[theguyonline]

Hi everyone,

I am an 17 (about to turn 18) high school student. Sorry if my English skills are poor, I have been learning the language for a couple of years only and this is my first year in an American high school. I recently came to wonder whether or not I had ADD/ADHD: I never heard of it before but many people asked me if I had ADD since I came to my new American high school. I never got a diagnosis but during my whole life it was pretty obvious to me and everyone around me that I had some kind of concentration problem. Since I was in 7th grade many people thought I was taking drugs and did not believed me when I told them I did not take anything (marijuana, etc.). I scored extremely high on the ADHD test on this website (I answered Very much to most questions), I scored high on the OCD test, and I also scored moderately high on the bipolar and schizophrenia tests.

Since I was very little, I never did well at any school subjects (although I won national awards in mathematics contests, I was probably the only participant who was failing his maths class!). I was always lazy and I never did my homeworks. Usually, a school year went like this: at the beginning of the year, I felt extremely motivated and wanted to get a near-perfect score on everything. This feeling of motivation usually lasted 2-3 weeks and then it went away. I got addicted to many things ranging from video games to the internet and this is where I spent most of my time. I never had any friends until this year and I was beaten up quite often (this stopped when I came in my new American school). Right now, as before, it is extremely difficult for me to concentrate in class, even though I want to. When the teacher speaks, I can usually listen for a few minutes (sometimes a few seconds) and then my mind starts to wander. I come back to class a few minutes later, having missed a big part of the class. I then tell myself "stop thinking about random unrelated things" but it starts again after a few minutes and the class ends without me having learned anything. This happens in most classes. When I try to read a textbook for a homework assignment, I cannot concentrate on it and I always feel I have to do something else, which is why I usually don't do my readings. This also happens when I watch a movie: my mind wanders and I come back to the movie 10 minutes later and I just think "damn, I just missed 10 minutes of the movie, what happened?". It doesn't seem to happen when I play computer games.

Anyway, here is what I need: I recently got a conditional offer from the College I want to attend but I need to get outstanding grades in some specific exams (AP exams). I am completely behind in a specific class that consist mostly of textbook reading. I cannot get myself to read the textbook: I always procrastinate and when I do read it I cannot find a way to concentrate, it's the same as in class. I sometimes wander for 50 consecutive minutes and I only get back to reality once the bell rings (but it usually happens in 'chunks')!

Please note that I do not really want to take medication because I have heard many bad things about it and I do not want to screw up my brain. I just want a way to stop procrastinating and to help me concentrate better. The stop procrastinating part is the most important, I always have positive thoughts during the day thinking "today I will start studying X and Y" but when I get back home I don't. When I find some time to do so, I stop after a few minutes. I am sorry if this post is not very clear and organised, I was just trying to express how I feel but it is very hard to do so.

theguyonline

Results of your
Attention Deficit Disorder Quiz

You scored a total of 112

It is highly likely that you are presently suffering from adult attention deficit disorder, according to your responses on this self-report questionnaire. You should not take this as a diagnosis of any sort, or a recommendation for treatment. However, it would be advisable and likely beneficial for you to seek further diagnosis from a trained mental health professional immediately.

70 & up Adult ADHD
50 - 69 Moderate ADHD
35 - 49 Mild ADHD
25 - 34 Borderline ADHD
0 - 24 No ADHD likely

[theguyonline]

I also have horrible organization skills! Every single papers I have received at school is in a huge pile of disordered papers. I don't have folders and I never really used any. Now it is quite late to make an order out of everything I have. There is also a big pile of old clothes laying on a chair in my room (it have been like this for years), and old socks are laying here and there... I have problems remembering things, especially people's names and things to do. I was supposed to do a US history course by correspondence since the beginning of this year but I still haven't started it and I have 2 months to do a whole year worth of work if I want my diploma. I always tell myself "I will do it later, I will do it during the week end, I will do it during Christmas vacation, I will do it during the spring break" but I never do it... This is what I mean by procrastination.

Edit: By the way I might consider meds if they are not dangerous. I can't edit the title anymore unfortunately.

[Perna]

Hi, theguyonline, welcome to PsychCentral.

I don't have ADD or ADHD but a lot of your story sounded like mine. Sounds like you're not as interested in your studies as you are in being online and messing around.

To read your textbook, I'd do it a little at a time. Not make yourself site down and "read" like you've probably been trying to do but instead, explore what you have to read, find interesting (to you) parts of it to read, etc. Read first sentences of paragraphs only, maybe, for a bit or first and last sentences unless you find paragraphs that seem more interesting and have something you want to know.

Make up a game with your reading; translate it into your native language?

I scored in the 99 percentile on a nationwide maths test but was only getting a B-/C+ in that maths class. Einstein flunked maths.

What course is your reading in?

[theguyonline]

Hi Perna, thanks a lot for your answer. My readings are in European and I need to get a 4 on the AP exam (I never took an AP exam before but my teacher told me it was hard) as well as a 5 in the Calculus exam but I am not worried about that one. I will try reading it the way you suggest and see if I get results. I am currently really bad at this class and it is true that I am much more interested in messing around online (I do this over 8h a day...) than I am in reading these things. I usually hate reading long texts and I usually never finish (or even start) my reading assignments in school; the only books I read for pleasure were stuff like Artemis Fowl and even then I would often stop at 3/4th of the book. This class is just completely boring and our teacher is the only one captivated in what he is teaching (he can speak for over an hour about something nobody cares about and he is really in it...). Anyway, I will try to see what I can do.

[Callista]

Common strategy: Take meds temporarily, to allow yourself to concentrate for now. Stimulants aren't the type of thing you need to take constantly anyway; and who would? The side effects are so annoying... Meds can help you learn study strategies, which of course persist once you stop taking them.

Still dead-set against 'em? Okay. Are you an auditory learner, by any chance? Is there an online version of your textbook available--maybe in PDF or text format? (You may need to buy it. Yeah, I know.... ouch on the wallet.) If so, you can get a program that reads the text aloud to you. If you're very lucky, your textbook may even be available in an audio format. (Check with your school's special-needs department, whatever they call it. Maybe there was a blind student who took the class before you, and they had somebody record the text on audiotape. Doesn't hurt to ask.) Another benefit of audiotapes is that you can do a lot of things besides listen to them--keep your hands busy, doodle, whatever... I knit, for example. I've gone so far as to scan the text into the computer, use an OCR program to convert it to text, and use a text-to-speech program to read it out. The voice takes a little getting used to, though; and obscure terms might be mispronounced... it's worth a try; it helped me.