There Is No Race to Raise ADHD Awareness, but There Should Be

3 Comments: There Is No Race to Raise ADHD Awareness, but There Should Be

1. I can understand the uneducated population making judgements and jumping to conclusions about ADHD because they haven’t lived with the frustrations of this conditions so it’s hard to”get it”. What I find infuriating is the plethora of supposedly educated “mental health experts” who show no understanding of the condition and have no compassion about it. I get lost easily, and no matter how early I start my preparations to leave the house, somehow I always manage to either get lost or find myself racing to appointments because somehow time has gotten away from me again. I was late for an appointment with one of these so called mental health experts and was told by the receptionist that if I had called, she might have been able to do something to help me. I had gone to the wrong building and had I not gotten lost, I’d have been on time. When I am lost,having an anxiety/hysterical fit because of it, the LAST thing I am able to do is stop and think. When I asked if I child be worked in so I could get my scripts because I was almost out of meds I was told no and given an appointment three months out.When I called the patient liaison about my experience, she casually relied,”Well, if it gets bad enough, you can always check yourself into the hospital.” This is the quality of mental health care in our country today. They make the mistake of thinking because we have a mental disorder that we are crazy and can be treated badly and dismissed. I very often have to get into these people’s faces and tell them, “Even if you think I’m crazy, I’m not stupid. Do NOT mistake one for the other. Crazy but smart people can hire lawyers and sue people like you for incompetence.”

2. This speaks in masses to me. My youngest boy is soon 8yrs old and was diagnosed with ADHD at 6 and a half years old. His first one and a half years of primary school were awful. He missed out on special days at school, missed out on making friends and was even suspended in his first year on schooling. I was devastated for him and didn’t know how to help him. We found a great paediatrician and once he was diagnosed and treatment started, our boy began to flourish and make friends, follow rules and complete more schoolwork and is now on par with his peers. He was known as “the naughty boy” in his first year of school and now not only is the teacher who gave him that label eating her words but the kids who couldn’t be around him as he was so full on, are now good friends with him. There needs to be more awareness, he needs to not be afraid to be himself on weekends and school holidays when he doesn’t take his meds. Not have people staring and tutting at him for “misbehaving”. I wouldn’t have my boy any other way. He’s shown me how to stop and notice the smaller things and to just laugh and cuddle and life will be perfect.

3. From my experience, I realized that unless you live with ADHD, it doesn’t exist. Even with my family, where I’m currently the only one diagnosed with ADHD, its seen more as an excuse than a disability. And its worse when it comes to the community in general, where unless they know me well, they are quick to criticize me. I won’t lie, I just wish in my home country of Kenya, it was taken more seriously, instead of just a “thing”. Then more people, myself included, wouldn’t be so terrified of accepting our diagnosis instead of running away from it