School Problems! | ADHD Information
Now that I've alienated many people on this board I have more words of wisdom
.
I think my hyperactivity may be making me too aggressive in the classroom. I use it stay focused in class. Which also means I'm constantly raising my hand and constantly projecting my opinion and sometimes interrupting and I think it's making others feel uncomfortable. How do I solve this? Class participation is a good thing, right? And I need it stay focused. But how do I do this without imposing on other students or the professor?
I'd like to make friends this year! (we'll see).
[QUOTE=cheekydeeky]Now that I've alienated many people on this board
I have more words of wisdom.
I think my hyperactivity may be making me too aggressive in the classroom. I use it stay focused in class. Which also means I'm constantly raising my hand and constantly projecting my opinion and sometimes interrupting and I think it's making others feel uncomfortable. How do I solve this? Class participation is a good thing, right? And I need it stay focused. But how do I do this without imposing on other students or the professor?
I'd like to make friends this year! (we'll see).
[/QUOTE]Hi cheeky, nice to meet you.
It sounds like whatever med you are taking may not be addressing the impulse control part? I do the same thing when I am in class and not on a med. With Ritalin and Adderal, I can act in a very controlled way and think before I act...often just deciding not to act.
My dr. said that he is persistent and will get to the bottom of this, but right now (as I posted in another thread), it looks like Adderal is not getting me "unstuck" from doing my procrastinating type behaviors (emailing and surfing the web--I am almost getting more absorbed into it..yikes). I meet with him again in 2 weeks...he is a dr. from the Amen clinic and is VERY big on knowing precisely which part of the brain he needs to treat to get the optimal results.
If you haven't already, maybe you would be interested in taking the "subtype" test on the Amen Clinic website to take to your dr. to give him an idea of what to treat as well? Apparently problems that originate in different parts of our heads respond to different medications better. I guess, duh...but, anyway. Ignore if you have gone through all of this already...this approach is fairly new to me though. http://www.amenclinic.com/ac/default.asp
These are great ideas.
Boggled, thank for the encouragement and the professor point-of-view. Chaz, thanks for the practical, no-nonsense "been there" advice.
You guys are great.
Cheekydeeky
Hi Cheek!
You havent alienated yourself, far from it. We all have bad or stressful times, crikeys you should see my behaviour lately. I even stopped posting for a while because I felt angry and wanted to hurt people - we all have times when we feel that all the crap inside cant stay there anymore.
And so what if you dont make friends, are you there to learn or make friends? - they are just jealous of your huge intellect 
People will either like you for how you are or they wont! Just keep doing your best
I tend to agree with Chazinmo, that you need to figure out how often comments are warranted in a class, and aim for that level of participation. I have found though that many classes have very few outspoken students and the general level of participation is likely much lower that the optimum. In these cases, your questions and comments help a great deal to encourage other classmates to participate, and are likely welcomed by the instructor and other students. Using the level of participation by others is not necessarily the best measure of how much YOU should participate.
I think what you want is to participate without being disruptive, right? In a class with a very structured lecture, you may try to just write these things down as you think of them, then during a question period ask those that haven't been answered by the end of the lecture. Try to take cues from the instructor, if they encourage discussion and questions during class they will usually pause for a moment at regular intervals to encourage students to speak up. If so, feel free to speak, especially if others don't.
Easier said than done, I realize, but I thought it might help to have an opinion from the instructors side of the classroom. I, for one, would sure rather see a bunch of interested students like yourself 
than a bunch of zombies, or worse, reading the newspaper or talking to friends in class!
Hi Cheeky,
Here is an idea that may help:
Figure out how many times is appropriate to "participate" during each class session. Maybe it works out well if everone in the calss makes 3 comments per class. Whatever it is, know what you comment/question limit is per class session.
Then somewhere on the notebook or notepad you use to take notes during class, have that many little checkboxes somewhere. Each time you comment or ask a question, put a check in the box. When your boxes are all checked, you're done contributing to the class!
If you are like me, you have a lot of ideas and questions that pop into your head at 100 miles an hour. Most people are shy, reserved, and seem to wait forever to put the pieces together and get on to the next idea. So it is difficult to wait for them.
I used to find myself thinking "hurry up and just spit it out"! So I would end up talking more than anyone else just because I lost patience waiting for them to speak up. In doing this I often failed to recognize how much I was actually talking. I had a co-worker who was taking the class with me and one night she counted how many times I talked. I talked as much as the rest of the class combined!
Good luck!
Hi Bluebird:
I'm on lexapro but I need to be on Strattera or Adderall and I can't until I get heart issues cleared up!! and it's taking forever!!!! So, I'm unmedicated in the class which is crazy. (I'm very hyper today.)
Cheeky
Cheeky, I also talked a lot in certain classes. I never opened my mouth in others but I had a few where you couldn't shut me up. I apologized to a few of my classmates once for monopolizing the whole class that day. They informed me that not only did they appreciate not being called upon to speak, they also learned a lot from the discussions that were generated about certain topics. Apparently there were questions they had but were afraid to ask, feeling they would seem stupid but which were clarified during the discussion times. They begged me to talk more. Sometimes it helps others when you have the ability to speak before you realize how stupid you might sound! 
Why not ask your instructors whether you are talking too much? If one thinks you do at times, ask him to signal you somehow to let you know he needs to regain control. You can be comfortable talking and know that he will let you know at those times when he is trying to steer the class in another direction or wants to find out what some of the others know.
I never participate in class unless I'm being graded on it. :)