4 COMMENTS!

Reading, Writing, and ADHD

The posts in response to my earlier blog about reading and ADHD got me obsessing in my typically circular rant fashion about not only the way those of us with ADHD read but also about the different ways we approach writing as well as the other ways we have to creatively reach out and communicate with other people.

The stories in the responses to my blog varied from a doctor refusing to believe a child had ADHD because she was an avid reader, to another ADHDer whose difficulty with reading lead to seeking help, to another who finds peace in another world when she reads (as I do,) but has trouble retaining what she read.

Once more it seems to me that ADHD affects each of us so differently in often small but profound ways. But the barriers we face to getting those stories out sometimes seem insurmountable, especially when we’re young. And if we don’t break through then the barriers get stronger and stronger until they seem permanent.

Of course by the time you reach my age you realize that nothing is permanent. Not even permanents are permanent. Okay, cheap joke, but come on, the whole idea of using a word synonymous with eternal and everlasting for a hair treatment which is by it’s nature temporary is completely nuts, and worse, it seemed to me when I was twelve, it’s a big fat lie that all the grown-ups went along with just to make words mean nothing.

I spent much of my early teens being indignant over how little the reading and writing rules I’d been trying to nail down in my brain since first grade mattered in the adult world. Cripes, my seventh grade Social Studies teacher who every day took pains to let me know what an idiot he thought I was, ended every other sentence in a preposition, and insisted emigrants meant the same thing as immigrants (he was against them.)

Funny how, like the “peace in another world” poster I mentioned above, I sometimes have trouble retaining the stories I read, but I remember in detail some ding-bat teacher I had in junior high. But I don’t think it’s because the teacher was a real-life event. In truth, I’m sure I remember as many fictional events I’ve read as actual events I’ve lived. And occasionally get them confused. The reason the junior high incident sticks in such detail I think is because it represents one of those barriers that can keep us from reaching out and communicating.

Anyway, my point, I think is about my thirteen year-old ADHD daughter and her freaking out the other week about a Social Studies presentation she had put off preparing until the last minute. But, I’ve gotten a little off subject so I’ll have to pick the thread in my next post.

4 Comments:

• Posted by Frank South - Jul 21 2009 @ 8:26 PM
  re: reading and writing and ADHD
  Hi Liz, First, yes there is a strong connection with ADHD and addictive behaviors. There's a lot of info and links about that right here in additudemag.com Also, I'm writing a "Life Story" article for Additude Magazine's winter issue about my own long, scary, and bumpy road to sobriety. About Harold - ADHDers have all kinds of coping mechanisms to try to get along in society. And, especially if you're undiagnosed, a lot of times those skills are hiding and cloaking skills. You try to mimic what you see normal people do so you can try to slide by. Unfortunately this doesn't work and the twin handmaidens of despair and depression take over. I think the life in general is scary for everyone on one level or another. But when you spend all your time being afraid of having your real self exposed, it's not only frightening, but very lonely. But then again, sometimes you figure what the heck I'm ADHD, hypomanic, or whatever and thatmakes me differnet and that's what makes me strong and smart in my own way, sodamn the torpedoes, here I come - I know I'll run for Govenor and fix everything! (Uh oh. You've got to be careful that the good mood doesn't slip over into the manic.) Thanks for reading and commenting, Liz.
• Posted by lizjenningsjones - Jun 24 2009 @ 10:17 AM
  reading and writing and ADHD
  As a teacher and sister of someone who suffered from ADHD for all of his life, I found this story of CoCo all too familiar. I remember my brother, Harold, finding ways to hide the fact that he couldn'tread. He was able to memorize things that were said, he could even play the piano by ear. He could not read music let alone words in a book. But he was amazingly ingenious when it came to covering up. Frank, do you remember experiences like that, I mean being able to come up with ways to "cover up" flaws so people just thought you were being brilliant? And, the more I think about it, perhaps this kind of higher level thinking is quite brilliant. just curious. liz btw - Harold to used drugs and alcohol as a kind of "self-medication" Do you find that this is pretty typcal?
• Posted by Frank South - Jun 19 2009 @ 2:40 PM
  re Free ADHD Help
  Hi Barry, Are you responding to something specific in my blog post or is this a spiderbot that auto-searches for key words and then pops in this post? And, this is just me - I don't do concise, organized, targeted anything, and although I encourage communication in everything I do, standard logic holds little for me. Thanks, Frank
• Posted by barry51 - Jun 18 2009 @ 10:02 PM
  FREE ADHD HELP
  FREE WRITING HELP FROM SPECIAL EDUCATION (INCLUDING ADHD) TO BA AND BUSINESS www.TheEasyEssay.com is a free program that is being used from Special Education to college education, FCAT, SAT, ACT test preparation, home schooling, and educational rehabilitation, as well as in business for concise, organized and targeted memos, speeches, reports, and recommendations. A noted side effect is that users begin to communicate logically. ************** “I have used this technique with my corporate clients, my theology students, and soon with my students at Kaplan University.” Dr. Kathleen A. Bishop, M.B.A., PhD, ThD. “I got feedback from the teachers. They love it and we are looking at using it with some of our AT devices.” Dr. Suzanne Pope Dobson - Calhoun High School (Special Education Department Head) Thank You, Barry. I looked at the site and even did a trial run. I will email this information to our Health Resource Consultants and put it in our knowledge base for future inquiries [with respect to] Traumatic Brain Injury. Respectfully, ~ Erin, U.S. Department of Defense - Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)