Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 2e/ADHD adult resources

Hello, I'm new here and found this forum looking for adult 2e -- specifically adhd/gifted - resources. I see this is a forum for parents, but there is not much information out there, and my pysch./doctor doesn't seem to think gifted/adhd can coexist (esp. since I have 2 master', one in chemistry etc.). I'm not in the U.S. so I really don't have the same depth of resources here. I was just recently diagnosed with both at 36 and am looking for more information/help. Thanks, Eva

Hi Eva,
I don't identify as having ADHD, but I do consider myself to have the 'trait' version of ADD, so I read a lot about it. One can definitly be ADHD plus gifted, or ADD plus gifted. Some even go so far as to say that growing up gifted plus unchallenged for hours and hours in school causes ADD habits to become a permanent part of one's personality. That does have ring of truth to me, but again, it always think that genes and environment interact. For example, a 7 year old who is bored can drift off into her own mental world, like me, or spend their time 'helping/bossing' the other children, or 'act up' to try and get the attention that they believe they deserve (My now 12 year old son.)

I've just been reading 'Delivered from Distraction' which is very informative and has a great chapter on 'which medication' but the 'gifted denial' is astonding. There is even one chapter about a family who didn't do well in school. It's reported that one of the children was tested to have a 150 IQ. The tone of the story is: 'Can you imagine a child with a 150 IQ flunking out of school? It must be 100 % due to ADHD!'

as I'm reading I want to scream! Anyway, there are lots of little stories in the book and almost all of the people discribed sound bright or gifted to me. It was fasinating to read an account of how the world would look to a person who is smart, experienced, and totally in Gifted Denial. But of course, in the US for doctors, 'Gifted Denial is standard of care.' (OK, that's a bit of an inside joke, folks, sorry, but I know the people with are in the medical system are ROTFLOL right now)

(ROTFLOL is the first internet acronym to learn - 'rolling on the floor, laughing out loud')

Anyway, back to the point, Eva, Here's the bottom line advice:
1) Read everything you can here about what it's like to raise gifted children to help you remember your childhood. Journal as you go about what it was like for you. Start a thread about it in 'Twice Exceptional' if you want or do it privatly. But read from all the different areas, expecially 'Parenting and Advocacy' just to realize how much of 'who you are' is about the giftedness.

2) search Hoagiesgifted.org and Davidson Datatbase to learn about ADHD in children who are gifted. Try SENG's database as well. I don't think that there is a book about gifted/ADHD specifically, but the Book 'Uniquely Gifted' is the 2E Bible, and worth ordering, as lots of people with ADHD have learning disabilties or depression or anxiety or Sensory Integration issues as well.

3) Write your own book about Adult gifted plus 2e. Post it here as you go, or use it privatly. It's for you. Your book of how the two interact for you.

4)In the meantime, interact with your doctor as though the idea of 'gifted' doesn't exist. Inside the mind of most doctors in gifted denial this is what it looks like: There are just smart people who are successful like your doctor, smart people who are losers, and 'not so smart' people. Even though your doctor will be activly stupid about giftedness, if they are a kind and decent person, you can have a wonderful relationship with them, and if not, get the drugs and do your venting here, or find a new doctor, if possible.

Remember that gifted people who do end up in Medical school have a whole universe of bright and gifted and amazingly gifted people around them every single day, and it's really easy for them to feel 'un-gifted' no matter how gifted they are.

Just get on the Internet and look look look, but remember not to waste time looking for Adult gifted/ADD, because you are a pioneer here, so immerse yourself in the building blocks and get imagining!

Love and more Love,
Grinity ( who is sorry if this sounds like an 'anti-doctor' rant, but really 'some of my best friends are doctors' and almost everyone is in gifted denial, so it's not such a big sin, is it?) ((Humor Alert))

Grinity is dead on (of course - hugs)! If you can search for some of my posts/responses, it might help you. I was a gifted child, and I'm currently being treated for ADD (I refuse to add the H for myself) as an adult. I'm not sure if I'm gifted, have ADD or both at this point, BUT I've never had anyone (even docs) tell me it's impossible to be both.

Hi, thank you to both of you! I've been reading the response, and they are helpful. What do you do to treat your add? medication? extended release ritalin helped me, but I can't take it right now for medical reasons. Is there anything else you do? At this point I've developed some ``add life hacks'' but it still frustrates me. How did you find out you might be add? Thanks, Eva

Currently I'm reading 'Delivered from Distraction' by Ed Hallowell published 2006. There is a great chapter on medications and dosages.

