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firemonkey
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Posts: 5,570
Location: Calne,England

04 Feb 2017, 5:34 pm

I am not,I hope, unintelligent. However at times I have difficulty co-ordinating my thoughts . It's like there's a mass of wires all tangled up in my brain .
Sometimes it's easy to post and other times it's so hard to structure a coherent reply to something. The desire is there but it just won't come together in a well constructed and thought out manner.
I put this down to executive functioning difficulties.
When my brain is struggling to gather my thoughts then often anxiety comes to the fore and a feeling of being mentally overwhelmed.

Someone elsewhere,on a largely American based forum, mentioned doing college courses with a learning assistant in tow.


I am not even sure we have them for older adults in the UK(I'm 60). If we did I reckon you'd have to have an officially recognised learning difficulty.
I, in all probability have learning difficulties. However I come from a generation where if you were above average intelligence the idea of you have such difficulties was very much dismissed.
Hence no official confirmation.

The nearest I got to things being recognised was my prep school headmaster writing to my public school headmaster saying I was not very coordinated and had problems with drawing and writing.
My public school report said I was disorganised and messy. Nowadays that would be a red flag for executive functioning problems but back then ,in the 70s, it wasn't. It was merely a blot on your academic record and something for teachers to pull you up on.

It's a lot different nowadays, from what I know, but still far from perfect. If it was seen that you have spatial(or for others verbal) deficits, problems with executive functioning and slow processing speed,as I do, then those things would be flagged up for extra help and support.
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androbot01
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Age: 53
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Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada

08 Feb 2017, 11:20 am

I have recently discovered that gabapentin works wonders for executive function. It was prescribed to me for sciatica and works on the nervous system. Not only are my thoughts more organized, but my fine motor coordination is greatly improved.