Edge Foundation Blog

by Kelsey Peterson, guest blogger.  (To read more of Kelsey’s take on life with ADHD, check out her other posts in  Stories from the Edge.)

I have always been an active person; my family vacations were planned around hiking and outdoor sports. I love to move and be outside but when I started college things changed. I no longer had golf practice after school in the fall or tennis practice in the spring. I went to design school where the closest thing to a school football team was an annual fashion runway show off between our competitor school and us.

College was much more time intensive and stressful than I was prepared for. So I started working with an ADHD coach to help me stay on track of my school assignments. I had to start prioritizing my time between studying, sleep and exercise. After my first semester my grades were great but my body was not – I was sleep deprived and overweight. The sleeping, eating and exercise habits I had formed were unsustainable and I realized I had to change them if I were going to survive four years of college.

I talked to my coach about putting together a new plan for organizing my time. We came up a plan that allowed for me to study, get enough sleep and workout 3 to 4 days a week. Simply by making a detailed plan I learned that I did have time for everything.

My studying, sleep and exercise plans evolved with each semester catering to my new classes. I saw my grades improve as my health did. The more I took care of myself the more awake I was during the boring lectures and the better I could focus on what I was reading.

During my junior year I tried Bikram yoga per my doctors suggestion after I had some shoulder problems. Bikram yoga is the hot yoga you’ve probably heard about, a 90-minute class in a room that’s kept at 105 degrees 40 percent humidity. My first class was awful; I felt nauseous, light headed and HOT! I went back again to try to give it another chance because of the supposed health benefits. I started to enjoy the quiet slow moving activity. Because of the poses and the heat it required me to have absolute focus. I started to challenge myself slowly to improving my flexibility and endurance. When I was stressed about school I would go to yoga and forget about it, I would leave feeling calm and more motivated.

I have kept up with my yoga practice up ever since. I find that I function better if I allow myself that 90-minutes of meditation. When I feel very anxious about something or depressed I give myself the gift of going to yoga and letting those toxic emotions go. Because of the intense heat the session bring out whatever is going on with you and the challenge is to let it go and focus on your meditation.

Whatever exercise works for you, it’s important to find one or two or three that you enjoy! If I do the same thing every day I get bored. So I try to switch it up, I’ll do yoga 2 or 3 times a week, and other cardio things the other days. I love to go on run/walks with my best friend in Central Park.  She lives on the west side and I live on the east so we meet in the middle and do a loop around the reservoir. Living in New York City another one of my favorite things to do is walk everywhere. If I have enough time I’ll walk instead of taking the subway. I always try to do different routes to get common destinations making my walks interesting every time. Another fun social way to get exercise into your routine is taking classes. I love ballroom dancing classes; ballroom is a workout that also challenges your mind. It takes coordination and memorization and has proven benefits for brain function.

When it comes to exercise keep these tips in mind:

• Set up a game plan with your coach to make exercise a priority in your life.
• Try a bunch of different exercises and pick the ones that work best for you, weather that be weight training, yoga, walking, etc.
• Switch it up! Don’t get stuck in a rut with your workout, have fun with exploring new things.
• Making exercising a social event. Instead of going to happy hour or to a movie suggest going on a scenic walk or kickboxing class with your friends.
• Make your commutes into exercise by walking. Make sure to switch up the routines to see new things and keep you interested.

When you have ADHD it is especially important to have exercise be part of your life. Remember that exercise boots brain function and releases endorphins, which give you the feeling of well-being.

What exercises have you found to be the best for you? How have you seen your performance at work or school change in relation to you activity level?  Please share your experience in the comments.  Or join the discussion on Facebook.

Related posts:

Reducing ADHD Symptoms with Exercise

Treating ADHD with Exercise

Editor’s Note:  This month we’ve written two articles about the dangers of sharing your ADHD meds.  This week, we get perspective on the issue from our recently graduated student blogger, Kelsey Peterson.

