Nonverbal Learning Disorder Intro

[fridaish]

Hi everyone, I am new here.  I was referred by the wonderful folks at add_students, and am hoping to find others like me who can perhaps offer some insight, advice, or just "I know what you mean"-ness!

I'm a 25 yo female, and after extensive testing, I was recently diagnosed with NLD, nonverbal learning disorder.  From the little information I've

Comments

Hi!

[old_cutter_john]

Welcome to the community! I've assigned the tag nld to your post. By clicking it, you'll see other posts similarly tagged. I'd expect some response to your post, but if you don't get it, you can still read what's been written on the subject in this community in the past, and perhaps email the people who wrote it.

[idiotgrrl]

Welcome to the club. I, too, was overwhelmed in college - a small college - for the first two years. How I got back into it was by starting with distance ed curses, then one course - only one - at San Francisco State. Then a full but light program at the local 2-year college. Then and only then did I transfer to New Mexico State (work-study program) which was overwhelming and I probably did very badly in the non-academic subjects. But I made it. Evening & Weekend College (A couple of places in Albuquerque offered it back in the day) was also a good option.

BTW - I worked at the Post Office as a sorting clerk to earn the money to go to college. Night shift. It worked out quite well.

[zephrin]

Hi there and welcome from a lurker! I'm 27 also newly diagnosed as NLD/AS, kind of on the borderline between the two. Stick with college! I had to leave due to financial reasons and can't wait to refinance my mortgage and go back to finish my degree. Seriously, it's worth the crap to get through it all.

Good luck!

[rainbow_goddess]

I was diagnosed with both NLD and AS three years ago. There's a comm on LJ called nonverbal for people with NLD, though it's pretty quiet at the moment.

[kestrelct]

I was diagnosed with NLD at the end of high school, but never really figured out how to "do" school (at the moment, I need to tell my college that I'm not coming back from medical leave, and then possibly apply to be a part-time student at the state school). I find this community has a pretty high degree of "I know just what you mean!" for me, and I tend to describe my NLD to people as having social components "a lot like Asperger's".

It's interesting that you mention medication for NLD-induced anxiety. I've been on meds for my depression for several years, and only recently had starting noticing that I was having trouble with anxiety as well. I assumed it was related to running out of my meds and the withdrawal, but I've also noticed an upswing in the amount of difficulty I've had with executive functioning and the like, and so I suddenly wonder if they're related.

I find This Way of Life pretty useful; the guy who runs it has a number of tips and tricks for dealing with executive functioning difficulties and other day-to-day

[fridaish]

Thanks so much for your help! I really liked the site you linked, too - very helpful.

I too was on depression meds for a while, from 13 to about 22 or 23, and noticed the anxiety issues around age 16 or 17. Now I know that anxiety is an extremely common result of having LDs and the like, so I'm guessing that was the reason the doctors could never get to the root of the problem, so to speak. I got meds, which were not useful, and tranquillizers, which were useful, for the anxiety. The tranquillizers were useful for "on the spot" immediate relief but didn't seem to do much when I took them daily as a preventative measure. I took Clonopin (at one point, up to 4 or 5 a day) and never had any problems with side effects, dependency, etc. Interestingly enough, I never really felt groggy or tired. Not sure if that was because I was really freaking out, or if I built up some sort of immunity to small doses, or what.