"I got mildly distracted the other day and I lose things sometimes, my ADHD is really bad."
Let me stop you right there. Do you know what you just said? That's the equivalent of claiming you have OCD because you have one specific item that you like to keep in a certain place. Now, what was I talking about? Oh yeah.
Things anyone with ADHD would know.
1. It's more than losing an item once or twice. You misplace everything, all the time.
Constantly misplacing things gets very annoying very fast. "You lost your keys AGAIN?!" "Yes, I lost my keys again..."
2. You're constantly tapping your pencil on the desk during class.
Sorry, fellow classmates. I can't help it.
3. Must. Touch. Everything.
Especially if it's something soft or fuzzy. I just have to!
4. You're constantly playing with something.
This includes a bouncy ball, a water bottle, a charging cable...basically anything you can find. And no, I will not put down my fidget spinner.
5. Your mind tells you to focus on basically anything you're not supposed to be focusing on.
Brain: "Stare at the books on the shelf." Me: "But I have to study!" Brain: "Stare. At. The. Books." Me: "But-" Brain: "Books are more interesting."
6. It annoys you when people who aren't diagnosed claim to have ADHD.
"I get distracted sometimes, I must have it!" Yes but you can also get all your work in on time, read an entire chapter the whole way through without stopping, study within a reasonable time, and sleep without taking melatonin.
7. It literally takes you 8 hours to study.
OK maybe it's just me, but I need all the time in the world to study for a test. My friends won't start studying til 6 pm for a test the next day, but I have to start studying the minute my last class of the day ends pretty much until the library closes. And then I have to study again before class the day of the test.
8. An assignment that would take the average person 10 minutes takes you 4 hours.
You have to read the instructions over and over and over and over and over again just to understand what's expected. Then you have a mental breakdown because you don't know what's going on.
9. You have mental breakdowns over everything.
Assignments tend to look like more work than they are, and you get overwhelmed very easily. Sometimes you don't know where to start, and you stress about the stress you're going to have in the future. So what do you do rather than handling it like an adult? You cry! Because there's no other possible solution than to cry.
10. ADHD meds turn you into a robot.
When I was on Concerta, I was literally a robot child. I never laughed at things other kids thought were funny, instead I found stuff funny that wasn't funny to other kids. I had difficulty understanding jokes, or if I did, it just wasn't funny to me. I never fit in with the other kids because of this.
