Re: Considering asking for an ADHD accommodation at work

[Anonymous]

I totally relate. I taught school (1st grade) for 11 years (my second career;i1st year teacher at age 48!). It took me so much longer to do things than everyone else–they left by four and I got to school an hour before they did and left an hour or two after they did. I thought no one noticed, but when I retired, the fellow teacher who presented me with a gift, joked that they all knew it took me 3 hours to do what other people did in one. I was surprised, and somewhat chagrined, to find out they knew!

I was so ashamed, while I was working, of how long it took me to do everything, and how disorganized I was. Believe it or not, I didn’t even realize I HAD ADD until a couple years ago, long after I retired, but I DO believe it impaired me, and I think it’s time the medical profession back us up when/if we ask for accomodations. It’s just as impairing as lots of other conditions that people are given workplace accomodations for.

What would worry me is that by asking, it could hurt you professionally some way. I’m very suspicious of management in general, and I have the firm belief that no one is so perfect that their supervisor could not find SOME grounds on which to terminate them. If you belong to a union, and it is a good one, then you are safer. I’ll be interested to see what others do. I just sacrificed ALL my freetime for the 11 years I taught, and that was very stressful and unhealthy for me. There’s GOT to be a better way!!! Good luck, SugarGremlin!!

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