I have only known I'm dyspraxic for about 3 months and it has been an interesting time. Suddenly I had a reason for being vague, thinking I was stupid, brain dead, uncool, even deaf. Not to mention being an absolute clutz and keeping the bandaid industry in business I was always down on myself. Now I know the reasons for all this, I have changed my view of myself. I was on antidepressants but have stopped taking them, I'm happier than I've been for ages and actually am sticking up for myself at work instead of trying to keep everyone happy all the time. For the first time in my life I actually like myself!! I know my limits and don't over reach myself.
I've had help from my son who has dyspraxia and my hubby is great, just keeps saying "is this a dyspraxic thing?' (with a smile!)
I just thought I'd post this, it might help someone feel more positive, especially if newly diagnosed, I know we're all different but you never know!
I like being dyspraxic, it makes me who I am!
PS: I'm 54
Hi, I really know how you feel on this one - I feel so much better after discovering my dyspraxia - my life just makes sense if you add "dyspraxia" to it!! I also have a son who may have it (he's 7, we are waiting for an assessment - seems to be taking forever, but then a week would be forever in this situation! & it's likely to be another 12 weeks!)
All the best!
Hi kimiann
So you managed to get a diagnosis at last,not many adults who were not diagnosed at school find it almost impossible to get a diagnosis having left school and not much help available as they dont seem that interested .They seem more interested in DYSLEXIA. Both myself and my son have many dyspraxic moments althrough different in many ways and similar in others.But it all begins to make sense when the penny finally drops and all the pieces of the jigsaw finally fit together and gives you a greater understanding of yourself and the struggles we have just put up with for many years.
Yes, there is definitely much more awareness and support out there for dyslexia than there is for dyspraxia. IMO dyspraxia needs to be taken much much more seriously than it currently is because it is something which has an impact on all aspects of someone's life and can make it so much more difficult to get and keep suitable employment. As dyspraxia affects movement, it is far more likely that someone who has dyspraxia will stand out as being 'different' than someone who has dyslexia.
When I was training to teach, I used to get fed up of hearing students claim that they were dyslexic, as if it was somehow a badge of honour- I'm sure that some of them were dyslexic and I can sympathise with them finding paperwork to be more of a struggle, but I was the one who was being heavily criticised by judgemental mentors because of the way I spoke and because of my problems establishing presence in the classroom, both of which were a direct result of me having dyspraxia. In contrast to my problems establishing physical presence in the classroom, a fellow student who claimed to be dyslexic was showered with praise by our University tutor for having 'bags of charisma', something which it was going to be particularly hard for me to achieve. A few of those students who claimed to have dyslexia are now a good number of years into their teaching careers, whereas I'm still struggling to get started.
Shakey, I hope your son gets a diagnosis soon. It took me 2 years to get someone to refer us to a pediatrician who then told me I was a neurotic mother! Another 9 months trying to get him referred by his preschool teacher, who didn’t want to know and then suddenly said “Kim, I think theres something wrong with Ashley” I didn’t know whether to cheer or hit her After that it was only a month and we had a diagnosis.
Joy, Unfortunately, I didn’t get a diagnosis, my hubby figured out I’m just like our son, the more I looked into it and talked to Ash, the more it made sense. I live in Australia, in the bush. I have spoken to three OT’s through my work and none of them know about dyapraxia! I read on the forum about the support in the workplace in the UK and just shake my head, we are so far behind in some ways.
Alleycat, I understand about getting your presence felt in a room. I used to be a teachers aid and Indonesian tutor at a primary school and sometimes I felt like I was invisible. The teacher would just leave me in the room – no allowed but in small schools the rules bend a lot! I wonder how much help the dyslexic students got in comparison to you, don’t be so hard on yourself!
I got so excited this morning, there was a message on my phone asking me to phone the OT as they had an appointment to offer me for my son!! But, it's while we're away on holiday so I couldn't take up the offer! SOO disappointed! Now I have to wait for another appointment to become available - she said it'll be at least 5 weeks (although that might mean it's not quite as long as I thought before!) Really hoping & praying it comes through soon, the wait is agonising!
Kimiann wrote:Shakey, I hope your son gets a diagnosis soon. It took me 2 years to get someone to refer us to a pediatrician who then told me I was a neurotic mother! Another 9 months trying to get him referred by his preschool teacher, who didn’t want to know and then suddenly said “Kim, I think theres something wrong with Ashley” I didn’t know whether to cheer or hit her After that it was only a month and we had a diagnosis.
Joy, Unfortunately, I didn’t get a diagnosis, my hubby figured out I’m just like our son, the more I looked into it and talked to Ash, the more it made sense. I live in Australia, in the bush. I have spoken to three OT’s through my work and none of them know about dyapraxia! I read on the forum about the support in the workplace in the UK and just shake my head, we are so far behind in some ways.
Alleycat, I understand about getting your presence felt in a room. I used to be a teachers aid and Indonesian tutor at a primary school and sometimes I felt like I was invisible. The teacher would just leave me in the room – no allowed but in small schools the rules bend a lot! I wonder how much help the dyslexic students got in comparison to you, don’t be so hard on yourself!
Hi Kim,
Whereabouts in Aus are you? (apart from the bush!!). If you have access to a big hospital, it's worth getting your Dr to refer you to see a Neurologist. I'm from Sydney and was diagnosed 'officially' last year by a Neurologist. Took a bit of a fight with the Dr to get referal as he'd never heard of Dyspraxia, but got there and was seen by a lovely Neurologist who listened to everything my Mum & I told him, he assessed my walking, my joints, co-ordination and other movements.
