Real Adults

[Lessizme]

I am so thankful to find adults with ADHD! All education usually points to children or adolescents. I hope to learn new techniques and skills to help me through this storm. I have been harassed and discriminated against in my work environment and developed PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic attacks. I am a nurse and do my job efficiently with accommodations. My reasonable accommodations were recently breached, so I have to file my 6th grievance/EEOC. I am so tired of having to explain my disabilities. Well, that's enough of my rants tonight. LOL

[Netjester]

What are you doing to help you with your PTSD? I highly recommend reading "The Body Keeps the Score." The book changed my life and I know of many others whose life it has impacted. The book is perfect for anyone who suffers from PTSD.

I'm curious as to what accommodations you would need? Just an FYI, I'm a male, 57 years old with ADHD and Chronic PTSD. I never once considered accommodations and given the trauma I suffered as a child, I probably should have some. It's just never crossed my mind.

Do you have children? I have 3 sons. They are all adults now, but I think that taking care of family probably trumped my thinking about accommodations. BTW, all 3 inherited their ADHD from me.

[PinkPanda23]

Oh dear! With the scarcity of nurses, could you find a different job that plays a bit more to your strengths? I recall the anxiety and shame from working in fast-paced environments without a diagnosis or accommodations. You don't need/ shouldn't have to explain and defend yourself over and over when the cause and solutions are well established and agreed upon. Just checking in to wish you well and remind you that you're not alone!

[STEM_Dad]

Welcome to the community.

Work organizations can be so short-sighted when it comes to reasonable work accommodations. From what I've seen, it usually takes a very conscientious manager to ensure that they abide by the accommodations.

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of accommodations do you have?

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I knew about a pair of nurses once who often worked together. They accommodated each other via their own informal arrangement.

One was diagnosed ADHD, and she could very quickly and easily go about physical duties and checking on patients, but having to sit still in order to enter documentation was quite the chore for her.

The other quite happily did all the paperwork, and did not have to attend to as many manual tasks as her partner; she did not move at quite the same pace.

From what I hear, the two of them together could basically do the work of three nurses, by working together and each using her strengths.

[NotAChevy]

Hey, Lessizme,

I too am an adult w/ADHD and am trying to learn techniques to cope. Please see the posts I’ve made so far about what works for me, and I hope we can learn from each other in the future.

[Goodtrouble]

Just saw this. My CV is almost 20 pages long . I have changed my jobs so often, I lost count. I was diagnosed at 42. Now finally diagnosed and medicated, probably still not quite there, work continues to remain a struggle. I was discriminated against (other characteristics) sued and they lied under oath cowering each otger's back but now I now was a lot to do with ADHD. One thing that comes with the work part is my extreme sense of justice, not shutting up when I feel that anything is wrong and I am the first one considered when someone needs to go. So i get easily noticed when they look for slopy mistakes, which do happen despite me triple checking and second guessing. Recently I was in a job for a week, challenged a manager in writing for a situation which I did not think was right and I was given notice a week, after a week in the job as , "I am not a good fit for the team" . So many revelations came with the diagnosis still grieving, and really still don't sem to get out of the cycle even though I have disclosed adhd and I work really hard and often overtime. I do feel medication has improved my ability to focus somewhat and I am aware myself of the work I put in.I think my role will come to an end in April. I was not directly told however we were told some roles will end (agency contract, no end date but rolling until is not). Again pretty sure I am on that list as all of the sudden the senior manager, who I think never liked me , is neet picking . Feel pretty down too , I suppose it was up when finally made sense of it and got medicated which improved things but did not fix me. If the baseline was this whilst medicated, possibly the situation would be different however now I am aware and feel even more powerless.