My ADD childhood

Hi, my name is Lorí, and this is my first post to my blog. I have so much to say, yet not sure where to begin… so will begin with a little bit of my story that started a looong time ago and what led me to consider ADD coaching and ADHD coaching (which I may not get to by the end of this blog, but will continue later!)

When I was in pre-primary school, I already knew then that I was different. I was truly a 'good' girl, tried to make myself invisible and succeeded some of the time. It was not easy as I was a large person for my age. This difference led to the smaller kids of the same age (and older) taking advantage of me. How? If they wanted something, like a turn on the swings, and I had just finally managed to get my turn, they would start to point to me and say it was their time. A teacher would hurry over and order me off, to give the smaller kids a turn. They thought I was forcing my way into things because I was bigger (most thought older too, partly because I was a quiet person).

In primary school this continued. Luckily in Gr. 2, they decided I was too advanced and so I went into the next grade, thereby missing a whole year (YAY!) At least I was not much taller than this bunch of kids, but still too shy to push myself into anything, any games. I had no friends, and spent my time watching my baby sister who had just started school, and I made sure no-one upset her!

High School was much the same story, different people, different circumstances. Same report, "Lori is so bright, could work harder", "with a little effort Lori could be an A student" and so on. I drifted through school, was lucky that I caught on pretty quickly and once I knew, I knew. Never really studied, and finally finished high school about my 17th birthday! Freedom!

I chose not to study further, could not imagine another day at school. Went into something I loved (and dreamt about the whole time in school) – horses! Worked in a riding school for a while, until my mum decided I should get another job as secretary – I could type up a storm in those days of manual typewriters! Although I was young (and pretty), I still found difficulty in creating relationships, oh, how I wish I could have had some ADD coaching. But I never knew at that time that there was something called ADD, and my strangeness and being different became my own best-kept secret.

The photo is of me when I was in my Matric year - final year of high school.