ADHD jobs. is there anything out there?

[liamfriar199]

Little background check, i’m a 16 year old male, from the UK, i got kicked out of school half way through year 10 and have 0 qualifications.

Basically, is there any jobs out there for people like us? Personally, i don’t enjoy anything other than the likes of skydiving, motocross, paintballing, skiing, and i was going to add bungee jumping on to there but they have started to get kind of boring now. The chances of finding a job in any of the above are lets face it, pretty slim, and unless you get a sponsorship then your hopes and dreams can go away.

I am not interested in anything else, i think i’m one of the few people where literally everything is boring except the things that fill your body full of that lovely stuff we call adrenaline. I can’t sit and watch tv, play games, drawing, working on my motorbike, writing, normal sports such as football baseball ect, they just bore me, i physically and mentally can’t cope doing them because it feels like it’s slowly killing me. So what i want to know is, those of you who are like me what are your day to day jobs? And what would you recommend for me?

Please help me!

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[shutterbug55]

I am usually not too quick on the uptake, so I can’t tell if you are serious or not. Please don’t be upset.

Have you been diagnosed with ADD? Taking  meds? Seeing a counselor? The reason I ask, is you sound like you are self-medicating. Adrenalin wakes up our brains, and where NT’s freak out, we are cool and calm and awake. That feeling we look for is why a lot of people with ADD are drawn to “exciting” jobs.

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[liamfriar199]

I checked out the symptoms, matched what i had and it turns out add, no i haven’t been to the doctors to get tested, my old high school head master had someone in once a week to talk to me about problems i had in school and recommended i go to the doctor, this was a few months before i got kicked out, but i could never convince my parents to do so.

Maybe i have some other problem other than ADD that makes me not physically or mentally cope with normal activities such as sitting still, watch tv ect, i only came here for advice so i apoligise in advance if i’m wrong

 

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[Patte Rosebank]

@Liamfriar199, if you’re in the UK, I’ve heard there are special schools there exclusively for people who’ve been kicked out of the regular school system for not being able to function in the standard structure.

The special schools start later in the morning, and classes are more loosely structured and shorter, to accommodate the different learning styles of the “special” students.

One of the other people on these forums talked about how much better they’re doing in one of the special schools.

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

I had a friend who loved skiing. She did okay in school. But she loved skiing.

Did I mention she loved skiing?

After school guess what she did?  She taught skiing at a local ski school.

All through senior high.  And as she learned about skiing and saw how the Ski School was run. She noticed what worked and what didn’t.  She worked at another ski school for a while.  Then she opened her own ski school. Then another. Later, frustrated by the quality of ski wear she started a store that sold winter wear. And summer wear in the summer. Eventually she had a chain of 20 outdoor clothing stores.

I’m not suggesting you aim to start a huge chain of stores.  I am suggesting you figure out what it is you’d do if you were wealthy and didn’t have to work. Then figure out how to turn that into a career.

I know a Flight Attendant who LOVES to travel.  She told me, “This summer I’m basically getting paid to see Europe.  She works hard.  She works odd hours.  But she loves it.

I was making comedy films on 8mm film when I was 16. Then I went to university so I could get a real job. Studied physics. Ended up doing comedy films on TV for a living.

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[liamfriar199]

My normal school sent me to a different school once a week before i got kicked out, sounds kind of like what your talking about,it helped me out a bit because it was all about social skills and things like that, alot more hands on and doing different things.

 

I have thought about that rick, if i was wealthy i would go around the world doing extreme sports in all the coolest places i could, as i said first the only way to really make a living from that is to get a sponsorship which is very slim chances of chances of happening

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[Scattybird]

Hi liamfriar199 – when I was your age I felt the same way. I wanted to do so many things and couldn’t because I either didn’t have the money or the opportunity. Life was frustrating.  But I decided the way to gain control and to have the money to do what I wanted was to stick at school and get a job that gave me independence. School did not suit me but it was a necessary evil and I had to repeat a couple of years.

I guess where we are different is if I had a passion I could stick at the peripheral things that had to be done around that passion. So for instance you love motocross but you find maintaining your bike dull. That’s not a criticism, just an observation.

Have you thought about asking to shadow or do voluntary work at centres that do adrenalin junkie sports? OK you wouldn’t get paid but you’d be gaining the work experience and a perk would be to be able to take part in what they do and that would be free. There are lots of places around the UK ranging from go-ape parks to white water canoe places to karting to skydiving to paragliding …etc. who knows what that could lead to.  I know someone who did just that and they gave her a paid job after a while. She gave it up to train as a paramedic in the end – I guess that job was varied, exciting and she felt she could help folk.

The one thing I have discovered is that eventually everything can seem normal when you have done it often enough unless it’s something that has skill and depends on something being different each time to test that skill, like wind conditions, terrain changes etc.  but all these activities need the grunt work of maintaining the kit, hanging around for the right conditions etc.

If you think you have ADHD then I suggest you get a proper diagnosis now and discuss treatment. The reason I say that is that you will get treatment at your age. As soon as you turn 18 the NHS will not treat you unless you have been diagnosed as a youngster. They seem to think that when you are 18 it gets better. Amazing what happens to the human brain at one second past midnight on your 18th birthday! If you leave it then it is very difficult to get treatment. Do it now and play on your age and how you have your life ahead of you and the ADHD is hampering you. Do that and you’ll get treatment for life. Wait and you’ll have a big fight on your hands and will probably have to go private – expensive.

One word of caution though, I treated myself to some helicopter flying lessons, but because I am now formally diagnosed with ADHD I won’t be able to get my licence to fly solo. Some  activities are strict. So you need to balance the benefits of treatment against the requirements of your sport or likely future job.

The need for an adrenalin rush that you are feeling now will fade with time and if you don’t have a reasonable job that pays enough for you to be able to play and satisfy what’s left of that need, then when you get to middle-age life will be dull. OK that’s like a hundred years away for you at the moment but…….you might think about non-school education to get a diploma in something that will give you a trade if you don’t get on with school. Yeah it won’t be an adrenalin rush, but you’ll eventually have money that will allow you to spend your weekends and evenings doing whatever presses your buttons.

One last thought – the ultimate adrenalin rush job……parachute testing. Google it – it exists, although I have only found US sites.

 

 

 

 

 

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[shilde]

HI, IM SHARON FROM THE US WITH ADD. I WAS IN THE ARMY FOR 14 YEARS AND IT REALLY SUITED THE ADD. IT WAS NEVER BORING. TRAVELING I WENT TO HAWAII, KOREA, GERMANY ALL OVER THE US, AND GROWING UP WITH A FATHER IN THE AIR FORCE I WENT TO BERMUDA, GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL IN THAILAND. CONSIDER THE MILITARY.

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[gloomygus]

Ever thought about ironwork? 200-1000 feet on an I-beem welding and nothnotbhingbut a fall arrest system. How about live electrical work?

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