I've been seeing a Pdoc for a month or so due to extreme depression and anxiety issues. At my last visit I finally got the nerve up to talk to him about ADD as I think that this is a catalyst for my anxiety but was dismissed off the cuff since I'm "successful". Now there are lots of valid reasons why I could be wrong but I don't think that "success" should be the key metric.

I could be wrong I guess about the ADD part but I don't really think so.

• In and out of the principles office and teacher conferences during elementary school for acting out and being "unfocused"
• Couldn't read in the third grade, but eventually found a topic I enjoyed (greek mythology) and was reading at the 9th grade level in only a few months.
• School complained to my parents about my hyperactivity (mind you I'm a bit older at 35 and they didn't suggest medication back then).
• Chronic underachiever in secondary school was always told "you could do more if you would just concentrate". I got by since I am pretty intelligent.
• Never could do homework and always waited until the last moment for projects. Almost failed several classes due to the amount of missing work. Was only a firm hand from my parents that I could do any of this.
• Went to 3 different colleges because of difficulties staying focused which caused academic hardships and delays. I switched my major 4 times because I couldn't stay focused for very long. I eventually found a major that I was interested enough in to see through and graduated with decent grades. I ended up with 228 credits for a 120 credit degree from all the changes.
• I didn't take notes at all in college and couldn't read most of my books. I couldn't take notes and listen or I would just miss everything that was being said. Most of my notebooks contained nothing more than doodles and rants...
• I didn't do well in most of the heavier reading classes and classes requiring papers. I had too much trouble staying on topic and focused. The only classes I did well in were related to math and science which I found interesting and easy.
• I've had several jobs since then and I've done pretty well but I have a habit of leaving once my disorganization causes me to get completely overwhelmed. I'm constantly in a state of chaos and my desk/files are a mess. I can't for anything get organized and it always ends up biting me in the long run. Now I'm a higher level manager but its because I'm really good at the analytics and when its a crunch I can do great work.
• Over the years I've developed my own systems (well really several redundant systems) for trying to get my work done. Post-its, online calendars, voluminous to-do lists, etc. Without those I wouldn't get a single thing accomplished. I'm lucky actually that I'm a manager since it lets me bounce between lots of different things rather than try to focus all day on one particular thing. I also have my staff do all my organizing for the most part since I'm so bad at it. Even then I'm sitting here with a desk full of stuff that I really should have filed or done but haven't.
• I chronically miss things, fine details, emails, etc. I end up sending work thats wrong often and then catch it and resend again with the corrections. I can't seem to focus at all on the small things.
• I lose things all the time, keys, wallet, my lunch... I stopped bringing much of my work home because I wouldn't ever remember to bring it back. I have to check to make sure I have everything like 5 times in the morning.
• My house is full of unfinished projects. I've been remodeling for 5 years now and each part is half done. Its not that I can't do the work its just that I get side-tracked and never get back to it. I started hanging pictures for my wife 4 weeks ago did one wall and never finished.
• My son was diagnosed with ADHD and I know there can be a genetic link. My wife is luckily really organized so I don't think he gets this from her.

There's tons more but this is already long. I guess I'm just frustrated that my Pdoc won't even explore this with me. Hell I have 14 half finished business plans, each time I get hyper excited and start it only to have it sit on my table and gather dust when I move on to the next one. At this point the cycle has become circular where I just seem to move from one to the other redoing the same beginning work and stopping when I think it gets down to the nuts and bolts.

So can you be too successful for ADD? I guess that was the question that started the rant.