First Post

This is my first blog post ever!
I am excited to share my journey of living, loving and laughing with ADD. If nothing else, life with ADD is an adventure with plenty of ups and downs. I hope that sharing those experiences will help me to live more effectively and help you to find information and encouragement for your own journey.
Every journey must have a starting place. My ADD journey began with my diagnosis in my mid-twenties. I had been seeing a psychiatrist for depression. After a few visits he started to ask different questions not related to depression. When I revealed my childhood diagnosis of dyslexia he perked up and asserted his suspicion that I likely had Adult ADD.
What? I had heard of ADHD, wasn't that what parents and teachers said hyper kids had? I had also heard it was over diagnosed, probably not even real and just a result of poor parenting skills. What did that have to do with me? I was certainly never hyper, quite the opposite, if I was anything it was probably closer to lazy. Or at least that's what I had always been told. Almost every report card in school read, "Victoria is a bright young lady and could do well if only she would apply herself.", those words still bring waves of discouragement and leave a sick helpless feeling in my stomach. I knew my teachers were right though, I could do well, I learned quickly and even felt exceptionally bright, if only I would actually do my work!
Those words, "if only Victoria would..." were still plaguing me twenty years later and were at the root of why I was sitting in a psychiatrist's office.
My doctor went on to explain what ADD was and that ADD and dyslexia were often diagnosed together. Every word he said about ADD rang true! He sent me home with a book, Driven To Distraction by Ed Hallowell and instructed me to fill out the questionnaire and bring it with me to our next session.
Tomorrow I will write about those early days, my reaction to the book and how my family and friends reacted.