The Stigma of ADD

“It’s hard to have real life conversations about it when even the mental health professionals at our school stigmatize [ADD] as something that’s overdiagnosed and something that you probably don’t have.” - Anonymous, Class of 2020

[Mental health] is complicated. It’s so arbitrary, just like checking off a bunch of things on a checklist. So many mental health diagnoses have so much overlap. I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and part of that is not being able to pay attention and not necessarily having healthy eating and sleeping habits, but those are all symptoms of depression [too]. Then it’s like ‘Oh, is this depression? Is this ADD?’ You really don’t know, and doctors don’t really know either. There are definitely people who feel very comfortable with what they’re diagnosed with, but I think it’s okay if you don’t fully understand yourself because doctors don’t either. It’s just kind of a trial and error of what works best for you.

I’m still figuring it out. As you change as a person, what’s gonna make you feel good might change, too. A lot of it is just taking enough time for me, trying to evaluate how I feel and what I need and just really listening to my body; prioritizing sleeping enough, eating on a consistent basis, and maybe trying to take a walk everyday to get my body moving - all really small things - but it’s really hard to do when you feel like you have so much other stuff to be doing.

I feel like students talk about mental health in a very joking way, where a lot of students feel anxiety and depression, and because so many people feel so many of the same things it’s downplayed a lot. There aren’t that many people out there that talk about it in a real sense, like ‘This is a part of who I am. It’s not something that I’m ashamed of.’ I think that the more it’s normalized would maybe help people get more attention or help, but I don’t know. Like for ADD, CAPS doesn’t offer any services. It’s just part of their policy, because there’s so much abuse of “study drugs,” which are stuff that people actually need. It’s hard to have real life conversations about it when even the mental health professionals at our school stigmatize it as something that’s overdiagnosed and something that you probably don’t have. For me personally, it took way too long to realize that [ADD] is what I had, and then it took me way too long to feel confident enough to take steps and try to advocate for myself.

My advice - be open with yourself about how you’re feeling. Talk about it, because other people are probably going through the same things that you are, but talk about it in a way that’s healthy and productive. I feel like a lot of Northwestern students like to compare their stress to each other, and that’s such a toxic way of looking at things. It’s so personal for everyone, so just listening to yourself is the main thing.