I was unofficially diagnosed with ADHD by an OT awhile ago and with the difficulty I'm having right now I'm considering pursuing an official diagnosis. My pdoc's office doesn't like labels though.

Is this consistent with ADHD?:

I think I've reached the limit of my attention ability now that I'm in university. All through grade school my lack of attention was documented in my report cards but I managed decent marks in most subjects (not math). I'm floundering right now - most of the classes I have taken until now are applied music and theatre courses, which I excel at. No written tests, no readings. Just writing music or doing theatre. I also have bipolar disorder and dropped out during the Sept 2012 - April 2013 year. I came back Sept 2013 and dropped out again in October. I came back in January 2014 and just held it together enough to get 3.5 courses. Two of those courses included readings. I didn't do them. One of the courses had 3 hour lectures. I couldn't sit through them. I pulled through with a C+ in both courses.

I'm a smart person, and I have a lot of artistic talent, but when it comes to paying attention in class or sitting myself down to do readings, I sink. My current summer course is very heavy reading-wise. I need to read two textbook chapters per week and a whole other book for an essay due July 17th. It's taken me all week to get through one chapter of the textbook. I understand the material. I'm interested in the subject, but I can't maintain my attention on it for the life of me. The lectures are also 3 hours long. I haven't sat through a whole one yet.

My OT suggested I start with 5 minutes, and when that's up, take a 5 minute break or keep going for another 5 minutes. My problem is I do 5 minutes, and then get distracted and never get back to it. But if I try and force myself to keep going, I burn out after about 30 minutes.

The only things that kind of help are studying in a library instead of my house, and reading the book on a kindle instead of the textbook.

I'm going to print this out and take it to my OT. I'm so frustrated that I'm a smart guy but can't manage above a C+ because of attention difficulties.

I'm also wondering if the reason I dropped out for the past two years is complicated by these symptoms and if I find treatment for them maybe I can manage to not drop out this year. It was a bipolar episode that made me drop out both years, but I'm sure if these symptoms weren't stressing me out so much the bipolar symptoms wouldn't be so triggered.