The Forums › Forums › I Just Found Out! › My Story › Did anyone else actually do well in school? › Reply To: Did anyone else actually do well in school?
ABSOLUTELY!! I sailed through school. I was reading in Kindergarten and by 7th grade was reading on a college level. I don’t enjoy writing or math, but I can do them. It helped to have a non-ADHD, very intelligent older sister to compete with. Plus I’m insanely curious about almost every topic, and love to do research. My problems in school were purely social, and I was unpopular and bullied until college. I still panic about meeting new people. But academic/coping problems came later, starting with no idea of what I wanted to do with my life.
In hindsight, I should have majored in Art or History, and gone on to a master’s in library science or historic preservation. But I came from a small, working class town, and my dad informed us that he “would not pay for us to get useless majors like art or history.” Closest I could get was Merchandising, Apparel, and Textiles (this was pre-NAFTA). So I’ve been an admin assistant to an engineering firm for 20+ years. But, yeah, I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 43–every time I’d mention it to a doctor, they’d ask how I did in school. “Great!” “Well, you don’t have it.”
The situation became desperate (basic organizing is a BIG problem), and a psychology professor friend recommended a psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD. I had to go outside the insurance coverage to see him, but it was worth it. (One previous attempt to get a diagnosis from an insurance approved doctor failed. See “did great in school” point above.) His PA worked with me for 45 minutes, filling out forms, asking questions, taking several surveys/questionnaires. When she finished, she said the doctor would come in a few minutes and review everything with me, but “you are a classic case of adult ADHD in a female. I don’t know why no one caught this before now.” Sigh–I tried to tell ’em, I really did. And no one believed me. I’ve been called organized and dependable my whole life. In reality, that was me desperately maintaining control because I’ve always felt everything was completely on the verge of total chaos.
Okay, this post is a bit disjointed. I cut some stuff out as it was turning into my life story. But yeah, some of us do really well in school–it’s everything else that jumps up and bites.
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