ADHD- How has it affected your education?

I've been seeking diagnosis for ADHD-Inattentive Type, for about 2 years. Having been spat out the system a couple of times (apparently trying to play down your mental health issues to the people you're seeing for those issues means they kind of par you off), I'm pursuing through Adult Mental Health services rather than CAMHS.

I'm interested in peoples experiences with diagnosis at an older age, how it's affected their learning (as it has mine significantly) and what you do to overcome it (meds or technoques)

Cheers

I was diagnosed with ADD at 17. It's hard to say how it's affected me especially since I was diagnosed with dyslexia at the same time so it's hard to tell.

I think socially it could explain why i'm a bit different to others. I don't quite naturally get conversations in groups and often will only hear one person so I can interupt and get confused sometimes. I didn't really have any friends between years 4 and 10 cos I just never made any after my old ones moved school.

I'll also zone out a lot or make odd links so I lost focus in lessons just as I do in conversation. It didn't have too much of an impact and I still did pretty well in school. Looking back the most obvious indicator is all my teachers calling me "a sweet little girl" or simmilar on reports cos they just didn't have anything else to say about me bad or good.

Around GCSE is where things started getting harder. I think as independant work and revision became more important my lack of focus and motivation became more of an issue. I still didn't pick up on it until college though. I realise now that I never did any homework and teachers just let me get away with it cos I was still getting the grades and always had an excuse (I viseted family in hospital for a while).

Uni was a nightmare and I left for a vaiety of reasons, but my ADD was clearly a factor. I can never get down to doing anything, especially reading. Even if i'm actually reading something I just don't take it in. I work a lot better with a practical input and I think that my teachers talking and showing videos (and putting up with relentless questions) is why i've been able to come as far as I have.

I had mh issues at the same time of all of this and i think its part of what triggered all of it. When I saw an educational psychologist though they didn't talk much about that and looked into my childhood and gave me some tests. It might actually help you to try CAMHS if you are the right age as they deal quite a bit with special needs and may have a better understanding of the relationship between special needs and mh issues.

Hope that is something like what you were looking for and good luck working everything out. One last note- look into DSA if you haven't already. You can claim it for both mh problems and special needs so you don't have to wait for the ADHD stuff to work itself out to apply.

I think I may have adhd/add or something along those lines but I'm 25 and I'm really not sure that there'd be any benefit from achieving a diagnosis at this stage?

But I found your story interesting and helpful in a way thanks

At 25 the reason would only be if it's bothering you and you want better advice, medication or the extra support that you may be able to get at work (like if you were to need an allowance made to help you). This usually doesn't apply to people since they don't want meds, can get advice online and most likely wouldn't recieve any extra support or require any.

A diagnosis could help you if you want that support and there's no harm in it, but it's also not necessary. I would suggest you look up advice on adult ADD/ ADHD online though. I found it helpful.
I got a diagnosis since I was having difficulty at uni and in education DSA can be a real help. Also because I have difficulty reading due to dyslexia so needed a diagnosis for help with that. A lot of what helped my with my ADD though was just understanding what it was and that it makes sense I don't respond to things as others do.

At 25 the reason would only be if it's bothering you and you want better advice, medication or the extra support that you may be able to get at work (like if you were to need an allowance made to help you). This usually doesn't apply to people since they don't want meds, can get advice online and most likely wouldn't recieve any extra support or require any.

A diagnosis could help you if you want that support and there's no harm in it, but it's also not necessary. I would suggest you look up advice on adult ADD/ ADHD online though. I found it helpful.
I got a diagnosis since I was having difficulty at uni and in education DSA can be a real help. Also because I have difficulty reading due to dyslexia so needed a diagnosis for help with that. A lot of what helped my with my ADD though was just understanding what it was and that it makes sense I don't respond to things as others do.

I think I may have adhd/add or something along those lines but I'm 25 and I'm really not sure that there'd be any benefit from achieving a diagnosis at this stage?

But I found your story interesting and helpful in a way thanks

Out of interest, how did you get diagnosed with ADHD/ADD?

Yeah I think with me I have a fair few other problems at the moment that we're trying to get to the bottom of so will see where all of that goes. I will need help in any setting really, if I can get to the stage of work etc, as in if the problems don't hold me back so much that I'm not able to make further progress.

If I got back into education DSA would definitely be of help so yeah something to consider.

For me I think (the potential) ADHD gives me this sense of frustration where I know what I plan to do but the execution is a mess unless I have very specific set of circumstances to facilitate it. If I have the circumstances the thing can be great but otherwise it can go full speed in the other direction...completely down the pan or I have to give up due to my confidence being zero. So a few issues overlapping as I too have other MH stuff to grapple with.

I don't blame you for wanting to hold off. I don't think i'd have got anywhere if my psych didn't refer me. Definately worth doing if you're going back into education though yeah.

Trust me. There will be benefit from gaining a diagnosis at any age.

Obviously the later you leave it the more regrets and missed opportunities you may have.

You're probably both right tbh will see how I get on... But I can't stop thinking about the stigma attached to it... people thinking you're either just not trying hard enough or you're dumb or... that the problem doesn't even exist as an impediment/condition? But yeah...

Uni was a nightmare and I left for a vaiety of reasons, but my ADD was clearly a factor. I can never get down to doing anything, especially reading. Even if i'm actually reading something I just don't take it in. I work a lot better with a practical input and I think that my teachers talking and showing videos (and putting up with relentless questions) is why i've been able to come as far as I have.

I'm guessing you would be ADHD PI?

Most people diagnosed as adults are. They tend to slip under the radar.

I want to say yes because it's less embarrasing but there are times when there's a fair bit of hyperactivity going on, I figet a lot and sometimes dart about like a bit of a goon but because I have anxiety it's difficult to know whether that's partly to blame...

How about you?

ADHD PI but with some clear hyperactive traits too.

Probably evident from my posts.

I think anxiety, obsessive behaviour and MH problems are all part of the package. Especially for those who have not been diagnosed.

Think the possibility that I have it is probably evident from my behaviour on here too...

Yep think that's probably true!

I've done a lot of reading.

Will PM some articles later if you like LP?

You're probably both right tbh will see how I get on... But I can't stop thinking about the stigma attached to it... people thinking you're either just not trying hard enough or you're dumb or... that the problem doesn't even exist as an impediment/condition? But yeah...