Hi My name is Ashton, I am a mother of 2, an 11 yo boy and a 4 mo
boy. I and my 11 yo both have ADHD. I don't know about the 4 mo yet,
but I'm sure he will too, as he's already exibiting some of my
characteristics.

I do not have anyone to discuss this with, so I hope to be able to
find some guidance here.

I have suffered from this problem all of my life. I grew up under a
very militant mother who thought the way to control my "badness" was
to spank me (I was 16 when I got my last spanking), make me stay all
day in my room, punish my procrastination issues by making me do
things longer like when I'd take 6 hours to clean the kitchen or I
didn't clean the dishes good enough, I'd get put on restriction and
I'd have to do the dishes by myself for 6 people for a month ((I was
11 at the time)I had 3 brothers and none of them suffer from this
because they are not my biological siblings)), while my brothers got
the usual week.

I was always made to feel stupid and lazy and bad because of these
issues and no one knew that I had a problem. Back then (37 years
ago), I was just naughty and lazy. The feelings have not left me, I
still deal with the same issues I had as a kid, but at least now I
know it is not my fault. At least I know I am not a bad person, a
lazy person. I wake up everyday and tell myself "today I'm going to
clean this or that" and when it comes time for me to do it, I put it
off because it is just too overwhelming.

I am going to put together a symptoms letter and put some remarks to
it and send it to my family, so that they know why I was the way I
was. I did not get diagnosed until adulthood, so my parents are the
type to think that this new fangled ADD stuff is just an excuse to
cover up bad behavior. I am hoping they will lose that thinking and
open their minds and understand me and my problems.

As for my son, he is a little me. We drive each other crazy with our
problems and I'm trying to homeschool him. He's doing pretty good,
but now with the new baby here, we are finding it more difficult to
fit in his studies and we may end up having to put him in school. On
top of all of this, I have learning disabilities, so I am already
finding his studies daunting and I find myself having to turn to my
hubby at times, luckily we do have a tutor, so he gets the help he
needs that I can't offer him.

Anyway, sorry for the clutteredness of this post, if you think this is
bad, you should be inside my head! yikes!

Ashton