I love this piece. Before I knew I was autistic I could never work out why I could see potential solutions to stuff other people hadn’t thought of. When I realised it was related to the way my brain works I stopped feeling like a freak or a smart arse.
Do you have thoughts about ADHD medication and focus? My son plays travel baseball and my pet theory is the ADHD kids are better when they’re off their meds. Baseball is a game of focus and if you don’t care about the sport, it can be incredibly boring. But of the adult pros I’ve talked to, quite a few were diagnosed later in life with ADHD. They focused on what they cared about, and ignored the rest. The meds seem to help kids pay attention to school but they lack the hyper focus in the outfield. Any ideas?
I totally agree. This is a really useful way to look at ADHD meds. I see it in my own life as well. I have a great ability to focus on what comes easily to me. I also have a great ability to focus on something I like that I'm doing with people I care about. People with ADHD want to do a lot that we can't make ourselves do. But if other people are doing it with us, we can apply our great focus skills more productively.
Giving kids ADHD meds so they can sit in a classroom seems sad to me. I love learning and I can't sit in a classroom. I don't think my life would have been better giving me ADHD meds to sit in class. My life would have been better having people understand how my brain worked and helping me to succeed on my own terms.
That said, there is so much of parenting that falls into the category of difficult and I have to get myself to do anyway. So ADHD meds to help a parent be a more responsive, emotionally available parent seems like a good use of the meds.
Before I knew I was gifted/autistic/ADHD I was constantly feeling like everything was a trick question. Like, the answers to everything were so immediately obvious that surely everyone else had already considered and arrived at the answer, and discarded is as being the wrong answer – therefore, the question must actually be a trick question. This belief/experience has led to lifelong overthinking and paralysis and social anxiety on my part (even though the correct answer always immediately arrived in my mind without needing to think about it). Of course, once I was diagnosed, I realised that no – everyone else had NOT already arrived at the answer. It has taken a massive load off my mind, and means I now speak up with the answer.
Framing autism as feeling like everything is a trick question resonates with me. I also feel like every situation is an example of where my mind blindness is hurting me. But in reality it's probably not every situation, I'm just so used to making unexpected decisions because of autism that I'm paranoid if I don't get outside input.
I love this piece. Before I knew I was autistic I could never work out why I could see potential solutions to stuff other people hadn’t thought of. When I realised it was related to the way my brain works I stopped feeling like a freak or a smart arse.
I had the same experience! Knowing I have autism makes me better understand what I'm good at.
Do you have thoughts about ADHD medication and focus? My son plays travel baseball and my pet theory is the ADHD kids are better when they’re off their meds. Baseball is a game of focus and if you don’t care about the sport, it can be incredibly boring. But of the adult pros I’ve talked to, quite a few were diagnosed later in life with ADHD. They focused on what they cared about, and ignored the rest. The meds seem to help kids pay attention to school but they lack the hyper focus in the outfield. Any ideas?
I totally agree. This is a really useful way to look at ADHD meds. I see it in my own life as well. I have a great ability to focus on what comes easily to me. I also have a great ability to focus on something I like that I'm doing with people I care about. People with ADHD want to do a lot that we can't make ourselves do. But if other people are doing it with us, we can apply our great focus skills more productively.
Giving kids ADHD meds so they can sit in a classroom seems sad to me. I love learning and I can't sit in a classroom. I don't think my life would have been better giving me ADHD meds to sit in class. My life would have been better having people understand how my brain worked and helping me to succeed on my own terms.
That said, there is so much of parenting that falls into the category of difficult and I have to get myself to do anyway. So ADHD meds to help a parent be a more responsive, emotionally available parent seems like a good use of the meds.
Penelope
Before I knew I was gifted/autistic/ADHD I was constantly feeling like everything was a trick question. Like, the answers to everything were so immediately obvious that surely everyone else had already considered and arrived at the answer, and discarded is as being the wrong answer – therefore, the question must actually be a trick question. This belief/experience has led to lifelong overthinking and paralysis and social anxiety on my part (even though the correct answer always immediately arrived in my mind without needing to think about it). Of course, once I was diagnosed, I realised that no – everyone else had NOT already arrived at the answer. It has taken a massive load off my mind, and means I now speak up with the answer.
Framing autism as feeling like everything is a trick question resonates with me. I also feel like every situation is an example of where my mind blindness is hurting me. But in reality it's probably not every situation, I'm just so used to making unexpected decisions because of autism that I'm paranoid if I don't get outside input.
thank you so much for this.