If you are a teen or tween who has not yet been diagnosed with ADHD but you suspect you may have it, first know this: you're in the right place! Here at ADHD2, you will find education and inspiration about ADHD, as well as resources for better understanding what ADHD feels like, how you can see it as a superpower -- and if appropriate, how to get additional treatments through behavior modification or medications (with your parents' or guardians' involvement).

What does it feel like to have ADHD when you're a teen or pre-tween?

You may have had excellent grades, but it feels like you're doing so much more work than everybody else. You may not feel you can say that out loud, and you also may feel that other people are able to do so many more things than you.

But deep inside you know that if you started doing those same things, your grades would immediately suffer. That's how much effort you're putting in.

It doesn't mean that you're dumb. Quite the opposite! Here's an example: the world thought Albert Einstein was dumb. Okay. Now, this guy ended up being the most intelligent man in recorded history. And, you know, I often say, you know, he figured out the secrets of the universe using a chalkboard.

After that, I just remember hearing from a whole bunch of scientists through the years. Einstein was right. Einstein was right! Now I'm not saying you have to be amazing at math or physics. But that feeling that you can do more, but you can't get yourself to do it; that feeling when someone tells you to do something, and you immediately say, "Well, I'm not going to do it, because you told me to do it!" -- it probably existed for such a long time that you never even knew any different way.

And you probably remember being like this even as a kid, but you would do OK. And then every once in a while you would do something so amazing that you would forget how hard it was to do it. Because you were just doing it. You just got in the zone.

It might be the opposite! It might be that you can't pay attention during movies, where you're always asking your friends, "Hey, what happened? I don't know what's going on. I don't get that." Or you physically want to rewind or go back or see the same thing over and over again.

Sometimes you'll get caught in this loop where you just want to see this one thing that just brings you so much joy and laughter. It could be like a micro clip and you'll just want to watch it over and over and over again. And no one else seems to get that about you.

Another common thing that I experience with teen and tween patients is they'll say, "It's like my brain just turns off sometimes. And I can't control it. When my brain is on, it's on but then it just turns off. I would love to be able to just lay in bed all day when I'm working. But when I'm laying in bed, I feel like doing something and I can't sleep. It's like I have everything backwards."

I didn't know I had ADHD until after I finished medical school. So, just because you're getting straight A's does not mean you don't have ADHD. It might be that because you have ADHD, you're getting straight A's because you found the ability to focus on what you needed to do, and it might be different than what other people have to do. Which is the reason why you come back to: it seems like everybody else is putting in much less effort to do this.

If this feels like you, you might want to talk to your parents to get on to a consultation with me. We'll figure out what's going on. And if you have it, cool, we'll deal with it! If you don't have it, it's also cool!

Note: you will need your parents or guardians to be a part of the process, because until you turn 18, you must have parental consent.