ADD/ADHD

Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder. Yes, an actual disorder. There are several variations and it is often waved off as a "rumor made to sell Ritalin" by the ignorant, arrogant, or some frustratingly ludicrous combination thereof. As a teenage girl with a fairly severe case of this myself, I can honestly tell you that this is a real disorder with real consequences and real problems that have to do with brain activity. Also, Ritalin is *not* the solution to everything, and from me that's saying something, since it did do a lot for me. However, Ritalin without family counseling, general tutoring and effort from all sides essentially does nothing. Besides, there's some bad side-effects as well; hell, the meds I'm on right now do wonders for my concentration but have made me twenty-two pounds underweight, as an example. Girl's ADD is also different than Boy's ADD. Girl's ADD often goes unnoticed because of societal gender differences in early childhood. We're not as jumpy or wild physically, so people think we're just shy or typical daydreamers or even typical girls being girls. However, there really are myriad cases of girl's ADD which are undiagnosed. Adult ADD is also not a myth. An overwhelming majority of people who "grew out" of ADD were really just misdiagnosed; it can be confusing, as ADD often accompanies LD's and other neurological/physiological/psychological disorders. Therefore, most Adult ADD is present, because a lot of people from the 70's and earlier were never diagnosed. ALternatively, it is part of America's insulting trend to blame everything on it. In short, this is dispell rumors that ADD isn't real, and also to please request that those who are not knowledgeable AND those who don't have anything at all and are just bullshitting to get out of something respect those of us who do have ADD. America's generalizing has made a lot of us uneasy about our futures now that everything bad is wrongly blamed on it.