writing-arts/memoir

I've never been able to really listen to a person. To actually sit down and listen has always been an issue for me. School was even worse. For a long time I didn't even know I wasn't paying attention. It's almost as if you fall asleep and you wake up at the wrong time, at the end of a conversation or discussion, for example. That made it hard for me to keep up with schoolwork and activities, which required the use of my attention.

No one ever paid attention to my problem. In fact, I didn't pay it any mind at all, until my grades started to drop. This made my time in high school very difficult. I went from straight A's to no credit at all, and I didn't know why. During that time my grades fell and everything about me changed ranging from my attitude to my patience. I became extremely lazy and unreliable. My family and I naturally blamed it on puberty, but the idea of my problem being summed up as a symptom of puberty didn't seem right. I knew that it was something else.

On one of my visits to the doctor, I told him about my problem and he said there's a chance that I might have A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder). He gave me a test sheet to fill out which was made up of questions mimicking the symptoms. You could say I passed, because the next thing I knew I was seeing a neurologist and getting C.A.T. scans on a regular basis. Eventually I was diagnosed with the disorder.

When I would tell people that I had the disorder and they would look at me like I'm joking. It's hard to tell people the seriousness of my condition. It may not seem to be real when you don't have it, but it is very much so real. It plagues me every day because you can't escape it; its always there.