Being
a high schooler with ADHD, it is a challenge to survive high school
after many years of failure, followed by a diagnosis of ADHD, rather
than the other way around. Life as a teenager with ADHD is not a fun
journey, because high school takes a lot of work, and ADHD sufferers
are generally swamped with hard work and not enough time to finish it
all.
High school:
the most stressful place to be before going to college for a teenager.
High school starts early in the morning, earlier than elementary school
kids and the junior high schoolers, and to any normal student, getting
up in the morning is definitely a challenge. From the start of school
to the end of school, most students are about ready to pass out onto
their desks and fall asleep. The classes go on for hours and hours and
the students are all doing their best to get work done. Homework is
issued, and the teens go home to their houses. The teens spend time
having fun, finish their homework, eat dinner, and go to bed. This is
an average routine for a teenager to go through.
However, ADD and ADHD students play a whole different game than the
average teenager. The mornings are hectic, and breakfast is out of the
question, unless its in the form of a bar or packed into a small
plastic bag. The boy is off to school. At school, he sits in his normal
desk at school, pulls out a note book and prepares himself to learn.
Though the student may seem focused, the student may be having "black
outs" which is noticed by blank staring at an object, or a fixed stare
on the educator's face. Having my fair share of blackouts, i can
explain blackouts the best i can. Blackouts are periods of time where
ADD takes over, and basically, you'll be listening to a teacher for a
few minutes, and a minute later, you think about something mentioned in
the topic or something like it, and just forget that the teacher is
talking and teaching, and you only think and "see" the topic you're
thinking about. I call it a blackout because you don't see anything but
what's in your mind. Another kind of blackout occurs when a student
pays attention for a short bit, and trails off into doing something
like drawing, playing with eraser dust, or anything else. These
blackouts are as bad as falling asleep during class or listening to
music because it almost seems to block out the world around you.
Homework is
a serious case for some children with ADD. When a child gets home from
school, it is mostly assured that the child wants to enjoy some games
or watch tv after a long day at school. Typically, if i were to enjoy
myself after a long day's work and be expected to do work, i'd have
more trouble getting started than starting when i got home from school.
Homework is an issue with ADD because it takes a lot of effort to stay
focused on the work, and be able to complete the work assigned. Doing
work may be a challenge to ADD students because ADD students have
blackouts, focusing issues, and "brain-fog". Brain-fog occurs when a
student is required to remember or even think about a subject, and
there is a literal feeling of the mind being fogged up. The mind
becomes blank, and the ADD student bangs his or her head into the table
in frustration (Its what I do when I get frustrated). All these matters
are very tough situations to work with, and with brain-fog, it may take
an hour to do a 10 minute assignment. A solution to brain fog and help
prevent attention problems, is the medication Adderol XR (eXtended
Release) which gives the ADD student relief from brain fog within the
week of taking it, and gives him or her an enormous boost in *good*
energy in class to stay focused and learn well.
"Adderol
should be called a miracle drug, because its keeping me, being ADHD,
focused and attentive in 1st period Calculus class and writing notes
like crazy." - My friend from
choir
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