Hello everybody! I'm a girl from Sweden who recently turned 17. Recently I have become very intrested in psychology and started reading a lot about aspergers and ADHD. When I really looked in to ADHD i discovered the whole ADD thing, and thougt"whoa, that sounds a bit like me" (btw, sorry if I express myself badly, but english isn't my first language so...) I would now like to hear others opinion if you think I might have ADD or if it's just "normal" dififculties to concentrate. So here's the story:

As a child I was always very calm and shy. I didn't throw tantrums or anything. The shyness could sometimes be a problem, but I coped ok anyway. I learned to read and write ealier than most kids, and I did not find it very hard, because I really wanted to learn. Ever since I've read a lot, I'm quite a book-aholic actually. I can read an intresting book really quickly, for example I read the last Harry Potter Two nights after school. It's very hard for me to think of anything else When I'm reading a book. I also tend to read the best parts again many times.

During 1st to 9th grade I was almost always top of my class. We didn't have much homework or tests, and I could easily remember facts that I was intrested in. In 1st to 4th grade homework and schoolwork was almost always fun, so there were never really a problem. In fifth we changed teacher and our class got bigger(in Sweden we have classes with mostly 20-30 sudents in every class, the younger groups usually have around 20 and when you get older it grows closer to 30. You have almost all your classes with the same people.). It now became hard to focus on the things I didn't like very much, like maths. I was still very good at it, I just didn't think it was intresting enough to focus on for any longer period of time. I even got my friend to do some of my work for me...

In seventh to ninth grade( swedish "junior high") I almost never did any homework or study for tests at home. I usually listened to teachers in class, did the assignments when it didn't take too much concentreting. The thing was, almost everybody else in my class cared very little about school, so therefore we got very much time to do the assignments. Since I was very smart, I had time to finish them quickly in school and then do nothing but things of my choice in my free time after school. My parents complained about me not studying at home, but since I had very good grades anyway, I thought it was unecessary to do the studying when I didn't need it. I graduated junior high with the best grades in my school of the 300 something students that graduated that year.

When I started "high school" in a natural science program(everybody choose a program, we have everything from hotel/resturant to civics to artistic programs) I started falling behind everybody else. At first I thought I just had to learn how to study, something I had not needed before. Now I am not so sure. I'm in my second "high school" year, and I am under average grades. I know I can do better, but I just don't seem to be able to DO the assignments. I start too late before the tests or hand-ins, and my grades suffer a lot. I feel no real motivation to do any studying, and have a very hard time focusing during class. We have to finish things much quicker now, and I feel so stressed and at the same time unmotivated so I end up doing nothing until I really have to or I will fail.

I have also trouble concentrating when I try to listen to people talking. My mum often gets irritated when I fail to hear what she is telling me. I also have a hard time listening to the teachers in school when they write things on the whiteboard. Especially math. My sense for directions are almost non-existant. I need directions written down clearly so that I can read them many times. I forget things all the time, and I'm very unorganized. Ok, this text became soo much longer than planned, but hopefully you have had the patience to read the thing. So what do you think, ADD, common laziness or something else? Would be very thankful if anyone answered!

// M

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