ADHD and grad school

[danieleWrites]

Support for my p33ps!

 

So, classes don't start until the 26th, but due to the wonders of email, assignments have trickled in. I've been doing my pre-reading and re-acquainting myself with a horrid fact of my life. Reading every word is like trying to sit still on a live ant pile. In literature studies, skipping words is a bad plan. Skipping sentences is even worse. I like reading pulp fiction (for lack of a better term) because you can skip entire paragraphs and not miss much. It's like leaving a soap opera for a decade and only needing 15 minutes to catch back up.

 

Managing ADHD is important. How do you do it?

 

I've learned a few tricks over the decades (old coot here), which I apply liberally and update for the information age. Librivox.org is sweet, sweet joy. Reading aloud to myself means drinking a lot of water, but picking up every word. Marginalia and annotation is fabbo, but sometimes, the only way I can unsnarl a sentence that my eyes do not want to read is to write it out. Not terribly effective long term as it's too time consuming, so I only do so when absolutely necessary.

 

Medication turns out to be necessary for me, so I'm part of the Adderall generation. Maybe the Royals will give me a 105-game suspension, in which I do not have to see headlines about the Royals. PEDs for grad students, go team!

 

Organization is my religion. Messy desk = messy brain. I make friends with the learning disability accommodations people because, if nothing else, the option to test separately with added time reduces my stress. I've never used testing accommodation for ADHD, but I have used for my other issue.

 

But focusing for extended periods of time? Oi vey. Even with meds, a cool room with soothing light, and the quiet white noise of a fan, it's still like sitting on a live ant pile. Even when I'm reading the things I love. I had to read Das Kapital with an ice pack on my neck. I don't know if that's physiological or psychological, but it helps.

 

I wouldn't give it up, though, oddly enough. I can't multi-task anymore than anyone else can, but I am, by nature, cross-disciplined. One focus is not satisfying, practically impossible, so I must have two or more. Is that ADHD? Dunno, but two majors helped. I could go from Marx to Milton with not only nary a missed beat, but with a renewed sense of energy for both texts. Of course, that's all channeled together. I looked at Milton sociologically and I looked at Marx's prose with New Criticism. Thankfully, someone has already invented the sociology of literature, so I have precedent for recalcitrant professors.

 

How do you soothe the savage breast? Tame the wild brain? Teach yourself to focus?

 

How does ADHD effect your scholarship? Does it make you a better academic or is it only a struggle? Something else?

 

How does ADHD effect your relationships with your cohort? Professors? Students? Or does it? My brain is one of those 20% that makes it impossible for me to sit still for a long period of time. Study groups? Yeah, can be interesting. Sharing an office? Meetings with advisers, mentors, professors, where you're supposed to be professional-ish and brilliant?

 

Do you sign up with the accommodations center, so the professors you deal with are notified of your ADHD? Why or why not?

 

 

[nohika]

Sooo I'm just entering graduate school (this Thursday, actually), so I don't know wholly how much it's going to effect me, but I'm already getting hints of it as my assistantship's started.

 

I have to have a to-do list visible somewhere. Mine will probably be on my 'notes' section of this giant whiteboard calender I have right next to me. Which also has things on it. I'm contemplating scheduling things (9-9:30 this, etc), but I'm not sure that'll work for me.

 

As much as I want to take notes electronically, it's looking more and more like that won't work for me. I'm too easily distracted when I'm working on a computer. On the bright side I've got a binder for each class, dividers for each binder, and have a nice cheap printer to print out any articles I'll need to. Which will be a lot. Sigh. I'll still have my computer on while working - I like virtual company - but it will be awkward to reach and I'll have to work for it, which makes it less desirable and I'll focus more. With things printed I can just walk away and not worry about it. I do have an iPad mini I like to read on, but anything I need to read intensively will be harder. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with articles I need to take notes on. Ugh. Write the notes, then type them, or just type them straight away. The goal would be to keep everything electronic, but we'll see.

 

Routine and order are stupidly important. So we'll see how that works. I'm living with a cohortmate, so we'll see how that goes. Going to try a study group for stats. My adviser is similar to me in terms of the way her mind works, so that helps.

 

I don't plan to ask for accommodations or mention my 'problem'. I've spent years coping with it. It's nothing new, really. Just new challenges to tackle.

[Lisa44201]

Check out the Pomodoro App; essentially, it's a timer. You get 20 minutes on task, then take a 5 minute break. After the third on-task, you get a longer break. Do not work through the break - get up, put the book down, and walk away. I've found it helps.

 

I take notes electronically; I turn my modem off in class, I have never asked for extra accommodations; I don't plan on starting now. Ritalin is as close to extra accommodations as I'm going to get. 

[jrockford27]

As suggested by Lisa44201, "time boxing" can be effective and there are apps for it, of course.

 

If you've gotten this far, surely you've developed techniques and rituals over time to help you complete your work?  I am also a lit student who suffers from ADD as well as anxiety.  Both can impede my work, but over time I learned how to manage them not by trying to cure myself of them (I don't like to think of myself as curing parts of my personality), but rather how to play to my strengths.  Mine have served me well throughout undergrad, and I imagine I'll just continue to apply them in grad school, they're basic principles.

 

For example, the most important thing is to give yourself plenty of time to work.  This may mean missing out on leisure stuff, but it's the price you pay.  If you give yourself ample time, then you can allow for lost time due to distractions.  When I'm to sit down to work, I have little "rituals" that I go through every time to remind my brain that it's time to work.  Depending on the subject, type of reading, era of the reading, I have different music and perhaps different food/drinks that get me primed for work.  If it's a paper or exam preparation, I try to get into a competitive mindset and get myself "pumped up", before setting about my work, which is dorky, but has helped me a bunch.  Confession: I haven't written a paper or studied for a test without Young Jeezy's album "The Inspiration" being involved somehow.

