I recently read Deirdre Lovecky's Different Minds, and she points out that the 'typical' Gifted/ADD girls is able to do well in school by being hypervigelient, and can never be relaxed and confident that she is actually prepared for any academic situation.
I just checked back in here after being away a couple of days on deadlines (one of the curses of the gifted adult who went through regular schools as a kid, I believe, is pathological procrastination, which I inconveniently pair with perfectionism), and my heart is pounding reading your message! I have never, ever seen my academic experience so clearly and succinctly crystallized as it is in the excerpt above: I was, and I still am, a "spacey, gifted girl." WOW! Thank you for that.
FWIW, my current psychologist actually did diagnose me as ADD. It was a roundabout way of getting to it, actually -- I've struggled with depression and anxiety my whole life, but I'd come to realize that what brought on my depression, more than anything else, was anxiety. I've always been pretty introspective about these matters, and once I realized that, I was sort of on a new mental journey to try and root out the main anxiety triggers. Eventually I realized my anxiety was often caused by situations I brought about through procrastination, poor planning, forgetfulness, and organizational problems -- you know, that pesky working memory/executive function stuff. I talked to my psychologist about this and we did a screening. She said I did come back as exhibiting clinical symptoms that did lean more toward the inattentive end of the ADHD scale (though she did point out I do have hyperactive problems like nervous behaviors -- twisting my ring all the time, shaking my leg up and down, etc.) She and I worked on medications for a while, and now I am off all SSRIs and SNRIs that I was on and I'm simply taking an ADHD med to control those issues. It's a work-in-progress, but it seems to be effective for now. (knock on wood)
Okay, so I apologize for thread-bumping an old topic, but I had to reply, because your message was so, so relevant to where I am right now...and how I'm managing my son's issues, as well.
Thank you all SO MUCH for your warm welcome -- I am so happy to have found a group of people I can talk openly around. Too often we have to hide our concerns and struggles because most people aren't open to hearing about the problems of parenting a PG kid -- to them, it's as inexcusable as a supermodel complaining about having too many admirers. To find a community of people I don't have to tiptoe around discussions of intelligence (and all the related baggage!) is such a huge relief. Thank you all!
alyson
