Hello I'm new to this forum. I decided to join as I thought this might be good to have some sense of community and more importantly share my story. I was diagnosed with ADHD before being a teenager. I was medicated with Ritalin at around 10 years old. Then Strattera as a teenager, and progressed to Adderall when I was 18.

I have noticed that the hyperactive symptoms have died down as I have gotten older. I was always a very hyperactive kid. I never payed attention in school, and high school sucked for me. I remember never paying attention to social cues and ended up dropping out after 9th grade due to low self esteem and couldn't deal with people effectively. Yet I managed to pass my ged with just a ninth grade education if that's any consolation.

Mostly I was not medicated during high school. I recall dealing with comorbid issues such as generalized anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder as well. I was on disability until I was 18 (500 $ a month).

When I was 18 my benefit was terminated. Since I lived in crappy rural town and it was the great recession I had little chance of securing employment as did many others in the 16-19 age group. Eventually I enrolled in post secondary education known as community college. I was prescribed Adderall as well. My first 2 semesters I completed 20 credits with over a 3.0 average. It was a lifesaver, and the only reason I got through my work. Sadly after about a year I was very disengaged by community college and the tedium that they said we must get through. I had started dropping classes and stopped caring and stopped taking Adderall.

That was a mistake. I found alcohol at age 19 and my usage was more than casual although I never considered myself an alcoholic, but a few months I was drinking beer every day and not socially. I was always a recluse and was self medicating the comorbid conditions (gad and ocd and depression) I always compared myself to others and always had low self esteem. Eventually I just quit drinking for 8 months cold turkey, and started back up in moderation.

I ended up seeking treatment for my anxiety disorders. Docs prescribed benzos and they were effective. I also went through the litany of pharma. Seroquel for a couple moths, Lexapro, Paxil, several others. The bad thing was that when I started one med it would have contraindications with another. e.g (Can't take benzos (anxiety) with Adderall (adhd med) because it's a speedball.

Bottom line is I have primarily inattentive add. I have executive dysfunction, I have slower cognitive load and my brain spends dopamine too fast. I lose things, forget things, interrupt people when I am afraid I will forget, poor short term memory and poor motivation and poor tolerance for jumping through hoops.

I think I have a good understanding of what is wrong with me cognitively and have been told I have a good fluid intelligence but have not compensated for my neurodevelopmental problems.

I confess I've never passed a class without Adderall and should probably go back to school and get my medication but currently I am doing other things. I have been working 30 hours a week at minimum wage getting my first job was a slight bump for my self esteem yet the earnings gap between college grads and unskilled is alarming.

I've only officially been diagnosed with ADHD(ADD) primarily inattentive type. But I surmise that have ocd (germaphobia/rituals) and generalized anxiety disorder as well.

I decided to share my story, I was wondering if anyone has suffered similar?