NOT SURE WHAT TO DO AS AN ADULT WITH ADD AND GOING BACK TO SCHOOL. PLEASE HELP!

[Anonymous]

Hello All! I am new to this forum. I actually found it by accident but glad I did! I am going to be 30 in August. I have been diagnosed with ADHD since I was 7. I have been on medication since then but stopped taking it after high school. I have tried various meds for this and without it I feel like I can’t function Recently I went back on Dexidrine. It worked for a while and I have built a tolerance. Is there something better for adults? I live in NJ and can not find any kind of assistance for this unfortunately. I do not have health insurance or any prescriiption coverage and I am unemployed. So I really can not keep going to a doctor and trying different meds because I can not afford it Anyone know of a natural alternative? I found Synaptol..but unsure if it is worth trying. I did try Straterra a few years ago and it was like taking a sugar pill. Any suggestions?

I am going to be starting school for LPN in August. It has been a dream of mine to become a nurse for such a long time. I am very nervous about this since I know I have to focus on the classes and homework and studying. I know that I can do it all, but without the medication, it will be very hard for me. The school I chose is the best school in NJ as far as technical schools go. They offer an LPN to RN bridge program which is very competetive. I did go to a tech school for my medical assisting and did great. Hands on is very important to me in my learning process. I am also a visual learner so this kind of schooling is perfect for me. I have tried college many times and had such a hard time with it. The course load was very difficult for me to keep up with up. Time managment has always been rough for me too. I become so distracted and very easily.

I am so excited to start school! I tried to take the entrence exam on my own and study. It worked out alright, but I need a higher score in math. I finally was able to get help from the unemployment office. They got a free tutor for me and I start today. I know with this help, I will definiatly pass the test. As soon as I get accepted I will feel so much better!! I know that I will do great in school too. Just looking for any suggestions for time managment, studying,ect…from anyone who has gone back to school as an adult. I am a little rusty.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can give me some advice!!

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[Curlymoe115]

The first thing I have to say is congratulations. The second is find a peer study group and fast. There will be a few older students in the classes so try to connect with them to help with learning the material. They will also keep you on track for scheduling because you will have people giving you cues about upcoming assignments and tasks. The third thing is to go to the Academic Counselling office and see about getting a peer tutor to help you out with things that you are weak on. These are usually offered free of charge and they can also help you with test taking skills and other things. Go early in the semester before things start spiraling out of control. Also as part of your student financing invest in a cheap tape recorder so that you can record lectures. That way when you are reviewing notes that don’t make sense you can find the lecture on your recorder and review what the instructor said. If after that you are still unclear make a note on a sticky and put it on the outside of your notebook to ask at the next class. More likely if you are struggling with something a number of the other students are as well, or it just acts as a review of material they already know. There are no dumb questions just dumb students who didn’t ask questions. You are paying for the instructors time, take advantage of this.

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[Anonymous]

If this makes you feel any better, I’m in probably about the same boat as you. (Looking forward to doing new things in my career next year and trying to sign up for a university couse. I’ve just managed to ‘kill’ the afternoon searching for a course that still had an opening or wasn’t already closed for registrations.

Just last night before I went to bed I came on this site and read Dr. J’s blog posting about our ‘types’ being such procrastinators about buying tickets for shows and other events. I declared to myself that I NEVER do that!!

Do what do I find myself doing today? Trying desperately to find a summer university course that still has a space available… 😳

What can I say? I guess he has some of us pegged for what we are- procrastinators.

So what drove me to suddenly get the bug in my head that I had to sign up at this late date? Oh,….that would be working alongside two much younger and ORGANIZED colleagues who have managed to teach full-time, write and turn in report cards on-time AND take extra course through all the report card writing.

They have been encouraging me to take some courses with them but I just couldn’t see how I could manage teaching full-time and going to school as well. They have seen glimpses of my brain at work but they’ve continued to keep at me to join them.

Normally, it takes the entire summer for me to catch my breath after the school year! I’m just a tad obsessive-compulsive about things being done ‘just so’ that I knew there was no way I could manage EVERYTHING at once and still come out on top.

The thing that tipped the scale today? I had to go into Toronto to see my doc for a 7:00am appointment. Not an easy task for me. I’m a night owl who hates to go to bed even when she has to be at work the next day (been that way since birth- nearly drove my mom crazy ’cause she also had my twin to contend with, who fortunately, didn’t get my brain).

I work only a 15 minute drive away from my home and it’s a battle for me to get there each day in time for the 8:00 am bell. And today I needed to be smack dab in the middle of downtown TO??? Yeah, I begged my DH to drive me in. A one hour mad dash drive down the freeway had me there 5 minutes late.

Why was I late? I had the same problem I always have when I get there. I can never find the entrance to his building!!! Same thing every time. You would think I would learn from my errant ways but no, I do the same thing every time. Walk back and forth past the entrance NEVER seeing it. The local street life watch me go back and forth along the same block and I’m sure they’re wondering what I’m doing.

