I am a 29 (almost 30) typical wife, mother, and teacher. I have 3 kids and I am married to the Love of my life for 8 1/2 years. He and I met in college and he accepted me for me and everything that entails. Everything that entails is that I am an adult with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, a learning disability in math reasoning, and a processing speed disorder. Those are a lot of big words and big things that actually molded me into becoming a special education teacher myself.
A little about what all those big words mean: Okay so as an adult with ADHD it isn't too bad, I have learned over the years how to help myself focus better and be less hyper. What it means in some instances though is that someone is talking and I relate something to it, I say it and it doesn't always make sense and people do not always get the connection. I cannot always stay still when sitting or pay attention to the same person speaking to me for more than 45 minutes. I get distracted quite easily but I have learned many coping mechanisms and other things to help with the ADHD. My mind is always running. Even when I am tired my mind is always making connections, see ADHD is something where one thing makes me think of another, then that connects to this, and this connects to that. It is a daily, hourly and minute struggle to make sure I am staying on topic and not jumping from connection to connection. Now my learning disability just affects me in higher order math skills such as x+2y+3z=____ don't ask me how to solve it, I have no idea; that's not really relevant though. Now onto Processing Disorder. What is processing disorder do you ask? It is where I read, hear, or see something and it takes me a bit slower to process this information than most. People sometimes think I am ignoring them or that I do not understand what they are saying. That is not it, honestly. What it is, you are telling me something and I am processing what you are telling me. It takes me a bit longer. So if you are talking fast, giving me a lot of information at one time sometimes I have to ask you questions to fully grasp all the information that was presented. I do understand what is being said, I am just processing what you said. Unfortunately there is a hard part to slower processing and that is that it is hard to make yourself process faster, and when I am tired or stressed to the max, it is super noticeable. I have done lots of mental games over the years and mental exercises which I know have helped.
My day:
My daily life is hard, I have to constantly focus, consistently try to make myself trying to process faster trying to survive in a world where things are faster, always around me and more and more distracting each and every day.It is hard for me to finish tasks without me having to redirect myself or make sure I stay on task, this is part of my ADHD. I work so hard mentally each day to focus, stay on task, process information, and stay calm that by the end of the day I am exhausted. I am just so LUCKY and GLAD to be around a group of fellow teachers who understand and help me in my daily journey at work.
I love my job and my students. The hardest part of my job is the training and the meetings, not because I don't like them because I process things so much slower, meetings usually go fast and have a lot of information. A lot of the time the speaker is on point 4 and I am still processing part 2, it makes life difficult and people get frustrated when I ask questions, but understand I am NOT asking questions because I do NOT understand, I am asking questions because I missed something they said because I was still processing part 2 when they were on part 4. Trust me I have days where my processing and are lower than others, I have good days and bad, we all do. I have days where I am like "Processing Disorder, what Processing Disorder I rocked it today" Then I have days where I am like I got 2 words out of the last 100 words you said, can you repeat that and wait for me to process it. When I am tired or stressed my ADHD and processing disorders are so much more noticeable. I was in an important meeting the other day, and the person spoke, and I could not focus on them, so I did not process what they were saying, and they seemed offended when I asked them to repeat what they said, I wasn't trying to be distracted and that was my fault. One way to help Ok if you are telling me something and you can tell it's an off day for me for processing, slow down, give me a chance to process and answer, PLEASE do not repeat yourself then the processing at a slower rate just starts all over again. I know this doesn't make sense to a lot of people and that is okay, but remember the children I teach, I have to watch myself too. I talk fast and my students tell me sometimes to slow myself down, and guess what I have to make an effort to slow down what I say. If I CAN do it so CAN you!
The way God made me is awesome, I do wish more people would understand what my daily life consists of. I thank God everyday for a Husband who accepts me for me, and can see me and love me for my slow processing, math troubles, and ADHD. He more than anyone does not get my crazy connections. I sometimes wonder why God made me the way he did. Then I look back on my life and experiences, and think I wouldn't be doing what I do for a living if it wasn't for God making me the way he did.
If you want an example of what it is like to having a processing disorder I have some links listed below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiyBNZEuPPc
