I was just reading a post from Scuro quoting Barkley on the diagnosis of AD/HD.

You must establish impairment. No impairment, no disorder. I don't care how many symptoms of AD/HD you have, you do not have this disorder if it is not producing impairment in a major life activity, and let's be very clear. Taking the SATs is not a major life activity. Just because you have failed the SAT's three times and otherwise were valedictorian of your class, you do not have AD/HD.

This just threw me back into doubting my diagnosis. I was diagnosed by three MD's as a young child and recently by a clinicial psychologist who does a lot of AD/HD assessment. I definately have lots of symptoms and always have), but scholastics in high school and above wasn't a problem. I just ran into an old friend. The two of us were voted Most Likely to Succeed by our senior class, were both honor students, and shared a music award to boot -- we also both have children diagnosed with AD/HD and share the symptoms ourselves. He has learned to compensate for his symtoms and until I became a stay at home mom of two (when I crashed and burned) I had done pretty well in the compensating department as well -- particularly at work (although paperwork was a problem).

So my question is what constitutes impairment in a major life activity? Can school and even work be okay and there still be impairment?

Scattered:confused:

For kids....it's academics and social relationships. Later that includes driving a car.

For adults.............it's also academics,social relationships and driving, as well as occupational/job related concerns.

I'm going to get in trouble for this but....sex? :D

He has learned to compensate for his symtoms and until I became a stay at home mom of two (when I crashed and burned) I had done pretty well in the compensating department as well -- particularly at work (although paperwork was a problem).
To impair: damage, weaken.

Scattered, I believe you have answered your own question. People without an impairment do not have to compensate.

In spite of media reports and public perception, lots of ADHDers are well behaved, polite, talented, award winning students. Both of my kids were. They both have impairments and gifts due to ADHD.

For kids....it's academics and social relationships. Later that includes driving a car.

For adults.............it's also academics,social relationships and driving, as well as occupational/job related concerns.How many spheres have to be affected? Do social relationships and daily living skills (bills, home upkeep, losing important papers, etc) and such fit the bill or are work and school problems required?

Is sex really on the list?

Scattered

Well I see sex as a major life activity lmao.

Well I see sex as a major life activity lmao.
As it happens, so does my husband. LOL! Let's just say after I started taking Concerta he was bemoaning the fact that we hadn't found it years ago!:cool:

Scattered

So you are quite confident that you were / are fully able to achieve what you are capable of at work and / or school? I know an ADHDer who completed a PhD, but still carries bitter feelings about his elementary and high school experiences. He had to find the right place and people to be successful in his career. By all appearances he is a very successful person with great kids, a stable long-term marriage and financial success, but it is obvious to informed people that he has ADHD.

Sex is a social relationship the last time I looked. :D

To impair: damage, weaken.

Scattered, I believe you have answered your own question. People without an impairment do not have to compensate.

In spite of media reports and public perception, lots of ADHDers are well behaved, polite, talented, award winning students. Both of my kids were. They both have impairments and gifts due to ADHD.
Thanks Imnapl! That's helpful. Not exactly fitting in the sterotypical ADD box but struggling with so many of the same issues tends to make me doubt myself at times.

Scattered

Yes, ADL's would be included .Excellent point.

So you are quite confident that you were / are fully able to achieve what you are capable of at work and / or school? Well, definately not at work -- somehow most parents stubbornly held onto the idea that I should actually grade their kids work! Imagine that!:rolleyes:

And I suppose in school I would have had to drop a lot less math classes before the deadline when it went on your transcript!

I was fortunate in finding careers that I really liked. Ironically enough, my friend I refered to earlier and I took almost identical career paths -- education and psychology.

Scattered

What are ADL's please?

Adaptive Daily Living Skills......... personal hygiene, paying bills on time, balancing checkbook/budgeting etc.

Thank you!:)

Scattered, I can so relate to your situation and your doubts. I, too, did well in school and have been successful at work. I don't remember major problems in school except procrastination and a serious tendency to zone out. In various jobs, I learned to compensate and pass for normal pretty well, though many times, it took extra hours at work or bringing work home. (But that was at an advertising agency, where extra hours were the norm for everyone.)

It wasn't till my kids were diagnosed and I began freelancing and juggling part-time jobs that I really considered I might also have a problem. My coping and compensation skills no longer sufficed. The part-time job that prompted me to seek medication was (and still is) teaching a writing class at a community college.

Your comment about parents expecting you to grade their kids' papers had me ROFL! I can so relate to that -- just had my third class meeting for the semester, in which I was supposed to hand papers back, but I only had 1/3 of them graded. If you've got helpful "ADD teacher tips," I'd love to hear them.

