Re: ADHD Point of View….

[Anonymous]

BrownEyes, I know this doesn’t fully answer your question but it’s some good insight and perhaps it could give you some idea as to how your daughter feels about school, which plays a huge role in our development, so I thought it would be an appropriate are to discuss.

Get this, our society, which is an industrialized one, runs on credentialism and this has been establish by our formal education system. If you don’t learn to adhere to the one way things are done in this society you are automatically labeled as “different” “odd” “unusual” “eccentric” “off beat” or my favourite, just plain “wrong.” Which is weird cause these are the words that we usually use to describe creative and artsy people, the “category” most people with ADD fall into.

Schools also practice something called “tracking” or “streaming” In a tracking system, the entire school population is assigned to classes according to whether the students’ overall achievement is above average, normal, or below average. Students attend academic classes only with students whose overall academic achievement is the same as their own.

Among older students, tracking systems usually diverge in what students are taught. Students in academically advanced tracks study higher mathematics, more foreign languages, and literature. Students in less academic tracks acquire vocational skills such as welding or cosmetology, or business skills, such as typing or bookkeeping. STUDENTS ARE USUALLY NOT OFFERED THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE CLASSES DEEMED MORE APPROPRIATE FOR ANOTHER TRACK, EVEN IF THE STUDENT HAS DEMONSTRATED INTEREST AND ABILITY IN THE SUBJECT. This happened to me in high school. I wanted to take philosophy, a course in the University track, and my guidance counselor discouraged me, and I didn’t end up taking it.

Get where I’m going with this?

Even though I didn’t receive my diagnosis until I was 24 (I’m 26 now), I can definitely tell you that by the time I hit grade three I was definitely aware and informed by others that I was perceived as “different.”

When I was in Kindergarten I was labeled as “gifted.” This was due to the fact that I had exceptional reading and writing skills and not mention my printing was absolutely gorgeous (because I was so anal about it being neat.) Along with my reading and writing skills, my verbal proficiency was also advanced. I loved to read and I used to write stories and illustrate the scenes. And although this may sound odd, I had (and still do have) an intense interest in pregnancy, fetal development and the labour and delivery process. Even before I could read I would look at my moms pregnancy books. And yes, there were graphic images, but you know what, my parents were always good with answering my questions, and supported me in my pursuit of knowledge.

When grade three rolled around I despised the fact that I had to go to school. It was stiffing my “think outside the box” personality and suffocating my creativity! It also demanded that I conform to a specific way of learning that was not conducive to me. It turned learning into a chore. My grade three report cards had comments like “needs to apply herself more,” “lacks focus and is easily distracted and frustrated,” “displays poor control of emotions,” YA THINK!? I felt tortured in school. I was always in the office not for being in trouble but because I was “sick and wanted to go home.”

The biggest bully I faced growing up was the school system. It was so boring and not what I had imagined school would be like. It sucked my natural lust for learning right out of me. From grade three on, things just went down hill in terms of school. I managed to pass high school and obtain my diploma but I attribute that partly to the fact that I didn’t want to disappoint my parents. You see no one in my family has ever dropped out of school and everyone has pursued post secondary education of some sort. I guess you could say that even though it was never really stated, there was always an implied notion that I WOULD go to college or university (cause you know that’s the only way to be successful in life now a days *sarcasm*)

I’m in college now, about to finish my nursing diploma (which is another story all together). This post is quite long and to be honest with you I have actually been working on it for 3 and a half hours now… GO HYPER FOCUS! But that’s what happens when you have ADHD, once you’ve locked on to something that actually sustains your focus, you don’t want to stop. It’s a blessing and a curse. When we do manage to focus and remain on task, it’s intense. Just like everything else we do.

Your brain is so engaged and so deep in thought that if anyone should interrupt you or ask anything else of you at that time, look out! You’ll have a really peeved ADDer on your hands! Its like “This is what I’m doing now, I’m actually achieving something and not bounding around, my mind is at peace because it’s stimulated!” I know that doesn’t make sense, but it does. Our brains need to be stimulated in order to focus, unfortunately the problem with ADD is sometimes the external stimulus we receive is not enough and not conducive to our learning needs. It just can’t sustain our attention and we bore easily. Which is the problem with the school system.

Also our internal mechanism is not very efficient (although this can be altered through therapy and medication which is why they treat ADD with stimulants.)

Anyway I’m getting tired and I have to work tomorrow. I hope this helps a little!

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