ADD & Math | ADHD Information
I hate math, I'm a biology major at school and out of all the organic chem and bio classes nothing gave me more problems than calculus 2. Math can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. [QUOTE=ksgcsg]I have a terrible time figuring out time spans like for example, I am a loan officer and I need to know a person's past employment dating back 2 years, they tell me one job from current-1/2003, job before that from 11/2003-9/2004, and so on. I can't seem to sort that information out in my head and determine how many months I am working with to be sure I have a total of 2 years. I would have to get out a calendar and count back. It seems so simple but, I just can't seem to get it....
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I am a disaster when it comes to relating to time. I can barely think beyond the hour that I am living in. I have a hard time with calendars, time of day, how to manage time--just anything relating to times, days, and dates. I'm forever forgetting important dates (even though I write them down), commitments, holidays, b-days. I can't tell you the # of times I went to school on a non school day. UGH!!!!!
TIME! God, & there is so much of it!!
I majored in Accounting in college. Big mistake.
I had no problem with the theory of math in HS or accounting in collgege. The problem is with the long strings of numbers and the very boring un-creatine detail work involved.
I am no longer in the Accounting profession.
I have a real problem figuring math in my head. Like some of the most simple problems I confuse myself on and end up with a calculator. I would be embarrassed to even give an example.I have a terrible time figuring out time spans like for example, I am a loan officer and I need to know a person's past employment dating back 2 years, they tell me one job from current-1/2003, job before that from 11/2003-9/2004, and so on. I can't seem to sort that information out in my head and determine how many months I am working with to be sure I have a total of 2 years. I would have to get out a calendar and count back. It seems so simple but, I just can't seem to get it....
I'm the same way with time and so many other things.... I just am not sure how to improve on it.
I enjoy math (sorry), wouldnt say I am great at it , but I enjoy it. I dont like bookkeeping however, cannot ever get those columny thingys to balnce 
I used to be quite good at math in my younger days, but I rarely use it now, I had to work on tuckshop the other day and I had to use a calculate to add up the small amounts - 
, my poor brain has not been used for so long, it has cobwebs.
Use it or loose it.
Rae, no need to say sorry. I think thats great that you can enjoy something your not great at, but I bet your pretty darn good at it!
My problem is that I feel like a failure if I can't do what I set out to do "GREAT". And bookkeeping? I think my mom is the only one on earth, or for that matter any other planet who likes bookkeeping.
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The brain, use it or lose it. You hit the nail on the head!
Math is something as far out to me as the furthest solar system! But algebra I passed with an A. Simple math makes me feel like a total idiot! When we we're playing the card game UNO, with another couple, the cards were all put in front of me to count, since I had won the hand and everyone had lots of cards. My S/O knows about my ADD, but not to many other ppl know. All the #'s on those cards just boggled my mind so bad I almost had a panic attack! I had a couple of drinks, so I said " I won, I'm drunk, so y'all can do the countin'. It worked. I lost the game on porpose, so that wouldn't happen again. MATH SUCKS.
Anything that involves math, I try to avoid. But maybe having a good math teacher in school might have helped. If they understood that it might have taken me longer b/c of my dyslexia. But all I ever heard was " your to smart to make such stupid mistakes" MATH SUCKS!
I may try a childrens math book. Who knows, it just may help me understand the principal behind all the confusion. But for now, math IS a 4 letter word, that for me is worse than the "big F"
( but for me, f**k is more useful than math!) I use that often
with New Year's Day at the top.
In a book on NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) it said that you
can change how you visualize time and that for some people
this can help a lot.
For example, one person had habitually visualized the past
as behind himself, and the future in front.
This meant that he couldn't deal with the past because he
couldn't imagine seeing it. (or she, I forget.)
I realized a couple of years ago that my year-clock was skewed: it shows the 6-month period Jan-June as the same
length as the 4-month period Sept-Dec. I've been trying to
rework it. I thought of dividing the year into four 3-month seasons but
have been changing my mind as to when they should begin and end.
Who cares if you need to use a calendar? I use pencil and
paper to do arithmetic. I suppose I could learn to multiply big
numbers in my head, but it would take time and effort and
I have other things to do. When I do arithmetic, I use my own methods
which use even less short-term memory than the methods I
was taught in school. It's easier and more pleasant that way. Possibly more accurate, too.
