I recently visited a family therapist concerning the changes i have noticed in my college freshman. my daughter was always dependable and conscientious before starting college, but moved on campus and promptly flunked out her first quarter. she was also dating a very negative young man, who is finally out of her life. during the past six months, she has become mean spirited, lacking focus and goals. anyhow, when i went to this therapist and explained the personality change (we know there are no drugs involved), she suggested ADD and is going to test her in the near future.
help, i do not think this truly is the problem, but i would love for it to be something that can be fixed. any advice? can anyone give me some concrete examples of ADD in late teens and how it can be identified? we are a family in crisis and need help.thanks.
I recently visited a family therapist concerning the changes i have noticed in my college freshman. my daughter was always dependable and conscientious before starting college, but moved on campus and promptly flunked out her first quarter. she was also dating a very negative young man, who is finally out of her life. during the past six months, she has become mean spirited, lacking focus and goals. anyhow, when i went to this therapist and explained the personality change (we know there are no drugs involved), she suggested ADD and is going to test her in the near future.
help, i do not think this truly is the problem, but i would love for it to be something that can be fixed. any advice? can anyone give me some concrete examples of ADD in late teens and how it can be identified? we are a family in crisis and need help.thanks.[/QUOTE]
I recently visited a family therapist concerning the changes i have noticed in my college freshman. my daughter was always dependable and conscientious before starting college, but moved on campus and promptly flunked out her first quarter. she was also dating a very negative young man, who is finally out of her life. during the past six months, she has become mean spirited, lacking focus and goals. anyhow, when i went to this therapist and explained the personality change (we know there are no drugs involved), she suggested ADD and is going to test her in the near future.
help, i do not think this truly is the problem, but i would love for it to be something that can be fixed. any advice? can anyone give me some concrete examples of ADD in late teens and how it can be identified? we are a family in crisis and need help.thanks.
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I don't know for sure. Maybe that negative young man may have had a lingering effect on her? Perhaps there could be some other negative people there at college that have some influence....also, perhaps the pressure of college was a bit much for her? It could be a number of things....typically I'd suspect drugs for such an swing in behavior but you said there are definately no drugs. What about alcohol? That could be something that would cause trouble if it is over-done. I think it would be good for her to get some counseling or if a therapist could help figure out the cause of the change in character before jumping to the idea of something like ADD because the drugs used to "correct" ADD can cause health problems and sometimes mood swings/depression.
Here is a website that describes the symptoms of ADD:
[url]http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/adhd.cfm[/url]
(Because it is a .gov website, it is okay to post here).
From what you say, however, this doesn't sound like ADD to me. ADD, by definition, must be present before age 7. Do she have problems with distractiblity and inattention in elementary school? If not - if the problems only surfaced in her college years - then there is probably something else going on here.
My first thought when you described her first semester was how typical this is of first semester freshmen. My next thought when you described her moodiness, the boyfriend, and lack of focus was depression. I'm glad that you are seeking help for her. My heart goes out to you - I know it is sooo hard when we are worried about our children.
I would disagree with the other responses on this board. Yes, some of this may be typical freshman behavior. Some of it may be from the boyfriend, or depression or another problem....
BUT
I was just diagnosed this year, I'm a junior in college. I wasn't diagnosed as a child because I was primarily inattentive and because my parents don't really believe in ADD, so they never would have considered having me tested.
I've noticed, though, that they did a lot of the things that are suggested to parents of ADD kids. They sat with me to do homework, they checked it over for careless mistakes, they asked me every time I left for school to check if I had all the things I needed, ect.
It wasn't until college, where I didn't have all of those systems that I began to struggle. And it wasn't until I began taking subjects that are more difficult for me that I really began to have trouble.
So it could be that your family had the type of structure that can help manage ADD, and that being away from that structure has brought the problem to light.
Of course, it could not be. But I'd say it's worth getting tested--I wish I had known sooner that there were ways to help me, I would have saved myself a whole lot of tears.
It COULD just be ordinary teenage stuff, BUT many girls, especially bright girls with HYPOACTIVE AD/HD, will only show obvious and disruptive signs of AD/HD when they start puberty. The "dreamy, well-behaved girl who suddenly starts acting out" so to say.
However, if it is AD/HD, there will be SOME signs of it since early childhood - it just was not enough of a problem to require attention and intervention before hitting puberty.
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25, female, AS with attentional dysfunction
describing your home sounds similar to ours. we have always been there to check
over homework, provide structure and give support. do you think she is suffering
from the same type of post-high school diagnosis as you did? did you find, after
being diagnosed, that school became easier for you? what meds did they prescribe?
are you receiving services at school? did you suffer from the personality changes that she seems to be doing through? thank you for your info.
the only signs that really were present all along has been her desire to be the center of attention. other than that, she has always been fairly organized until her senior year in high school. now, my daughter is disorganized, distracted, and very unhappy. your information is very helpful, let me know what you think.
