LOS ANGELES (September 22, 2006) — Ty Pennington?s unbelievable energy is one of the main reasons people can?t wait for ?Extreme Makeover:Home Edition? to return on Sunday night.
But Access Hollywood?s Tim Vincent found out that all that spirit wasn?t always appreciated, and in fact, Ty told Tim, ?As a kid, I was out of control.?
And he?s not kidding. Ty admits to being a mess academically and extremely disruptive.
On one instance, his mother was called into school. When she arrived, Ty confesses, ?She looks into the classroom, I’m stripped naked, I?m climbing the blinds, going out the windows, I?m running up and down the aisles screaming.?
As a result of this kind of behavior, Ty was forced to change schools 7 times. The troubles continued until Pennington was 17, when he was finally diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD.
Doctors first tried to fix the problem by sedating Ty with antihistamines. Then, after starting the ADHD medication called Adderall in college, his studies, focus, and soccer game improved.
“I didn’t care so much about the grades, I just knew I was frustrated and then when I went to see the doctor, I wasn’t stoked about being told I had a mental disorder and needed medication. As a teenager, you don’t want to hear that,” Ty explained. “But once I started, the first thing I noticed was that I started reading the soccer game and noticed where players were and saw it in a different way. Suddenly, I’m where I need to be and you start scoring goals and it all comes together. It’s just because the lens that was dirty and unfocused finally got focused.”
Now, more than 20 years later, Ty is still on his medication and is a spokesman for ADHD experts Oncall Plus.
More importantly, Ty says his mother still can?t believe the change in her son. ?I think she is amazed that i have turned out the way I have.?
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