"The doctors say it's a genetic thing but it feels more like an abnormality."

Leslie Ann, age 16. Chicago.

"I wake up. After getting dressed, I remind my self take your meds. Without them I know I'll struggle to focus and keep my emotions straight. In the class, talking, but all I hear are words rumbling through my mind, moving too fast for me to comprehend. I can't understand what's going on. I can't sit straight, without movement. I need to move, walk around or I'll break lose, out of control. The doctors say it's a genetic thing but it feels more like an abnormality and that no one understands the struggle I go through, a curse. Having ADD, and Bipolar disorder. Depression hits me with everyday topics, divorce, broken families, things that I have had to face everyday. When does it get easier? Why is this happening to me? How come I can't function like other people? What's wrong with me? Why am I cursed with this disability? These are the questions I used to ask myself before everything became clear.

It's not a curse or an abnormality. You are just as equal as anybody else is, I just function differently. I am who I am and nobody can say or do anything that will make me think different about myself."