From what I can remember, I have always struggled to cope with my ADHD and as a result it has proven to be a burden in my life. When I first came to my new high school in the tenth grade, I found myself struggling to control my behavior and manage my ADHD, which throughout my life has even given me several close calls with law enforcement. At the time, I wanted to go to the U.S. Military Academy (U.S.M.A.), so I decided to physically condition myself and keep my mind occupied in order to stay out of trouble. To achieve these goals, I decided to run cross country. I joined my school’s cross country team in the summer. At the beginning we performed pre-season workouts. The training was tough, but my proud personality and the very thought of what I had to gain kept me motivated and helped me push through the pain. Every time I felt like giving up or quitting, I would say to myself, “This pain is only temporary; remember that the reward will be permanent, and it will be worth the pain that I endure today.” I was able to push through the …show more content…
agony and eventually I was able to develop enough conditioning to run two miles. Eventually the official season started. I was ready to race, but unfortunately my hopes of going to the U.S.M.A. were dashed when I did not make the varsity team. However, I remained in cross country for the fun of it. I ran my first meet and I performed quite well for a beginner, even though I did not run as well as I had hoped. After the race I noticed that I wasn’t very jumpy and hyper. However, I could still feel all of my energy suddenly return and I was back to my old hyperactive self in a matter of minutes. When classes started in the following week, I found myself in a much calmer state of mind than I did in the tenth grade, when I had constantly landed me in trouble. Now I was able to stay out of trouble, multitask, and gain a foothold on controlling my ADHD symptoms. I now found myself sitting still for even longer periods of time and also paying closer attention in class. Not only that, but my grades had gone even higher, and I began to take several advanced placement classes. My GPA and class rank increased, all thanks to my decision to run cross country. Just as my mental health had improved, so did my physical health. I used to be a slight bit overweight before joining cross country, and I was very close to having high cholesterol and high blood glucose levels. With cross country running, I was able to bring all of these problems into a normal range of what was considered “healthy.” In addition to gaining a far greater control of my ADHD symptoms, as the season progressed I also became a more mature person and began to act appropriate for my age.
Cross Country would leave me tired and low on energy at the end of each day, wearing me out and leaving me in a non-hyperactive state of mind. The season eventually came to an end, but I still continued to run during the off-season, although not as often as I did during the official season. Eventually this lack of constant training took a toll on my conditioning and with the cold weather rolling in, I finally stopped running altogether. As a result, my health worsened; my cholesterol level rose and I suddenly found myself struggling to maintain control of my ADHD again. The spring came, and I found myself running again, hoping to finally make varsity in the fall. I tried to train as hard as I could, but I simply couldn’t make any progress in that short amount of
time. Twelfth grade cross country season started, but I found myself struggling with training once again, only this time not as bad, as when I first began running. Although the races were far more grueling than before, I pushed through the pain, and I never gave up. When cross country season ended, I stopped running altogether like I did after the previous season ended. And again, my health took a turn for the worse. My ADHD symptoms had regressed to the same point they were during the tenth grade, and again I lost control of the situation. Many of my friends noticed the sudden changes and they would often question me in a worried manner. “Jorge, what’s with the new attitude?” My friend, Chris, asked me. “You didn’t act like this in cross country, why are you acting like this now?” “Running is my drug and when cross country ended, it was as if I had been taken off the medication,” I replied. Another time I told him, “Well, I have ADHD, and I am currently not running. Also, I have become far more careless in my behavior, since this is my final school year and I will be out of high school in six months.” Another problem that returned was my streak of close calls with the school’s assistant principal. One time I was sent to his office at an unexpected time, so I asked in a shocked manner, “What am I possibly being sent to your office for, and what did I do wrong according to you?” He replied in a serious manner, “That is a question that only you can answer, because you know what you did wrong.” I knew I had done so many things wrong, that I did not know which thing to confess to. Eventually, I got myself into a very huge mess that nearly landed me into trouble with law enforcement. Luckily, I was not given a very severe punishment, and at that moment I decided to be more careful about what I did in school. Weeks passed, when one night, I was hit with a thought that would teach me a valuable lesson; I realized that cross country running was the reason that I had been able to maintain control of my symptoms. From there, I decided that long distance running was the best way for me to manage my symptoms and to take control of my behavior with ease. In all, the most important lesson that I have ever learned is that overcoming a challenge requires one to go beyond expectations and to always try something else on the side. In my case, cross country served as a side management strategy for managing ADHD, rather than relying on medication alone to treat my symptoms. An important lesson to remember when overcoming a challenge is that, you must go beyond your limits and never give up, because the reward that you will gain at the end, will prove to be worth the difficulty of the hardships you encountered when conquering your challenge.
