Have you noticed that adult ADHD is making more news lately? As a matter of fact I just read that approximately 65% of children with ADHD will grow into adults with ADHD, or rather ADD.  I personally suspect that the percentage is much higher. It’s impossible to know how many adults are wondering around undiagnosed, but it’s estimated to be in the millions. I was diagnosed when I was 37 and in recent years I have met a remarkable number of adults diagnosed at a later age, some cases much later. This of course lends to the belief that ADHD isn’t real. How can so many people have it? I don’t know, but we do.

ADHD can test your willpower, but ADHD is not a test of your will. ADHD can test your attitude, but ADHD is not based on attitude. ADHD can test your feelings, cause us to feel ‘lesser than’, but ADHD is not based on feelings. ADHD can cause you to blame yourself, but ADHD is not based on who is at fault. ADHD can make you believe you are not trying hard enough, but ADHD is not based on how much you apply yourself.

A lot of us with ADHD start out already at a very young age with big hopes and even bigger dreams. We tend to show so much potential early on, but as the years go by, more often than not, we lose our way. Along our journey, all too common our hopes and our dreams suffer, they get smaller and smaller until they all but vanish, distant and painful memories of what we once, so long ago, thought we wanted. Do you remember? So long ago?

In love and happiness, for better or worse, in sadness and sorrow.

The days go by, countless they pass. I remember the days gone by, the walks late at night and your glistening hair in the moon light. I remember those days. I remember running across a bridge to capture your heart as you captured mine.

For better or worse, I may be flawed, but I love you.

I never thought there was a love so strong, so powerful. I never thought someone could capture me in rapture and delight, in pain and misery and in happiness and laughter. Life is all of those things, as is love. And love, my dear, is life. Without your love I was lost, with your love I have been found.

I am so lucky. For so long I wasn’t.

Have you ever wondered about what success means to you? I mean, what it really means? Not just the definition, but rather what it feels like to be successful, to achieve something of significant relevance to you? I think for people with ADHD, like me and maybe you, the very word and the meaning of success is alien. We have read about it and heard about it and yet, rarely have we identified with it.

Are you successful?

 If that seems like a loaded question, it’s not, but I think to a lot of us, it seems that there may be some hidden implication within the question itself. If you say yes, then you are lying and displaying conceitedness! How dare you! Bow your head in proper shame. That’s not the voice from someone else; as a matter of fact it’s not a voice at all. It’s a perception that many of us have. It’s a rather solid perception too, because without hesitation we can back it up with a long list of failures that will cut us to the quick faster than we can even think. But, there’s more to it.

I love having ADHD, I really do! It’s amazing what powers I have found within myself and my ADHD traits. I wouldn’t give up my ADHD for anything in the world, not now, no way!

When I first found out I had ADHD at the age of 37 and how it had been negatively impacting my life all along I was very upset about it, mostly because the diagnosis came so late and my life and circumstances could have been much improved with an early diagnosis, especially if I had been diagnosed in first or second grade, instead of just being held back and then put in special education class.

To be beat down, criticized, punished and live with regret and guilt all of our days?

 No.   There is another way – a positive, self fulfilling way.  I am going to share that way with you.

Life is more than we give it credit to be and yet too many of us live within a shell of fear and anxiety. We walk the halls of our life flinching from the slightest sound which echoes within our minds, on and on, and on. We fight against it, we try to be strong and we try to walk tall. We try to show confidence and strength. We go day to day wearing the mask of life as strong courageous human beings. But why does it have to be a mask, why does it have to hurt so much, why can’t we just be understood and accepted for who we are? Why do others try to hurt us and tear us down? Why do we want to give up and yet still continue?