ADHD

I'm going to try to write all my blogs using the 'stream of conscience' technique. This is where you write down whatever comes into your mind. You can go from 'Rocks are useful' to 'I like bunnies'. It's really smart and a really great technique when writing blogs. Anyway, on to today's topic.

Today I was in Economics and our teacher divided us up into 6 different teams. Each team was asked a question and if they got it right they got a point. At one point in the game our teacher was talking about how our class went from being non-responsive to his lessons to talking too much during class (i.e: During the game). The girl next to me, who was one of those preppy, not very smart girls, said 'I think our whole class has ADHD because none of us can pay attention'. It took all I had to not turn around and yell at her.

There are only two things that I can't stand at all. The first being people who complain (maybe I'll write about that later) and the second is when people belittle ADHD.

I've had ADHD for 10 years, rather I was diagnosed 10 years ago. It's not fun. People really don't understand what it's like to have ADHD and ADD. It's not just having a short attention span. For me, if I don't take my medication, I will go from angry to happy, to hyper, to sad, to depressed, back to happy, back to sad/depressed and finally end with angry. That's pretty much the order as well. While it's true that every ADHD case is different, lot's of people with ADHD experience this, maybe not in that order but they do experience mood swings. It's not fun at all nor is it pleasant. I really hate having mood swings. No one wants to feel angry and sad and depressed. It makes working on school nearly impossible. I would take everything very personally and get into fights with my mom all the time. All of this happened while I was on my medication but as it turns out it was not strong enough.

So I hate when people belittle disorders like that. I'm not just saying that because I have ADHD. It's not fair that people feel like it's ok to say things like that about ADHD when they don't about any other disorders. You don't see someone who's eating sugar free candy and say 'oh haha, he must be diabetic' or see someone who has mood swings and say 'Haha, they must be bipolar'. Why should those with ADHD be different? Any disorder does not deserve to be made fun of especially when whomever is making the statement doesn't even know all the facts about what they are talking about.

I'd like to see every person who has belittled any disorder or condition live with that condition for a day. I'd like to see that girl from my class live with ADHD for a day without medication. I truly believe that if this were to happen everyone would think twice before belittling any disorder or condition again.