As promised, here's Julie response when I asked permission to post her first email. I just love this gal!
"Are you kidding, I would write anything that would help other people with this.
I almost died because of this illness Bipolar (more than once), it destroyed my marriage, I was diagnosed with MS, which I don't have, for 10 years AND treated for it! On and on....
The good news?
I have been full time college student for two years. I have a high gpa. I am on my own with 3 fantastic boys, and we are doing great, considering the last 2 years.
I also know the frustration ( with the child and the schools and the doctors and the "well-meaning" relatives, and above all myself), the heartbreak, the desperation and the patience and strength it takes to be a parent with a child who is severely ADD/ADHD.
I grew up with it ( they called it "ornery", "lazy" and "motormouth" back then.) I did poorly in school when I got to jr. high and high school. But I have a very high IQ, like ALL people with ADD do. ( Especially encouraging to many ADD kids and adults would be a Multiple Intelligence Profile. Much more informative for the person/parents than the regular IQ tests. Especially helpful in developing IEP's.
http://www.todaysteacher.com/MultipleIntelligenceProfiles.htm)
We are gifted, talented, and have great leadership potential. It's the rest of the world that has the problem :D
God bless you,
There is still SO MUCH ignorance about these things. And the public schools may never "get" it.
There is LOTS of hope though. MOST of the people I go to college with have ADD/ADHD ( with or without Bipolar Disorder) One of my professors has BP and company.
We are in the computer sciences/engineering fields. Game design ( go figure), programming, networking, and my field is cyber security and forensics.
God loves geeks too :D
Many of us are musicians, writers, artists, ( several tattoo artists) And we may be the "oddballs", but everybody calls us when they have a problem. So for the younglings out there and their parents who struggle and think how will they ever get through life? Just like the rest of us are. We just need different water
They will find other people like them. Normal people go nuts around us when there are 2 or 3 of us together. We don't complete sentences, we constantly interupt each other and have 5 or 6 discussions at the same time. We say , oh yeah, did you, check this out, saw it. Imagine a whole class, and the teacher!
It's not easy. It can be excruciatingly difficult. But I know one thing else. We are fighters and we are stronger than "normal" people when it comes to sheer will. May not look like it. We may look like lumps under blankets and pillows, or losers. But we do things that would break a lot of other people inside.
OK, off my soapbox. I get a bit carried away. I rarely talk about the subject, because the world does not understand, and worse than that, they roll their eyes, think they do, and don't want to hear anything about it. They prefer to be ignorant.
Another GREAT tool I learned last semester is the SQ4R study method. There are many sites that dicsuss both. I saw immediate improvement in my grades, and I was much less overwhelmed with my material. I am teaching my kids how to study this way. It is much easier than "regular" studying, you learn more, and most important is you remember more at crunch time. With engineering classes, dense in technical material, this was a major help. And I had 98% and 100% test scores in my other classes.
Ok, enough blabbering!
But seriously, I think the people who have experience and knowledge have an obligation to help others be more productive and have better lives.
Maybe I should start a blog ( right!)
Have a wonderful weekend!!
Julie
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