Nathan Davis

Prof. Henry- Jones

English 1101

September 11, 2020

My ADHD

Have you ever been talking to someone and you get distracted by the smallest thing and

realize that you aren’t even paying attention to what they’re saying anymore? Well, that’s just a

small part of what it's like having ADHD.

At the start of my freshman year, I had just upped the dosage of my medication for

ADHD and it sucked. If you had known me at the time you would have described me as the most

monotone and bland person you had ever met. The medicine that I was taking helped me focus

but at the same time, it had made it almost robotic. I didn’t show any emotions to a point that my

friends made it a game to who could make me laugh that day. The second main effect of my

medicine was that it would keep me awake, not that it would prevent me from getting tired, I just

could never sleep until it wore off later that day. Finally, the last side effect was a suppressed

appetite. During school, I hardly had any food until my medication wore off. Nonetheless, I ate

from the minute I got my appetite back until I went to bed later that evening. All-in-all pretty

shitty if you ask me nowadays. The problem is that as a freshman I didn't see a problem because

of how routine it was for me. I had taken medicine every weekday since 3rd grade, only taking

breaks and the weekends and over summer.

Today was the day that things changed. I woke up, got in the shower, and got in my c

My mood was probably the biggest change and shock to all my friends. I talked to

everyone in the class and I had started to talk much louder than usual. My friends had loved this.
They were shocked that I was laughing and everything, I was making myself a part of every

conversation and I had enough energy to run around the building a few times. The problem with

this was that the real problems had also started to come out. For the whole day, I did not pay

attention to anything that any of my teachers had taught me that day. This was so bad that the

next day I had to ask them what we did almost like I was completely absent. The next issue that I

faced that day was the amount of sleep that my body now wanted to catch up on after being kept

awake by the medication. After lunch, it felt like I hit a wall. I had almost fallen asleep in my

next 3 classes and the fact that I didn't fall asleep is still a mystery to me. I remember getting

home and I did nothing but sleep and sit just because of how exhausted I was from that day. It

was a real eye-opener.

After that exciting emotion-filled and hunger have driven day and after going back to

school the next day fully back on my medication and fully back to being my robotic self I had

realized that I should finally talk to someone to see if I could find a happy medium between

being more of myself and not just a robot and but still being able to focus in class. My mom had

even gotten emails from my teachers saying that I seemed happier but completely unfocused on

what was being taught. So with those emails and my realization that should change something I

went to the doctors and got my dosage lowered and after some trial and error with figuring out

which dosage would be the best, I was finally happy with where I was and even though it wasn't

perfect it was a huge improvement with not only school but also with my social life.

Now a freshman in college I have become completely content with my ADHD and I have

learned many ways to deal with it and if it wasn’t for that day of realization then that might not

be the case.