Yay, I have an assessment! And Hello I'm new!

[Anonymous]

Hello all!

Haven’t been diagnosed yet (well at least not with ADHD), anxiety/depression or course. But I know this is not the cause of my… well for lack of a better word, problems. I’m happy to say though, that I have an assessment booked for early May and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m 24 and a 3rd year Nursing student… was a 3rd year Nursing student. I recently made the decision to take a leave of absence for a year. I only have a year left to go, but I just can’t handle it. And by it, I mean the school work and whole university thing. I love Nursing…. loath the school work, and the three hour long lectures are killer. Not surprisingly, I do well when I’m put in a “hands on” learning situation or taught by interactive means. In my first two years of Nursing I did really well in my clinical practice, and okay in my school work. As I entered my third year, my insecurities in my school work began to grow. It leaked into my clinical practice, and I felt it was unsafe for me to continue practicing. So, here I am, taking my time to figure things out. I’ve always had difficulty in school, and it’s always been the same issues, but I’m finding that as I enter the abyss of adulthood these “issues” are just not acceptable. I hope this assessment that I have booked can provide me with answers, so I can start working on the solution.

This site is interactive, extremely amusing and very informative! I’m glad I found it!

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[Patte Rosebank]

I hated university too. Those long lectures were hell to sit through, struggling to concentrate, struggling to absorb what the Prof was saying AT us, while trying to organize and write it all down in notes so I could remember it, struggling to stay awake… However, the courses in which we actively discussed the subject were so stimulating and interesting, that I did extremely well in them. Unfortunately, the lecture-based classes far outnumbered the discussion-based ones. At that time, there was no such thing as ADHD—or at least, there was no name for it, and it hadn’t been formally defined. All I knew was, I’d been so brilliant in elementary school and high school, so why was I so completely out of my depth at university?

Today, many learning institutions now provide assistance for students with ADHD. In many cases, this involves providing a note-taker to sit in on lectures, thus freeing the student from the note-taking and organizational tasks (which are kryptonite to a person with ADHD) and allowing him/her to focus solely on absorbing what the Prof is saying. Unfortunately, you’ll still have to work to zone out the distractions of being in a huge room with a huge number of fellow students. Sitting in the centre of the very front row is a big help, because that way, you can’t see most of those other people in the room. Ever since I was a little kid in school, I’d sit in the front row. Now I know why.

Before going back to university, discuss these issues with your student services department, and with the faculty. Together, you can come up with accommodations like these to help you complete your degree. The world needs more nurses, and we can’t afford to lose even one, just because some institute of higher learning couldn’t bend a little to accommodate a legitimate medical condition.

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[Ivriniel]

In University I gave up trying to take notes (besides having ADHD, I also have an LD that messes with my graphomotor skills) and would just sit and listen carefully to the lecture. I realize now that I was hyperfocusing on it.

Fortunately, I have an excellent memory for things I hear and read, so between reading the textbook, and remembering what was said in lectures, I could do rather well on tests.

My kryptonite was often lab work. I can’t count the number of times I shot nitric acid down the sleeve of my lab coat, when missing the test tube I was trying to clean. ( Fortunately, it was not a very concentrated nitric acid solution.)

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[Anonymous]

ADD is a diamond has many facets………………………..u try to read and study….u drift….yet u listen to spoken word u suck up knowledge and retain…………………or exact opposite…………depends how ADD manifests itself…………i have Gifted memory can’t forget anything…………………..but can’t remember where i was 6-7 daze ago or where my keys are from am hr ago?……….sound familiar?

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

My son is at university and is in one of the hardest courses they have going: “Physics-Engineering”. It leads into Aeropace and things like that. He got some great coaching on how the brain works and the best way to learn and take notes from Dr. John Fleming who specialized in this area for his PhD. Dr. Fleming taught my son a completely different way to take in the lessons in a way that made it ‘stick’. Dr. Fleming is going to be hosting our webinar this month, on Wednesday April 28th, at 1 pm Eastern. He’s going to be talking about the Emotional Journey, but it would be worth asking him some questions about improving your learning skills. My son said the methods he learned really transformed how much information he was able to retain.

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[Anonymous]

wow every single one of you has said something that has struck a chord. Thank you all for replying.

@Larynxa, when the subject or the class is stimulating or interesting, good luck trying to get my attention, and if you do manage to get my attention, I’m pretty peeved! Good call on setting up an appointment with the Student services.

@lvriniel, I have a difficult time taking notes and actually absorbing what the prof has said. I’m concentrating on writing and making sure my notes are neat! And as soon as your done class you think to yourself “what did I just learn?” lol.

@DrTyrell, yes that does sound familiar! I can relate. I remember odd details about people, places and things… (haha nouns I guess), and I can recall them from my long term memory. But my short term memory is bunk. So if our short term memory is crap, how do we have a long term memory?

@Rick, thank you for the heads up on the webinar. I’m very intrigued by these methods of retaining new info, as I’m very bad with that! It’s too bad schools don’t consider the different learning styles out, and try to make any accommodation.

I know that at 24 I’m still a very, young adult, but I think ahead…too much sometimes lol. Anyway, when I look at myself now, I can project all the difficulties I’m going to have as an adult if I don’t get this taken care of. How do I know this? Because I see patterns emerging that I know isn’t “normal” for a “functioning” adult. I’m terrible with money, yet both my parents and my older sister are wonderful when it comes to managing their finances. My dad taught my sister everything she knows about managing money, and he taught me the same. So why do I suck at it? It’s like when we were little kids. You know she’d have her Halloween candy still stashed in her closet by the time Easter would come around. Mean while mine was devoured in a week! Other things like relationship problems are starting to arise, obviously my academics have gone to shit, and overall, I’m just not satisfied with my performance in life up to this point, I just want that barrier to come down so I can actually start achieving something I can be proud of!

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