What It's Like Living With ADHD

As many as 10 million adults could have Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, otherwise known as ADHD. Its symptoms can be deceptive, and if you have the condition, it can take over your life.

[dogsarebetter]

The people who discredit ADHD just because "everyone has trouble focusing sometimes" are ridiculous. That's like saying chronic diarrhea isn't real because everyone poops.

[mydearlady]

What makes ADHD hard as an adult is if you appear articulate, creative, intelligent, talented, interesting - then people have high expectations of you. But in reality you can't even manage to fold your laundry, keep the sink clear of dishes, and file your paperwork on a regular basis

I was like that woman, always late. My husband is almost obsessive about being on time so him being like that has helped me.

I hate how I know I have someone coming over and I wait until the last minute to clean up. Classic me. The guest arrives and the plugged up vacuum is in the middle of the floor and I haven't even finished vacuuming.

I think the most depressing part of adult ADHD is feeling that you're never quite where you should be in life. Meanwhile, you watch people less talented, less creative, less innovative, maybe even less scrupulous get ahead simply because they don't have ADHD.

[Jarfiller]

I will tell you what its like
-you cant focus
-all your medications have bad side effects
-you forget a lot of things
-you get distracted easily
-you day dream to much
-you can read 5 pages of a text book and then forget what you just read
-you get to hyper
-you cant sit still
-you can focus as hard as you want but still forget what you just heard

I'm livin the life!!

[reys]

you know you have ADD when you're watching an ADD youtube and you realize that you alwaysget distracted and start reading comments or start looking at what you're gonna watch next... and people usually just watch the whole thing

[Paulo-pvdb]

"A Ferrari brain with bicycle brakes". Thanks Doc!!! You nailed it!!!

[DarkReapersGrim]

"I think the hardest part about having ADHD is I feel I've missed out on certain things." It's true. I feel like I've missed out on good grades, on graduating and obtaining a degree years earlier, on missing income out in the workforce due to not graduating earlier, missed out on creating relationships and friendships due to not being social, etc. And I've actually burned bridges with good people over my ADHD personality. But the tough part is not reaching your full potential.

[carterrecker]

Teenage ADHD:
-No friends
-Hard to learn
-Hard to study
-No invites to parties
-No popularity
-Getting to watch people slowly lose interest in you

It's fun, really.

[NickWorldwide]

It pisses me off so much when people say things like "I'm pretty sure I have adhd I couldn't focus in history class last Thursday." No. Stop. If you TRULY have adhd/add you don't "think" you have it, you KNOW

[davidmartin]

Anyone can "super focus" when they are interested enough in something. A reason people with ADHD seem to do it better is because focusing is so rare for us, we recognize the need to take advantage of it, and we are excited as heck to actually get something done in reasonable amount of time.

[jimmycurtis]

Im more like the lady. My boss could be giving simple tasks to do and I feel like I'm actively paying attention and retaining the information but when he walks away, I have no idea what he said. I have to ask my coworker is she was listening and it's embarrassing. I've almost lost my job multiple times because of this. ADHD/ADD is real!

[Sorensenator]

I am always late for work because I can't get to bed at night, I basically have to wait till I'm drop dead exhausted, it sucks.

[danielmeehan]

this did not explain ADHD at all. Over time stress builds because the attention deficit. once stress builds it stays there and affects your attitude, life and everyone around you. That's where it really affects life.

[livsmith]

lmao got bored and scrolled down the comments instead. I often do that, would rather be doing multiple things at once.

[quixotic]

Either I'm too sensitive, or this lady comes off as insensitive.

[wingnut]

ADHD has always been in my life. Along with Tourette's, anxiety and mild depression. I've lost countless jobs for the same reasons "not remembering directions" or "just not getting it". my productivity has always been an issue because of distractability.

It causes stress on my relationships with friends, family and wife. I zone out Mid-conversation and people think I don't care. They could ask me what they just said and I wouldn't know.

ADHD is a serious mental illness and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemies.

