Adults with LD or ADHD

Newbie, but Dx ADHD/Dyscalculia since age 4

Author	Message
Tracey_Anne72077 Joined: February 02, 2005 Posts: 2 Other topics by Tracey_Anne72077	Posted: Feb 02, 2005 10:25 PM Subject: Newbie, but Dx ADHD/Dyscalculia since age 4 Hello All!! :D I am new to this site. I picked it up from math.com as I was referred to that site from someone at my (hopefully Fingers crossed) culinary school. This is a pretty good resource IMHO. Anyways, I have been Dx w/ ADHD/Dyscalculia since 1981. I was 4, then, and I am 27 now. I too struggled thru school, having been called STUPID (GASP!) by a teacher in 6th grade because every1 else got it and I didn't. I had been coded ALL ALONG yet the public school in my hometown REFUSED to recognize my disability and insisted to my mother that I did not have an LD; that I was just lazy. This said about a child who could read at a 5th grade reading level at age 5, and college level reading before high school...but W/E!!! After 6th grade, my mother pulled me out of the public school and enrolled me in a private school, specifically geared for LD students....and OMG what a blessing!! Since this site is dedicated to us "specials and gifteds" maybe someone here has previously attended or has known someone or has heard of a school in NH called Learning Skills Academy. The director at the time was Carol Cook (who moved on to open another such school named COOL- Center of Optimum Learning). I attended that school 4 two years (passed w/ FLYING colors BTW), went on to attend a parochial school ("LD what?" is their motto) where I did the worst I've ever done, and went BACK to LSA for my freshman year, then mainstreamed back into the public school (this is, of course, AFTER being given the tools I needed to be successful in a world of cynicism and negativity towards anything LD) for grades 10-12; where I flourished, and graduated at the top half of my class...not to say it was easy by any stretch of the imagination. Anyway, in my old age-and I feel I reserve the right to say the following AS an ADHD adult- I have come to believe that ADHD is a Dx used on a broad spectrum of symptoms when no specific 1 or 2 can be singled out or ruled out as the cause. ADHD sufferers have SO MANY symptoms, it would seem that to try to isolate them all into separate Dx's would just be too time consuming, too financially overwhelming, and overall I think, WORSE for the individual. So, some smarty-pants said "wouldn't it just be easier if we grouped all of these into one smaller category, and code the child ONCE instead of...." however many symptoms the person exibited (or presented with). Back then, I wouldn't have understood that, BUT it would make sense. Nowadays, I am afraid that ADHD might be too overdiagnosed, and too many children are categorically stuffed into that "ADHD Box" and these school officials- who BTW are so busy trying to keep kids off drugs- r WAYYYY too quick to force parents into medicating their child otherwise they cannot attend school!! WHAT IS THAT?! Now its ok to screw a kid out of his education?! Of course, that means less work for the poor teachers...or the ppl whose JOB it is in the Sp.Ed department to ensure these kids get the help they need. I guess that department was only put in place for the mentally challenged...or behaviorally challenged who couldn't be handled in mainstream classrooms. That never happened back when I was in school!! (and it wasn't all that long ago!!) Don't these ppl realize that while they r telling their kids to "just say no" that at the same time, they r making these children dependent on drugs like, Ritalin, most of which are...AMPHETAMINES!!!! HELLO PPL!!! And I don't care about how they've made it so that they only have 2 take it once a day....exposure is exposure. If you can die from snorting it- not taking it for some...other reason other than ADHD symptoms- then what's the difference!!?? Anyways, now that I have spewed my frustrations...I hope I can find some real resources and allies here. I take my LD (D=Difference) seriously (as I am too much aware of how it spills over into my everyday life- something we are NOT taught to cope with in school) and I am always looking for new ways/strategies to help me. My husband is also ADD...undiagnosed, but...the symptoms are blatant. We think my 5 yr old might be ADHD as well...ANY and ALL help is welcomed here... :-D Thanks for letting me blow my top. I feel better now. ;-) Take care! Blessed Be!! ~~"childhood is what u spend the rest of your life trying 2 get over...beginnings r usually scary, ending r usually sad. But it's the middle that counts the most..."~~

