Like others, I have read people's stories on here and am just amazed that so many people have experienced what I believed was just my own disorganisation/lack of concentration.

It prompted me to read up on the subject and something I read interested me. Apparantly (according to a website I unfortunately can't link to) to have Adult ADD you must have had symptoms from before the age of 7. Is this true? What age did people first get their symptoms? For me it was older than this, about 13 (I'm now almost 20). Does this mean I am just disorganised etc. or could it be something deeper rooted?

I think there are two reasons for this...
#1. ADD wasnt as understood as it is now and doctors werent looking for it... necessarily.. unless you were extremely HYPER!
#2. If you think about your experiences growing up.. you will probably realize you have had most of the symptoms most of your life..

For example... I remember getting C's in conduct and my parents getting upset.. and the main problem I had was "not following directions" ... and I "talked alot" LOL... :-) I probably wasnt following directions .. because I was zoning out!! Lol.... :dizzy:

LiasMom

It is true that, for a diagnosis of ADD, the symptoms must be present before age 7. Mothers are often aware in infancy (& sometimes even during pregnancy) that their child is unusually active.

That said, most adults these days aren't diagnosed until they are older. People weren't as aware of ADD when we were growing up. Also, it isn't unusual to be able to compensate for the ADD symptoms until a certain point. For alot of kids, that is 3rd grade. For others, it may be Junior High, High School or even college before they realize "something is wrong here".

But, in retrospect, those symptoms were always there. ADD doesn't just suddenly appear.

I noticed that my son was hyperactive as an infant. He wasn't diagnosed until he was 13, only because I didn't pursue it, I just thought he was hyper and didn't know much about ADHD. He's 17 now and refuses any type of treatment but I know as an adult he is going to have problems unless he gets on medicine.

I too think I am adult ADHD. While having my son seen and tested the nurse made the comment that she believed I too was ADHD .... LOL .... wonder what gave her that idea? I guess it was because I talked ALOT and couldn't sit still. Brady was diagnosed combined type ADHD / ODD. I knew early on something was amiss with him. I tried to find the whys and hows this happens to children. When Brady was born they used forseps.... pulling and yanking so hard that they were yanking me off the table and I was holding on... Brady had a lack of oxygen, was black in color and did not cry for several min after birth.... he also had a broken collar bone due to the way he was born....he did not sleep all night , never took a passy, never crawled, was late in walking ,late to speak, played alone, and hurt other children.... if he did not get his way he would try just taking what he wanted , he was not good at taking turns , stopped taking naps at ummmm about the age of 2 years old . He would lay and roll all over the place.Brady did not want to be hugged or kissed, you could not touch him if he did not want to be touched. later things like clothes became a problem.... he would only wear sweat pants... would have a fit if I set out anything with a zipper and bouttons ,his food could not touch on his plate or he would not eat and he would have another fit.His speach was good except that he would forget what he was going to say . He used ALOT of ummmm ummmmm ummmm ummmm when trying to talk and still does that to this day .Dr. said that was because his brain is going 90 to nothing and his mouth cannot keep up.Brady is now 11 and still having problems. Seems now he argues about everything even with his teacher in the class room who is their to assist him in staying focused and to help him follow directions.... he argues with her about how the work should be done and refuses to do it her way.... The Dr who recently did his retesting for attention wants to keep working with Brady .... he said he feel something else is going on with him , something more than ADHD/ODD. I can't even imagine! Brady also talks to himself when he is alone.O.K. I even talk to myself. I have had people tell me they think Brady may be autistic. I have seen children with autisim and Brady didn't seem to fit . I also didn't know about high functioning autisim. So we will see what happens. ANYWAYS my piont here is how one gets ADHD. Brady was born that way .Due to a traumatic birth. That and the fact the it is in his gean pool helped. That is what I came up with for an explanation of how he is the way he is.He is very smart.Has a high IQ. His best subject is math . He is a wonderful kid. I am trying to do all I can to help him just right now I am lost as to where to go and what to do next.

lol, bw, can i judge your talking a lot on how much you typed there? =P jk, and in most cases, yes, it does exist before 7 years of age, but there are some findings to suggest that the symptoms themselves may not have been present and/or as major as a child. It could be your environment or other things to make it appear just now, so it IS possible that its just now appearing, and about brady, its natural for him to want to argue with how to do it, most of the time the teacher can't really understand his way of thinking, i know they're professionals in teaching kids, but they don't have ADHD and don't understand what's easy and whats hard for him. I'd say if he can do it the way he wants to, let him, if not then there's not really much you can do without him being medicated =(