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culture
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society
entertainment
Monday, March 27, 2000
health
6A
Her mother wanted to have her tested for ADD when Dopf was five but decided the hyperactivity was just a phase.
During tests, Adrienne Dopf used to get distracted by the folding chairs in Budig Hall.
She read about Attention Deficit Disorder in her psychology class and recognized the symptoms as her own. Last winter, a physician diagnosed ADD in Dopn, Lenexa senior. She now takes Dexedrine to help her concentrate.
FINDING FOCUS
Her grade point average has increased more than a point
Elementary school was OK, she said, but high school was frustrating. Dopf was putting in the hours but not seeing the results.
"Things come easier that used to be really hard." she said.
story by john audelhelm illustration by kyle ramsey
College is tough for students with ADD who have not been diagnosed or treated
High school was it then, she said. Although Dpf graduated high school with a 3.3 GPA, she said she could have done better had she been diagnosed sooner.
Counselors at the University of Kansas say college students with ADD are a special breed. They have made it to college despite handicaps that most people do not understand and some do not believe. But once in college, a time when even successful students must put in long hours of concentration, students with ADD find they cannot keep up.
When these students seek out help and undergo a lengthy diagnostic procedure, they get medication and other assistance.
The results are often amazing.
"Some people will tell you it's like night and day," said Pam Bott, associate director of Counseling and Psychological Services. "Some people say, 'This changed my life.'"
"High school was hell." she said.
Myra Strother, a physician at Watkins Memorial Health Center, sees most of the students who come to Watkins for ADD counseling and treatment. She said she had become something of an ADD expert out of interest and enjoyed working with self-presenting students who wanted to better themselves.
Meghan Bainum, Topeka senior,takes Ritalin,the more commonly known medicine to treat ADD.
She said she had seen students who were on academic probation before treatment for ADD and got almost straight A's after.
"It's like my brain has no filter in it," Bainum said. "It's hard to describe."
ADD symptoms
She said one student said he had not read a book in his life. After he began taking medicine, he went to Borders Books Music & Cafe, 700 New Hampshire St, and bought 16 books
Strother also enjoys watching the results of treatment.
It was like a kid in a candy store, she said.
Strother said ADD had three main symptoms: inattention, impulsiveness and distractibility. Hyperactive boys and girls get diagnosed in elementary schools. The merely inattentive students are no noticed.
Many ADD children coast through high school without paying attention, Strother said. The smart ones get to college, and at that point many begin to have problems.
Bainum said she was a hyperactive child who always wanted to entertain people. A teacher once had to feed her mints to keep her quiet during a school play.
Bainum said she couldn't play the piano for more than 15 minutes at a time or sit through a movie. She could read a book, but couldn't write an outline of it to save her life.
She said normal people break down tasks into steps, and she instead looks at the whole. When her mother would tell her to clean her room, Bainum said, she couldn't do it unless she was given specific instructions such as, "Put your stuffed animals on the bed."
KU solutions
Dopf said she had taken advantage of these opportunities. Instead of taking tests in Budig's distracting lecture halls, she now takes them alone in a quiet room and gets extra test time.
The University of Kansas provides services for students with ADD to help compensate for their disadvantages.
Dopf said her testing
Lorna Zimmer, director of Services for Students with Disabilities, said her office tried to provide students with ADD an equal opportunity to succeed in college.
situation was not unfair. There are rules about backpacks and notebook in the testing room, she said, and a proctor checks on her frequently.
Zimmer said services were tailored to fit the individual.
"ADD is like any other disability or medical condition or personal characteristic." she said.
"To do that we have to know which barriers apply in this case," Zimmer said. "We're not offering them more. We're offering them an equal chance to remove these barriers." Her services include having
It varies from person to person, so services are given on a case-by-case basis.
Other services include having tape-recorded lectures, teachers reading tests to
students and rephrasing test ques
tions and volunteer hone-takers. Zimmer said she did not agree with the idea that only the smart students with ADD get to college. She said she saw a wide range of students.
And not all students who say they have trouble concentrating are diagnosed with ADD.
Cathy Thrasher, chief pharmacist at Watkins, said the drugs used to
dead ADDE such as KRUTH, BACKED, IN
Anderel, were not prescribed
lightly.
"They are considered addictive drugs," she said.
Bainum said it was tough to obtain Ritalin from Watkins.
"They control Ritalin like it's gold," she said.
Ritalin has to be prescribed each time. Doctors cannot give refills. It is classified as a C-2 drug, she said, which means it has the highest possibility of addiction. A C-1 drug, such as heroin, has no medicinal purpose, and a C-5 drug, the lowest rating, would be cough syrup with codeine.
Strother said that although Ritalin was addictive to normal people, it was not to the true ADD person.
"It's a confusing diagnosis," she said, "and that's one of the problems with it is it looks like a lot of different things."
Botts said the ADD diagnosis attempted to filter out other possible reasons for the symptoms, such as depression, anxiety or stress.
She said counselors at the University tried to help ADD students appreciate their strengths.
They usually think they're stupid, she said.
Strother said she also tried to emphasize ADD students' strong points. She said they could deal with many projects at once, had high energy and good people skills.