I am a college student. All my life I have had difficulty with listening to other people and following directions. I have been argumentative since elementary school and have had difficulty dealing with authority. I have also have intense mood swings. However, my grades have always been good. Since I entered high school, my mood swings have intensified and I have experienced a lot of depression. The depression seems pointless to me, I feel like I have nothing to be depressed about, yet still I am depressed. I have always thought of myself as very high strung, but now I'm wondering if its something more. My mom was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. When I was in high school, she told me that I was a lot like her in that I couldn't focus when people spoke to me or follow directions. She told me that she suspected I had some form of ADD. However, she also told me that that was why she yelled at me so much when I didn't pay attention, because she didn't want me to turn out like her. My mom is the type of person to suppress something because she doesn't want to accept it. I know she doesn't want me to turn out like her, so she is refusing to accept that I might have the condition she has struggled so much with. But I am done with living like this. I am sick of being depressed and irritable, sick of being outrageously happy one second and miserable the next. Do I have ADHD? If so, I'm ready to get help, because I don't want to live like this forever. But I'm not sure how to go about asking for it. I'm afraid to talk to my mom, because how would I even approach a subject like that? I don't want her to think I'm trying to make up problems for myself. I just don't want to suffer from such mood swings any longer.

If you are in college, there are counselors available to you. Make an appointment with one of them and begin working on yourself.

And since you are an adult, you may seek out your own medical professional for evaluation