if money isn't a problem, I would find a doctor who is familiar with ADHD and get yourself diagnosed. The sooner you have a diagnosis, the sooner you can get help through the school. You may also want to try medicine. They have come out with several new medicines since you were younger.

My doctor had told me that if you have the inattentive type (as opposed to the hyperactive type) that you never outgrow it. I only received my diagnosis a few weeks ago and I'm 47. I managed to cope pretty well and got a college degree in Accounting. But I never felt as smart as my IQ said I was. Due to my higher IQ, coping skills and my anxiety, the ADHD was pretty well hidden. Both my children and my husband have ADHD. My husband has the hyperactive type but my children have the inattentive type. I always thought they inherited their ADHD from their father but perhaps they got it from me.

Now that you realize what is wrong, you are able to do something about it. Some people find out a lot later in life and some never find out. Be glad you found out now. You still have your whole life ahead of you. You may want to read, "Driven to Distraction" as it gives a lot of detail about what it is like to have ADHD, including many adult examples and inattentive types. It will help you to recognize some of the hidden symptoms in yourself.

Good luck, Elaine

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I can relate to your story and I have been diagnosed very late in life. I finally returned to finish my BSN at the age of 50 . Going through nursing school worked only because i seemed to have some insightful instructors and they allowed me to travel and I always worked at another job. I had tried nursing the first time at the age of 17 and thought if anyone wanted to be a nurse they had to be crazy ; but now I know they are:) Anyway if you need a daignosis don't wait for the school to take care of it ; it will take so long instead look for a ADHD doctor , a good place to start is in the back of Driven to Distraction they had a list that is where I met my first psychiatrist who actually worked with children and she was great helpful the best med I was on was Ritalin XL that worked best for me. If you are typical of a ADDer you may be focusing too much on the internet ,one it is more stimulating that studying .2 it is typical of us procrastrating 3 and if your anxiety is getting to out of hand it may be you need to take a lesser course list and plan a schedule better for your self. Remember if you let thing to the end before starting them makes it hard to complete on time. If you can take a semester off until you are propertly medicated; and have all the accomindation you need in place regarding test and paper taking. It may help to save your GPA it not usnusal for us to hide very well behing our IQ until there is so much on our table and it almost impossible to do so. Good LucK I hope I helped (Judi)

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Don't give up, and don't be too hard on yourself. You successfully secured admission to what appears to be a great school and you are pursuing a challenging degree. You have the compensatory skills, determination and work ethic to get through it...you're just hitting the wall. College is challenging enough without ADD/ADHD.

Get help...you are mature enough and smart enough to know that this situation isn't working for you. College medical clinics/ services aren't typically equipped to handle making this type of initial diagnosis. If your college has a medical school associated with it, search for an affiliated physician (psychiatrist or developmental pediatrician) who has experience diagnosing/treating late adolescence/ adult ADHD. If there's not a medical school around campus, search in the local geographic area. Make an appointment and be sure to bring a copy of the childhood evaluative report you indicated your parents had completed when you were seven. Check with your parents and chances are you have some medical coverage if they are carrying you on their insurance.

This will be the first of many "walls" an adult with ADHD will/ can hit along life's continuum. Life only gets more challenging as it becomes more complicated (job/ home/ spouse/ children/ life issues). How you decide to handle this challenge, and what you learn about yourself, about ADD, and what support is available, will help you in the future to overcome these inevitable challenges...and it will better prepare you to set-up your life for success on your own terms and by your definition.

Good luck. You sound like an individual who will be enormously successful.

Kath Diagnosed at 44 Mom of 3 (2 teenage sons w/ ADHD)

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I was a college Learning Specialist for 13 years and still teach at a community college. I am also the parent of a son with LD/ADD who completed college successfully, so I come at this subject from two perspectives.

You must be very bright to have done so well in HS and gain admission to an engineering program. I suspect you were never challenged very much.... until now. A suggestion that really works is to look over your class notes within 24 hours of taking them. No need to study, just review them. If you have time, type up your notes - it makes them neater and serves as a review as well. Believe it or not, this simple strategy helps to get the info into your long-term memory, and studying won't be as arduous when it's exam time. The material won't look foreign, as it does when you haven't reviewed it.

Are you having marathon study sessions? You should be studying only as long as your attention holds out (even if it's just 20 minutes). Then take a 5 minute break and go back. The idea is to stop when you feel your attention ebbing, so all your studying is done with 100% attention. Short, FREQUENT sessions are the key.

Also, are you studying actively? In other words, are you making index cards, speaking aloud, doing practice exercises online, etc? If you are simply reading, you are a passive studier - you will get bored easily because you are not engaged. The idea is to study by "doing" -- reading, writing, speaking, listening, doing, etc. The more senses you involve, the better you absorb the material.

Are you an auditory learner? If so, participating in a small study group, where you ask each other questions, could help keep you on task.

If you are a tactile (hands on) learner, there are many simulations on the internet you can do. Also, I'm sure your textbook has an accompanying website. You should be doing those exercises, especially the practice tests after you have finished studying. Practice exams serve as a rehearsal and will tell you what needs further study.

If you have a process to study, write each step on an index card, then place them on the floor face up in random order. When you locate step 1, step on the card and say it aloud - continue going through the process by stepping on the cards and speaking. While it may sound childish, it works (taught to me by a college biology professor).

Are you studying in a place free of distractions? Knowing your ADD is an impediment, it is vital you choose a distraction-free environment -- no TV, no phone, no computer. Some students work better with soft classical music in the background - it focuses them. But do NOT play any music with lyrics!

You need to vary your study techniques each time you sit down to study. If you are doing the same thing repeatedly, it's no wonder you want to escape! By the way, these rules apply to everyone, not just for those with ADD.

