Adhd studyblr.

19| law student| adhd|

[adhdcollegestudent]

My study tips (studying with ADHD)

Hi there! In this post I’ll be giving you some tips that made studying much easier for me and may help you too.

1.Many people already know this, but having any device that may be used as a distraction will 100% end up in you getting distracted and not doing what you have to do. For me, this has always been a struggle. I always forget to leave the phone out of the room and end up watching streams on twitch, my instagram feed, etc. However, I started forcing myself to leave the phone outside the place where I’m studying, and it really helped. 

2.Writing down what you have to do and study. I know, I know, pretty much everyone does this, but trust me, some of us need to be reminded. Write down your chores and the subjects you have to study!!!! I have a really hard time keeping an agenda or “journal” because I often forget to write down my stuff and end up not knowing the due dates for my essays, my exams, etc.

3.Breaking down the subjects. Sometimes you may get overwhelmed with the amount of stuff you’ve got to do. By dividing the subjects into little pieces the amount of work you’ve got to do is reduced.

4.Not leaving everything till the last moment. I used to be so bored and tired of doing all I could and getting no results whatsoever. As a result of this, I ended up leaving everything till the last moment, and I often forgot to turn in things. Imagine my face the next day trying to make excuses to the professor about why the day before I was unable to turn in my assignments. Trust me, not a nice experience.

5.Taking my notes in my laptop and then writing them down. I know this may seem like a lot of work, it really is. By writing things twice, once on your computer and then by hand you are automatically studying the subjects. P.S: write in black or blue, some people say writing in blue helps them study easier, for me I find it easier to write down in black in order to study.

I have many more tips, but I don’t want to write a thesis on it. I will write another post with more tips if you want me to!

[adhdcollegestudent]

What were my ADHD symptoms?

Hi there! If you’ve read my previous post you’ll know that early this year I was diagnosed with ADHD. I didn’t realize my symptoms were so clear, but according to my psychiatrist she saw them immediately. 

Disclaimer: ADHD symptoms may vary between individuals. You don’t need to show the same symptoms that I do in order to have ADHD. There are several types of ADHD that varies depending on the person and their brain’s chemical composition.

1.As you may have already guessed, the first and most relevant symptom in me was having difficulties focusing. Whenever I tried to study I found myself doing something else. For example, let’s say I had to study civil law. I sat down, opened my notes and tried to study. A few minutes later I found myself thinking of other things or directly just doing something else totally unrelated to what I was supposed to be doing.

2.I found very difficult taking the subway or bus to go to places I didn’t know. I am someone who lives in a very large city, which means I usually have to take public transport to go anywhere. I found it extremely scary to go out of my comfort zone when using public transports. For example, I normally go back home from uni by subway and trains, I know when I have to get on the train, where I have to go and where to look. But if I have to go somewhere that I haven’t gone before, it gives me terrible anxiety.

3.I also used to binge eat a lot. This has a lot to do with anxiety and a little less with ADHD, but it still is important. Feeling like something is wrong with you but you don’t know what it is gives you a lot of anxiety. My coping mechanism for this was eating, which ended up making me gain a lot of weight. 

4.I am not a social person, I have no problem in establishing social relationships but I don’t really need to go out of my way to do so. I am perfectly comfortable being alone, which many people find terrifying. However, due to my insecurities related to ADHD I often found myself isolating from other completely. 

5. Teacher often called my parents to tell them that I needed to pay attention in class and that I was a troublemaker. Let me tell you something, if there is something that I am not is a troublemaker. I might be hot tempered, but I am usually calmed and silent. I did find it extremely difficult to be silent during classes, I often got bored because I couldn’t stay focused for long. My parents didn’t understand how I could be one way in class and another way at home. 

6.During my school years I was often called dumb, stupid and many other names by classmates and teachers. I have spent years and years thinking I was dumb, that I couldn’t do things others did because I wasn’t as smart as they were, etc. I am not dumb nor stupid, I am a perfectly normal person who just has a little trouble focusing. 

There are many more symptoms you could have, but this are the ones that I saw easily. 

Before I end this post, I want to say that if you have ADHD you are not dumb, you are not a troublemaker, you are perfectly normal. There is nothing wrong with you and you shouldn’t let others bring you down. If you think you might have ADHD, go visit a doctor and get yourself checked out. 

I repeat, there is nothing wrong with ADHD, there is nothing wrong with me or with you.

[adhdcollegestudent]

How did I discover I had ADHD?

Ever since I was little I knew I had trouble paying attention and concentrating in class, teachers would yell at me and punish me for talking too much or for not doing much in their classes. However, my first years as a student passed by easily, but as I started high school where I’m from you start high school with 12 or so everything started to go downhill.

I started to fail most of my classes and my parents, although they supported me, started to get more and more angry. I didn’t understand what was going on, I was making the same effort as I was before. The teachers started saying my grades out loud to make fun of me, “the dumb one of the class”, and my classmates would find it extremely funny. 

My self esteem started to be affected and I often wondered if they were right, if I was really that dumb. At the same time all of this was taking place, I was depressed due to bullying when I was a few years younger, so this didn’t really help my situation.

My parents tried to help me by taking me to a specialist to check if I had ADHD. Those tests, as you may have already guessed, came out as inconclusive, meaning that they thought there was no ADHD or anything going on in my brain.

Skip ahead a few years, I’m in college, first semester of my second year. I try to cram everything so I can pass all the subjects. I fail four in the first sitting, I retake those exams. I fail again.

I had spent a whole month studying again for the resit, and I had managed to fail with lower grades than the first time! I went from a 4 to a 0.8 in one of my subjects. My parents didn’t know what was wrong, and they were visibly upset. 

A month later, my mom and I got into this big argument. Everything was finally coming down, everything around me was breaking down. I was depressed I must say all the times I have had depression it has been diagnosed by a profesional and I didn’t leave my room much. 

Thanks to that big argument my mom and I decided to seek help from a profesional, and see what is wrong with me. My parents then get in contact with an ADHD association in the city where I’m from and they get the name of a really good psychiatrist.

A few weeks later I finally go to see this doctor and she tells me what I already knew, I have serious ADHD and I have struggled with it my whole life without knowing it. She then proceeds to let me know that there’s nothing wrong with me and that lots of people suffer from this disease. I finally realize that I’m not dumb, all those names that people would call me aren’t true. I have no control over what goes on in my brain and there’s nothing I could’ve done.

The day after my appointment I start to take my medication and it starts to help me, a lot. 

Fast forward to the second semester of my second year, the world gets caught up in a global pandemic. Students all across the globe have to study from home and professors need to teach through the internet. This, if it had taken place before I was diagnosed, was a recipe for disaster. But, I am proud to say that I passed every single subject I had, including a subject I had to retake from the first year. 

I know this is a lot of info and most of you may already have left the post, but for those who stayed, life isn’t always what it seems, mental health is really important and you should take care of yourselves. ADHD is nothing to be ashamed of, I am a proud ADHD college student who has managed to overcome her insecurities regarding studying that is and is doing much better.

I will be making another post soon about the symptoms I experienced in order to help other out, so stick around for that post!

Hope this helped some of you!