I have carried diagnosis from childhood into adulthood. In my experience the primary 'problem' is that I cannot direct my attention at will. I may want to read

I have carried diagnosis from childhood into adulthood. In my experience the primary 'problem' is that I cannot direct my attention at will. I may want to read a book, I may be enjoying the book, but when I will myself to concentrate on the book my attention may or may not obey me. From the outside, this can look like laziness, disinterest, etc, but fundamentally the difference is, what I want to concentrate on, and what I can concentrate on are not always the same thing. This is problematic in a variety of ways, and certainly does feel like a disorder when you experience it. If this mismatch between command and control was between say, my brain and my legs, then no one would ever question if it existed or not. I've certainly found that my strategies for coping with this, and my ability to direct my attention have gotten better with age. It's unclear to me if this is due to hard work on my part, or a change in brain structure as I age. Personally, I have found that medication is only a very small portion of my overall strategy, and I do think it is quite likely that sitting in a classroom 8 hours a day is just not something children, or really anyone is particularly well suited for. It's likely, I think, that we are over-prescribing and over-diagnosing things that should be considered 'normal' behavior in children. Having said that, I am absolutely convinced that for some, medication is an effective and life changing tool as part of a larger strategy to cope with ADD.