Diagnosed Today

[Lenore]

Hi

Just wanted to introduce myself, I'm 51 and got my diagnosis today. I wasn't sure if I had it, but there were lots of signs that made me suspect it, it feels quite daunting.

[Tom fod]

Hi Lenore and welcome

You'll no doubt have a lot of questions about what it all means. Please feel free to ask whatever you need to.

Please may I ask how/where you obtained your diagnosis, in hope it can help build a pic by which we can help advise others.

[Lenore]

Hi,

I received my diagnosis through Dyspraxia UK who linked me up with an OT. Due to the coronavirus situation I haven't met her yet but I did all the forms and we had a lengthy chat on the phone. I had expected a result that was inconclusive because there are a lot of things I can do but she said my results were very definitely Dyspraxia.

The final straw for me was, having finished a career in counselling and been in a job for many years where the awkward admin and organising was done by a team of administrators. There were one or two things I had to do that required sequencing, which I wasn't good at but I just blamed myself. After finishing I decided to do an online digital manipulation course. After about the 10th time of not being able to do a simple sequence I began to think seriously about Dyspraxia. I looked up the Dyspraxia Foundation and saw the list of possible symptoms in adults (many I didn't know were connected) and I was ticking so many boxes I thought that I should get an assessment. I want to have a new career, haven't decided yet so it felt essential to get this checked out.

I have a son who was diagnosed as an adult, he'd been assessed as a child but the term Dyspraxia was not in common use at the time. I saw some similarities to me but not enough to suspect for a long time, and I didn't fully understand Dyspraxia until my own diagnosis and the connection to sensory processing.

I always felt different, and it seemed like my brain wasn't wired properly. I was seen as an awkward child, found it hard to socialize and teachers were often frustrated and critical of me as they saw I was bright but why was I not progressing, it was my fault of course. My diagnosis has made sense of a lot in my life, my inability to have a hand preference, it took me 10 attempts to pass my driving test and the stress I have felt about all the things you have to do at once to drive, not being organised, distinguishing noises, hypersensitive to all sorts of things, and the list goes on. I feel upset that I didn't get round to it years ago. Oddly I feel sad about having it, if I was just lazy, awkward and careless I should just pull myself together but having a specific disorder feels a bit overwhelming. I never thought that about my son, it was obvious there was an issue but I couldn't see it in myself.

[Tom fod]

Hi,

I received my diagnosis through Dyspraxia UK who linked me up with an OT. Due to the coronavirus situation I haven't met her yet but I did all the forms and we had a lengthy chat on the phone. I had expected a result that was inconclusive because there are a lot of things I can do but she said my results were very definitely Dyspraxia.

The final straw for me was, having finished a career in counselling and been in a job for many years where the awkward admin and organising was done by a team of administrators. There were one or two things I had to do that required sequencing, which I wasn't good at but I just blamed myself. After finishing I decided to do an online digital manipulation course. After about the 10th time of not being able to do a simple sequence I began to think seriously about Dyspraxia. I looked up the Dyspraxia Foundation and saw the list of possible symptoms in adults (many I didn't know were connected) and I was ticking so many boxes I thought that I should get an assessment. I want to have a new career, haven't decided yet so it felt essential to get this checked out.

I have a son who was diagnosed as an adult, he'd been assessed as a child but the term Dyspraxia was not in common use at the time. I saw some similarities to me but not enough to suspect for a long time, and I didn't fully understand Dyspraxia until my own diagnosis and the connection to sensory processing.

I always felt different, and it seemed like my brain wasn't wired properly. I was seen as an awkward child, found it hard to socialize and teachers were often frustrated and critical of me as they saw I was bright but why was I not progressing, it was my fault of course. My diagnosis has made sense of a lot in my life, my inability to have a hand preference, it took me 10 attempts to pass my driving test and the stress I have felt about all the things you have to do at once to drive, not being organised, distinguishing noises, hypersensitive to all sorts of things, and the list goes on. I feel upset that I didn't get round to it years ago. Oddly I feel sad about having it, if I was just lazy, awkward and careless I should just pull myself together but having a specific disorder feels a bit overwhelming. I never thought that about my son, it was obvious there was an issue but I couldn't see it in myself.

Hi Lenore

It's quite a revelation and It takes a while to process and accept the new info. I think we very often get by being really tough. even unkind to ourselves and ultimately that is not good or easily sustainable. There is more support than there used to be but getting that support right for yourself can be tricky, equally how do you broach it with an employer in a way that they'll understand and be willing to develop and nurture you as a valuable employee who sees things differently and is more than capable of being reliable and competent in the right environment.

Happy to try to answer any questions you may have. It is the very devil of a condition to explain sometimes.

All the best