I almost begin to panic every time since I certainly never think to bring the address, do I? That would be ‘thinking’ and ‘planning ahead’. So when I finally ‘discover’ the doorway to his building (think skyscrapers all squished together on a downtown city block) and make it up to his floor, he has that knowing look that tells me he KNOWS that I’ve done it once again. 😳

“Ahh, I think we should be looking at increasing your dose.” Bah! I put that suggestion off at my last visit but today I took his advice. So I’ve been bumped up to 90 mg of Concerta and voila! Now I’m actually WANTING to sign up for a course. (Well there is a bit of an ulterior motive….partly so I can prove to the pdoc that I’m not the dunderhead I appeared to be this morning and every other time I’ve arrived in his office). 😆

It’s just that he had that look in his eyes as we talked and I could just read his thoughts. Way back in the time before dinosaurs, I went out with two guys who were a couple of years ahead of me in school- no, not at the same time!!! Anyway, by this time they were well into med school. They both ‘thought’ we were dating but as far as I was concerned, we were just friends.

Both really nice guys but not for me. Anyway, the death knell for both of them guys was that same ‘look’ I got from the doctor today. One even had the nerve to say that if you just watched me I appeared to be a total ditz but in actuality I was actually very intelligent. It just wasn’t apparent unless you got to know me.

Yes, I do go in circles sometimes, okay maybe a lot. But I won’t have that ‘look’ from guys anymore (doctor or otherwise).

The doc refused to back down from my rebuttals that getting lost each time was normal and just kept quietly countering with “you know, that’s a very ADHD behaviour……you know, those behaviours are very ADHD. Getting lost on the same block every time you come is very ADHD…. You keep repeating the same behaviours that were problematic the last time… you don’t bring the address!”

I guess it was that semi-amused look he had while I argued with him. Oh, that and the fact that I realized that my adamant arguing with him that EVERYONE else also gets lost over and over like me was starting to sound very ADHD even to my ears…. I knew then I needed to shut up and sit down and perhaps just….do some listening. *sigh* Oh well, at least it was friendly arguing. The poor guy. Can you imagine he deals with people like me all day long and he was able to do it with a smile???

Soooo, I’m partially signed up for the next level of my Special Ed course. Being ADHD, somehow or other I’ve managed to thwart the university’s on-line registration system and now have to wait for an administrator to contact me. All I did was push the ‘submit’ button.

Do you think that red lights started flashing and warning bells ringing down at the registrars office? WARNING! WARNING! ADHD ALERT!! ADHD ALERT!! Shut down system!

You and I will do just fine with our course/courses! Let the games begin!

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[Curlymoe115]

So next time just keep the address in the glove compartments of both cars. So you are going to register to take summer course work because you feel goaded by your doctor. What happens if no matter how much medication you take you still can’t find the entrance to the doctors building. We all have blindspots. If you are going to take extra course work on make sure that you don’t overwhelm yourself. And they won’t know that you are ADHD unless you do something ADHDish.

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[g.laiya]

i also was a somewhat non-traditional student by the time i got to grad school, entering at idk 27?28?. i started off at a really good uni – some think of as “ivy league”….undergrad but left 3 years later. i kicked myself out sort of…was depressed and frustrated with how/what i was doing, couldn’t motivate myself to stick with any classes unless i was very interested, etc…so returned home and then went to various city colleges from tim e to time, worked various jobs….finally found something i could grab onto as a positive school/career move. did what i needed to do to get in, and started and actually completed the grad school – yeah!!!!

yes, some of it was very difficult due to my issues. my performance in grad school was, not surprisingly, very inconsistant. if i didn’t like the subject or teacher i would barely get through – even had to repeat 2 courses which caused me to graduate late. on the other hand, in the single most feared course with the most feared teacher in the whole program i got an “a” in the class, and one of the exams he had to assign my score at “110%” on a curve because i had done so much better than most of the students and otherwise too many would have failed.(a lot of my classmates were actually mad at me then – especially the one who i had copied his class notes to study from because they were so neat and organized and thorough….but he didn’t do well on the test)…which reminds me –

check to see if you have one or more classmates who take exceptional notes – sometimes people will sell notes from previous classes too – well worth it! it gives you a chance to “fill in the gaps” from your own notes, and also sometimes get a different perspective on material. and any repetition of good info is helpful, i find, anyway – helps it to “stick”.

also your school likely will have a health center, and may offer special reduced rates for students for insurance and/or care. if possible, get back on a good med.

had i known then what i know now, i would have persued dx and tx way back, and think ….well, you know….how life and my experience of it could have been very different….

i just realized that a few of the posts i’ve been responding to are quite old, but i’ll post anyway – probably others in the same boat

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