dysTalk Careerlife Help For An Adult With Add And Dyslexia - Dyslexia - Forum - dysTalk

Hi. I'm a 27 year old male from Texas that has struggled with ADD and dyslexia my whole life. I was hoping that I might grow out of my symptoms and lead a somewhat ''normal'' life. But as I've gotten older my symptoms have gotten no better and the divide between myself and ''normalcy'' seems to be growing.

I've always been above average intelligence and very creative but have never been able to fit in at school. Needless to say school has been very difficult for me not only academically but socially and emotionally as well. Only by the grace of God and the help of others was I able to finish high school. Now on my own and no support system finishing college doesn't seem to be in the cards for me under my current circumstances. I've had to drop out of college several times.

I have seen many different types of doctors and therapists that have put me on many different meds but nothing so far has seemed to really work for me very well.

Now I'm 27, divorced and unemployed with little to my name. I haven't been able to hold down a job for more than a few months at a time. I'm a very hard worker an get along with people just fine but I keep being let go because of what I know are ADD related symptoms. My last job was at a car wash and I was fired after only 2 weeks.

The last thing I want to do is have a pity party or get down on myself but I've found myself spending more and more days by myself in desperation. I'm so tiered of flunking out of school and working my tail off only to be fired from what should be easy jobs. The worst part about it is that I have no idea where to go or what to do with myself.

I know everyone is different but perhaps someone reading this knows where I can find some real solutions for someone like me. I have no choice but to stay optimistic and never give up.

29/06/2011 03:29:47
john

I am a lot like you John! I am a 29 year old male in Texas that has struggled my hole life with Dyslexia and have often suspected that I might have a mild form of ADD. I have been a little more luck than you but not by a hole lot. Most of my jobs have lasted a little over a year to just shy of two years but I have not found a career that I can strive in yet. I finally got myself into college and for the first time am really focused on making it through. I have always let my fear stop me in the past but no longer. I am trying to meet with the right people at my local community college to start a student organization that will allow us (people with dyslexia and other learning differences) to help ourselves. I have often looked for programs that are there to help adults with the challenge of dyslexia but have only found programs for children. I am thrilled to see that people are finally starting to take action and help the children because that is the most important time in their life where it will be the most beneficial but what about the rest of us. I have gotten fed up with trying to find someone to help me and am ready to take some action to help myself! Unless we can change the way things are, I fear this will be the only way we will get any help. It would be nice to see our efforts take flight and rise above any of our expectations! This is a hope of my and a hope I want to spread to others such as us. I hope to be able to come back to this site in a few weeks to announce my student organization but I fear might take a little longer than that. I will do my best to let you and any one else with ears know about it when I do get it started. Please do the same for any group/organization you may know of! Thanks for speaking up about your troubles with dyslexia.

Best of luck in life!!!

01/07/2011 17:11:36
Nicholas H.

Im 26 year old female for south africa.i hav dyslexia.i managed 2 finish my high school level,al my life i was told that im stupid and a slow learner by my family and friend.i cnt spell and read very slow.im currently studyin economic management analysis at university of south africa.i dnt think i need help from my family.everytime i think abt my condition i always hav tear in my eyes.

26/07/2011 21:14:57
Maria mmoto

Thank you for sharing your story.

I'm in your age group and I too, am lost about what to do with my life. I hope that we may find something that we can do and will be able to reach our true potential.

01/08/2011 13:38:33
Lisa

Maria mmoto

family is not supporting you. I am serious dyslexia . I was born in Zambia and through my school years. I always knew there was something wrong with me. But one thing I always knew that I was very intelligent. The only thing what was stopping it was. I could not get it down on paper . Nobody ever mentioned it when I grew up. When I was old enough to leave Zambia and go to England. So when I arrived in England. I went around looking for places where they could help. That was in 1977. But, to my horror that I discovered that England was no further ahead. I signed up to a few private evening classes but nothing seems to have worked so one day I decided to rolling into a college what. I thought was the class for people with dyslexia but again to my shock. I found out that the class was for people with English as a second language there was myself and the girl who would dyslexia so we were lucky that one of the teachers to both of us and taught us. But just helped a bit. I have discovered a whole lot of different software and hardware. What helps me. I have just bought this hard way what is small enough to be portable and it can read any documents or any book. What is put under it. I first saw it does show it was actually designed for the blind people with very bad site I asked him to give me a demonstration and after that I mentioned to them that this would be a very good machine for people with dyslexia and now they have made one for people with dyslexia. It's quite a very amazing piece of equipment. If that was given to a child when he enters school, he will have no problem with his dyslexia. The other software I use is called Dragon naturally speaking that use the document I am using to write this letter you speak into a microphone and it writes what you say there's another software what's on my computer. What will read anything on the computer what is called read and write Gold, it would be nice to hear back from you. Don't let it get you down just say to yourself, there is nobody better then you you are very intelligent and smart. If all of us who suffer from dyslexia put enough pressure on governments we can get a lot done to buy for now and hope to hear from you / jack chartersIt is very sad to hear about your

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02/02/2012 00:00:04
jack charters

John,

Your story hit so close to home for me, my eyes welled up. I am a 31 year old female from Texas, and can completely relate. Right now I am unemployed, living with my father. I have been fired from nearly every job I have had. My job performance has been excellent, I think mostly because I was doing something that required me to do ten things at once and be able to move around a lot. I have been a pharmacy tech for ten years. My problem with every job is that I was always late, to the point of tears not understanding why I could not get there on time. I'm coming to find out this is because of the dyslexia an inability to grasp the concept of time. The add doesn't help either. My last job I was at a year and a half, it was a position working for a computer software company that developed software for pharmacy chains. I was hired on as a quality assurance analyst. This required me to analyze data, sit in 8 hr meetings talking about technical computer functions I knew nothing about. I got my ged in HS and tried college twice and could not get past the remedial algebra course I needed to start a degree program. This amount of stress at my job took its toll and I had a nervous breakdown and entered a three month outpatient therapy program. They diagnosed me with major depressive disorder with psychotic features (due to my impulsivity) generalized anxiety and add. I have never been tested for dyslexia but I have taken self assessments and my results point to a very high level of impairment from dyslexia. I do not suffer so much from the handwriting issues with what direction they go in. I did when I was young and I occasionally slip up now. I am over the top artistic, but I can't stay focused on anything to make a career out of it, or go to school for it. I firmly believe that my depression and anxiety stem from the add and dyslexia. I feel I will never be able to function well enough to be successful, let alone support myself. This is not what I dreamed about life being like when I was young. I'm awful with money, my room is a disorganized mess, and now I feel like my conditions are leaving me further detached from reality. I'm in my room all the time and I have no car, I just have no idea what to do. I feel so hopeless and alone. My dad doesn't believe in these disorders so I am made to feel like I am lazy, and irresponsible. I am to the point that I really hoped I wouldn't have to come to, which is apply for disability. I just never imagined that my life would come to this. I dream of being an artist, and I have many talents in art areas, but I become so scattered and confused. My ideas change every day. These days it almost seems the amount of media that we are exposed to make it ten times worse. I just want to slow down for a minute but there is always too much going on that when it comes to things most people can do i can't even remember after two seconds, or I get confused as hell. I just want to ball up like a doodle bug and roll away. I'm not helping I'm sure, but it helps to know you are not alone.

Thank you for sharing, and I would love to hear an update from you, maybe we can share our own helpful ways of coping.

04/02/2012 13:58:43
rachel