And McTavish, thanks for clarifying the "ADL" thing. I was wondering about that, too. With more and more balls to juggle, those skills have diminished considerably. And I think to myself, "Other people have lots of kids/responsibilities and they don't screw these things up. I must just be lazy and incompetent." It didn't occur to me it might be a part of ADD, not that that's an excuse to continue screwing up -- maybe just enough reason to drop some of the guilt tripping I do about it!

In the future, there may be a simple blood test to indicate ADHD and the ADHD population may actually increase! For the time being, I think the goal is to keep ADHD a pure designation. They want no false positives. That is why the threshold for a diagnosis is high and why they want to see impairment. I believe that as we learn more and have better tools, the diagnosis will change too.

For the time being, the major gripe about ADHD is that it doesn't exist or that anyone can get a diagnosis...hence the strick critera.

So my question is what constitutes impairment in a major life activity? Can school and even work be okay and there still be impairment?

Scattered:confused:
YES. Any impairment is, impariment.

Me :D

So much of what constitutes an impairment depends on your environment. If we lived in a different place & time, in a society that appreciated our strengths & recognized that we excel in one area at the expense of some others, if we lived in a world that didn't expect us to be able to do it all, if people could work together like pieces of a puzzle to create a functioning existence, ie. I'll do this part because I am good at it, you do that part because thats your strength.....

The most impairing part of my life is the boredom - unless I am totally mentally engaged in what I am doing (which means I have to be interested in it) time drags at a painful pace. I am not in a position to be able to make a living in a job that totally engages me & still make a living, if I had enough money to hire people to do the tasks I find impossible to do, life would be a lot less impairing.

On bad days, I sometimes feel that ADD is one of the cruelist of disorders. The very things I am driven to seek out - being mentally engaged, often leads me to get involved in activities that are not good for me, or taking on more than is manageable, then I end up in a mess, start dropping everything - commitments, relationships, coast for a bit until I get bored again & then start the whole cycle all over again. I can't seem to sustain interest in my commitments or I get out of my depth emotionally & bail.

I am at the stage of my life where I now hesitate to commit to anything or anyone because what would be the point.

On the other hand, my sister with ADD is a world renown university professor & because she is a position to pick and choose what she does, has a very stimulating life & the money to pay for what she doesn't want to do, she's doing fine.

I keep telling my 2 children with ADD that the key is to get enough education that you can follow your passions. If you are doing what you love, it can work and you can find happiness.

......I keep telling my 2 children with ADD that the key is to get enough education that you can follow your passions. If you are doing what you love, it can work and you can find happiness.


Excellent post and great conclusion. I am an educator and one bit of advice that I always give parents is that you have to make school the most important thing in that kids life. My 17 year old daughter knows that she can negotiate cerfew, I even allow moderate drinking, but with school the message is always the same. I set a high bar for the reasons you mentioned above and she has attempted and generally been successful in reaching those goals.

Fiji4me,

Always nice to hear I'm not alone in my doubt -- that sounds kind of selfish, huh! It's not that I wish it on anybody else, but just kind of nice to know I'm not the only one.

As far as helpful teaching hints go, I'm probably not the best one to ask (though that won't keep me from giving you an answer anyway;) ). Looking back now that I'm on medication, it's kind of amazing to me that over the 12 years I taught that I wasn't fired long ago. I would be surprised if I graded more than a third of the papers I collected. However, being pretty creative somehow I managed to cover that up. I wish I had had it in me to give my students better.:(

In class grading is what worked best for me, although having a really good reader sure would have been a blessing. Having a coach to help you figure out a good way of breaking the job down and scheduling time and environmental things to improve your grading would probably help too.

Things not to do! Don't take the papers home to grade them -- you won't do it and will probably lose a few too! Stay at school or go to the library or an office, but don't even bother taking them home to add to your other piles!

I agree you've really got to do what you love and have the proper people and structure in place to be successful. I struggled in elementary (summer school for both reading and math), I think only once in my elementary career did I ever get to use a learning center, because my work was never done in time to use them. But my parents really insisted on my doing my best and supported me in that and stressed the value of a good education. The further through school I went the better I did. My masters was the easiest of all because I was really interested in it. It also opened doors to do jobs I enjoyed.

The best job I ever had was as a UYO personal growth instructor. It was a 40 hours intensive weekend workshop and all I had to do was show up and teach! All the paperwork, cleanup, scheduling, and logistics were handled by people who were capable in those area, so boy did I shine. :cool: They made me look really good! Everything about my job was intense and oriented to the hear and now! Of course, even then ADHD reared it's head when I went home and couldn't manage my own relationship.:rolleyes:

Milauren, I agree with you -- boredom is the most paralyzing thing for me too. As a stay at home mental stimulation can be a bit hard to come by, so things tended to spiral downhill.