Many refer to those who are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder as space cadets, or at least that’s what my mom called me. Yet, many fail to realize what it’s actually like having the disorder.
I cannot begin to fathom why so many people desire to use ADD as an excuse to get prescribed medicine to focus. My ADD medicine does not make me accomplish marvelous and innumerous tasks as those who are not prescribed it describe. It makes me function and perform at the level of someone without ADD. So while people who are not prescribed ADD medicine describe cramming for a test and acing it or knocking out a 10-page paper in one night, it does not have nearly the same effect on me.
The abuse of common ADD medicine such as Adderall and Vyvance to have long lasting productivity and alertness should not be merely tossed aside. Having ADD is not an excuse to get prescribed medicine that’ll make a non-ADD person work a mile a minute. We are not given an advantage nor do we have superpowers when we take ADD medicine.
Imagine staring at a delicious plate of food but having no appetite to eat it.
Imagine the irritation and anger of the person you’re talking to when you ask them to repeat something or you can’t recall something they told you because you were preoccupied thinking about something else and can’t multitask.
Imagine the frustration of trying to have an important conversation with a professor but all of the students are talking loudly over one another in the background so all you can focus on are distinct conversations behind you, when the one you need to focus on is right in front of you.
Imagine trying to go to bed at night but you took your medicine too late so you have insomnia and are so anxious you can’t stop worrying about everything aside from sleep.
Imagine being referred to as a lazy, indecisive, unorganized, divergent, and disrupting child and student when you are only seven years old.
The assumption that ADD can be “grown out of” is a myth. I was diagnosed with Attention Deficient Disorder in 2nd grade after multiple parent teacher conferences and my teacher’s insistence that I be taken to a doctor to determine why I was so disruptive and inattentive. I have frequently tried, to this day, to focus and accomplish standard everyday activities without taking my medicine and it is nearly impossible. I am unable to thrive in an academic or work environment without taking a pill that determines my success.
Without my medicine, I am lazy, unmotivated, and scatter brained. Having ADD is not an excuse to get medicine; it is a disorder that is taken far too lightly. My disorder and reliance on a pill prevents me from fulfilling life long aspirations such as possibly ever joining the military or getting my private pilot’s license. Taking a pill every day that determines my success, productivity, and performance is not desirable whatsoever. So before you wish you were prescribed ADD “superpills” or envy my accessibility to them, understand what their genuine purpose is and for whom they were made to treat. I would choose an energy drink or coffee like the majority of the world, over medicine, any day.
