The purpose of this photo essay is to show how ADD affects my daily life, not how it effects other people who have ADD. The intention is not to promote any answers or solutions on how to handle ADD, but instead I simply wish to raise awareness about ADD.

This photo essay may be shown in a gallery setting or as a slide presentation. The reason for showing it in a gallery space is so that the viewer experiences the sensations of what it is like to live with ADD. The first impression one should get when one first sees the presentation is one of being overwhelmed because there are so many pictures vying for one's attention, causing one not to know where to focus one's attention. As one's eyes begin to look closer at the individual pictures, one realizes that a story is being told. The text running along the bottom of the color pictures helps the viewer come to a better understanding of the pictures. One's attention should go back and forth between the small, color pictures and the bigger black and white pictures, and vice versa. The feeling of being focused and at times not focused is a symtom of ADD. Sure, everyone has this problem from time to time; but for a person with ADD, it can be debilitating.

This photo essay can also be shown as a slide presentation, thus allowing it to be seen in a lecture and / or class presentation. The idea behind this is so that it may be shown in school so that students, teachers, and parents may be made aware of ADD. It should only take a few minutes to show slides and answer any questions that one may have. If you are interested in me coming to your school to show this pictures, please e-mail at nicolaif@hotmail.com.

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I remember getting a C on my midterm Art History test, and it made me mad. Why? Because I know I could have done a better job. I did not have enough time to write on the test. When I spoke to the teacher, he acknowledged that I seemed to know the material content of the course. If I had had more time I could have performed better. I asked if I could have more time to take the final, but he hesitated. He said it seemed that I had a problem, a disability that I needed to acknowledge. He referred me to the disability services. At first I was horrified because I did not want to accept the fact that I had a disability. At the same time I wanted to do something about it. It was a moment of fear and enlightenment; I did not want to realize that I had a problem. And I was enlightened because I knew that the disability services was there to help people like me. Now something could be done about it. On my final I was given more time to take the test because I am a slow writer. I made an A on the test and a B in the course.