I am now officially in my Senior year of Cross Country , and am close to the end of my season. My first race of this year though was a big accomplishment for me, because I hadn`t been able to run. When I ran that race though it made me just so happy I was able to finish it, I was`nt happy with the time, but there is always time for improvement. I was glad to be racing again and being apart of the team again. I believe that my injuries were a barrier in my way, but they did not stop my sports career.
After reading the articles Driven to Distraction and Lost in Translation, both from Today’s Parent magazine, I have learned many new things. I learned that it is sometimes not very easy to pick out a child with ADHD, even if it is your own child. It could take years to discover that a child has ADHD. It can be easily detected once the child has entered elementary school. One of the signs of ADHD is falling behind in school, or acting up and not being able to pay attention for long periods of time. This causes frustration for the child, the parents, teachers and the other students in the classroom. It is difficult for parents because they do not want to believe that their child has a disability. It is even harder for the child because they are the ones that have to deal with the name calling, being held back a grade or two and just knowing that they are different. The issue of being different for a child living with ADHD is very stressful and could make the child not want to learn new things or pay attention in school. They just give up on trying to learn.
Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, otherwise known as ADHD, is the most common psychiatric condition effecting 9.5% of school-aged children in the United States (intuniv, 2013). If the disorder goes untreated, it will cause more long-term side effects and difficulties for the individual as an adult. Adults who have this condition face several adversities in every day life, such as impulsive behavior, low self-esteem and poor work performance. People are not aware of the complications that come with ADHD in adults. Not knowing the symptoms of the disease can cause people to not be sympathetic when they are interacting with someone with disorder.
Chandler, C. (2011). The Science of ADHD: A Guide for Parents and Professionals. New York:
Have you ever had a day when you feel like you were wired backwards? Do you ever feel like you are charged with so much energy that you will go mad if you don’t get it out? Do you find yourself reading a question and then rereading just to soak it in? For someone living with ADHD these are daily struggles. There are thousands of people who must carry this label and new diagnoses every day. Both children and adults are stricken by this disorder. Giving them the label causes greater problems than the disorder itself. Individuals with the label of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder experience increased peer related issues, have a higher documented rate of injuries inflicted, and are known as defiant and disobedient due to the implied symptoms of this disorder.
In many ways, I partially subscribe to the world-view that my parents hold. As such, until recently, I've been skeptical of my brother's diagnosis. In particular, at the time, it seemed to me that distractibility was something that I too suffered from. I didn't enjoy forcing myself to concentrate, but I did it because I knew that I had to. In addition, my brother seemed perfectly capable of concentrating when he was playing soccer, watching the Discovery channel or playing video games. In my mind, his problems appeared to be that he was spoiled and didn't like being told what to do. In addition, I think that ADHD gave everyone in my family the excuse that they needed.
One of the most controversial parts of ADD/ADHD is how it is diagnosed, for one and as stated earlier there is no physical tests to confirm you have the disorder. Secondly, there is no established single cause and the existing method of assessment is not standardized meaning one psychiatrist may use a written test while others may depend on what parents and teachers say, and what one psychiatrist classify as ADHD another may not. Thirdly there are other problems, which can cause behavioral concerns such as dyslexia, hearing problems, family problems, depression and anxiety (Rutherfor...
In 5th grade I was diagnosed with with ADHD and auditory processing. For years I struggled in school. My parents tried everything to fix this problem, from tutors to bribing me to do my homework. In 6th grade it became a lot more difficult, and teachers seemed to have just given up on me. I had to get three tutors, five days a week just to keep up. One day my dad came home from work and started talking about a school he heard about, that school was Shelton. Shelton specializes in teaching kids with learning disabilities how to control there ADHD, while also encourage it. I enrolled in 7th grade. Immediately I was welcomed and teachers were eager to help me. I went from having C's and D's to straight A's because I didnt want to let them down.
