Welcome rich to psychcentral! I have a long time acquaintance who is a teacher, and I don't know if SHE knows it or not, but she is ADD. I think she gets by with it because she is so creative, often an art teacher, and has for the recent past, worked with very young children. (Whom, as we know, attention span is about the same as hers - 5 minutes?) She isn't able to delegate, can't handle a staff, has trouble doing things ahead of time. (LOL She once replied to me, when she had had trouble with a task and I reminded her this task can't be left to the last minute, "But I didn't wait till the last minute, I did it the night before!" She is also a reckless driver, but denies it and laughs at the trooper's warnings. "See? I never get a ticket."

Anyway, I said all that to give you an idea of how to cope with your ADD... can you find areas where you are weak and figure out how to compensate?

You are young, so, yes, you can afford to repeat. Even if it's money you're talking about... because having a disorder requires that we do things that way... which often takes longer and costs more. We just have to do it that way, and that becomes the norm for us.

Please don't be angry... unless you can focus that anger on solutions for you. There is no guilt, shame, nor blame for this.

I suggest you contact the ADA who will have expert advice for you, and let you know just what you should divulge, and what they can and can't do to or against you along the way.

Contact directly the pharmaceutical company that makes the meds you need. They do offer meds free to patients. You have to ask.

We all have deficiencies... we all would like them to stay hidden. You have to learn to compensate for your disorder. Others have to learn to compensate for theirs. (And you're way ahead of many, since some ppl don't even know they have a problem!)

Take care.