The level of Gifted Denial is off the charts, he just thinks that all people with ADD are smart, creative and have wonderful untapped resources if only they could dig them out. ((eye roll)) but still, the book is jam packed with wonderful information on 'how to have a good life' and 'challenges that intelligent people with ADD often face' paragraphs.

I've always suspected that 'something was wrong with me' because I can't do the simplest things that normally developing people seem to be able to do. My explaination switches every 5 years or so, and each time I think that I've finally found 'it.' LOL.

This time around, Giftedness, and the effects of growing up unidentified, unaccomdiated, and unthought about. And I'm quite sure that 'this is really it.' I suspect ADD trait because when I hang out with kids who are described as 'really extreame ADD' I dont' notice them as being a bit unusual. OK, there was one kid with ADHD who did seem odd to me as he hung off the chandelier, but in general, I had to wonder about myself when all these kids seem so 'normal' to me.

Bottom line is: Are you having a good life?
((hug!!!!!!))
Grinity

also - check out my Flylady topic on the Discussion Area. I feel a lot less impotent rage now that I Fly. Just now I spent 10 minutes looking for the lid for the tub of the Marganie Container. The voices in my head were pretty informative. What is amazing is that since I've started the de-cluttering process, I don't find myself in that position very often any more - like it's been about 2 years since I caught myself mentally beating myself up....

Your experience would be typical in the US, as well, for an adult especially. In the US, you are given substantial protections and entitlements (if you are fully diagnosed and advocate) until secondary school graduation or age 21. After that you are at the mercy of disability law, your educational institution or employer, and your health insurer/health management organization, and the legal onus shifts from the institution to yourself. Regardless, most teacher, psychologists, psychiatrists, and policymakers either don't believe that superior-or-higher IQ and significant LD can be comorbid, fail to detect one element due to it being masked by the other, or knowingly denying services/care due to the expense of their individualized nature.

Your first step should be getting the most thorough psychometric evaluation possible, including the most extensive version of the most accepted IQ test in your country, with the most detailed breakdown of specific processing areas, which is critical with high IQ. Less detailed testing will aggregate sub-processing areas where you may have a significant deficit, that is still in the average-to-gifted range. That's a Specific Processing Deficit, an LD, with Auditory Processing Disorder, Working Memory (contributing to Executive Functioning Disorder), Digit Span, and Coding being the most commonly comorbid with ADHD. Under US law, ADHD is a disability, but not an LD per se, but processing deficits are. Speak to your psychologist about psychometrics. You'll also likely require an achievement and a reading test for a full profile, and if you have any educational records, transcripts, report cards, standardized tests, from preschool to university, reviewing them in light of your test results can help clarify your learning experiences, and establish an psycho-educational chronology. All of this cultivates your metacognition.

For example (scores vary throughout life), when I was first diagnosed with anything beyond ADHD at age 26, they found most verbal and visual-spatial processing was in the 150-190 range, while the four I just mentioned were in the 100-120 range. Even though the deficits were in the average range, when taken holistically, the magnitude of difference put very specific constraints on what methods of teaching and study I could benefit from. For me, I learned to hone multimodal techniques that allowed my visual processing strengths to compensate for my auditory deficits, requested all language requirements be fulfilled by examination, then studied using reading much earlier than normally introduced, independently studied advanced conceptual maths prior to completing the requirement (by examination), and took as much faculty guided independent study as possible.

Still, I faced the dearth of information and resources you have mentioned. It's wonderful that you have completed advanced degrees, so hopefully you only posted to further your self-understanding. Personally, I'd avoid ADHD medication unless I absolutely needed it for academics.

Unfortunately for me, after graduating secondary school on independent study 1.5 years early, I was in community college for 13 years trying to earn 2 years worth of credits, while working, and even after diagnosis at personal expense, my HMO refused to provide support & diagnosis renewal, while my college refused to provide individualized accommodations, citing the expense. Currently I linger in a purgatory just shy of 2 years of undergraduate standing, a committed autodidact that has continued intellectually progressing regardless of my enrollment, my ADHD & giftedness are now making it increasingly difficult for me to focus on the survey-level courses I need to complete to get admitted to my final "2" years at university. I've professionally proofread college-level textbooks, tutored extensively at the college & AP levels, sat on my community college's Board of Trustees, drafted an NSF grant, edited two Ivy League masters' theses, written policy for non-profits, and still appear incapable of finishing an undergraduate degree.

Parents, make sure your children are effective self-advocates when you send them to college. They're very fortunate to have ones as informed as you.