I was glad to have stumbled on this site. When I was a child in the early 1970�s, I was diagnosed as being �hyperactive,� today I would have been diagnosed as having Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Many of those who know me best today think that I still have ADHD. Normally, I like my somewhat scatterbrained �stream of consciousness� intellectual style, one way in which I describe myself is �The tangent is my favorite trig function, I�m always flying off on one.�
However, as a 42 y/o student going for an Electrical Engineering degree (I later changed my major to Interdisciplinary Science with a Science, Technology, and Society specialization with a focus on science communication and the public understanding of science), in classes with students half my age, many of which were in honors math classes throughout high school, while little old me got straight D�s in 9th grade algebra, I found I had to work that much harder at putting in a 6 hour concentrated study session and staying focused throughout. This is now harder than it once was; when the �math light� however dimly, came on in my early 20�s, I started taking college courses and found that through a sheer effort of will and passion to learn, I managed to do okay. So I undertook to see if I still had ADHD to such an extent that it would be treatable.
I expected to undergo a battery of tests administered by a psychologist and that indeed is what I got. During the interview portion of the tests, she asked me if I had ever taken an IQ test and I replied with a qualified �no.� My first college algebra book contained one of those little Mensa mini IQ tests and I had taken one of those online versions and did quite well (130�ish), but never a real IQ test, administered by a qualified professional.
I asked the psychologist if the tests I was being given were an actual IQ test, for which I would get a score and she said yes. My eyebrows went up at that point and while I was not, to my mind, nervous, it was in the back of my mind throughout that day�s testing and for the next several days and one might go so far as to say that I was anxious to find out what my score was. I will freely admit that one source of my anxiety was my ego, in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. The other, more rational reason, is the fact that things are not as easy for me in school as I had hoped they would be and if my score was low, then I would have to consider the very real possibility that I ought not to be in college.
When the results (the WAIS III, to be specific) were in I was relieved. And yes, I could have joined MENSA if I wanted, with points to spare. The results also revealed that I have the classic symptoms of adult ADHD, I had just become really good at compensating for it.
So much more is known about both ADD/ADHD and gifted issues today than when I was diagnosed as being "hyperactive" in the early 1970's. Today, children as I was might be properly diagnosed and treated and come to realize their true potential, not be forced to wait until mid-life to find out that rather than being deficient in some way, they have long had an inner potential that went, tragically, overlooked by others.
The psychiatrist that I see for my medication (Ritalin) management has asked me if I ever felt "out of place," as though either I saw things others did not, or that others knew something I did not. That was an eye-opener for me. Years ago, someone (some crusty old 9th-grade algebra teacher in junior high school) advised me to, in effect, "sell myself short" and not even try to take geometry in high school. Years later (after I had taken a year of calculus, even acing my Calc II final), I found notes in my childhood medical records that said such things as, "Mark could do so well if he just applied himself."
I am not bitter about the way my life has unfolded, because as illustrated, somewhat sappily, in It's a Wonderful Life, if one pulls what appears to be a stray thread in life's tapestry it is impossible to know what damage may ensue. However, my experience has taught me to be very much disinclined to passively receive exhortations by others, however misguidedly and however much they may think they are keeping my best interests at heart, to "undersell" myself.
