I had a hard time fitting into the “good crowd” in high school. My teachers were overloaded with work, explained things too quickly, and I was consistently lost.
So…I sang to my teachers to get kicked out of class. I self-medicated with drugs and rarely did my homework. Obviously I don’t know, but I’m guessing many of my classmates didn’t want to be friends with “that kid” — and as a result, I didn’t have many close friends growing up.
In college, I got fantastic grades but was labeled the class clown every year until I finished graduate school. And again, I had many acquaintances at school but very few close friends.
It was lonely
During college, my fantastic professors, doctors in communication disorders, began to educate me on ADHD and how the behaviors I was showing may be ADHD. Then after my own kids were born and one was showing the same sorts of symptoms (and struggles with friends), I knew I needed to look into this more to figure out what to do to help us both. So I tracked my behaviors and was officially diagnosed with ADHD about 3 years ago.
I can tell you, it’s not easy or fun being without a few close friends. If the one child is busy, has another play date, or is on vacation, our kids can be left feeling devastated and lonely…which is a feeling I know all too well both as a person and as a parent. And to feel like you don’t have the skills to make (or keep) friends? That makes it even worse.
If you’ve got a child struggling in this painful cycle, let’s get you and your child out.
Photo by Zhivko Minkov on Unsplash