As somebody who has adhd, recently started getting medicated, became a programmer and turned my life around 180 degrees. Ill take the time to answer misconceptions about adhd.

ADHD is not primarily an attention disorder. Its primarily a motivational disorder. There are 3 types of ADHD recognized in American Psychiatry with a closely related disorder called SCT. ADHD-Hyperactive, ADHD-Inattentive, ADHD-Combined, Slow Cognitve Tempo.

To understand what causes these disorders, im going to have to summerize basic neurology fundamentals. The brain produces a chemical called dopamine that just about runs the entire show upstairs. When you accomplish a task, and you feel good about yourself; thats because dopamine will stimulate your brain with reward signals. When you look at the dishes and say "Im going to do that today." Its because you have dopamine to motivate you to get stuff done. Even sex and orgasms is directly related to dopamine release and stimulation.

The thing about dopamine is that it is stored inside a dopamine "bank" where dopamine is also generated by exercising, eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, ect. This healthy lifestyle allows for a healthy amount of dopamine to accumulate in the brain.

The way dopamine leaves these banks to do work in the brain is by these cells called neurotransmitters that are responsible for fitting into the molecule sized "keyhole like doorways" to basically grab and push dopamine out.

After alot of dopamine is released out to act as messengers between neurons via the synapses, some of it is collected up by norepinephrine transmitters to be carried away and converted into adrenaline. (Adrenaline is where the "hyperactive/impulsive" aspect of the disorder comes in btw.) And of course any excess dopamine/norepinephrine that isnt carried away by other transmitters to other parts of the body is recollected back into their banks for future use.

In a normal healthy human, this all works wonderfully.

However in all the ADHD disorders and SCT disorder somewhere in this system is one or more types of neurotransmitters acting... disorderly. Basically they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing. Sometimes it is a problem primarily in the dopamine neurotransmitter department with not enough being brought out or too much being carried away which causes too much norepinephrine to be produced.
Sometime its too little dopamine, and not enough norepinephrine (SCT). Sometimes its just the norepinpherine transmitter. This is the reason why different ADHD medications work on different ADHD patients. Adderall might cause too much dopamine out, where ritalin just stops to much dopamine from being carried to away. Sometimes straterra works which only affects the norepinephrine. Its a complicated disorder to say the least.

Which is why people say ADHD is commonly misdiagnosed. This is very true. Sometimes its depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder. Sometimes its just a kids bad diet and sleep habits, therefore they cant produce enough dopamine the natural way in the first place. (happy meal kids) ADHD doctors get a bad rep because they are giving kids speeds when in reality the parent is the disorder, not the childs brain. Its just highly complicated for a psychiatrist to know. Parents say fix my kid, and this is all the info they get to work with. Once a month, 15 minutes, "fix my kid", sign a pharmacy script that will be a hundred bucks. Happens like that all the time.

However what people dont realize, is that the reality of adhd is very very underdiagnosed also. More people live today, struggling everyday to make the best out of their lives, than there have ever been people misdiagnosed with ADHD period. People dont accept mental disorders exist, and that you need to get help for them.

The other problem with ADHD that people dont understand is that it is highly common to not only have ADHD but to have comorbid disorders like depression and anxiety either caused by the adhd, or completely unrelated to it requiring their own individual treatments.

Considering those disorders are linked to the same brain mechanics it is highly likely somebody who gets diagnosed with ADHD, thought they didnt have it when the perscriptions didnt fix all the problems despite the fact they do have adhd. They are likely to jump from anti anxiety medicine, over to Prozac, etc. The fact is this is a really hard to treat disorder because of the many different variations. Its complicated enough to justify the there are no two cases of ADHD that are the same. Its hard to diagnose something so broad and ETHICALLY treat it. For this reason, sometimes people seek help, hate the medications they get put on and try to fend for them selves again. I feel sorry for these people because their psychiatrists failed to help them. :(

Here is my personal story regarding ADHD. (btw calling it "ADD" was thrown out like 20 years ago. Let it go people.)

Im somebody who has/(d? who knows/cares) an IQ of ~145 growing up and dropped out of school. I can read perfectly fine. I also have and understand a sophisticated vocabulary. However I cant "read" without my medication.

I can not force myself to focus on what im supposed to think about. I can read a paragraph over and over again and not remember what I just read to the point that I just give up. I havent passed an english class since the 4th grade. I was the kid who was just "a lazy son of a bitch, fucking off all of his potential." growing up.

People didnt understand. I didnt understand, because no matter what I did, I could not motivate myself to do what I really wanted to do. People with adhd fail, because they dont have the ABILITY to succeed. "So try harder.", You dont understand. Its literally like asking a double amputee to try harder at running in a foot race. (okay... little tink tink is an exception. :P) Sometimes ADHD feels like a cage you are confined in that you constly feel unaware you are there in the first place. Sometimes the mind is like a hurricane where you think 90 mph when everyone else is driving in the slow lane. When we speak our mental thoughts have to be put on loop over and over when we want to say something fluent and slow, only to forget in the middle of the sentece what the entire conversation is about.

I always thought this was just normal for some people like me. I was never diagnosed as a kid because my intelligence allowed my parents and teachers to blame the school's material for my failures. "I was bored". Which is true, I was, but that didnt mean I didnt want to succeed I dropped out of highschool because I was tired of failing there. I thought perhaps the answer was out in the world, however things didnt get better. I could hold a job either. I was depressed for along time, not having an answer, until my brother said I acted like my Dad. That I had adhd.

At the time, I didnt want to think I had a "disorder". So I never looked at myself like that. Then I started reading about it adhd, watched dr russell barkleys talks (i saw somebody mentioned him. :) ), scheduled an appointment to see a psychiatrist and 2 years later i'm a software developer working on compilers and web servers. I study operating systems, graphic pipelines, use linux/unix (flex).
I finally feel, successful after getting help for the first time in a long time. In fact, out of most of the people I know right now. Im heading towards a much higher pay job then them. Im already working free lance and making twice what they make in college a month, every 2 weeks. Its alot of hardwork to make up, but Im driven to succeed because 19 years of failing was horrible.

Look, Im going to be straight forward. There is no "cure" to adhd. Some people grow out of it because the human brain doesnt stop growing until sometime in your 20s, however people with adult adhd are stuck with it forever. I will grow into an old man with this disorder. My dad is an old man with ADHD. People learn how to manage by self medication.

Hyper focusing is a form of self medication via stimulating meditation. We can still think just like everyone else. Its just we do alot more thinking. Different stimulating activities grab different people. Video games, music for me, racing dirt bikes, sports.

Its just that these activities are not voluntary, nor are they experiences I would compare to programming because alot of reading and focus to fine detail is involved; which are traits most effected by ADHD.

For example when Im not on my medication, I cant work. However when im on my medication I can read a text book in two weeks. Its a black and white difference. I cant say that you are not the exception. (little think think?), but medication would be the metal prosthetic legs in this adhd footrace regardless.

I hope everyone understands us better if you actually read this. And pardon me if its full of grammar errors. I tried my best to proof read. (which ends up in me adding to it and making it worse. Lol) I wrote this without being on my meds btw. Which is why I wrote an essay. :P