Welcome!
First off, so happy to hear that you are in a healthier place now.
Based on what you've described about yourself, I have no reason to think the original psychoed eval you had was particularly far off. Many people with the NVLD profile are initially identified as ADHD (which they may or may not actually be; there can be overlap in presentation, without overlap in underlying causes). This is relevant mainly because psychostimulant meds can have undesirable side effects in individuals with mood disorders (especially depression), and assuming that additional risk when they aren't necessary (i.e., if the symptoms are not explained by "true" ADHD, but by NVLD-related inattention or activity level) would appear to be nonpreferred. Your history of dysgraphia is also consistent with genuine personal weaknesses in visual spatial thinking, which is in the category of what we call NVLDs.
From the description you've given, it sounds like your VCI (verbal cognition) was in the Very Superior range, PRI (visual spatial and fluid reasoning) was in the Average range, and PSI (processing speed--includes both fine-motor speed and thinking efficiency) was Average or possibly below. No mention of the fourth index (WMI--working memory). Again, these are all quite consistent with NVLD and dysgraphia, as well as your history of having relatively weaker math skills vs language skills.
(The social perception/social skills deficits associated with NVLD do have a lot of symptomatic overlap with autism, but are believed to be due to poor reading of nonverbal communication, which requires sophisticated visual spatial thinking. In ASD, it's believed to be due to lack of what's called theory of mind, where individuals have challenges in perspective-taking, or understanding that other people have an internal voice or view of the world separate from one's own. Functionally, of course, there's not a huge difference.)
I'm going to speculate a little more here...you may be finding lectures initially engaging, but quickly boring because of a combination of grasping the concepts quickly (giftedness) and difficulty receiving the typical visual stimulation of a presenter's body language (NVLD). It may even be that this lack of stimulation is leading to disengagement (ADHD). In my experience, learners with this profile can create greater engagement for themselves by asking periodic questions (but watch out for inadvertently monopolizing discussions). In terms of the overwhelmed feelings, do access your on-campus and off-campus support networks, both formal mental health professionals and any informal community or family supports you have.
The value of a new psychoed eval is if it either 1) answers a question or provides a solution to a known problem, or 2) provides access to needed services. At the moment, you appear to have access to the services already, so it would be whether there is a personally-relevant question or problem that you need solved. Based on your report, the social and emotional aspects appear to be where the unanswered question or problem might lie. Honestly, there is not a lot one can do about underchallenging work in college. The expectation is that you are a self-directed learner, so if your classes are insufficiently challenging, you may wish to go to your academic advisor and discuss your plan from now until graduation, including any post-graduate plans. Professors really don't need to differentiate up for more advanced students. Course selection is where that would happen.
Last edited by aeh; 09/29/18 04:42 AM. Reason: Autocorrect typo
