Stories of an ADD Adult

I am not completely sure on this one. I want to say yes, but then I think of all the times that ADD has gotten me in trouble, made me lose jobs, and turned my life into a difficult mess.

I recognize, though, that ADD has helped me in many ways. It has given me many very creative ideas, some of which have gotten me public recognition.

(I won’t give specifics here because I’m trying to maintain at least some anonymity. I wouldn’t want to get rejected at a job interview, for instance, because they Googled me and found out that I had ADD.)

However, none of that public recognition has turned into anything more for me. I still struggle with money, and although I do have a job, it’s not a very good one and doesn’t pay much at all.

The day that my ADD helps me become secure financially and emotionally will be the day that I consider my ADD to be a gift. Until then, it’s mostly an annoyance.

The hardest part of going to job interviews was trying to answer the thinking questions. Thinking questions are basically the questions that HR people like to ask in order to see how your thought process works.

I froze up during many of those thinking questions and just couldn’t answer them. If the same exact questions had been written on paper, and if I had been alone, I’m sure I would have been able to answer them easily. If the same exact questions had been asked informally and casually by a friend, I’m sure it would have been no problem to answer them.

The problem was that so many thoughts were going through my head that I couldn’t focus on what they were asking me. It looked like I was either dumb or just didn’t know how to think.

Suffice it to say that I didn’t get accepted to almost all of the jobs that I interviewed for.

Most of my friends got their driver’s licenses the day they turned sixteen, or soon after. Definitely by seventeen, at least.

I, on the other hand, waited until I was 23. I had wanted to get my license sooner, but I was afraid because my concentration was so bad. It seemed like I would never be able to drive because I just didn’t have the focus and attention span for it.

I finally had to get my driver’s license when I was 23, because I was out of college and looking for a job. I needed to be able to drive myself to job interviews. It was terrifying to drive, but at least my medication helped.