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Message

Tracey_Anne72077

Joined: February 02, 2005
Posts: 2
Other topics by Tracey_Anne72077

Posted: Feb 02, 2005 10:25 PM

Subject: Newbie, but Dx ADHD/Dyscalculia since age 4

Hello All!! :D I am new to this site. I picked it up from math.com as I was referred to that site from someone at my (hopefully *Fingers crossed*) culinary school. This is a pretty good resource IMHO. Anyways, I have been Dx w/ ADHD/Dyscalculia since 1981. I was 4, then, and I am 27 now. I too struggled thru school, having been called STUPID (GASP!) by a teacher in 6th grade because every1 else got it and I didn't. I had been coded ALL ALONG yet the public school in my hometown REFUSED to recognize my disability and insisted to my mother that I did not have an LD; that I was just lazy. This said about a child who could read at a 5th grade reading level at age 5, and college level reading before high school...but W/E!!! After 6th grade, my mother pulled me out of the public school and enrolled me in a private school, specifically geared for LD students....and OMG what a blessing!! Since this site is dedicated to us "specials and gifteds" maybe someone here has previously attended or has known someone or has heard of a school in NH called Learning Skills Academy. The director at the time was Carol Cook (who moved on to open another such school named COOL- Center of Optimum Learning). I attended that school 4 two years (passed w/ FLYING colors BTW), went on to attend a parochial school ("LD what?" is their motto) where I did the worst I've ever done, and went BACK to LSA for my freshman year, then mainstreamed back into the public school (this is, of course, AFTER being given the tools I needed to be successful in a world of cynicism and negativity towards anything LD) for grades 10-12; where I flourished, and graduated at the top half of my class...not to say it was easy by any stretch of the imagination.
Anyway, in my old age-and I feel I reserve the right to say the following AS an ADHD adult- I have come to believe that ADHD is a Dx used on a broad spectrum of symptoms when no specific 1 or 2 can be singled out or ruled out as the cause. ADHD sufferers have SO MANY symptoms, it would seem that to try to isolate them all into separate Dx's would just be too time consuming, too financially overwhelming, and overall I think, WORSE for the individual. So, some smarty-pants said "wouldn't it just be easier if we grouped all of these into one smaller category, and code the child ONCE instead of...." however many symptoms the person exibited (or presented with). Back then, I wouldn't have understood that, BUT it would make sense. Nowadays, I am afraid that ADHD might be too overdiagnosed, and too many children are categorically stuffed into that "ADHD Box" and these school officials- who BTW are so busy trying to keep kids off drugs- r WAYYYY too quick to force parents into medicating their child otherwise they cannot attend school!! WHAT IS THAT?! Now its ok to screw a kid out of his education?! Of course, that means less work for the poor teachers...or the ppl whose JOB it is in the Sp.Ed department to ensure these kids get the help they need. I guess that department was only put in place for the mentally challenged...or behaviorally challenged who couldn't be handled in mainstream classrooms. That never happened back when I was in school!! (and it wasn't all that long ago!!) Don't these ppl realize that while they r telling their kids to "just say no" that at the same time, they r making these children dependent on drugs like, Ritalin, most of which are...AMPHETAMINES!!!! HELLO PPL!!! And I don't care about how they've made it so that they only have 2 take it once a day....exposure is exposure. If you can die from snorting it- not taking it for some...other reason other than ADHD symptoms- then what's the difference!!?? Anyways, now that I have spewed my frustrations...I hope I can find some real resources and allies here. I take my LD (D=Difference) seriously (as I am too much aware of how it spills over into my everyday life- something we are NOT taught to cope with in school) and I am always looking for new ways/strategies to help me. My husband is also ADD...undiagnosed, but...the symptoms are blatant. We think my 5 yr old might be ADHD as well...ANY and ALL help is welcomed here... :-D Thanks for letting me blow my top. I feel better now. ;-)
Take care! Blessed Be!!

~~"childhood is what u spend the rest of your life trying 2 get over...beginnings r usually scary, ending r usually sad. But it's the middle that counts the most..."~~