Virtual Perspective: The Stigma of Adult ADHD
![](https://img.lb.wbmdstatic.com/vim/live/webmd/consumer_assets/site_images/article_thumbnails/video/301377_1_virtual_story_adult_adhd_video/1800x1200_301377_1_virtual_story_adult_adhd_video.jpg?resize=750px:*&output-quality=35)
Hide Video Transcript
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Dating with ADD, that was the toughest of everything to deal with over the years. They didn't understand the medicine. They didn't understand ADD. They didn't-- there's a combination of the two. So you're either flawed with the ADD. You're flawed that, oh, you always got to take medicine? What's wrong with you? We need to make sure that we instill confidence with someone.
I got my first 4.0 semester for my master's. When you struggled through high school and college, and then you go back to school, and you are doing as well as I was doing, it makes you feel good. I remember talking to a friend of mine and saying, maybe I'm a little smarter than I thought. My friend's comment was, no, maybe now you're appreciating you always were that smart. You just didn't understand it.
We need to make sure that the kids or adults that figure this out, that we instill confidence in them. It's not a handicap. You need to believe in what you're doing so that-- if you don't want to get better, you won't. I can tell you, I am absolutely 110% a better man today than I was before I met my first doctor, because I worked at it, and I asked questions of her and of the other doctors I've seen to become a better man.
DAVID
For someone to be able to handle ADD or ADHD, you can't fight it. You can't deny it. If you're being honest with yourself when the doctor brings out all of the symptoms and tells you all the things, you know they're there. And if you deny it because you don't want to think that you have it, all you're doing is hurting yourself, and making it that much harder or longer for you to reach a balance or a calm. Dating with ADD, that was the toughest of everything to deal with over the years. They didn't understand the medicine. They didn't understand ADD. They didn't-- there's a combination of the two. So you're either flawed with the ADD. You're flawed that, oh, you always got to take medicine? What's wrong with you? We need to make sure that we instill confidence with someone.
I got my first 4.0 semester for my master's. When you struggled through high school and college, and then you go back to school, and you are doing as well as I was doing, it makes you feel good. I remember talking to a friend of mine and saying, maybe I'm a little smarter than I thought. My friend's comment was, no, maybe now you're appreciating you always were that smart. You just didn't understand it.
We need to make sure that the kids or adults that figure this out, that we instill confidence in them. It's not a handicap. You need to believe in what you're doing so that-- if you don't want to get better, you won't. I can tell you, I am absolutely 110% a better man today than I was before I met my first doctor, because I worked at it, and I asked questions of her and of the other doctors I've seen to become a better man.