ADHD-Europe

ADHD-Europe
Contribution to the EC Green Paper on improving the Mental Health of the population
MAY 2006

Rachel, age 12, speaks for herself:
She has always voiced her own opinions and concerns surrounding her disablility and how the world and the
people she meets within it perceive her. She has struggled to gain acceptance and understanding and is always
keen to talk about her problems and these are the thoughts she has expressed to her parents:

• Why am I different?
• Why do I have this disability?
• Why do people talk about me and not to me?
• I don´t understand lots of things at school but feel unable to express this
• I can´t cope with how I feel sometimes and get very angry and stressed
• Why do I never get invited to meetings?
• I am not a mental case
• I am Rachel and I have needs and wants
• School wants to give me a detention because I forget my shoes or forget to do my homework
• I feel picked on and I feel I am made to feel like a troublemaker and lazy because of ADHD
• My sister calls me a troublemaker and headcase
• I am normal in every sense of the word, just my brain gets mixed up now and then ...

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