overcoming the odds

High school for anyone can be difficult, from making friends, to taking tests, to finding a place to sit at for lunch. But for someone with ADHD, Like Ansley Small, things can become a little harder.

ADHD, also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a disorder that affects attention, behaviors, and actions. Small feels that her biggest hardship isn't necessarily focusing, but more socializing with others. “Socializing with people and holdest conversations is probably the hardest thing, because you like, you just say everything you want to say and then you're like,  what do I say now, so that's probably the hardest thing to do.” In school, most of us think before we speak, but with ADHD, you just say what's on your mind. “In school, um, usually whenever people normally like to think before they talk or anything, but I just say what comes to my mind and then I just instantly regret it because I don't think before I talk, so that's just, hard at times.” 

As someone with ADHD, it's hard to feel “normal” at times. Small agrees with that and said, “Like my mind is racing like 100 miles an hour all the time. So it's hard to hold conversations or like, being like normal, not necessarily normal, but like a regular person who doesn't have ADHD.” ADHD can be a very degrading disorder. Small explains that sometimes she feels people don't understand ADHD very well. “It's not that I get made fun of, I just feel like I'm all over the place, or a little too crazy. And people often like to tell me that I'm wild or I'm weird.” Sometimes, Small feels that people underestimate her intelligence. Many people see ADHD as a disorder where you aren't very bright, but that isn't the case at all. “Yes, I always feel stupid. And everybody thinks I'm stupid but I'm really not, you know? That's very, like, annoying because a lot of people think that I'm stupid, but really I'm not, or, not in school at least.”

Small says that one of the hardest places to work in, is a normal classroom. “Definitely in a normal classroom setting because the bright lights, the fluorescent lights, don't help at all. And then, the time frame, like the period, saying that we have to get things done in five minutes, and this and then especially with teachers that don't have a structure. If they don't tell you ‘okay you can talk or you can’t do this’ I'm gonna get distracted and do my own thing. So I feel like there needs to be a kind of structure with teachers.”

Staying focused for long periods of time can be hard for anyone, but Small says with ADHD it's especially hard to not get distracted. “If I'm at my desk, I get all the unnecessary stuff off my desk that doesn't need to be on my desk. I always have to think to myself ‘I have to focus like I have to focus.’” A lot comes with ADHD, maybe stress, anxiety, but OCD is a really big one that comes with ADHD. “Like if I want to eat my dinner for the night, I have to clean my room, and get all my stuff done before I can really sit down and eat.”

High school can be difficult for anyone, but ADHD can make things a little harder. Harder to focus, harder to socialize, and harder to get things done sometimes. Throughout it all, we should all take people's situations into consideration and learn to be a little kinder.