Max’s impulsivity and talkativeness can be a strain on his family, particularly in the evening when his medication is wearing off. “When’s he’s off Ritalin, Max is more reactive, provocative, even a little mean,” Farquhar says. “He’s not able to reflect on the impact of what he says.” Family dinners with his parents, Anna and his younger brother, Alec, 14, can be chaotic. “When I was 12 or 13, I began to hold back if there were arguments at the table,” says Anna. “I just knew it wouldn’t help to get involved. Max likes to have the last word.”
“I’m very immature,” Max acknowledges. He loves fart jokes and potty humor, things many of his peers have long outgrown. And he’s as physically restless as a 7-year-old. “He’s always running around,” Anna says with exasperation. “We’ll be walking around a city and he will climb on all the statues.”
His immaturity has a plus side, though: He’s great with kids. This summer, Max worked as a counselor and lifeguard at the day camp he had attended for 10 years. Anna was a counselor there, too. “The kids really liked him,” Anna says. And a neighbor, Peg Golden, often asks Max to watch her autistic daughter, Carly, also 17. “Carly adores Max,” says Golden. “Her behavior doesn’t faze him at all.”
Max attends a school for students with learning problems, the Corwin-Russell School, which is a 45-minute drive from his family’s home. “It’s a very alternative school. Everyone has their little quirks,” Max says. “It’s better for me to be in an environment like that — I don’t have to try to fit in.” Its Web site says the school is for “bright students with learning issues exacerbated by a variety of neurological, emotional, and social difficulties.…We serve best the very intelligent student who should be able to thrive in school, but does not.”
Now that Max is a junior, he’s thinking about college. He loves physics and science and would like to go to MIT. “I know I’d need to step up my game dramatically,” he says. Max has a remarkably strong memory and, when a subject interests him, he can stay absorbed in it for hours. “Max’s IQ is well above average,” Farquhar points out, but his work habits are not at college level yet.
Peg Golden also remarks on Max’s intelligence. “It’s obvious how bright he is,” she says. “Max has always been very verbal and communicative. He’s a real personable kid with great manners. I love him.”
Though Max is open about having ADHD, he can make light of the disorder and the obstacles he may face in the future. The psychologist Russell Barkley explains that Max’s attitude is characteristic of people with ADHD. “They tend to underreport the severity of their problems,” he says. “They don’t appreciate the areas in which they are less competent. This may be a form of ego protection, but it may also be because their self-awareness is quite restricted.”
Max feels as though he has made great strides. “It just takes willpower,” he says. At least some of that assessment may be right. Anna has noticed a difference in Max recently. “He seems to be more confident and less hyper,” she says. “He’s a really smart kid. I’m sure he will go to college, but perhaps not right away.”
While people generally do not outgrow ADHD, some of the symptoms, such as hyperactivity, may lessen over time. The frontal lobes don’t fully mature in people until their late twenties, Dr. Barkley points out. Once people hit 30, they begin to have a more realistic opinion of themselves.
Max is lucky: He was diagnosed early and his parents were proactive about trying medications and finding him a supportive school environment. Once he matures a bit more, Max’s innate intelligence and curiosity will most likely propel him toward a fulfilling future.
Source : Everyday Health.com
Source : Everyday Health.com
Medically reviewed by Kevin O. Hwang, MD, MPH
