ADHD- My Family History

I came by my interest in ADHD honestly. First, I married into a family with members who were ADHD. (This was before ADD or ADHD were official diagnoses) Later we had a child who was definitely ADHD. There was a giant lack of information or research about ADHD. I had friends who had post-doctoral training in pediatrics and they were unable to provide any diagnosis or helpful information on how to handle my young son who was having humongous temper tantrums and was clearly hyperactive. At this stage, I decided I was going to have to do the research and find out what was going on with my young man. I read numerous books and journal articles and attended conferences. I, not only became knowledgeable about what later became named ADHD, but I also found that I like the people in the ADHD world. It seemed to me that they were brighter than average, had more energy than most, had great senses of humor and were eager to learn (in their own way, of course). I also began to wonder about the incidence of ADHD in my own family of origin. So that’s how I came to spend 40+ years working with and studying ADHD.