Learning Stuff

[Lenore]

I was recently diagnosed and this has made me reassess my past in this light of this. I have lots of questions and this is one. I have spent my life learning new things and only able to get so far and no further, even though I know I have the intelligence to learn stuff. Why?
I feel very frustrated, I was always told at school I was bright but I was accused of not living up to my potential. I've done well as an adult, going to university as a mature student at 28 and eventually getting a MSc, so I can learn stuff.
BUT there things I feel I hit a brick wall with, music is one. I play clarinet, sax and guitar. I get so far and it's like my brain can't cope and I hit a brick wall so I never progress beyond a certain point. It's like that with lots of new hobbies, I try for a while, it all gets too much, I get overwhelmed by it all and I give up. It feels like no amount of practice helps, tbh I have been practicing less and less for a long time as I can't seem to learn beyond a certain level but I still love playing in my local band.
Am I making any sense?

[Xenavire]

That actually makes perfect sense - it's something I've noticed about myself as well. I can pick up something new extremely fast, but I'll quickly reach a point where I simply stop improving. It's not that it gets harder to improve, it's that I plateau and there is no discernable improvement, even with years of practice.

I'm not sure if everyone has the same problem, and we just hit our ceiling faster, or if the issue is unique to us Dyspraxics, but I've seen others catch and surpass me in just about everything, even if it took them longer to lewrn the basics than it took me.

Its especially noticeable in competitive environments, like sports or videogames.

[Tom fod]

It is particularly galling if you have spent a significant amount of time and effort learning or trying to perfect something only for someone else to dismiss it as easy and then demonstrate it by doing it while stood on their head. It's hard not for us to aspire to greatness as we're usually pretty intelligent. The problem comes when we compare ourselves to others and it suddenly seems overly difficult and pointless. It isn't easy not to compare ourselves as we are human too.

[The new luddite]

I think Tom makes a good point about the comparisons, we Dyspraxics have a tendency of setting unreasonably high goals for ourselves and then getting easily frustrated when we don't achieve them it may be that there is improvement we just don't see it so much.

In some cases i.e. qualifications courses for work etc yes we need to achieve certain standard but in other things is being the uber genius boss of "x" really so important ? Why cant you just enjoy the pursuit.

The unfortunate fact is there will be some things that we will just struggle with sports, video games anything that requires dexterity or coordination OK it sucks but its true.
If you set yourself up for comparison with "normal" people (whatever that is) your probably going to be disappointed.

When somebody points out that their better than me at something that I know I'll struggle with my response is normally "Yeah you can do it better than me but can you do it better than me while being Dsypraxic ? Nope you can't"
(Of course this only works cos I've only ever met one other Dyspraxic guess if I do ever loose to another Dyspraxic I'll have to graciously admit defeat but wheres the fun in that ? )

[Xenavire]

I just need to chime in here - I doubt many Dyspraxics are ever going to be top level competitive E-sports players, HOWEVER, videogames are extremely beneficial for us. It helps with our fine motor skills, and if you happen to have a VR setup I'm sure it would help with gross motor skills to a point as well.

The thing with videogames being an aid is that you do actually have to put in some time to notice any changes, which isn't for everyone. But every time I "sucked" at a skill based game, I did actually get better with practice, and noticeably so. As a result I notice I have better hand eye coordination, dexterity, and to an extent, spacial awareness than I did before I played videogames.

It's worth trying, especially if you frequently drop things, cut yourself making dinner, or run into things. I still do all those things, it's true, but it's not a daily occurrence - I might drop things once or twice a month (and usually nothing breaks), I run into things on occasion, but probably once or twice a week, and I don't think I've cut myself all year.

Again, it may not be for everyone, but if you enjoy videogames, they can actually help in your day to day living as well.

[Lenore]

Hi everyone

Thanks for the replies, I need to get my notifications sorted out, didn't see them till today!