First and foremost, teenagers with ADD have an immense need to be heard. Until they feel that their point of view has been listened to and that the legitimacy of their feelings has been accepted, they will simply not move toward any examination of themselves. These young people have a deep sense of being misunderstood, deeper than they realize. Every criticism they hear, every blaming word—anything they interpret as at all judgmental—activates in them feelings of shame, which they try to defend themselves against with all their might.