The summer before I started college my brother and I had a talk about our medication. My brother who is two years older than me was in college and also has ADHD like myself. He took Adderall that was prescribed by his doctor and helped him focus in school. My doctor prescribed Concerta for me. The summer before I started school John and I were talking about college and how to have fun, and do well in my classes. John said, that people are going to find out that I take medication and that my new friends were going to want to buy them from me or for me to give some to them.

My first reaction was “oh great I can make some extra money!” John was like “no”. He explained to me that not only is that illegal but if I give my medication to someone that means that I don’t have medication to take when my prescription runs out. Also and most importantly I could get kicked out of school. During my four years in college many of my friends knew that I had ADHD and I took medication to help me focus.  Most of those friends asked me for some of my pills.

After that conversation with my brother I never thought twice about giving or selling my medication to anyone but I did develop strategies to get around the peer pressure situation.

1)   I would say “I’m so sorry I only have a few left and I need them”

2)   I would say “Oh I just ran out! I’m waiting to get my refill in the mail”

3)   When I lived in the dorms I would keep them in my locked drawer not with my bathroom stuff like my other vitamins.

4)   When I lived in an apartment with roommates I would leave them in my sock drawer and lock my room when we had parties.

Unfortunately students with out ADHD think of our medication as a fun drug, to us it’s important. Keep your medication safe and don’t sacrifice your grades because of what your new friends might think.

My best friend in college put a lot of pressure on me to give her some of my medication. It was hard to constantly make excuses about why I couldn’t so finally I decided if she was my best friend then she will respect my decision. And I told her that I didn’t feel comfortable giving them to people and if she thought she needed them to focus then she should talk to her doctor. She took my advice and made a appointment with her doctor. Turns out she has ADHD too.

How do you deal with the pressure?

Related articles:

Introducing Kelsey Peterson & Stories from the Edge

A student perspective on getting homework done, ADHD style

What you need to know about misuse of ADHD medication on college campuses

ADHD medication safety punch list

Editor’s Note: Last night my daughter sat with me and talked to me about how frustrating she was that day having ADHD. She had just made another impulsive boo-boo and was being really hard on herself. I know from talking to successful people with ADHD that feeling discouraged sometimes is part of the package.

We talked about writing down the times that ADHD has been an asset for her so she can remember them on days like these. Like the time she was quick to notice her brother left his favorate sweatshirt behind, or when her out of the box thinking creates a new way of seeing a problem that didn’t seem to have an answer.

And here at Edge, we thought it would be inspriring to hear from other students who have found success using an ADHD coach. You know we are sold on coaching as a powerful way to channel your ADHD for success.

We encourage each of our readers to share their success stories in the comments. Our stories together can remind us all to keep our focus on what is possible in those moments we are discouraged.

Getting organized with ADHD coaching

ADHD coaching really helped me organize. I think it helped me the most in setting goals and making sure I got those goals done in a good way, in a motivational way. Before [I had an ADHD coach] all of my goals and all of my assignments were jumbled up in my head. Coaching helped me systemically put them into a schedule. - College Student

Learning strategies that get results

I’m already reviewing for exams a couple of weeks before I have them. I got this from coaching. Coaching has helped me see things more from a planning perspective – planning ahead and starting early helps make things much easier. I feel much less stressed now about exams, and things are much more doable. So now it is not just like memorizing everything right before an exam and then forgetting it, but doing reading as I go along so that I am actually learning the material when I review it a couple of weeks before a test. - College Student

I still look back and wonder how I was able to get through it. My grades were low, but it was not because I didn’t understand the material. It was simply because I was very disorganized and didn’t know how to study effectively. I lost assignments, I wasted endless hours “studying”, and I nearly drove my parents insane. Then, my mom called an ADHD coach. All it took was a 30-minute call once a week – just 30 minutes! We laid down plans and schedules to get myself back on track. My grades improved tenfold and best of all, I virtually eliminated my problem with missing assignments. With every call, I became better – my study skills improved, my organization was practically flawless, and my self-confidence and ability to motivate myself became fine-tuned. I truly can’t attribute my recent success to anyone but my coach. – High School Student

