Gosh …where do I start.
I suspect I have dyspraxia …I possibly have ADHD, ASD, and something around processing words too. I also have joint hypermobility - although in recent years (I’ve just turned 50) everything has stiffened up a bit. None of these things are diagnosed, well, apart from the hypermobility which was informally diagnosed by an MSK specialist when my daughter’s was diagnosed, but at the time I couldn’t see any benefit to getting it diagnosed formally. So with all those bits and pieces, it can be a bit confusing knowing which symptoms I should attribute to which condition.
The things that I think could point towards dyspraxia are, as a baby I never crawled and was late to walk (16 months), I couldn’t do stairs and used to go up and down them one step at a time (as in I always led with the same foot and then brought the other foot to meet it before stepping onto the next step). I was about 9 I think when my mother made a real point of pushing me to try and put one foot in front of the other (she was frustrated and used to shout at me, but I guess nobody really understood these things back then). I was clumsy - always covered in bruises, couldn’t throw and catch a ball for the life of me, despite my dad spending his evenings trying to practise with me. So I was definitely not sporty and the last kid to be picked when it came to teams in PE at school. My handwriting skills left a lot to be desired too - I was embarrassed that my handwriting looked like it belonged to a nursery school child, but it did eventually improve - just a couple of years later than my peers.
As an adult I was always wary of cliffs and steep banks, not because I was scared of heights, but because I was the clumsy type who’d trip or stumble and fall off the edge. I hated computer games because I didn’t have the co-ordination for them, and didn’t drive until I was 30. I also seem to have something that I call “stair blindness” whereby if I’m faced with a lot of stairs after a flight or 2 they kind of merge into one thing and I struggle to pick out the edges of the steps and for my own safety my brain seems to tell my legs to stop working.
You may be wondering why I’m suddenly delving into all this now at my age, and there are 2 reasons - the first is that over the last year or 2, my ability to deal with stairs seems to be regressing again, and I find myself doing the one step at a time thing again, and I need to cling on to a handrail thesedays. I feel like 50 going on 80. But also I’m now in the situation where my girls are almost independent and I need to find a job and go out to work, and I suppose I know my limitations but I don’t know how to communicate them to others or what is a reasonable adjustment to expect people to make - between this and the other conditions that I suspect I have too (my girls both have ASD and ADHD, so I kinda know I do - definitely ASD, possibly ADHD). I guess I’m trying to figure out how to navigate life at the moment.
Another Newbie
Moderator: Moderator Team
Re: Another Newbie
Hi MrsBobs
Based on what you've said it is entirely possible you have dyspraxia, indeed quite a lot of people recognise they have similar traits when their children are identified
There's no requirement to be diagnosed/confirmed or otherwise justify yourself to post here.
As many as a third of our members suspect they may be but have not been able to get professional confirmation.
Hypermobility is a common cooccurring condition that quite a few dyspraxics have. Neurodivergent conditions have a lot.of shared traits (symptoms) so it can be vary tricky to identify which should be attributed to any one condition.
I'm 49 and can identify with all the things you said about your experience growing up and do feel vulnerable on staircases. There can be a variety of other contributing causes for this so do speak to a medical professional about these concerns to rule out other potential causes affecting your balance. Did otr have you had a significant fall or falls that have perhaps contributed to a crisis of confidence.
Knowing what reasonable adjustments might be appropriate is always a difficult one, as is what to say if anything during the recruitment process. It is worth speaking to your GP and Job Centre Plus Advisers to ask about the help and support available to make work accessible.
Based on what you've said it is entirely possible you have dyspraxia, indeed quite a lot of people recognise they have similar traits when their children are identified
There's no requirement to be diagnosed/confirmed or otherwise justify yourself to post here.
As many as a third of our members suspect they may be but have not been able to get professional confirmation.
Hypermobility is a common cooccurring condition that quite a few dyspraxics have. Neurodivergent conditions have a lot.of shared traits (symptoms) so it can be vary tricky to identify which should be attributed to any one condition.
I'm 49 and can identify with all the things you said about your experience growing up and do feel vulnerable on staircases. There can be a variety of other contributing causes for this so do speak to a medical professional about these concerns to rule out other potential causes affecting your balance. Did otr have you had a significant fall or falls that have perhaps contributed to a crisis of confidence.
Knowing what reasonable adjustments might be appropriate is always a difficult one, as is what to say if anything during the recruitment process. It is worth speaking to your GP and Job Centre Plus Advisers to ask about the help and support available to make work accessible.
Tom
Moderator/Administrator
With a foot full of bullets I tried to run faster but I just hobbled on to the next disaster.
(from Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Foot Full of Bullets)
Moderator/Administrator
With a foot full of bullets I tried to run faster but I just hobbled on to the next disaster.
(from Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Foot Full of Bullets)
Re: Another Newbie
Hello MrsBobs, Tom (and everyone else)
A very enlightening post: until I read this, I never had any idea that hypermobility is a common co-occurring condition with dyspraxia. I have limited hypermobility (although less so than my wife, who is not dyspraxic), and I had always regarded it as a bit of a curiosity, if not even a minor gift - I used to amuse friends by picking up objects from unusual angles - rather than something harmful that could have adversely impacted my life. However, after discovering some of the symptoms on the NHS website I am not so sure now. Since my teens, I have had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), although I have largely kept this in check by sticking to a high-fibre diet throughout my life. For many years, I have also suffered from intermittent and now more or less permanent fatigue, and, more recently, unexplained headaches and dizziness, for which I am now on medication. Without a sound medical diagnosis, I had previous put this down to moderate Chronic Viral Fatigue/ME (I almost certainly do have this condition as well, and the symptoms definitely worsened every time I caught a cold or a chest infection), but now I wonder if there might indeed be a connection to my hypermobility? The trouble is, as MrsBobs has said, is that it's often very difficult to attribute any one symptom to a specific condition.
Like many people with far more extreme neurological conditions -and often with more serious health issues on top - I have got used to managing things as best as I can, but the links - or otherwise - between dyspraxia and other conditions could be a profitable area for future research.
A very enlightening post: until I read this, I never had any idea that hypermobility is a common co-occurring condition with dyspraxia. I have limited hypermobility (although less so than my wife, who is not dyspraxic), and I had always regarded it as a bit of a curiosity, if not even a minor gift - I used to amuse friends by picking up objects from unusual angles - rather than something harmful that could have adversely impacted my life. However, after discovering some of the symptoms on the NHS website I am not so sure now. Since my teens, I have had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), although I have largely kept this in check by sticking to a high-fibre diet throughout my life. For many years, I have also suffered from intermittent and now more or less permanent fatigue, and, more recently, unexplained headaches and dizziness, for which I am now on medication. Without a sound medical diagnosis, I had previous put this down to moderate Chronic Viral Fatigue/ME (I almost certainly do have this condition as well, and the symptoms definitely worsened every time I caught a cold or a chest infection), but now I wonder if there might indeed be a connection to my hypermobility? The trouble is, as MrsBobs has said, is that it's often very difficult to attribute any one symptom to a specific condition.
Like many people with far more extreme neurological conditions -and often with more serious health issues on top - I have got used to managing things as best as I can, but the links - or otherwise - between dyspraxia and other conditions could be a profitable area for future research.