I was in the disabilities program, but now I write endless, long reports, so this one hits a bit close to home.

More than one way to the top I guess...

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 18 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Thanks to crippling undiagnosed ADHD (inattentive) plus insomnia, depression, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder*, I was in both the gifted and disabilities groups during my public school days.

Which lead to weird mental whiplash like being given an aptitude test battery and scoring post-college level on almost everything with a reported IQ three points short of genius (which is how you know that test is bullshit, ha), except the reason I was given said test was because I was on the verge of flunking out of high school due to being incapable of doing any work.

I'd have killed for the ability to simply focus and get things done. Intelligence is nothing without a matching work ethic, or whatever you want to call a functional dopamine system.

* Mini-rant: I'm half-convinced this so-called "ODD" was solely the result of a lack of sleep. I remember nearly passing out every day at school, and the main symptom I display when tired is a lack of patience for everything when I'm normally the most laid-back person imaginable. The instant I started college I became a perfect 4.0 student, and the only major difference from before was that I got to start the day at a sane hour.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] [S] 4 points 2 days ago

    Are you me? I score really high on reading etc. I really suffered with anything that wasn't engaging. I was SO bored in school. Only after learning more I realized I more than likely have the inattentive brand of ADHD, but I've never been formally diagnosed. I had bad anxiety but the meds both helped with that and the lack of focus. Throw in some coping mechanisms learned across decades and here I am, a shitlord on Lemmy and a successful day job

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    G&T was just a holding pen for neurodivergent kids. Change my mind.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    Part of it is that, but part of it is that can ruin a kid is they are kept in a non-academically challenging environment. Kids that should have been in G&T programs but weren't seem to complain a lot more about not developing certain skills because they never needed to practice them in school.

    Also, in a lot of schools, this is how they triage the kids who are definitely going to college and pulling them from the corrupting influence of the general population.

  • source
  • parent