Astonishing your parents

ADHD Coaching has helped increase my overall organization abilities. It helped me get my room more organized ed. It’s still clean weeks after I did the major clean-up! My folks won’t even believe it when they come see me! And I’m also sleeping more. That’s helping a lot. - College Student

Reaching for the stars

I’m setting higher standards now because, coming into college, my expectations were, ‘Oh yeah; 3.6, 3.7 gpa, no big deal. Because, just coming from high school, that’s just the way everything worked… Now I’m thinking about the bigger picture and what I need to do to get into a good graduate school, and stuff like that. - College Student

ADHD coaching stops the last minute scramble

Grades weren’t really an issue for me ever, but the way I go about getting my grades is better… because of the going through on a daily basis, not waiting until the last minute. - College Student

Hearing more positive feedback

People have commented, ‘Wow, you’re really producing this semester,’ or, ‘Wow, you’re -‘ I don’t want to brag, but – ‘further ahead than everyone else,’ or whatever. I might not have heard [comments like this] last semester. – College Student

Giving perspective – you are not alone

I would say [to my coach], ‘Look, I’m having this problem, right?’ Or we’d be like, ‘Here’s a goal. Why aren’t I reaching that goal?’ ‘Oh, it’s because of this problem.’ And then you know what he’ll say, ‘Well, some people like yourself with ADD, they would try x, y, and z.’ And I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s really helpful to know what other people kind of like me in similar situations are doing and how they solve their similar problems.’ – College Student

An ADHD coach is an angel on your shoulder

Besides the benefits, I think the relationship. Developing a relationship is very helpful in keeping you; it’s almost like developing a relationship with an angel on your shoulder or something. It’s just kind of nice to have a good relationship with someone that can help you. - College Student

Reduces stress

Some people feel less stressed after they’ve sort of planned out what they’re going to do about something they are stressed about. Because it takes away the question of, ‘Oh, how am I going to do this? Oh, this is how I’m going to do it. I feel less stressed about it because I know I can get it done.’ – College Student

[Now I'm] in control, not of myself but of my daily life and of the situation; daily experience. Probably less stressed and more confident in my abilities to get the things done that I need to get done, again, in a timely manner. - College Student

An ADHD coach builds your confidence

I was going to say, ‘Confident. Everything is doable.’ [Smiling] Yeah. - College Student

Learning skills to last a lifetime

I was able to compensate until I reached grad school where I hit a wall and began to struggle with classes, scheduling, organization, and school/life balance. I [was] doing well academically but performed poorly in the field – showing up unprepared and missing deadlines. Sometimes the ADD habit of speaking-before-thinking got me in hot water. At home things were a disaster: it seemed impossible for me to keep up with life tasks like laundry, dishes and cleaning while working and studying. [Medication, therapy and academic accomodationns] didn’t address time management and didn’t help my social issues, disorganization, or the home/life balance disrupted by ADD. Before I started coaching, I was afraid I’d fail out of grad school. After a few months of coaching, both my Dean and my advisor congratulated me on my improvements. I’m actually getting honors in my evaluations, which is much more than I’d ever hoped for. I am also learning skills like time management and home/life/work balance, which will help me for the rest of my life. - Grad Student

Feel more in control of your life with an ADHD coach

I became noticeably more organized [with the help of my ADHD coach]. I went from constantly missing homework assignments my first three years of high school to missing no homework assignments my senior year. I could easily find worksheets and packets in folders instead of looking around in my backpack or my room. I got into my first choice college. I believe the study and organization skills I learned with my coach have helped immensely in my first semester of college. I now feel more in control of my schoolwork and grades. - College Student

Share your success

Now it’s your turn.  We hope you’ll share your success stories in the comment section!

