Longshot

This little book tells what my life was like as a child and youth. I was always in trouble, within my family and outside of it. I was impulsive and speedy, reckless and contrary, and I'm sure the adults dealing with me had no idea why. What is known now, but was not known then, was that I had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD would not be a recognized condition until the 1970s. What I believed about myself, when growing up in Calgary in the 1950s and 60s, was that I was a 'bad kid'. I believed that because that's how adults labelled kids like me.

The choices I've made seem like the only true way to convey the ADHD experience. Let the kid and the teenage Greg Axelson tell the story, as experienced. The result? Speedy talk. Impulsivity. Random, erratic activity. Then the reader rides along and hopefully gets a sense of what it all felt like.

I expect that my story will be very like those of other ADHD kids: that all of us probably had similar experiences. Although I couldn't really communicate at the time, I always felt isolated, lonely, anxious, and somehow defective (a no-no). I was often frustrated and angry, and also sad. Something seemed wrong about me, and I didn't know what!