Imagine this common classroom scene. As a teacher begins to explain a new concept with the use of a Powerpoint presentation, students take notes and ask questions. Fifteen minutes pass. Although many students are still engaged, one student’s mind begins to wander.

For junior Grace Mulligan, who was diagnosed with an attention deficit disorder in third grade, this learning experience is not uncommon.

“It’s hard for me to concentrate and stay concentrated for a long time,” she said. “I get really distracted easily.”

Yet Mulligan is not alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), over five million children ages four to 17 have been diagnosed with a type of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United States, as of 2007. In addition, the CDC has identified three types of ADHD: predominantly inattentive, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive and a combination of the two.

Mulligan said she would fall into the first category. According to school nurse Carol Gelatt, teenagers diagnosed with attention deficit disorders face greater numbers of challenges than children with the same diagnosis.

“During that period of your life, you’re balancing a lot of things. (It’s) not only school and friendships socially, but also sometimes a work schedule,” Gelatt said.

“You’re just busier—thinking about college. (There are) lots of things to think about and prepare for.”

Mulligan echoed this viewpoint. She said, “There’s so much going on and so much to think about.”

Many of an adolescent’s problems may stem from his or her high school environment. Mulligan said she feels that the large size of this school could cause adolescent ADHD patients to have a harder time coping, but Gelatt has a different opinion.

“I don’t know if (ADHD) play any differently here than they do anywhere else for any other student,” Gelatt said.

With the alternative learning options CHS offers, she also added that this school strives to satisfy the necessities of all of its students.

She said, “We’re a great academic institution, so hopefully we’re meeting the needs of (ADHD) students thoroughly and adequately.”

Despite difficulties during her adolescence, Mulligan said she chooses to abstain from taking medication as treatment.

“I’ve probably taken about nine different medications,” she said. “The medicine always made me kind of down and not very talkative, and not really myself. I wouldn’t eat, I wouldn’t really sleep and I lost a lot of weight. And it wasn’t really healthy for me.”

According to Gelatt, treatment for patients varies from case to case.

“(Treatment) could be providing study time, time management and getting their work accomplished in a time frame which meets the expectations for the classroom,” she said.  “Sometimes the 90-minute class sessions may be difficult, and that is something (ADHD patients) would need to talk to their health care provider about.”

Mulligan said she frequently loses focus in the classroom. “(It is) probably at most, 15 minutes, before I lose focus,” she said. “But once I realize I’m not focusing and (that) I’m just kind of doing something else, I’ll try to get back on track. That’s usually how it goes (in) every class.”

In an August 2010 study, Michigan State University researchers found that nearly one million children have been misdiagnosed with attention deficit disorders. Mulligan said she is not surprised by the results of this study.

“I have heard a lot of people say that they have ADHD, and I feel like it definitely could be overdiagnosed,” she said.
For Mulligan, however, she also added that she has never thought her personal ADHD diagnosis was a mistake.

According to Gelatt, a great risk of being misdiagnosed with ADHD at an early age is taking unnecessary medication that may inadvertently result in severe long-term effects. Yet for children with a correct diagnosis, the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry has reported that that by adolescence, almost 50 percent of all children diagnosed with ADHD no longer have symptoms.

In line with this statistic, Mulligan said she has seen optimistic improvement since her initial diagnosis.

“I definitely still experience symptoms,” Mulligan said, “But I feel so sure that they’re getting less and less, like I’m overcoming it.”