking like a tornado went through it within 1-2 days after I cleaned it.

There’s also other small things like laundry. Laundry is my worst nightmare both at home
And In college. I usually never end up folding it, and I often don’t even do laundry until I have literally nothing left to wear.

These are just a few things that I have noticed, and I’ve definitely become more conscious about it over the past few years. I’m afraid that my doctor will look at my academics, see that I did well in high school, and see that I am now in a decent university and think that I’m lying or just trying to abuse the medicinal route for drugs. However I am sincerely hoping for some help to make my daily life more productive and efficient because I am very confident that I have undiagnosed adult ADD but have no idea how to even approach the conversation with my doctor.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and let me know what you think!

Best regards, XXXXXXX

Thank you for responding so quickly!

I’m not necessarily looking for medication, but anything that could help. Do you have any advice for non medicinal treatments?

Thanks again!

Thank you for responding so quickly!

I’m not necessarily looking for medication, but anything that could help. Do you have any advice for non medicinal treatments?

Thanks again!