Going Orange!!!
Every month there seems to be something for which people are raising awareness. April has blue for Autism, October has pink for breast cancer, February has red for heart disease, and so on. For October, I plan to something different... this October I am going orange...
Orange in October is to raise awareness for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD or often times ADHD). But I'm not stopping at my profile pic... you see, just over 9 months ago I was diagnosed with inattentive ADD (yes, at age 33). It's something I've had since I was little, and for various reasons, it was never caught or suggested with seriousness that I talk with a professional about it until this past winter when I could tell something just wasn't right.
So this month, to help raise awareness, each day I plan to post something relating to ADD, whether it's something from my life or something I've read/seen online. You can also email me or post questions in the comments and I'll address them as well throughout the month. I know many have knee-jerk reactions and opinions about ADD, and I'm not here to tell anyone they are right or wrong. I just want to open the door to dialogue, to give a first-hand account of experiences (realizing not everyone has the same experiences), and to raise awareness about ADD.
So I leave this post with my first question to my psychiatrist after she told me I had every symptom of inattentive ADD (which I'll explain on future posts)... "Is this normal, not to be diagnosed until I'm adult?" Her response was yes. First off, I'm a girl, and most people are looking for ADD in boys, not usually girls, especially when I was school aged (research has come along since the 80s). I also don't have the "hyperactive" aspect so it's not like I was always leaving my seat in the room or causing too much of a disturbance that couldn't be explained by being "chatty" or "immature" (late birthday and one of the youngest in my class). My grades didn't suffer (until college) being that I learned quickly and homework/tests eventually got done, even if they took longer. And any quirks like chronic lateness, difficulty waking up in the morning, and "zoning out" were also seen in family members so they were brushed off as inherited personality traits. So each of these signs could easily be explained when they are looked at separately. But put them together, especially the behavior/school changes in college when I was on my own, and that's how she arrived at the diagnosis (her actual words were "you hit every marker for inattentive ADD" so there was no doubt).
Stop back tomorrow for another post! And feel free to comment/ask questions below (or email me)...
Orange in October is to raise awareness for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD or often times ADHD). But I'm not stopping at my profile pic... you see, just over 9 months ago I was diagnosed with inattentive ADD (yes, at age 33). It's something I've had since I was little, and for various reasons, it was never caught or suggested with seriousness that I talk with a professional about it until this past winter when I could tell something just wasn't right.
So this month, to help raise awareness, each day I plan to post something relating to ADD, whether it's something from my life or something I've read/seen online. You can also email me or post questions in the comments and I'll address them as well throughout the month. I know many have knee-jerk reactions and opinions about ADD, and I'm not here to tell anyone they are right or wrong. I just want to open the door to dialogue, to give a first-hand account of experiences (realizing not everyone has the same experiences), and to raise awareness about ADD.
So I leave this post with my first question to my psychiatrist after she told me I had every symptom of inattentive ADD (which I'll explain on future posts)... "Is this normal, not to be diagnosed until I'm adult?" Her response was yes. First off, I'm a girl, and most people are looking for ADD in boys, not usually girls, especially when I was school aged (research has come along since the 80s). I also don't have the "hyperactive" aspect so it's not like I was always leaving my seat in the room or causing too much of a disturbance that couldn't be explained by being "chatty" or "immature" (late birthday and one of the youngest in my class). My grades didn't suffer (until college) being that I learned quickly and homework/tests eventually got done, even if they took longer. And any quirks like chronic lateness, difficulty waking up in the morning, and "zoning out" were also seen in family members so they were brushed off as inherited personality traits. So each of these signs could easily be explained when they are looked at separately. But put them together, especially the behavior/school changes in college when I was on my own, and that's how she arrived at the diagnosis (her actual words were "you hit every marker for inattentive ADD" so there was no doubt).
Stop back tomorrow for another post! And feel free to comment/ask questions below (or email me)...
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