For students of all ages and adults ADHD is becoming more popular. “ADHD is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder that typically results in persistent academic difficulties over time. Although most colleges offer support services, students often do not use the available services or those to which they are entitled”. For me personally I have severe-combined ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). When it is the worst is when I am in class, trying to watch a movie, or just trying to sit still! I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was in 1^st grade. My mom being a 2^nd grade teacher had come across different cases like this, and when I was officially diagnosed, the choice was to medicate or not to medicate. Well here I am about 14 years later and I have not gone a day without taking medication. Personally I just took the medicine when I was younger because it was what my mom told me to do. As I got older the realization that I was going to have to take this medication the rest of my life finally hit me around my middle school years.

I absolutely hate taking medication, but without my medication I am not the “Trinity” everyone knows. I came upon a few times in high school that I really struggled with studying and retaining information, but was never too important to me. Now that I am at a University where every grade is crucial, I am struggling. A person without out ADHD will never understand the struggle that those with ADHD experience. I am halfway through my Junior year in college and I am struggling the most I have all of my school years due to the amount of concentration and the amount of assigned text I am required to read.

Not all who have ADHD struggle with memorization or remembering what they just read about, out of the text book, but that is definitely one of my struggles. When class grades are all made up of test and no homework, the teacher will not get my best ability because I have a lack of memorization skills compared to the students who learning comes to naturally. I have to work very hard for the grades I receive and the grades I receive are never pleasing in my eyes. Most individuals when I inform them that I have ADHD do not believe me, which is a good thing because that means I am medicated well, but the internal feeling of having a learning disability makes the image of myself very hard to accept. But through all of it I have just remembered that God wanted me this way, and I am glad to embrace my struggle and make it known so I may be able to help others. My ADHD will never go away so I have learned to cope with that reality. And knowing that, it just personally makes me stronger.

"First-Year GPA and Academic Service Use Among College Students With and Without ADHD." First-Year GPA and Academic Service Use Among College Students With and Without ADHD. N.p., 07 Jan. 2016. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.