For a more in depth success story read One ADHD College Student’s Success Story

This month we are pleased to feature an interview with Robert Tudisco, Edge Foundation Board member. Tudisco is a practicing attorney, an adult diagnosed with ADHD and has served on the Board of Directors of CHADD and ADDA.  As a freelance writer, he has been published in both Attention! and ADDitude Magazines and is a frequent resource for the media about ADHD and disability advocacy.

Edge:  You’ve been a leader in the disability community for the 10 years since you were diagnosed with ADHD.  What are the ADHD projects you are most excited about these days?

Robert Tudisco:  I am excited about the work that is going on at the Edge Foundation to provide scholarships and subsidized coaching for college students with ADHD.

When young students leave the structure of home and high school they often find themselves floating along in college without structure, accountability and the ability to advocate for themselves. For individuals with ADHD, this is a recipe for disaster.  Edge Foundation coaches establish the structure and accountability that is crucial for these transitional young adults.

Edge Foundation is also making significant strides in establishing a scientific basis for the efficacy of coaching which has been lacking in this field as well as a means of standardization through their own coaching certification program.

Edge:  So I imagine a coach can be helpful to a student in assessing whether or not they want to disclose they have ADHD or keep it private.  Do you have an opinion on whether students should come out about their ADHD or not?

Robert Tudisco:  Actually, I do not see it that way at all.  A coach can be very helpful in helping a student understand their specific needs due to their ADHD and help them self report and seek supports in a post secondary environment.  Under the law, it is always an advantage for students to self report their ADHD.  In fact, under Section 504 and the ADA, post secondary students are required to self report and ask for services if they are to have any protection from discrimination about their disability.  Disclosure for students is therefore a must.

Disclosure of ADHD in the workplace is more complicated than when attending school

When students enter the working world is when the question of disclosure becomes more delicate to resolve.  In the first instance, most employers do not accept federal subsidies and employers with less than 50 employees are exempt.  Additionally, for an employment claim, the disabled person also has to prove that they are otherwise capable of performing the job.  Disclosure becomes even more complicated with respect to certain types of businesses where there is much competition for advancement and traditional stigmas can hold an employee with a disability such as ADHD back from advancement.  Here, a coach can be particularly helpful in guiding a client toward a career that better suits their ADHD where their particular work style and creativity can maximize their effectiveness and also how to seek support without necessarily disclosing something that may be seen as a negative.

This month’s Story from the Edge is written by our social media intern, Angela Schopke.

I hear people talking about ADHD a lot. Some people say it’s a blessing. Some people say it’s a very hard struggle. Some people say it doesn’t exist. I don’t have ADHD, so it’s very difficult for me to say what it is. One thing I can say is that one of my friends has it, so it must exist, but whether it’s a positive or a negative thing I do not know.

Three friends, three different walks in life.

I have a friend who is a writer. She finds refuge in words and the artisanship that goes into structuring each sentence. She has a brilliant mind full of nuance and detail, that can also capture a universal perspective. She is hard to watch – everyday she’s stuck in a rut of negativity. She seems to sink deeper and deeper into a pool of negative thoughts, that in some ways could be very comfortable and relaxing, but at the same time is suffocating. She does not have ADHD.

I have a second friend. She loves science. She is curious. She asks so many fascinating questions. She loves to talk. Sometimes she is so enthusiastic and talkative, people have a hard time being with her. She gets migraines often. I think she sees when people are annoyed with her or want to be somewhere else. But she is happy. She loves her life. She has ADHD.

We have the power to chose how we see things

The difference between the two of them strikes as sort of miraculous. Both struggle with real issues. But each one deals with what those issues in very different ways. It’s become clear to me that we have the power to choose how we see things.

I struggle with low self-esteem, and recently, I started writing down every time I felt badly about myself, and I realized, all those times I felt so low were in my head. It is almost a comfortable respite for me to resort to self-deprecating thoughts and a negative mindset and I go there so often. It’s almost like I see the world through a one-way mirror where everyone on the other side is holding signs that say, “You are less” on them. I realized I have a choice. I don’t have to see myself as less. I can choose to see myself differently.

