I have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). its not a secret and i am not ashamed of it. On the contrary , i am proud of the cards i was dealt and making the most of them.
I was first diagnosed when i was on the 3rd grade when i had issues with the day to day tasks in school. Back then ( Gently trying not to reveal my age :) ) i was considered “A special kid”. Obviously today it’s not PC to address it like this but looking back 30 years ago it was a different time and less awareness.
My second diagnosis was on the 11th-12th grade when it was time for the school final exams.
If you have no idea what ADD is or know anyone that was diagnosed with it let me try and explain.
Imagine that you have a very important call to do. A call that can change your life but a very annoying fly decided to ruin that call and he ( or she ) circle around your ears non stop not allowing you to be concentrated in that call. Now imagine that someone is talking to you on the other side but you keep disappearing ( trying to kill that fly :) sorry PETA )
There is always a fly near by when it comes to ADD.
Even writing this paragraph took me days. So many distractions and it’s very hard to consternate.
Back to my high school…
So in high school i got extra time in all of my exams. Very popular benefit given to kids with ADD since you could see them ( and me ) just drifting away from time to time dealing with so many things other then what is in front of them ,like the exam.
Another “benefit” i got was the ability to take exams orally as it was easier for me to answer questions verbally rather then writing them.
I can swear that i had mid-term exams with answers shorter then the questions.
oddly enough in all the science exams i was the first to leave. Really excels at them. This will be explained a bit later.
Back home i studied for exams with music on without really realising that it helped me concentrate better. As i already exposed my age before ,back then we only had MTV and no Youtube or Spotify ( which i am listening to right now ) so putting the TV on was another distraction by itself.
Jumping into my university days and my third diagnosis.
I decided to go to school and my major was Mathematics and to be exact Pure mathematics. Yeah i know you are thinking what a geek but hey… My motto is do what you like. what makes you feel good and I love numbers :)
So my first year in in university was a disaster. An absolute train wreck . i had many thoughts on quitting. With an average of ±58 when there is a threshold of 55 to continue to the next year.
I really had to find a way to study better and get better grades.
In the university we had an institution to diagnose people with learning disabilities.
I had nothing to lose. I needed help.
So i went ahead and did their exams and interviews.
I told the psychologist that i always study with music as it calms me down. Basically creating “fake” white noise.
you need to understand that the above example with the fly was just a small example to illustrate what is ADD to people who don’t have it.
In reality EVERY SINGLE thing is a distraction.
Let me walk you through my head ( during the train ride ):
Someone is coughing casing me to spin my head. Then i saw a pipe explosion through the window and now i am thinking : wow that a lot of water. looking at the person next to me with a laptop causing me to think:” i wonder what type of a computer he has” and then the person next him has a MAC and i am thinking is it similar to mine??. Wow that woman has a nice backpack. I want to switch the song in my headset as the rhythm is not to my liking. Nice look watch by the person in front of me. Going online trying to find out where to buy it. Seeing a new computer game in the advertisement and trying it out.
Not noticing my whole ride passed me by not able to achieve anything i wanted to do in this time slot. Now project that to everything you do in life. From work to relationship . From your college degree to going to a soccer game.
Nowdays when ever me and my wife are going out i try to sit with by back to the most distracting location. It’s hard. very hard. My eyes keep wondering uncontrollably to every direction while i try to stay focused on the one thing i want to do: be in the present with her.
Going back to my university days after i got diagnosed for the third time i set a personal goal to find a way to make it.
Not let IT break me.
To manage IT.
Live with IT
The psychologist gave a recommendation to the university about my personal needs and it was up to every Doctor\Professor to take the decision whether to accept it and how.
The recommended proposal set for me was 2 things:
1) Give me extra 1/3 of the exam time. — university uphold this with no teacher discretion
2) Let me use an MP3 player with music ( pre loaded ) during the exams.
At the time i was the only one in the university ( And the country as far as i knew ) with that privilege. I had a small MP3 player powered by 2 AA batteries with 1GB ( or maybe 2GB ) to store music. In todays market it seems very old school but i already exposed my age before , didn’t i ? :)
I had to get permission from every single teacher before every single test.
Post my MP3 player to him for examination and he would bring it back to me on the day of the test.
How did using MP3 player helped me during tests…
So like i said before that I have decided that I will not let IT beat me so I had to figure out a way to handle myself a little bit better. study differently from what got me that awful AVG.
I developed a system that during a semester i would use a different album per class. going over home exercise with that album and study for the exam with that album.
From the outside it seems boring and repetitive and i think so too BUT i never did listen to those albums.
Using music , especially music that i like , gave me the option to block from my ears all the other noises in the room , leaving me to focus on ignoring just one thing.
During exams it really helped me get back to the rhythm for that album and i could concentrate. Really concentrate !
What about eyesight ? every time i had to study for an exam i would go to the farthest place in the library. Places no one knew exists to make sure nothing is distracting me (No it’s not the paleontology department )
That was the only way for me to learn.
In fact i forced myself to travel to the university library all the time because doing it at home was literally impossible.
What about the end result ?
We started the journey with ~100 students and finished it with ~5–6 so you can get an idea that it’s a pretty hardcore task to accomplish.
Well by the time i finished with my degree of B. Sc Degree in Mathematics i was able to get my AVG up significantly.
If you remember back in 2022 when you started reading this article i wrote that i had an average of ±58 when the “ acceptable passing” is 55.
I finished my 3.5 year degree with an AVG of ±80 and a huge sense of accomplishment .
Today
Today i work as a DevOps engineer in one of the world largest Cybersecurity companies and if i am not in an endless zoom calls i will probably be wearing a headset listening to some music to help me concentrate.
A little secret — sometimes they are just on me. nothing playing. I got too distracted to hit the play button 🤦♂️