 

Also, I think I proofread the final draft every major paper I turned in as an undergrad at least 5 times.

 

As an undergrad, my classmates would ask me how I got an A on every single paper I wrote, and my answer was simple: I did it the same way every time.  Obviously every paper was different, and required a different intellectual approach, but I had my process down to a kind of razor precision.

 

If it's reading, I always take notes in pencil in a notebook.  I find that it's far too easy to zone out while typing and simply forget what you're doing and not retain a thing, as well as the built in distractions a computer provides.  I think pencil and paper forces you to think more about what it is you're reading and writing down.

 

Sometimes I lose my train of thought, and I say "focus, focus" to myself, it's weird, but I find that helps me snap back into it.  

Edited August 20, 2013 by jrockford27

[Lisa44201]

i also shift around in my seat a lot, and fidget; changing my posture every so often gives me chance to wiggle around. I have a Koosh ball in my backpack (that toy from the '80s) that I will play with on lecture-intensive days; having something that's so variably textured gives me an outlet in that regard, which helps me focus. YMMV.

[nohika]

'It's weird, but it works' sums up just about every coping mechanism I've got that works for me. I find myself saying it rather often lately when I explain to a cohortmate why I'm doing something totally ridiculous.

[danieleWrites]

I register with disability services because of a physical issue that required testing accommodation (a different room, no added time). I never needed to use it for ADHD because I've got strategies that work for me and I don't need extended time to complete an exam. I feel that, for my circumstances only, and ADHD accommodation with extended time would be unfair, and therefore inappropriate. I registered my ADHD because of the meds. I'm a bit paranoid, and while I have a prescription, I wanted to make sure my bases were totally covered if anyone ever questioned my use of the meds (it's the controlled substance thing).

 

I've had students fresh from high school come through my comp courses trying to by mature and getting through college on their own, without any special help, even though they qualify. Some of them do fine. A few flounder and need accommodation that I couldn't extend because they never registered. Everyone has to decide for themselves what works best for them.

[environmentisnothippy]

Hey yeah I fit in this crowd too! haha

 

Yeah I think you all mentioned the things I do too to manage.  Medication, I'm part of the concerta crowd, helps me to just focus on one thing at a time, and organization is ESSENTIAL.  People joke with me about how I can seem so OCD once I have the concentration down (with meds) but if I am not trying to organize myself I know I won't get anything done.  Flashcards, lists, and rewriting my notes is practically all I feel like I do, haha.  Also, what I seem to still have trouble with is all the technology.  Things like Blackboard are great with everything in place and electronic, but I find I still have things scattered in seperate areas, with hardcopy notes everywhere, and then papers and homework and discussions online.  Its hard for me because I want them all in the same place (and my printer broke).  But, I have been doing a lot more things online, which helps to keep it all together, and, hopefully I will get a new working printer for my bday (next week!) which will help me so much!

[kateausten]

I made it through my first semester without too many issues.  I did do a lot of staring at a blank word document for many hours until I had to start panicking to get the paper finished in time -- that was a lot of unnecessary stress but my grades were fine in the end.  I took the minimum full courseload and didn't work and was able to get all As without any medication.  I've been lucky in that testing and writing are two of the things I actually do well -- it's juggling a ton of classes and homework that I have trouble with.  So, grad classes, with the focus on a couple of exams or several papers during the semester and no graded busywork, have worked for me.

 

This semester I may have to do some medication.  I am TAing and have my own class, so when I blank out and go on autopilot for a few seconds, my students notice.  I've written incorrect things on the board and had students correct me a couple of times or had to trail off into English (I teach a language) because I just couldn't think straight to finish my sentence.  Unfortunately teaching isn't one of the areas where you can make up for ADHD by putting extra time in - you are supposed to be present for the whole time you are in front of the class and those 10 second brain freezes can cause problems.  (Side note - I have considered telling my students so that they understand that this is not a reflection of my competence or how much I put into their class but refrained thinking that it's not professional to burden them with my medical info.  Thoughts on this?)  It's helpful having my TA office on campus, but I pretty much can't get work done when I'm not alone in there.  I'm also taking a full courseload on top of a 50% appointment, which is absolutely not a choice I'd have made, but because of various factors it worked out that any other way would entail major financial or lifestyle sacrifices. 

 

My other major ADHD related concern is how it might be seen by professors that I am not taking on any optional extra responsibility or attending many events right now.  I am pretty much at or past my capacity with my courseload and teaching load.  My capacity is lower than many others' because I can't function without adequate sleep, time for a healthy lifestyle (like exercise and cooking), and downtime.  I know that grad students can be expected to have much more bandwidth and juggle as many responsibilities as they can possibly get, and take the all nighters and lack of personal time as part of the deal, but I can't function that way.  I worry that this will reflect in how I'm seen by faculty in the department - I wish that I could just take a manageable courseload/appointment so that I could participate more fully in everything but it wasn't an option. 

 

As much as it hurts to concentrate for so many hours in one day, forcing myself to get all my work done on weekdays is something that helps me tremendously.  Being able to take full weekends off like I did when I was working keeps me from feeling insanely overwhelmed and overstimulated. Plus, when I go back on Monday and all my classmates are complaining about how they did homework all weekend, it makes the nights I spent going to bed at 9 and rising early to get back in my office when they were out partying (by which I mean going out to a bar at 8pm, lol) feel totally worth it

 

I do my readings on a tablet -- it saves paper versus printing everything out, but I find I'm more focused than when on my laptop.  Somehow the temptation to tab over to Pinterest or something is too much, but I can handle the temptation to completely close out of what I'm doing and open something else, like is necessary on a tablet.  Plus I can put all my textbooks on it and not have to carry anything heavy.