paying attention

(no subject)

Thanks for the driving advice, everyone! I passed.  Thank God!
I also got a smartphone, and I was wondering if anyone finds any apps in particular to be useful.  I find GPS and Evernote to probably be the most useful, and something called Astrid Task.  
owl

cocktail party speech

What exactly IS “cocktail party speech”? I see the term used all the time on NLD websites, but I still don’t know what they really mean by it. From what I can tell, it basically boils down to “talk that neurotypicals find boring or can’t make sense of,” but in that case, why isn’t a compulsion to make small talk considered a sign of a disorder?
paying attention

(no subject)

Hey! I'm not sure if this community is still active, but I am really struggling at work to stay focused, organized, and patient.  I forget things all the time and I've been accused of not listening.  My supervisor is sure I have ADHD (which is possible)...

Do you have any tips for surviving the office?

Thanks!
excited
  • mel06

(no subject)

Hello All! My name is Melissa, and I'm a para-educator for a special ed department in a public high school. I'm part way through my master's degree and teaching certificate, and for one of my classes I'm doing some research on what people think about including multimedia and technology in instruction for students with IEPs, FSPs, and 504 plans. I'd really appreciate any and all participation in my project.

If you are the PARENT or GUARDIAN of a child with an IEP, FSP, or 504 plan, please fill out my short, anonymous survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9GMN…

If you are a STUDENT or a FORMER STUDENT with an IEP, FSP, or 504 plan, please fill out my short, anonymous survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9BTK…

If you are a certificated TEACHER, please fill out my short, anonymous survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/93NB…

Thank you so much for all your help!

Resources for people who never got early intervention?

I was diagnosed with NVLD when I was in college, around 2003, I think.

My neuropsychologist gave me no real suggestions for how to cope besides "read into a tape recorder and play it back" to help with my reading comprehension -- which, by the way, does NOT work for me, because I start to treat audio recordings that aren't music like background noise and tune them out, even when I'm actively trying to listen. (What I've recently discovered is this sort of can work, but only if I am following along with the text in front of me, and that was only because I felt like experimenting with audiobooks and following plot. Way to go, doc.)

I've recently had major communication issues with one of my (now possibly ex-) friends, because ze tries to explain things to me and I *do not understand*. Nor do I know how to have hir explain it to me so that I can comprehend what ze's trying to say.

Clearly I didn't magically pick up all the coping skills and workarounds I could have if I'd been diagnosed as a child. I feel really lost. I literally don't know where to start, nor do I know exactly what I need help with without having a list of common NLVD related deficits in front of me.

So, do y'all have resources you can point me to? My normally great google-fu has failed me.

Or do you have suggestions of things you've learned that help you deal with a particular problem NVLD presents for you?

Thanks!
  • Current Mood
    curious curious

Insurance and financial woes

Hi everyone,

I know that this is a very quiet com but I’d like to get some advice in regards to financial matters as affected by mental health. I should probably state for the record that I’m Australian so there may be certain things that I am/am not eligible for as opposed to the many Americans here, but I’d still like advice; I may be able to find some equivalent, you never know.

Some years ago I took out a car loan. I also took out insurance covering the loan itself in case of illness, disability and such. And I made certain to keep six to nine months ahead on payments at all times.

Early last year I had a sudden decline in mental health. I’d had cyclic problems since I was a child in single digits, but for reasons I won’t go into these were never addressed. While I’d previously attempted to seek treatment as an adult it’d never worked, and I’d never been actually diagnosed with anything. The closest I came to treatment was my GP writing me a script for anti depressants (and weren’t the side effects fun!) which I quickly stopped taking, and me finally being diagnosed with NLD a few years back. However, this latest bout was the worst I’d had in fifteen years and it hit just as I took a new job. I was unable to fulfil my contract and became unemployed. On the upside I finally was diagnosed as Bipolar/Major Depressive Disorder, so after all these years I was finally able to get some treatment. I still have about three months missing from my memory about that time and the side effects from the meds are still giving me trouble, but I finally felt I was able to return to work in November.

Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, finding employment is proving difficult and in the meantime my finances are screwing me up against a wall. I am on Newstart payments with a sickness component. The sickness component runs out in two weeks time when I’ll be referred to a consultant who can maybe help me in finding suitable work. I’m very much looking forward to it. However, this does not help my current financial position. I have finally come to the end of my prepaid amounts on my car loan and my bank manager is saying “GIMMIE!” The financial pressure I’m under is pretty huge. Family and credit cards are helping me a lot, but both of them are reaching limits.

I went in to speak to my local bank branch, and found them very helpful. As I said, I’d taken out insurance with the loan and I was told that my circumstances would probably enable me to claim it. I was given the relevant forms and went to my psych. While she filled them in she made a number of points, which basically come down to this: if I put down ‘mental illness’ on any official documents, this will follow me for life. It will affect my ability to get private health insurance. It will affect my ability to get home loans. It will affect any number of things down the track. It’s unfair, it’s prejudice, it’s often illegal, it’s the way the wretched world goes.

So basically I have two options:

A: Claim the insurance against the car loan. It’ll take a very large chunk out of what I owe and will relieve a lot of immediate pressure on me.

B: Not claim and avoid long term stigma that will affect some important future goals.

It’s really a matter of time; either I get screwed short term, or I get screwed long term. Both of these are very difficult positions. Can anyone familiar with these issues offer some advice, suggestions, or even just share their story?



(btw, cross-posting this to the nldadult discussion group; apologies to those who get this twice)
drawing

*facepalm*

Is anybody else here terribly bad at....

video games?

I know, what the hell does this have to do with NLD? Except, I think it does, since my hands do not want to seem to react in time to the game; I have a hard time remembering which control does what, and overall I'm just wildly uncoordinated.