My PDA has a feature that displays a week's activities as a sort of graph (spaces filled in if there's an event happening). So I can see at a glance how busy I am or
whether there's a conflict. If I get around to looking at it :-)[quote]Time: I visualize the year like a circle, like a clock with New Year's Day at the top.
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damn this sounds so true to me... thanks for this phrase, i'll use it to make my friends figure what's wrong with adhd
this year, all my notes were between 0 and 2 at maths, i ended up with a 0.5/20 at the exam...
Math...time...aaggghhh
I practice my mental math by constantly deducting the 20 minutes I have added to every clock in my house to figure out what time it really is!
tdsilly- HAHAHAHA! Man, I know what you mean!!!! I did the same thing for sooo long. It confused me more than helped me!!Hi all, Interesting subjects. I don't particularly like math. Certainly can't do it in my head but I didn't really struggle with it. Of couse I did not push myself either and only took the required Algebra and Geometry in high school. Skipped college all together. Just seemed like it would take way to much effort. I read somewhere, forgive me for not remembering which one it is, that either Algebra or Geometry is really the forte' of people with ADHD. It just makes sense to us.
Don't get me started on time. I am always leaving my house at the time I should be arriving somewhere. I can't for the life of me figure out how long it will take me to do something. Some of this of couse is caused by procrastinating on getting started on just about everything. So far my meds haven't seemed to make any difference with time. I think I need a higher dose of Adderall so I am still optimistic this will improve once I see my psychiatrist and get my prescription changed. -Gettingagrip-
I like Math a lot- well, not the calculations. Just the proofs and probability stuff. I'm horrible at getting exact answers opn paper- always lose track of where I am on the paper. Hate Statictics. Not too fond of calculus. Number theory is fun though. Sometimes I sit for a while trying to multiply two two digit numbers in my head. I get the right answer if you give enough time, but the amount of time it takes makes the feat less impressive. Unimpressive. When I'm bored, or on a bus, I multiply numbers in my head. Sometimes. By the time I know what 68 x 73 is, the ride is over. Commutes suck.
Hi I have ADHD and work in schools helping kids to do maths and english.… I am c*** at both.… When you are trying to work the sums out at work you are also putting yourself under pressure thinking ahhhhh how do I do it.… I know that. … last week I phoned a friend from the loo because I forgot how to do a sum I was helping a child with!. Write on a piece of paper how the sum is to be worked out.. stick it somewhere safe e.g. inside a draw.. and when asked to work something out, if you get stuck look in draw (pretend to look for a pencil/info/etc and sneak a peek) it refreshed your grey matter and takes the stress off ... you have no idea what I have stuck in my pencil case .. Keep it up
.. Moon6
PS used spell checker ALL the time .. I am in a new profession, as a loan officer (mortgage). I love my job
but, i really have a hard time with numbers... It takes me soooooo long
to figure out what the hell is going on and sometimes I can't even
figure out how to come up with the solution. Any suggestions on how to
overcome this? Also, I would just like to hear that I am not alone and
not stupid because of it!
Oh yes....math....THAT!I had I-S-S-U-E-S with math for as long as I can remember. I cried and got yelled at by my dad who was sitting at the table teaching me my times tables, I cheated in geometry in high school, and I almost didn't graduate from college because I put off Math 105 until the very last quarter.
But, I weirdly got A's in Math 3 times in my life (algebra in jr. high, Algebra 101, and Math 109 in college).
Wanna know what made the difference? The Teacher.
Yep. I finally passed Math to graduate from college and I passed with an A. A teacher can make ALL the difference. Know what else? I have a job now that is heavily associated with statistics...talk about irony. When I have a problem, there is a really, really brilliant engineer I always go to for an explanation. He breaks things down for me like he does for his children. I ALWAYS come away understanding the concenpt. There are other engineers at work that I wouldn't even bother to ask where the restroom is...ugh. It would take them 3 days and bore me to death.
The good teachers have a knack for making the concepts seem simple. I would go so far as to say that my ADHD medication would make it easier to learn math concepts. Sometimes I like to watch the educational TV programs for children (esp. math). I learn SOOO much and it is fun. We need to have fun, educational programs for adults too.
I want little cartoon charaters teaching me how to do stuff....why does everything have to be so serious for adults? Maybe even get a children's level math book?
Right now I am totally into learning about geometry. Remember I had to cheat to get a D in high school? I did not relate to anything geomtry and did not want to listen. Had a horrible teacher and once I was lost, it was over. I tuned completely out. Now I LOVE learning about angles and expecially triangles. It is SOOO fun.
