Losing Yourself

During one of my moments of exasperation. Liliana said, “it’s okay I know it's frustrating but we work through it.” Liliana is an LMU alumnus, and similar to myself found out she had ADHD/ADD that same semester she graduated.

The real question here is: When do you realize your brain is fragile because you forget every or most details, you are hardly able to  bring your thoughts to fruition, and have problems organizing every minute (small) aspect of your life (these symptoms, of course; are only a couple and are not encompassing of all disorders or mental illness and vary from person to person). Does this sound familiar?

Well, it didn’t to me I just found out in January.

And lately, I’ve been reading more on the issue. Recently, I read a book called Unravelling ADHD: How I turned my greatest deficit into my greatest asset by Joyce Kubik. In this book, the author discusses her experiences and journey before and after finding out about her condition at the age of forty. Joyce addresses her ADHD with the correct support from a psychiatrist after she had been misdiagnosed for over twenty years.

Kubik, reflects on ADHD and how she grew to believe more in herself and not accept any limitations that others would try to impose on her. She states with strong conviction, “I grew to believe in myself. It was a great feeling to know, I could do anything. I put my mind to. It also felt good to be recognized for my work, instead of being told what was wrong with it. I was beginning to realize how debilitating life was when you couldn’t play to your strengths because everyone seemed to have a better way to do something” (Kubick 47). Kubik clearly offers insight as to why I find myself unable to maintain my levels of concentration which comforted me through the turning of pages that reconfirms some of the ways I have felt for a lifetime.

However, on school grounds mental health or other mental disorders are not advertised and targeted differently and in most cases not targeted at all to students of color which have lately shown a height in need for these services. As Huffington puts it,”many white counselors are often unprepared to deal with stress and anxiety stemming from issues related to a student’s race or ethnic background.” So as a result, many campuses are not aware of how prevalent this is among college students and how it especially affects students of color who often are misinformed or won’t have the medical resources to ask for help.  

The thing about Psychological services on campuses is that help is offered but is usually approached with hesitation. These services are usually susceptible to reaching communities of color on campus and vice versa. Students of color may too, be reluctant to visiting SPS or other forms of wellness/psychological services for several reasons. Some of these reasons include the medication aspect, as well as the stigma it comes with utilizing these resources that may prompt others to think differently of someone, or in larger respect afraid of what family or friends may think.

Overall, losing yourself is only good if you seek help and find a supportive circle of friends, mentors, family and why not a psychiatrist.