The statement that I think best summarizes this realization for me is things just are. Things happen. One friend is drowning in her own negativity, my other friend has ADHD, and I have a low self-esteem. But those facts are neither good nor bad. They are facts. They are subject to change. They happened but they don’t define what is to happen. They are.

ADHD isn’t good or bad, it just is.

So is ADHD a bad thing? No. Is ADHD a good thing? No. It just is. It’s one part of a whole person. It gives you a lot of things and some of them might help you in a lot of ways, and others might be more difficult to live with. But I think that labeling ADHD as good or bad is unnecessary.  Figuring out how to work with it is the place to start.

Stories from the Edge are real life accounts of living life with ADHD from the student’s perspective.  If you’d like to share your story with our readers drop us a line at info@edgefoundation.org.

Editor’s Note:  Stories from the Edge are real life accounts about how an ADHD coach works – as told by the student receiving the coaching.  This is the second installment from Kelsey Peterson who is a junior at Parson’s School of Design.  You can read her first post here.  We asked Kelsey to tell us what she’s working on this month with her coach.

One thing I’m struggling with this month that my coach is helping me with is balance with my homework.

Handling the reading load for my classes is challenging

I am taking one design class and three lecture style classes. Even though the lecture classes are very interesting and I love going to them getting the reading done for them is hard. They all assign a lot of reading and I’m trying to schedule my weeks to block out time to do them. It’s easy for me to do my design homework and forget about the reading until the morning of that class or the night before.

Using a day planner to make time in my schedule for reading

My coach has been helping me look at my planner and assign blocks of time throughout the week to go to Starbucks or the library and read. It’s been going better but still hard to stick to my schedule at times. During the day my friends and I are all out going to class or hanging out in a similar neighborhood in Manhattan so it’s hard not to meet up and get a coffee with my friends in between classes instead of doing the reading. So I have been trying to balance time with my friends with homework.

Basically I came up with a game plan for one of my classes that meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays we have a lecture and on Wednesdays a discussion class about the readings. So my new schedule is that I go to the lecture on Tuesday and do the reading right after so that the reading makes more sense to me and I’m still thinking about and digesting the lecture. This has been working really good and I’m still experimenting with the other classes and when the best time to get the reading for them is done.

When I look at my day planner with my coach I make sure to schedule things appropriately, for example I try hard to plan on doing my homework in the morning because I have mostly afternoon class and I like to hangout with my friends and my boyfriend after six. I don’t have time to hangout with my friends every evening but for the most part I’ve discovered what works best for me is to get up early and do as much as I can – and then after six have fun and relax.

Editor’s note:  This week we are introducing a new column, Stories from the Edge:  Real stories about how an ADHD coach helps.  Today’s post is written by Kelsey Peterson, a junior at Parson’s School of Design.

I knew from a young age that I had a learning disability.  Growing up with a dad who also had a learning disability was the best wish I could have asked for.  Ever since I was diagnosed, my dad stepped in and took control of getting me the best help he could to help me overcome my disability and stay on track with my classmates. 

My friends have always been very important to me.

Staying in my class with my friends was a huge motivation.  In order to not be held back in grade school, my dad helped me get outside tutoring and inside school assistance.  I knew I had to work twice as hard as my friends in school, but it was worth it to be able to sit in class with them. 

It was hard getting constantly tested and going to tutoring every day after school.  When I graduated from grade school I had to go to a special school for children with dyslexia.  I wasn’t happy about it because all my friends went to another school which I didn’t get accepted to. 

For a year at the dyslexia school I worked hard to be the best in my class and I met with my tutor every day.  At the end of that year I applied to Explorer West Middle School (where my friends were) and got accepted!  My hard work paid off, but it wasn’t over…

I still had to work extra hard to stay in 7th grade with my friends.  High school was the same but I got through with my friends.  When I got accepted to Parsons the New School of Design in New York City for college, I knew the hard work wouldn’t stop. 

