Fidgeting. Tapping a pencil on a desk. Zero focus.

This is the reality for Andie Wilkerson (11) for as long as he can remember. Growing up with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has proven to be a challenge that has ceased to get easier through years.

“As a kid, my symptoms were easily hidden because I didn’t have a whole lot going on,” Wilkerson said. “It was not being able to sit in my chair. Then, needing a special chair and to go out in the hall and play with my fidget spinner.”

For many parents and kids, this is the reality. Parents believe their child is just hyper and can’t sit still—chalking up ADHD symptoms to be normal behaviors, especially in kids twice exceptional where their cognitive advancement dulls the obvious effects.

“It becomes really easy to mask symptoms, until something else comes along that kind of overloads your brain so that you can’t anymore,” Wilkerson said. “I started doing really badly in school the second semester of seventh grade.”

Following the Marshall Fire, Wilkerson’s ADHD symptoms became increasingly apparent. Things he had never noticed before became a problem, impacting not just his home life but also his school life.

“Eighth grade happened, and it was a real struggle for me to be in school, and every single class was just me barely making it,” Wilkerson said. “By the end of the year, my parents were like, ‘There’s something wrong.’”

Wilkerson continued to struggle, ending up at the University of Colorado’s psychology department. Test after test, and the results finally came in: inconclusive. No matter his symptoms, his anxiety and an adjustment disorder continued to mask his ADHD and made symptoms look like other neurodivergent conditions.

In a hotel room following his family’s displacement from the Marshall Fire, Wilkerson’s psychiatrist continued to brush his symptoms aside.
“We want you to try and solve your anxiety first,” he said.

Wilkerson broke down. He couldn’t accept their explanation.

“I know that’s not how I am. I know that’s not what’s going on.”

Pushing for an answer, CU’s psychology department agreed to test again. His second test wiped away all doubts and he was diagnosed with ADHD. Wilkerson and his family, eager to find treatment, decided to try the recommendations CU had given them.

“Once we got about three weeks into treatment, it was a very, very, very repetitive process. The biggest thing that I hate about school is how repetitive it is,” Wilkerson said. “I feel like I’m just doing the same thing every single day for the rest of my life. I feel like I’m stuck forever.”

Executive functioning seemed to be the last thing Wilkerson needed. The repetition they suggested making everything worse. So, he turned to a psychiatrist who suggested medication. Wilkerson agreed to try medication as a solution, not fearful of the stigma surrounding ADHD medication.

Aurele Hanotin (10), just as Wilkerson, found being medicated increasingly helpful, especially in school. Medication helped him find a new way of dealing with his constant symptoms and allowed him to find a new outlook on his ADHD.

“It’s rough, especially when you’re unmedicated,” Hanotin said. “You can have the best work habits and the best etiquettes in the world, and then just sit down, open your computer and just stare at the screen for like an hour.”

With medication, Hanotin and Wilkerson have not only realized the strengths that their ADHD diagnosis gives them, but also the power they can have with the right medication. For Wilkerson, finding that took a lot of time and work, but it eventually paid off more than could have guessed.

“I upped my dose, and then I sat there for two hours straight, no music, no nothing, just sitting there. And I did all my SD cards, and I was like, wow, I think this is the one.” Wilkerson said.

Finding the right medication changed the game for Wilkerson. This small task being done with full focus was an amazing improvement from something that would have taken days to complete.

For Hanotin, the switch on medication affects more than just his focus. Hanotin describes the feeling with fidget toys, Orbeez.

“Before I took my meds, ADHD felt like I had 50 million people with a bajillion Orbeez, and each Orbeez is like a different thought, and they all throw them at you”, Hanotin said. “So then you have a constant flow of 9000 different things you have to think about all the time.”

The feeling of being able to focus made Hanotin’s desire for medication so much more prominent. When he got his medication, it was so much more relaxing, opening a new world for him.

“It only let a couple Orbeez through at a time. There’s a lot of Orbeez coming through, let’s make that clear, but it’s significantly less,” Hanotin said. “That lets me actually grasp onto the working aspect.”

Medication changed the game for Hanotin and Wilkerson, making the school much easier. However, Dr. William Dobson, a MD board certified psychiatrist, says misunderstandings still exist when dealing with ADHD.

“What most people think that they know about ADHD at best is outdated, and usually it’s completely wrong,” Dr. Dobson said. “The biggest problem is there’s this notion, that people believe that it’s the treatment of ADHD that’s dangerous or harmful, not the condition itself.”

Despite the harsh upbringing that most people with ADHD grow up with in school, being told things like ‘ stop being the way you are’, Dr. Dobson works with people just like Hanotin and Wilkerson to make sure that the weaknesses of the diagnosis are not the only thing highlighted.

“If they’re interested in what they’re doing, if they’re curious, stand back. They don’t need any help. They can do anything”, Dr. Dobson said. “If you tell somebody with ADHD, ‘oh, you can’t do that,’ you know that whatever the task was, they’re going to master it before the end of the day.”

The lack of focus doesn’t come from being stupid or not caring—it comes from a lack of incentive, which makes it difficult for the ADHD brain to grasp onto things that aren’t interesting.

On the contrary, hyperfocusing—a state of prolonged and intense concentration—is one of the biggest strengths Dr. Dobson has found amongst ADHD brains, allowing them to fixate on one subject and complete anything with full focus.

“People with ADHD live very intense, passionate lives. If they don’t care about something, it’s just not there,” Dobson said. “So most people with ADHD go through life on a scale of one to ten.”

Dealing with ADHD is nothing less than inspirational. No matter how draining school can be for students with ADHD, medication and massive amounts of advocacy can help students succeed and break misconceptions surrounding the disorder.

For Wilkerson and Hanotin, the challenges they have overcome dealing with ADHD in school has helped them become who they are now. Putting up with difficult environments and teachers that don’t understand will always be a problem, yet advocates such as Dr. Dobson, Wilkerson, and Hanotin are the difference that it will take to change the way ADHD is perceived.

“ADHD, even though it’s difficult most of the time, it has helped me achieve great things throughout my career,” Hanotin said. “It made me who I am.”