[Bananas]

Hi Megco.  Here’s why you HAVE IT BIG TIME but you still do well in school: you have developed your own STRATEGIES  for study that work for you.  Translation: YOU ARE VERY VERY SMART!

I did very well in school until high school.  I had no study strategy, didn’t pay attention in class, but got straight A+ … until I had to do essays, research, keep up with nightly work, etc.  I did develop some strategies, but struggled to have A’s.  I even failed a couple of courses.  I was one credit short of graduation, and never did get that final paper.  (Later I applied as a “Mature Student” and obtained three post-secondary diplomas.)

Around 2003, I suspected I had CAPD (Auditory Processing issues) and got myself tested in 2005.  The results were inconclusive.  LIKE YOU, I WAS COMPENSATING, WHICH COVERED UP THE TRUE DIAGNOSIS.  So if you get tested by, say, answering a couple of questionnaires, you won’t find out anything you don’t already know, and worse, you may be told you have “mild” ADD or ADHD, so there’s nothing anyone can do, just get on with life.  Because you are compensating well, what’s the problem?! Just get on with it!!  (BAD idea.  Through the decades: self-esteem struggles, depression, anxiety, hopelessness.)

I had a decent job for awhile, and took my own money to get properly tested.  I was put through a battery of tests in December 2013, at age 48.  Lots of tests, very diverse, mostly of the intelligence test variety.  Turns out, I do have CAPD – first percentile, which means really badly!!  But I was shocked to find I have ADHD Inattentive Type (actually, Combined Type, but leaning towards Inattentive).  I had no inkling I might have ADD.

I immediately joined a group for adults (in Toronto, Canada), and read lots, and checked out this here site.  Getting facts and connecting with other ADDers has EXPLAINED EVERYTHING about my lifelong difficulties, especially my adult struggles with depression and anxiety.

The testing cost around $5,000.  For me it was worth it.  But if you don’t have the dough, just read read read.  (You can get audiobooks if reading isn’t your thing.  But you’ll figure out a way; after all, you managed in high school!)

I’m still struggling, a lot has happened in my life this past year.  If you look up Top Ten Stressors on line, I have four of the top six that have happened in the last eight months, including job loss, death of loved one, divorce…  Plus none of my very intelligent friends are not actually supportive of my ADHD diagnosis.  I really value my adults’ support group because of this.

I’d better stop writing… I actually sat down at my computer just to pay a bill!  And now I’m lost in this Forum!

Don’t doubt your senses.  I’m not a doctor, but I’d say you have full-blown ADHD!

-Bananas

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