My dad set me up with an ADHD coach to help me stay on track.

My coach helped me from getting  overwhelmed by the new school, the new city and the struggles that I was about to encounter.  With my ADHD coach I learned time management -  so I could get all my homework done and have fun with my friends.  My coach helped me plan my days and long term projects so they weren’t so daunting.  My freshman year of college I got all A’s and made friends for life.

Why I love the Edge Foundation.

When my dad was thinking about starting a new project and asked me for some suggestions, I thought back on all he had done for me.  From day one of my diagnoses he knew what to do -  he found the best help for me and helped me every step of the way without question.  I told him that I didn’t think all parents were as good as he was with dealing with children with disabilities and he should help other kids fulfill their full potentials.  He went on to found the Edge Foundation.

Looking ahead… Dyslexia and ADHD are not obstacles!

Now I’m a junior at Parsons and I’m majoring in architecture.  I love school and work with my coach to manage and overcome the struggles I still deal with as a person with dyslexia and ADD.  I plan to share some of what I’ve learned with you, so that you can see you aren’t working hard alone, and it does pay off!

Editor’s Note:  Our last blog talked about how ADHD has impacted Nolan Wesselink in school.  This one explores how coaching has made a difference in his life.  For more information about how an Edge ADHD Coach can help you visit Edge Foundation’s Coaching Page.]

Written by guest blogger: Shaina Humphries, University of Illinios- Urbana/Champaign

Aside from his medication and special accommodations, Wesselink makes use of an academic “coach”. Coaches are commonly used in ADHD treatment, and are the main focus of Neil Peterson’s EDGE Foundation.

Peterson founded the EDGE Foundation, so he could help other kids suffering from ADHD, in the same way he was able to help his own two children, who have ADHD and Dyslexia.

“Medications do not work for everybody. They are not ‘the’ answer,” said Peterson. “Medications do not teach skills, but coaches do.”

Coaches like Wesselink’s and those from EDGE work by helping a person with ADHD to organize their life on their own, rather than telling them what to do. The coach meets with a student once or twice per week, and helps him or her with prioritizing, focusing, confidence, etc.

For example, Peterson’s daughter calls her coach for 30 minutes every Monday. She and her coach talk about how everything in her life is going.

“Then she’ll tell him she’s got a big paper due next week, and later she’ll tell him how her friends are coming to visit her that weekend,” Peterson said. “He’ll ask if that will affect her paper. Then she’ll say ‘I should probably write the first part of that paper this week before they visit.’”

What’s important about coaching, Peterson stresses, is that the person with ADHD is doing the thinking, coming to the conclusions on their own, and that’s how they learn the skills needed in life.

Treatment plans for ADHD that include medication, special accommodations and coaching, can be very beneficial to a student with ADHD, and can help the student function normally in and out of college.

Regardless, ADHD is a difficult disorder to deal with, especially in college, and certainly when a student with ADHD has not been diagnosed with the disorder. But, according to Wesselink, with the right treatment, being a college student with ADHD is manageable.

“Since I was diagnosed, I’m always learning more ways to deal with it,” said Wesselink. “I have no doubt that I’ll graduate and have a “normal” job afterwards as an engineer.”

Read more testimonials on how Edge ADHD Coaching changes lives.

[Note: This is part one of a two part story written by guest blogger, Shaina Humphries, University of Illinios- Urbana/Champaign -- Editor]

Nolan Wesselink is an average college student. He’s an engineering major at the University of Illinois, lives in a dorm room, goes to class during the week and goes to parties on the weekend. But there’s one thing about Nolan’s college experience that sets it apart from most others. He has ADHD.

                Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, or ADHD, is a neurobehavioral developmental disorder that can be especially debilitating to college students. College students who suffer from ADHD are more likely to drop out of college than students without the disorder.

