Amer. Dis. Act. and Company Policies | ADHD Information

Feeling very frustrated right now so if I come across that way I apologize in advance. Quick background. Dx'd about 3 months ago. On adderallXR 30mg. Med is great but working really hard to make adjustments and assessing where I could make changes in habits that would help so that I can limit or emliminate meds.

One of the main areas I have probelms with are conversations. I can talk to ppl for whatever amount of time and walk away without any idea what I should of or did get out of it. Kind of a foggy feeling. This happens a lot were the conversations are long like meetings at the company I work at. I work in a I.T. dept. and am very sensory orientated in that I can focus if topics are presented visually or if environments are in some way stimulating. I thought I would get a voice recorder and use it for both personal notes as well as to record meetings. This threw up a red flag immediately with me because of recording other people and how I could go about that. First I wanted to find out from our I.T. Security department if they had issues with it since it is a form of data. They do not but he did say that I cannot do it for legal reasons. Our company, a very large one, with a very large legal dept., has very strict policies on types of data, retention, overall mgmt of that data as it relates to law, and of course there are the consent laws which I know vary from state to state. Basically these are the ones you hear when you call a customer service number saying they will be recording your conversation. In summary he said I cannot record meetings with or without consent due to our company policy.

Feeling very aggravated because all I am trying to do here is become more productive at work. I really don't need this for personal use. I also feel I am doing this because of my professionally diagnosed ADD which is covered by the ADA. Another piece I wanted to add is that I did this because when we have meetings there aren't any policies around making meeting notes that contain summaries, to do's, deadlines etc. Nobody does them. Nobody wants to do them which I can't understand. I was thinking of doing these myself but it's hard enough for me to focus on a meeting and be constructive in it. If you take that and add in me writing notes throughout I might as well not go to the mtg. Thus the voice recorder. It takes "notes" for me automatically, I can be constructive in the meeting, and be able to review/build on the voice recording.

I guess this is a losing battle because I don't think there is anyway that I can change my company policy without going through serious trouble which in turn may jeopordize my employment, which I think people in "Corporate America" can understand. That and I don't want to cause a stink about this. I would prefer to keep my diagnoses private. My director, not my supervisor, is aware of my diagnosis and I haven't mentioned a word of this to him. If anyone could provide any ideas or thoughts I would appreciate it.

Sorry for the long post. It's just so frustrating dealing with this.newpotato38596.7890972222Understandable question. When I say great it's because the help that the med does provide is better than what I have had in the past. It acts as a catalyst. That to me is a huge improvement and therefore great. Realistic expectations of any med in my opinion and I think others will agree is that a med is just one part of the puzzle, not a complete solution. It takes a lot of different changes to overcome the symptoms of ADD.

Lastly, my goal is to stop taking meds and instead make adjustments to my life and habits that negate my ADD.

Hope that helps.

Newpotato-

Thanks for the response. I better understand now. Certainly, in my experience, exercise tends to do wonders to my overall attitude, mental stability, and often..ability to focus.  It's one thing I really should maintain..even as I enter the realm of being medicated.

Thanks for helping moderate my expectations, though.

:-)

Well the final verdict is that due to consent laws, not corporate policy, and the fact that in order for me to record meetings I would have to tell everyone, I can't/won't be recording meetings. Tied into having to tell everyone I thought about how I would feel if someone told them they would be recording me in a mtg. Oh well. Just another hurdle to overcome.

Hmmm, you bring up a good point.  I also work in an IT environment.  I didn't think about not being able to record meetings for such a reason.  But I can see that is a reality, knowing the way IT works.

I guess if I get a voice recorder it'll just be for my own personal notes/ideas/and such.

Here's what I started doing - I've told only a couple friends about my diagnosis.  But with co-workers, when we have meetings to discuss action items and such.  I jot down the list (try to prepare before the mtg as much as possible, saves on the writing) and I try to write just enough to remind me of the whole point.  Then at the end of the meeting, I say to the co-worker that "I want to make sure I got the information correct", and then I read it back to them. 

I did it this morning.  "This is what you'll work on, this is what I'll work on, and these items we're waiting on..." 

This is more difficult in a larger meeting but I try to follow the same idea, such as "date, document name, Bob (person that was speaking", that way I can look at it and say "I don't remember the details of what I need on this, so I can contact Bob and ask him about the document and the date".  It sounds better to say "Bob, what needs to be done with the document by this date?"  Versus, "Jerry, do you remember that there's something that I need to do, I don't know with what, when or who mentioned it..."

Just some ideas that I've been working with myself that I'm finding some success with. 

Autumnstar

NewPotato-

I presume I am about to go on meds because I have all the typical ADD problems.

My question to you is: 'how can the meds (adderall) be "great", if you still have issues with focusing,remembering, multi-tasking etc." What exactly does Adderall do for you?

Thanks..I am very curious about this.

-Fr33W1ll