Since I am not sure really how to put this in order, right now I will just pour things out as I recall them. I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder in July 1994. For about 6 months prior to this I was at home, having had to withdraw from Mount Holyoke College due to low grades. Now since both my mother and I knew the low grades were not due to a lack of intelligence on my part, and I had been told by a friend that she thought I might have ADD, Mom and I started to look into getting a diagnosis. The first person we went to, whose name I will not mention here, put me through a battery of tests during the month of February (1994 of course, unless I say otherwise, things happened in 1994). I will not go through what the tests were since many I do not recall or know how they would relate to his "diagnosing" me. In the end he determined the following--I did not have Attention Deficit Disorder, but did exhibit some symptoms. In his opinion the reason I had "flunked out" (if you saw my grades the last semester before I left then this would make sense) because I didn't like being away from home. He also refered to me in his report as being "gawky". Needless to say we got a second opinion. Later we found out that this person was definately NOT the right person to be talking to about this.
Not too long after this, Mom took me to a neurologist who was also a friend of hers. He was the one who had me go through physical tests, like MRI scans of the brain and blood work galore (which can sure cure any fear of needles). I also had a full physical at the time to make sure it was not something else that was causing my problems, like chemical imbalance or overabundance/lack of any vitamin, mineral, protein, etc. From that we found that I did have polyps in my nose (no big thing) and a high iron count in my blood (again, no major problem). After talking with me in a few sessions he reccomended I see another psychologist, Dr. Thomas Brown, because the neurologist, Dr. James Merikengas, could not offically diagnose me as ADD but was pretty sure I had it. He did determine though that I suffered, or as I now like to put it, lived with, low grade depression. (more on how that came about later.) Since June 1994 I have been taking Paxil, an anti-depressant similar to Prozac. It has been a great help and keeps my emotions on a more even keel.
And, after a few shorts weeks on my new Happy Pills (as I have come the call the Paxil), I went to see Dr. Brown. One hour and $80 later, it was official--I had severe Attention Deficit Disorder. (I will explain his tests in a moment) And now came the fun part, trying to determine what and how much of a medication I would need to help it. He started me off on Ritalin. I was to start by taking 5mg a day for a few days, trhen increasing it slowly to see what level would work. It finally settled at 15mg in the morning, which kept me able to focus for 5 hours. (appareantly regular Ritalin is slow release for me, a very good thing)
About two weeks after I started on the Ritalin, and had just settled on how much I needed, I began to take night courses at a local college. The first one was Psychology, and I got an A+. Not bad. When that was done, I decided I could handle two courses. I would up taking Sociology and an introductory Religion class. Grades--Religion, A-, Sociology--A+. I also took away from the Sociology class a desire to learn more, and decided that when (not IF) I returned to Mount Holyoke, I would be a Sociology major. After these two classes finished, I took and English class and a Philosophy class, receiving a B- in each.
With a diagnosis under my belt and grades I used to think I culd never get, I wrote to Mount Holyoke and asked to be readmitted. I explained my diagnosis, and sent them a transcript. I was back by January 1995. Since then, I have taken 3 Sociology classes, and because I do not yet know the grades for the most recent two, my GPA for my major stands currently at 4.0. I am also minoring in Asian Studies, putting my focus on Japan. I have been a busy person since coming back, and that won't be lessening mostly likely until I have my Master's in Sociology.
Last updated January 23, 1996
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