Hope that helps.
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Thanks so much for your response!! funny thing, I too put off college math until the last semester. Although it was the easiest math it was all new to me. I quit high school my Jr. year and didn't attend most of the years of high school previously (skipping school) , so I didn't learn any algebra. The college math was mostly algebra, I had forgotten about this until I read your response, I either made and A or a B (I can't remember, in that class). I remember loving it! hmmmm... interesting. He was a good teacher also.......
I used to be very bad at math. I was so bad that the first algebra class i took in college I had to drop out and choose another major. After a year of majoring in broadcasting, I knew it was not for me. I learned to use the computer with math. In college lotus was popular. Excel spreadsheet is my preference now. I ebded up graduating with two degrees in engineering.
The spreadsheet allows you to set up the repetitive tasks one time in which from then on you simply input.
If you hyper focus, like I did it actually works towards yout advantage. Hyperfocus on the main calculation set-ups and make it real easy for you to "plug and chug".
I noticed my macros and spreadsheets are not organized but who cares? It's the result your looking for not the way it looks!
Completely on the same page here. Always hated math because I just didn't care what the answer was. If I get 5, and everyone got 5, I'm not very special now am I? It's always been impossible for me to complete a task when the end result of said task is going to be boring and/or useless.I completely understand, I'm terrible at math!! I just always thought it was me, that I was stupid or lazy because everyone else seemed to understand the concepts except me. Now I'm in PreCalculus in college and I don't know what the heck is going on. Its a class that lasts almost an hour and a half three days a week, but by 20 minutes in I'm ready to climb the walls. I zone out unintentionally and then when I "come back", there are all sorts of things on the board and I have no memory of where they came from! The tutors in the math lab where I spend three nights a week are nice, but they don't understand and they get frustrated by my inability to grasp it immediately. They need more math teachers trained to better teach ADHD people.
Oh boy...on a semi related topic.We had an "all hands" meeting at work today...it was an ADHDers nightmare. Two LONG winded people got up and spoke. OMG. I went from annoyed to seething by the end of the meeting. The meeting was scheduled for 10 a.m. and they (CEO & VP Marketing) talked ad neaseum for 2 solid hours, no break. GAWD. VP of Mktg. didn't want lunch served until after his presentation, b/c he didn't want people eating during it. So, I was both hungry and maxxed on my attention. I had even taken Adderall today and that barely handled me.
I sat with notebad as my mind raced wildly on all the things I wanted to accomplish and organize. I wrote 6 completely filled pages of a To Do list!
And the parts that were THE most excruciating were numbers. Yep, all I heard was "Blah Blah Blah 20% of 200K = 40K" or something like that. I was so PO'd at having to sit and listen to this and what a horrible way to do a presentation. They are in Marketing for hell's sake. Shouldn't they be more aware of the time?
As luck would have it, both the VP and the CEO wanted to sit by me at lunch. I was praying the VP wouldn't grill me about anything (I was soooo checked out as only an ADHD person can be). And then, there it was..."So, what did you think of my presentation?"
Note: PUHLEESE, and you expect me to answer that honestly? Why didn't he simply just instruct me to butter him up...augh. So, I replied (as only a true ADHD type can) "I was really interested in Strategy and Vision Portion of your presentation." (You see....these were 2 words that seemed to jump out at me.. Could I tell you what they meant with respect to our company? AHAHAHAHA!!!!!)
Yes, occassionally we ADHD types can be really impressive when the pressure is on. Just don't dig too deeply and all is well. I finally admitted, "the numbers portion of these presentations are always a challenge for me to grasp. I sometimes get a little lost. Math is kind of an inch at a time for me. <polite laugh, laugh, laugh> So, I told the truth while making so light of it that he didn't know if it was true. HEEHEEHEE
I still hate sales meetings and words like "forecast" "financials" "net profit" "growth and stability" - HEEEELLLP!
Hi. I just discovered this site yesterday. I am going back to college at the age of 32. Math is about to drive me crazy. I do all of the homework and then get extra. Still my scores are low. I cannot decide if I have lost my ADD mind to try this or if there is any hope to suceed. But I am ever so grateful to see that there are many others out there who struggle like me.
Thanks
Math is one my stong suits. I loved it in school, always had over 100 % the whole way to Calculus. Don't ask me to spell or read anything longer than a half page!!