Hey there, I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and now I just met with a learning specialist at school. She said I don't have a learning disability because I only have mild ADHD. She said if I really had it bad, when we took a test in a big room with lots of people I would freak and not complete the test...and definitely not pass as I did.

I feel kind of offended. So, I have it enough to get diagnosed and betold to seek help, but not enough for it to be considered a reason for my school performance...

I have always been given this attitude, and that's why I was never tested. Just because I get good grades generally and I have an IQ, I don't have a problem? That seem bodacious to me...

Any words?
- Dane

I don't understand people like that, makes me so mad.

At least you've been diagnosed...almost everyone I've talked to about having problems in school (and I made fairly good grades in high school) has been very skeptical when I complain to them. My psychologist gave me breathing exercises because he thought I was anxious about the transition to college and my psychiatrist gave me depression pills. My mom thinks it's a phase that I'm going through and my dad thinks I'm being lazy. My roommate doesn't even think ADD exists.

blarg...

That's total BS. I was a straight-A student in high school, did okay in university, then crashed and burned in graduate school. I honestly believe that if I had been diagnosed and started treatment in high school that I would not have dropped out of graduate school and ended up driving a taxi for two years.

High school, especially in this era of standardized testing, is designed to make sure that the bottom third of the class can get a diploma; the top third of the class, even if they have learning disabilities, is usually left to figure it out for themselves while being forced to memorize facts and conform to the dumbed-down standards created to satisfy the masses. If my high school curriculum hadn't been such a joke, somebody might have noticed that I never did homework, never brought a book home, never paid attention in class, and never handed anything in on time.

If ADD is a real condition (and I fully believe it is), everyone who is diagnosed should be offered treatment and accommodations for their individual learning style. Just because you have a high IQ and good coping mechanisms does not mean you don't have a learning disability that prevents you from reaching your full potential. People who deny the reality of ADD/ADHD are simply ignorant; I just ask them, "Oh, in what peer-reviewed journal did your read that ADHD wasn't real?" When they say, "Wha?", you say, "Exactly."

I would advise you to figure out what you need to succeed now, before you get into a situation where you can't compensate for your ADHD. It might be in university, it might not happen until you are several years into your career, but at some point, you will be held back from achieving your full potential. You might need a prescription that you take daily, or just one that you take occasionally, or simply need to make certain accommodations (life coach, planners, diet, work habits, fish oil, whatever) so that the traditional ADHD pitfalls (inattentiveness, lack of focus) don't hold you back. (I have coped without prescriptions for the past 7 years, but I think I would try them if I was still in graduate school or another environment that required a lot of self-direction and focus.)

To get dxed with a learning disability you much perform 2 standard deviation points below your IQ. That is the legal definition. You can still get labled as special ed if you really want to under the catagory other health impairments. Meaning, the ADHD is a health issue that impairs your ability to learn. But, unless you are performing way below your expected level of performance, you are not LD. The other side is, that the poor kid with an IQ of 75 is barely over the MR mark and if he performs at the 75 IQ level, there is no help for him either. Can you imagine how hard it would be to compete with classmates of 100 to 120 IQ when your are at 75. The system is not set up all that great.

Sounds like she doesn't know enough about ADHD! Even though ADHD technically isn't an LD it falls under other conditions and you it's your legal right to receive accommodations. Sounds like you will need to really advocate for yourself though!!

You might also consider talking to an advocate or an ADHD Coach who specializes in working with college students.

Hey there, I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and now I just met with a learning specialist at school. She said I don't have a learning disability because I only have mild ADHD. She said if I really had it bad, when we took a test in a big room with lots of people I would freak and not complete the test...and definitely not pass as I did.

I feel kind of offended. So, I have it enough to get diagnosed and betold to seek help, but not enough for it to be considered a reason for my school performance...

I have always been given this attitude, and that's why I was never tested. Just because I get good grades generally and I have an IQ, I don't have a problem? That seem bodacious to me...

Any words?
- Dane

I think the learning specialist needs to learn a few things about ADD people. Not all of us freak in a room full of people. I get anxious and figity and focus on conversations etc, but i do not run out of the room.
I could take a test in a room full of people and still finish, but if you gave me that same test with a quiet room I am sure my test score would be much higher.
Ask her to give you a similar test with a quiet room and compare the test scores.

Sad that this still happens. When I was in 1st grade my teacher told me i was stupid, lazy and a "bad seed". That was in the 70's I would have thought the educational system would be more enlightened by now
hang in there
greg

Life isn't about collecting acronyms be they qualifications or diagnoses.

If you have been diagnosed ADHD that should be enough to give various types of assistance without having to add the Learning Difficulty tag as well.

You pass tests.... Ok so maybe you didn't do as well as you "should" have done however that's no reason to get uptight. The LAST thing you want is a "learning disability" tag, it might be the key to a little extra help at school and a "didn't he do well" badge but in the big world it's not a tag you want to wear for the rest of your life.

I was told I had a learning disability, prob. because i wasn't interested in it lol....

They told me I wouldn't graduate high school, which i did... its all ignorance.....

People specialize in a field without knowing anything about it :)


makes me mad :(

That happens all the time. A lot of people who don't have ADD don't think it's real and don't understand what it's like. It's also not a learning disability. It is actually a gift for a lot of us; I consider it so. I can learn just fine. However, it takes me 3 times as long to learn the same info without any medication.

Like prtsimmons said, I was 3.95 GPA student in high school and 3.5 GPA in undergrad and rarely ever had to study. Just because you make good grades doesn't mean you don't have ADD.

I never even realized I had ADD until I had to start studying complex topics in pre-pharmacy courses. I didn't start taking medication until 3rd year of college. Even though those people see me as doing "good" in school there's no way I would have tried to take on something like pharmacy school before getting the help of ritalin.