<p>I have some kind of learning disability. I don't know what yet, but i've had about 6 unsolicited suggestions regarding ADHD evaluations in the past few months, and I want to start looking into that. My only issue is that I have no idea how to go about this. I went and saw a number of the counselors at my community college with no help or advice. I have mentioned these issues to my physicians (general, neurologist, even my gynecologist recommended an evaluation...) and yet i've merely been labeled as having/treated for an anxiety disorder that I don't even have. No one is willing to listen to me because i'm a straight A and B student and i'm not failing anything. My mom is annoyed with me and my dad keeps telling me it's all a phase. Treatment, if I receive it, is all coming out of my own pocket. </p>
<p>I have a very poor academic history, starting from first grade, and ending with me failing my first year of high school. I'm not super unintelligent, I learned to read around the age of two and I can understand more complex scientific concepts (my major). As much as I enjoy it, I struggle with learning math, and have since I was around 6. In fact, the only time a teacher has intervened regarding my academic performance was when I was in second grade and I was only able to finish 2-3 problems out of 30 on our two minute math quizzes. Once I understand a concept, however, I can apply it, understand it, and complete the problem very quickly. </p>
<p>So what do I do here? Doctors are not taking me seriously, thanks to the label of having an anxiety disorder now. If it delayed me being diagnosed with asthma and caused the subsequent attacks to be untreated, I know it's not going to help me much in this situation. My college is not providing support, and I want to transfer but i'm afraid of failing out again. Any ideas for this situation?</p>
<p>Stop by the Psychology department at your community college, and find out who teaches Educational Psychology. Get a referral from that person for a psychologist who is familiar with ADD, Dyslexia, and Dyscalculia. There should be several people with that kind of background who work for the local public school district, or who are on the faculty of the school of education at your closest university. You need to know that only ADD has a medical treatment available. If you are identified as having a Dyslexia or Dyscalculia (or both) educational interventions are available that include specific study/learning techniques that you can try.</p>
<p>I have a dear friend who was half-way through a Ph.D. program before her Dyslexia was identified. Getting good grades is no indicator that you don’t have a learning difference, it merely is an indicator that you have come up with some of your own ways of coping with that difference. Often there are better ways of coping. </p>
<p>My school has a psychology department (academic), but they will not do referrals to psychologists/psychiatrists. How annoying! My old teacher was the department head and I know he mentioned this on the first day. </p>
<p>I’m thinking about sucking it up and making another counseling appointment, but I won’t get in till December, and who knows how that will work out. </p>
<p>Hi, I didn’t get tested until I was in college and I have ADHD and Dyscalclia. By definition, in order to be diagnosed with a learning disability you have to have normal to above average intelligence. Clearly you are a very smart person, and if you have a learning disability, you are probably not working at potential, or are using HUGE amounts of energy to do “simple” tasks. I am also an A student, but my ability to focus was unpredictable and involuntary. Sometimes I hyper-focus, which makes the uninformed think I can focus if I “want to.” Unfortunately, sometimes I cannot focus even if I really want to and the stakes are high. It drove teachers crazy my whole life, because sometimes I could do it and sometimes I couldn’t. Math is a bizarre experience, because I can learn the concept and I have excellent logic skills, but remembering sequences that don’t have a logical relationship is impossible for me. In Algebra, I literally would look at work that I had done the day before and have NO idea how to do it again. I would then have to reverse engineer the problem or learn the whole thing again. It’s like being a goldfish.</p>
<p>My advice:</p>
<p>Go to the disability center at your school and talk to someone who knows learning disabilities and be sweet and persistent. If there is anyone in your family with learning problems, bring them up. You could have anxiety AND learning disabilities. It can be a chicken and egg problem. Do you have anxiety because of the LD causing stress? Or is the anxiety overwhelming your executive functioning? No matter what, trust your instincts about this. Now that I have accommodations (quiet room, extra time) I am able to be more consistent. I can drop by 30 points on a test without accommodations, even if I taught the material to my study group and know it inside out. Just keeping the scantron numbers straight can be an ordeal on a bad day. </p>
<p>You sound like me, especially with algebra. I can do something perfectly one day, and the next I have no idea how I did it. I don’t think or know if anyone else in my family has learning disabilities. I don’t think they do.</p>
<p>On the anxiety subject, i’m anxious because i’m not focusing/forgetting homework/doing poorly on tests as a result. It’s not causing any of the aforementioned issues, so i’m pretty sure it’s just a result of it. </p>
<p>Test taking is also an issue of mine. I am a TERRIBLE test taker. I have only gotten a handful of A’s this year. One of the big issues for me is that the teachers give an answer sheet that is separate from the physical exam, and do not allow you to write on the exam. I can’t seem to transfer the information from one sheet to another, and I get really confused if I can’t cross out wrong answers (on multiple choice, etc). That’s really the only major accommodation I want, because i’ve tried to ask teachers to let me write on the exam before and they refuse.</p>
<p>I’m going to stop in the LD office tomorrow and see what I can do. Thanks!</p>