When I was a young child (3-11), I was bullied a lot due to the fact that i struggled with many activities, was bad at defending myself and seemed to think differently to other people. As my teacher put it: 'Everyone's flying to the same place... but it think (my name)'s on a different plane!!!". I then went onto secondary school.. even worse. I went to a huge school and I got lost all the time. I had very little confidence and had a habit of making myself 'invisible', or unnoticeable, at least. This prevented me from asking directions anywhere. I cried regularly. I was isolated and never seemed to understand the words other people picked up with ease, or what teachers wanted me to do. I had bad short term memory; a teacher would tell me 'go to the this room and ask for a key to the computer room' and i would stumble around for a bit, and have to walk, red-faced, back into the classroom to ask for the teacher to repeat instructions. I started feeling the need to carry out compulsive, repetitive behaviour. I thought I was insane, and was terriffied by my inability to do anything without falling over, or humiliating myself in any other way. I also started to fake illness to get out of dance and PE- I used to fall over (normally backwards), walk into things, career off in strange directions, and misremember sequences of movement. The next year, I got a horrible teacher who was very mean, and i started to get really ill before lessons, I would become ill from fear, feeling sick, going pale, getting dizzy, etc. Eventually my mum noticed. She took me to an OT, and it changed my life. Immediately, I was excused from dance (no-one but the teacher noticed, and i think she was relieved, they all thought I'd moved into a different dance class), saving me much humiliation. I still had to do PE, but my teacher didn't make me d demonstrations, and didn't correct me in front of the class. She made sure that, in activities, I generally did fitness-orientated things, not competitive sports. I no longer felt crazy, and was provided with many other useful things.
Hi Shakey, How frustrating to get an appointment while you’re away. I hope you get another soon, keep me posted.
Tillydog – I’m in central NSW, so my doctor would refer to Sydney if he believed me – not sure but I’ll go and see him. Some other doctors in the area refer to Canberra. Could I have the name of the neurologist you saw? Where abouts are you?
Elylo – I love the comment “Everyone's flying to the same place... but it think (my name)'s on a different plane!!!” Sounds familiar! I’m glad someone finally figured out your problem – it does make such a difference.
As an update to my life changing, I’m becoming quite impatient with complaining people who don’t know their alive! Lol! I’m not sure what the people I work with think but I feel a lot better because I’m not going out of my way to make them feel better. I feel like I’m getting bitchy but my good friend at work tells me I’m not, I’m just being normal
Kimiann wrote:Hi Shakey, How frustrating to get an appointment while you’re away. I hope you get another soon, keep me posted.
Tillydog – I’m in central NSW, so my doctor would refer to Sydney if he believed me – not sure but I’ll go and see him. Some other doctors in the area refer to Canberra. Could I have the name of the neurologist you saw? Where abouts are you?
Elylo – I love the comment “Everyone's flying to the same place... but it think (my name)'s on a different plane!!!” Sounds familiar! I’m glad someone finally figured out your problem – it does make such a difference.
As an update to my life changing, I’m becoming quite impatient with complaining people who don’t know their alive! Lol! I’m not sure what the people I work with think but I feel a lot better because I’m not going out of my way to make them feel better. I feel like I’m getting bitchy but my good friend at work tells me I’m not, I’m just being normal
I'm in Western Sydney (Nr Penrith) ... I got refered to Dr Jonathon Wood (or could be Woods) who is head of Neurology at Nepean Hospital. I was going to see another Neurologist at Nepean as a public patient but they lost my initial referal, hence then being refered to Dr Wood privately. He was really nice and as I was seeking a formal diagnosis so I could apply for Disability Pension (Centrelink), he waivered his fee ($220) and got his secretary to put it thru on Medicare.
I'll tell you what, after that appointment and diagnosis, it was like a 37 yr weight off my shoulders!!
I will agree that knowing you're diagnosis especially after so long is the biggest weight lifted off your shoulders. maybe I shouldn't have been so withdrawn when the GP's asked me in person as a child, but I always told the GP's that I wanted to know, but more so then I could have more time in school, rather than really wanting to know, as my parents would always pull me from school, then we would spend hours in the doctors, and numerous other places trying to get help for me.
and all I wanted was a quiet life, so in school whenever my health let me, and not being as excluded by the few friends I did have, because of the times I wouldn't be in school, and kind of what pushed me more, and more away from my parents I think.
that, and the arguements they used to have about me, as my father can be rather stubborn, and not see the fuller picture, he would look at things like speach therapy causing me to speak worse, rather than me thinking how a word is pronounced, and then trying to say it the proper way, so he pulled me from speach therapy. that would have caused more damage to my growing up than anything else, as it was I told my mother, and so she would help me without my father kind of knowing outright.
Well still for me new as only ive been diagnose with severe dyspraxia and dyslexia since last december. I know everyone is different whatever you have dyspraxia or not. For me coming here is the first step to start to embrace what I am and seeing each one of you...make me feel more comfortable. Thanks x
I was always down on myself. Now I know the reasons for all this, I have changed my view of myself. I was on antidepressants but have stopped taking them, I'm happier than I've been for ages and actually am sticking up for myself at work instead of trying to keep everyone happy all the time. For the first time in my life I actually like myself!! I know my limits and don't over reach myself.](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
After that it was only a month and we had a diagnosis.
Now I have to wait for another appointment to become available - she said it'll be at least 5 weeks (although that might mean it's not quite as long as I thought before!) Really hoping & praying it comes through soon, the wait is agonising!