According to Neil Peterson, the founder of the EDGE Foundation, and father of two kids with ADHD, “Students with ADHD are 33 percent less likely to graduate from college.”

ADHD is characterized by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity. The disorder, also commonly called ADD, can be present in three different ways. According to the USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, someone can either have the predominantly inattentive type of ADHD, the predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type, or the combined type.

People with the predominantly inattentive type of ADHD often do not pay close attention to details, are very forgetful and have a noticeably short attention span. While many people can attest to exhibiting at least one if not all of these symptoms from time to time, that doesn’t necessarily mean they have ADHD.

Peterson has a favorite analogy that he uses to distinguish people with ADHD and those without.

“Sometimes people will walk up the stairs, and when they finally get there, they can’t remember why they walked up in the first place,” Peterson said. “Plenty of people have had this experience before, but the difference is this: people who have ADHD experience this in a chronic fashion, rather than every once in a while.”

The case of the stairs is a perfect example of predominantly inattentive ADHD, but not necessarily the other types. A person with predominantly hyperactive-impulsive ADHD is usually very fidgety, has trouble waiting for his or her turn, blurts out answers to questions that have not been finished, and finally, talks excessively.

“Sometimes I’ll just talk, and not shut up, for like 10 minutes straight, and I don’t even really notice it,” said Wesselink. “I just keep talking, and whoever I’m talking to obviously notices it, and probably gets offended, but I won’t even notice that I’ve been talking that long until after the fact.”

Wesselink has the combined type of ADHD. This means he experiences various symptoms from both categories, inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive. However, like many people with ADHD, Wesselink was diagnosed late in life. He was diagnosed just a year ago, during his freshman year of college.

Since many of the symptoms are thought to be simply bad behavior, extra energy, or just a part of a personality, many of the people in the U.S. with ADHD do not even know that they have it. According to Peterson, 50 percent of people with ADHD have never been diagnosed.

“I had a friend who had it [ADHD], and he was telling me about the things he was going through, and I thought ‘Hey, that sounds exactly like me,’” said Wesselink. “So I went to McKinley to get screened. After what ended up being a three-month-long process of tests and doctor visits, I was diagnosed.”

Wesselink also said the biggest problem for college students probably isn’t the disorder itself, but the fact that so many people are unaware they have it. With all the academic demands, increased independence, and distracting environment, untreated ADHD students are likely to fail.

“If I wasn’t getting treatment , I can basically guarantee that I would have failed out by now,” Wesselink said.

In fact, Wesselink almost dropped out of school as recently as last semester. After being diagnosed, different medications were tested on him, but many of them had unbearable side effects.

Aside from depression and a strong urge to give up on school, Wesselink said, “I had severe mood swings, one made me lose my appetite entirely, and one made me very angry and short-tempered. One even made me sweat.”

Even dorm life is greatly affected by Wesselink’s ADHD. Anthony Perez, his roommate and close friend, said Wesselink’s ADHD affects his life, too.

“A lot of times there will be tension in the room. He’ll have mood swings,” said Perez. “If he’s studying and I do something that distracts him, he’s completely screwed. He can’t just go right back to studying like most people. That leads to problems.”

Perez also said that the side effects from Wesselink’s medications would cause fights and uncomfortable living conditions, so he was glad when Wesselink eventually found the best one and stopped switching medications.

However, medicine is definitely not the only method Wesselink uses to treat his ADHD. He receives treatment and special accommodations from U of I’s Disability Resources and Educational Services, or DRES.

With DRES, he is able to take his class exams in an environment conducive to people with ADHD. He takes his exams in a plain cubical with minimal noise and distractions. In this space, Wesselink is able to concentrate, or “hyperfocus” as he calls it, on his exam, so he doesn’t make nervous mistakes that he would make in a normal classroom environment, filled with distractions and a time limit.

Next week:  How an ADHD Coach changed everything