One other idea - you may be taking too many credits for someone with ADD. The amount of work may be overwhelming. With a diagnosis, you would be able to take a reduced courseload and still be considered a full-time student. I do agree with the advice to see a physician . If you are going to start medicine, it's best to start when you don't have school (i.e. over the summer), so possible side effects don't impede your progress. Medicine is never a crutch, just a correction -- so don't be wary of it. It's the same as a diabetic taking insulin. Meds just alter your brain chemistry so that you function the way a person without ADD does.

Have you seen your professors during office hours? The purpose of their hours is to help students. If there's something you don't understand, perhaps some private assistance from the instructor would help.

For those who haven't started college yet, I recently wrote a 10-session course entitled "Conquer College with LD" that I teach to high schoolers and their parents in the Philly suburbs. The idea for the course came about as a result of seeing many students with LD/ADD, freshmen in particular, faltering in college and dropping out. When my own son graduated college successfully, I knew that it was the result of excellent academic advising and support. Many of my students were inadvertently making decisions that led to their downfall - they weren't setting themselves up for success, which is vital. My course covers everything from what to do now in HS to prepare yourself for college success, all the way to achieving metacognition (knowledge of how you learn) in college. I taught the class for the first time this semester to excellent reviews. Students and parents were very appreciative of having strategies ahead of time, so that they weren't caught off guard in college. Each student receives a portfolio that covers the entire post-secondary transition. If anyone is interested in this course, or the portfolio, please contact me at TransitionSuccess@gmail.com.

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Your diagnosis sounds almost exactly like mine, only I'm 5 years older and in Graduate school. While I've managed to keep my grades up this year, it's been largely due to some creative paper-writing techniques that, while they got me the necessary grades, they made the whole process WAY more stressful than they should have (public breakdowns, loss of sleep, suicidal thoughts, extreme depression, feeling of hopelessness in the future, etc), and have left me feeling like I didn't learn as much as I should have. And overall it's been murder trying to keep up with my classmates--I feel like I have to do nothing but "work" in order to get the same amount done that my peers manage to do in 1/2 the time (having an internet addiction similar to yours does NOT help).

By the end of the semester, I just started giving up, and have now hit another slump. I am currently waiting on the results for the 4th LD/IQ test I've had in my life so that I can get access to University resources. The testing ended up getting delayed because the doctor forgot to write down my first appointment in her calendar and took the day off (which is funny in a rather ironic way of you think about it, but really irritating none-the-less--I would have been more angry, except that she sounded horrified and rescheduled me as soon as she got my confused phone messages and realized the mistake). Even though I finished the actual testing just over a week ago, it feels like I've been waiting forever for the results, and now I'm hyperfocusing and beginning to wonder if I'm just making up this ADHD thing and making excuses for myself. I feel a lot of the depression coming back, and have started impulse buying and binge eating because it's the only thing that makes me feel better some days (despite the fact that I have plenty of friends and a strong Christian faith--I just get overwhelmed).

I would go to my school's counseling services in the meantime, except that I have had a pretty rotten experience with their Mental Health program. Pretty much everybody ignored the suggestion that I had something more than just depression until I did a little research, I talked to my family, and my Mom was able to produce the 3 former diagnoses. This was despite the fact that I constantly complained about being unable to focus and mentioned that my brother happens to have ADHD (and OCD and MS and Tourette's and Depression). When I was able to produce evidence (the diagnoses, plus a couple of self-evaluations I found online) the Psychiatrist finally believed me, but IMMEDIATELY started talking about medication. While I am open to trying medication if it might help and is safe and won't turn me into a total zombie, it would be nice if someone could suggest something OTHER than just pills for a change (they also keep pressuring me to increase the Zoloft dosage I'm currently on).

The therapist I was seeing at my University was great, but they have a 10-week session limit, so I was forced to go elsewhere just when I felt that we were beginning to get somewhere, which only adds to the feeling that I've been run through a mill. The outside therapist they referred me to was just plain bad -- our values clashed, and she kept feeling the need to defend her own TV addiction and ability as a therapist. While I definitely have foot-in-mouth disease, therapy should be about the person needing help, not the feelings/habits/inadequacies of the therapist, and it should be the ONE place where I am not constantly trying not to step on others' toes. When I brought up the ADHD possibility she kind of brushed it off, and even laughed at me when I mentioned considering specializing in shorter texts (I'm in a literature program, and staying focused while reading, especially the longer, less interesting works, is especially difficult for me). Then when I went in the next session armed with the medical records I had discovered, she gave me a long lecture about how she didn't intend to blow me off, how she took my ADHD seriously and how she used to have an interest in that area--she then proceeded to diagnose me in about 5 minutes and start talking about binder systems and day planners (the former I am well aware of but can't maintain to save my life, the latter I already use religiously). So yeah, basically she didn't know what to do with me, didn't really care, and wasn't about to admit it, which quite frankly pissed me off because it was a waste of my time and money, and so I 'dumped' her. I haven't even bothered looking for a new therapist yet, because I don't really feel like wasting yet more time and money on people who really don't give a crap about me as a person and who are clearly going to ignore the complexity of my situation. I'm on a graduate stipend, and while I have savings, I'm trying hard to live within my means, so I'd rather not spend them all on $100+ per-hour therapy sessions that may or may not do any good.

And so I am stuck here...waiting...while a term paper and a massive reading list begin to gather dust,

So this is long, and is probably not of much help to you. Heck, I don't even expect anyone to read the whole thing (I wouldn't, and I wrote it!). But you're definitely not the only one with these frustrations (because lets face it, the pill mill sucks), and while I can't really offer advice other than "hang in there," do know that others feel your pain.

FC

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