I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 7, and since then I've been taking medication to counteract the disorder. Although it did help me in high school, where I could just use my natural intelligence to breeze by classes, I am having an extremely hard time adjusting to the workload that comes with being a chemistry major attempting to make it in an extremely competitive enviroment (pre-med).
In HS, I could just take my medication for school and not worry about it at home, because I didn't ever have to study. Now I have to be focused all the time, because of the workload. It sounds like an easy fix- take my medication all the time, right? Unfortunately, the effects that Adderall and other medications of that nature are the same - you don't eat, you don't sleep. So I have to balance being a student with being a normal human being, plus I've been having to adjust to not having nearly as much "me time" (just playing video games, browsing the internet, doing what i want to do) as I am used to having. I don't like living my life in 4 or 12 hour increments where I focus like a normal human being, and the rest of it where I am impulsive, unfocused and immature.
So my question to everyone here with ADHD is, how have you managed to cope with the disorder? Have you gone to therapy, or have you just used sheer willpower to barrel through it? How have you been able to plan studying, eating, and sleeping around the use of medication? I have the drive and the passion to be a doctor, I just have not been able to beat this thing. And it's not a case of "well he's just making excuses", trust me it's gotten to the point where if I go to class and I am unmedicated, no matter how hard I try to pay attention, I cannot. It is very difficult to explain and it is very frustrating to me when people think that I am faking it, or they just assume they have ADHD the first time they ever get distracted while doing something.
In HS, I could just take my medication for school and not worry about it at home, because I didn't ever have to study. Now I have to be focused all the time, because of the workload. It sounds like an easy fix- take my medication all the time, right? Unfortunately, the effects that Adderall and other medications of that nature are the same - you don't eat, you don't sleep. So I have to balance being a student with being a normal human being, plus I've been having to adjust to not having nearly as much "me time" (just playing video games, browsing the internet, doing what i want to do) as I am used to having. I don't like living my life in 4 or 12 hour increments where I focus like a normal human being, and the rest of it where I am impulsive, unfocused and immature.
So my question to everyone here with ADHD is, how have you managed to cope with the disorder? Have you gone to therapy, or have you just used sheer willpower to barrel through it? How have you been able to plan studying, eating, and sleeping around the use of medication? I have the drive and the passion to be a doctor, I just have not been able to beat this thing. And it's not a case of "well he's just making excuses", trust me it's gotten to the point where if I go to class and I am unmedicated, no matter how hard I try to pay attention, I cannot. It is very difficult to explain and it is very frustrating to me when people think that I am faking it, or they just assume they have ADHD the first time they ever get distracted while doing something.