Take your mental disorder seriously by Max

Take your mental disorder seriously by Max - September 2022 Scholarship Essay

“Take your mental disorder seriously.” I have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and up until college I never had a severe issue with it. I was diagnosed when I was younger and after that I didn’t think much of it. As a kid, I didn’t have the same responsibilities as I do now and at the time I lacked the foresight to know what was coming my way. Anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, insomnia, lack of hunger; these are all possible symptoms of ADD and it all hit me during a pandemic.

Due to the pandemic, schools were forced to go online and I wasn’t ready. The switch to learning completely online caused me to experience insurmountable problems with learning. I couldn’t focus on my lectures, homework became meaningless, and the lack of interaction made every class dull. The worse I did, the less motivated I became. I was overwhelmed with failure and guilt; I knew that it was my fault, but I had idea what to do. That school year was my darkest, I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue my education. I was horrified at how my parents would react and I had no clue what my future would look like. I struggled the entire semester and it was in that summer that I started trying to fix my situation.

Before the switch to online, I was eager to learn and loved how engaging each class was. I talked to my parents and advisors about what had happened in the previous semester. I knew I shouldn’t hide it from my parents and I wanted to ensure that in the next semester I would be prepared. This is where I learned the core pillars of what I had to do in order to overcome the problems my ADD had on learning. I had to create a work schedule based around my classes, start taking medication for my disorder, create a support system with my friends, and make sure that I wasn’t overwhelmed on a day to day basis. These were the beginning steps I had to take in order to prevent my ADD from greatly affecting my learning. I now knew the importance of taking my disorder seriously, I had seen the destruction it could cause if left unchecked. That was the biggest mistake of my life and I wanted to make sure it would never happen again.

When I was younger, I didn’t know that my mental disorder would affect me in such a devastating way. If I could go back and give myself advice, I would stress the absolute importance of taking steps early in order to keep my ADD in check. My education is priceless and creating an environment where I can learn without distraction is absolutely worth it.