That's kind of the human condition though isn't it? Maybe I'm wrong but I feel like most of us aren't comfortable in our own skins, some are better at hiding or ignoring it than others but life just feels weird. I'd love to be able to go to a doctor tomorrow and have them tell me exactly what all my problems are and how to fix them so that life just doesn't seem weird anymore. The truth is that I probably don't have (nor do I want) ADHD or any other kind of disorder that would explain away all my problems and I just need to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
I have it myself, but I'm also a teacher. Most students are a bit chaotic, and need to learn how to plan and focus on what I'm saying for 50 minutes.
The difference with ADHD kids is massive. They are a mess on a whole other scale. Every minute for them seems to be a struggle to keep seated, keep listening. They're always the ones who don't understand my instructions, they're always the ones who I need to repeat things to. That is the point of this disorder. It takes recognizable symptoms, mixes them all together, and then just blows it up to a hundred times as bad.
At least you understand them and can adjust your teaching accordingly. I had a few teachers in the 90's that ended up treating me like a savaged animal that should be caged most of the time. For one of them, I was the target of there frustrations and while they never hit me, made sure I was aware of how much of a piece of shit I was.
And don't get me started on the substitute teachers. Fuck those cunts. At least a few of them got there shit pushed in by the principal once she found out what was going on. That was amazing to witness.
I hear you. Especially before high school, I was fairly miserable in school. Teachers always singled me out for punishment. I felt like I had no control over what I did, and I repeatedly told my teachers this, literally: "I can't help it, it's not my fault" but that only resulted in even more punishments. I felt different from the get-go, and just could not understand why everyone else managed to fly under the radar while seemingly anything I did was bad.
Looking back at what I wrote in my journal, I seemed to have figured out pretty quickly that there must be something inside me beyond my control that caused all this - I called it the angel and devil in me. They fought over me and decided that I needed to leave my desk, ignore instructions, make strange sounds and throw with things, or try and be cool for once.
But so many teachers came and went that did not see this. I was treated like a punk while I was the nicest kid, I never bullied anyone, I loved to play with my friends, I was so interested in what we were learning - but almost every week I received punishment in one form or another.
I just commented elsewhere that I don't think I have ADHD despite a diagnosis, but this hit pretty close to home. Two minutes in a classroom setting and my brain just stops absorbing information. Even orientation meetings at my daughter's high school, decades after the end of my formal education, were torturous ordeals. There was simply no way to force or trick my brain into actually paying attention.
I hear you. So often someone is talking to me and there is nothing even distracting me, I just... don't hear it. I'm sitting across from them and I don't hear a thing. With friends, I can go like "come again?" but in a classroom, during a speech, or even important job interviews... I've zoned out during presentations of my students. Which is bad. But don't tell anyone. :P
Not always. There's a great deal of variety with the condition as there is with every mental health problem.
There can also be a huge difference between the hyperactive and inattentive types.
Even those with milder symptoms find that it disrupts their life, and shouldn't be dismissed as "ahh good enough".
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u/[deleted] May 30 '17
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