[BonnieM]

I do the same chores every day, wash dishes, make my bed, do laundry. I also watch YouTube videos while I work. I can keep up with those daily chores. The other ones overwhelm me. I’ve been married for 21 years, so my ADD doesn’t seem to mess up relationships. The problem I have is that I can’t keep a job! I don’t learn things fast enough, although I have a Master’s degree. I get bored so easily and I don’t notice details (unless it’s punctuation, spelling, and grammar!) I’m trying to start my own business so that I don’t have to deal with a boss or meeting expectations.

[sarahstroot]

when people talk to me I always look all over or start to do something else and people who don't know about my ADD can get upset. but my best friend is so understanding she has no idea how much she has helped me. I'm so lucky to have her be so understanding because it's so hard to make real deep friendships when you had ADHD/ADD

[francvit]

1st and foremost: Late late late. And late some more. School, work, dates with friends and family, projects, my own wedding, my divorce (that marriage really went on too long!) Everything.
The only thing I WANT to be late for is my funeral. That, I want to skip entirely.

[trevorcarterva]

I can relate to the "not listening" part. My wife has to deal with it a lot. She'll say, "you don't listen to me." I explained to her that I try, but sometimes when she's talking I'm listening, but I'm not hearing her. I have so many thoughts, and when I latch onto a thought I can't let it go. When I get focused on something nothing can shake me out. I get tired of myself, so I know others do.

[coolbeans]

how ADHD is like....

1. You daydream a lot.
2. You talk to yourself or think to yourself often.
3. You can be emotional.
4.You can get obsessed/addicted with things quickly if it's a tv show, anime, or a video game.
5. Sometimes you talk back to your parents.
6.You take pills everyday.
7.You can get sad or mad quickly or annoyed sometimes.
8. Hard to pay attention in class.
9. When you read a book it probably takes about a month or 2 to finish the book (chapter book, depends how many pages there are in the book.)
10. You forget what happens in the book and remember parts of the story (maybe) and not all when you're done with the book.
11. It's really hard to do homework. Sometimes you slack.
12. Sometimes you get bad grades at school.
13. Fail a test sometimes or probably all the time.
14. When you know the answer at school and a teacher calls on someone else and they get it wrong and then the teacher calls another person but it isn't you and they get it right you're probably thinking, 'Oh I knew that was the answer.' or probably say it out loud.
15. Sometimes at school you think that's the answer but you don't raise your hand because you think it's wrong but when a kid says the right answer that you have, you're probably thinking, 'I should of raised my hand.' or probably say "I knew that was the answer but I thought I was wrong."
16. You daydream in class a lot and don't pay attention.
17. You have some skills for example, sports or singing or whatever hobby you're good at.
18. You are sometimes annoying at school.
19. You can be loud sometimes.
20. May get in trouble sometimes.
21. Stay up late sometimes or always.
22. You don't like to wake up for school in the morning sometimes.
23. You don't want to go to school sometimes.
24. Maybe you have been bullied.
25. When you're really good at something and someone challenges you, you have confidents in yourself for example, if you were really fast at running you will have a lot of confidents in yourself and won't worry.
26. Sometimes it is hard to get friends at school.
27. You practice at things you want to be good at.
28. It's hard for you to practice sometimes
29. Sometimes you feel like dying.
30. Sometimes you can dress weird to school.
31. You don't want to do things and is lazy sometimes.
32. Sometimes you want to do your own thing.

That is what ADHD

Edit:
I was 14 when I typed this, and completely forgot about this. I am 18 now but I’m a lot better.
This doesn’t apply to all ADHD people, more like this related to me a lot when I was 14. I don’t mean to offend anyone or make people insecure with the words I used. Again I’m a lot better now, and I guess I was very upset when I seen this video, when people who do not have ADHD talked about it as if they knew what it was like. (I probably didn’t even watch the whole video) If you need help, talk to someone about it. Seek some therapy lessons maybe? Or tell someone who you are very close with about your problems. I still have ADHD to this day, but I got a lot better with recognizing it and loving myself a lot more :) I hope the people that commented below me are feeling a lot better now. Thank you for reading my paragraphs, I hope your day goes swell :DD