Table 2 Quotations from interview participants

Everyday activities

Morning

• I just waste a lot of time in the morning

• He goofs around a lot in the morning

• Mom always has to be pushing me telling me like hurry up, hurry up

• I have to remind her to do her hygiene

• She has left the house without brushing teeth

• I would probably forget to like get dressed in the morning if it weren’t for my mother

School work in the classroom

• If I wasn’t paying attention in one class I would have a much harder time taking the test on the material than other students would

• The thing is that she’s distracted…

• She will just stare at the window, stare at the wall

• He’s not on the reading level, and the math level that he’s supposed to be on

• When they do stuff in class I’m usually pretty slow, slower than other people

School work - homework

• I regret not being able to like focus….

• It’s always been difficult for her to sit down, do homework, and remember to turn it in

• Because then I’ll get side-tracked and I’ll do something else and then I’ll run out of time, then I’ll have to do it in the morning

School behaviour – in the class room or during breaks

• I sort of just yell it out…

• She’s gotten into trouble with teachers by not-not keeping her mouth quiet or being respectful when she needs to be

• I don’t remember ever getting up or why I got up

• I can’t like sit in one spot and just kind of like sit here like this all, like for 90 min and just go like this

Difficulty with leisure activities

• I’ll start playing something other than a (musical) piece I’m supposed to be playing

• With the focus, might get him a little distracted during a (sports) game when he needs to be paying attention

Difficulty with chores and other task at home in the evenings

• Loading the dishwasher no one really likes, but it takes me apparently the longest amount of time

• He’ll say he’s going to do something like take the recyclables out back or whatever and-, you know, 2 h later or 3 h later he hasn’t

Social interactions

Difficulty interacting with family

• Usually I just go in my room and lock myself in, and just play video games and not talk to anyone

• This morning we had a big fight because as usual she’s thinking two minutes before she has to walk out the door about something she has had to do for the last couple months

• Yelling at my sisters sometimes, being mean to my sisters-because like when I’m really stressing I’m a little edgy and I kind of snap really easily

• He doesn't know how to stop. It's like, if I yell, just stop, everybody will stop, but him

Difficulty interacting with friends

• I’ll talk really fast and I won’t focus on anything-they’re talking to me, I kind of just like zone out a lot

• She also alienated herself from the rest of the class because she fell behind

Difficulty interacting with teachers

• I’ll joke around in a teacher’s class…

• She’s been in trouble at school, uh, because, uh-you may want to talk to her about how she-with teachers and controlling her speech

• I would start yelling at her and I got in a lot of trouble for that

Emotional response to difficulty with ADHD

General stress

• When I have a lot of stuff after school I’ll usually be more just tensed up and just more irritated-irritable

• She’s admitted that she’s feeling more stressed, just as other things loom in her life

• I usually get like a headache or whatever because of the stress

Stress related to interactions with peers, family, or authority

• Usually I’m kind of like nervous, kind of embarrassed, too, if I’m like in a large group of people at a presentation or something

• I think he’s so paralyzed by anxiety for-in social situations….

• I get really nervous, I think, and I worry a lot and that’s how I get distracted

Stress related to school work and homework

• Uh, it’s just like trying to not fail. Like I really, I really hate failing, and I just hate the feeling

• She just-so she was under a lot of pressure internally obviously to get this done and just completely fell apart and, you know, was in tears and everything like that.

• I was more worried about, oh, you know, I have to do this, I have to do this homework, I have to turn this packet in and everything, everything, everything

• At night if there’s too much of it she’ll have complete anxiety attacks and mental breakdowns occasionally if the pressure is just too much