ADDers in Their Words: Sculpting Life on My Terms

There is treatment hope for ADHD children – and it doesn’t involve medication.

Hands of ADHD child molding clay on wooden table
Hands of ADHD child molding clay on wooden table

I stayed back in the fourth grade three times. I was a straight-F student. The school called my mother and told her to send me to a private school, which she couldn’t afford.

Then, at 14, I had an epiphany.

Two teachers put together a scientific demonstration in class one day. It was very visual. As soon as I saw it, it was as if I awoke from a long sleep. It excited and inspired me. My teachers discovered that I was a visual learner, which was something my mother, a painter, knew intuitively.

I enrolled in art school at 21, and started my own design firm when I was 26. I sculpted busts of famous people, many of whom were thought to have learning disabilities – Einstein, Mozart, Edison, da Vinci, Frank Lloyd Wright. Some of the busts are in the Smithsonian.

When I sculpt and paint – things I love to do – I don’t need medication. I don’t feel like I have ADHD.

There is hope for ADD children. My mom was the making of me. You can be the making of your child.