Physical activity has been linked to lower obesity, longer life, lower risk of heart disease, lower cholesterol, and reduced risk of stroke. More importantly for ADHD patients, exercise and physical activity has been proven to cause the brain to release more dopamine. As stated above, increased dopamine is effective in treating ADHD. Aside from the increase in dopamine production, certain exercises require the whole brain to be focused on multiple issues. These activities include running, biking, and other aerobic movements. (Stewart 1). There are many professional athletes with ADHD. Many of these athletes began their training to help manage the condition, such as olympic athletes Michael Phelps and Justin Gatlin. It is estimated that 10% of athletes have ADHD/ADD, double the amount that the general population has. Sports can turn ADHD from a hindrance to an advantage. Mike Stabeno, author of The AD/HD Affected Athlete, says that “While some activities require intense concentration, that’s not the case with athletics. Everything happens instantaneously. You’re in there for 10 minutes, you’ve got five people trying to take your head off, three referees, four teammates. You need to take everything that’s going on all at once. That’s how people with ADD go through life. So it makes sense that they thrive on the field”. (Dutton 1). Sports also give the bodies of ADHD affected persons a
Joining the High School Cross Country team was a huge risk for me because I am quite shy and didn’t have friends on the team. I was the fastest girl on the team, but very slow in comparison to other schools. I was disappointed, and although I gave it a good effort, I knew that I could try much harder. I didn’t quit that year or the next because I knew that people expected me to keep running and I hate giving up, but there were many times when I wanted to quit. However, I decided that if I was going to keep running, I might as well give it more than just a good effort, I would give it my best effort and see if I could shave five minutes off of my 5k time. I started to work much harder and learned to persevere when it was hard and I wanted to
I found out I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was in 5th grade. I could not focus on what I was told to do and would forget as soon as I was asked or just get sidetracked altogether. Living with ADHD can be really frustrating for me at times. Although I take medicine itself use to cause problems for me when I was just starting and still creates problems now. For example, the medicine has a way of making me feel sad sometimes, as well as I would always lose my appetite and would refuse to eat during the time my medicine was in effect. Eating while on my medicine for ADHD was challenging for me because even though the medicine causes me to lose my appetite once the pill wore off. I found myself feeling sick from not eating enough food. So throughout the years, I have learned how to push the thought of my lost appetite and, pushing myself to eat even if I was not hungry just to help me not get sick or feel dizzy.
Growing up I always knew that there was always something I had that made me different than to those in my grade. Different in other aspects, such as the way I think and the way I am in school, in terms of attentiveness and learning. It increasingly got difficult as the years went on, this was not just increasing laziness as my family and I had presumed it to be, as even when I had attempted to try and improve my grades in school, with all the extra help and all the studying that I could do it just was not enough. It was something wrong with me, I could not concentrate and keep things in my mind, I had always been very good with memorizing things, I always had an extraordinary memory, and then it happened, a day that changed my life forever,
Living with ADHD is difficult but there are a few things you can do to make your life easier. The first thing you should do if you have ADHD is make a schedule. Make this schedule your daily routine and keep it consistent from when you wake up till you go to bed. Keep the schedule
IF you happen to glance at my application, you can see that I am your average high school student, achieving exemplary grades, participating in clubs, top ten percentile of my class and all of those inspiring attributes/achievements. However, if you scan the inside of my medicine cabinet, you’ll find miscellaneous orange bottles with prescriptions written to me, Erin Michelle Garcia. Adderall, Dexedrine, Ritalin, Concerta. People who see kids with ADHD assume it is a phase of their youth. They assume that these kids are just troubled children, that they’ll grow out of it eventually. For me, ADHD is not just a phase, or a temper tantrum, or hormones, it is a burden that I will live with for the rest of my life.
The summer after sophomore and junior year, I worked at Aim High teaching math, but I feel like I did so much more. I worked one-on-one with a student named Deshawn who has ADHD and has difficulty focusing in class. What I learned through working with him is he wanted someone to care and pay attention to him. I developed a behavior plan for him where he would get prizes and we worked away from the larger class. Deshawn is one of the most intelligent kids I have ever met. Through working with him I know I want to fight for kids who need more attention and are struggling to find that in public education school systems. I remember on one of the last days of program he said to me, "You are like a sister to me because you always help me " and I