Concentration difficulties - Help needed!

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I am 29 and especially for last ten years I have suffered of poor concentration skills. I have AS diagnosis though most of symptoms are rather weak. I often cannot concentrate on lectures (depends on subject) and also writing papers is very time consuming for me. My thoughts keep wandering to random directions all the time. I am currently writing my thesis and it is frustrating how slowly I proceed.

I have already changed the direction of my studies a lot in order to cope with my poor concentration ability and I am afraid I may have to yet redirect my career if things do not get better.

According to psychiatrist I do not necessarily have any kind of attention-deficit disorder because those diagnoses include also other kind of symptoms (mostly clear practical problems with daily life) which I do not have. My problems may result just from asperger syndrome.

I have found it hard to find any information about coping asperger-related concentration difficulties. And even at the general level there seems to be not much helpful advice available about concentration problems.

Thus all (reasonable) advice on this topic is welcome. I would like to know if there are people with asperger who have had similar problems and managed to improve their ability to concentrate. Which means have they used?

And also I would like to hear if there is any good written material on this topic which might help me.

(I have tried a drug called “concerta” which psychiatrist prescribed to me but it gave me a strong attack of nausea (very likely a psychosomatic effect not caused by drug itself) and I have not yet dared to try it again. I have also tried mild EPA-DHA pills for some time without any perceived effect. I might try stronger ones some day)

Ideas about concentration - Neurological concentration difficulties are associated with central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), petit mal/absence/complex partial and so on, ADHD Inattentive, unusual working memory challenges/glitches, sports concussions, etc.

From what I can gather, the most striking, temporary improvements in the ability to pay attention a little better (not a cure) come from using a central nervous system stimulant - alerting agent - often for some form of ADHD. Examples are: Coffee, caffeine compounds, Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, and so on. None of the meds are cures.

http://www.rsna.org/rsna/media/pr2005/Coffee.cfm

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/adhd/adhd.htm

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You Can Remember course by Bruno Furst

www.happychild.org.uk/acc/tpr/bkr/1099brun.htm

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http://www.daytimer.com/birk/

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Many persons with concentration difficulties simply make a decision to slowly plod on until their goal is reached. They don't like it that they can't find a lot to help with concentration difficulties but they proceed forward anyway - often two steps forward, one step back.

That's my understanding.

Good luck.

I have been doing my own research for a year and half on this subject because I recognized these symptoms in my [then] 13 year old hitting a wall in terms of school and getting schoolwork accomplished, listening in class, etc. Here are the books that I've been reading on the subject:

The Overflowing Brain -- Torkel Klingberg
http://www.amazon.com/Overflowing-Brain ... 170&sr=8-1

Working Memory and Academic Learning - Milton J. Dehn
http://www.amazon.com/Working-Memory-Ac ... 662&sr=1-2

Teaching Teens with ADD and ADHD -- Chris A. Zeigler Dendy
http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Teens-Ad ... 736&sr=1-3

The first two books talk alot about working memory, which seems to be the main problem with the lack of attention or concentration in people on the spectrum, or inattentive ADD. When I read these books, it makes me think of the very things that my son battles: daydreaming, losing attention in class to whatever his mind has going on inside, and the lack of ability to do note-taking.

The second book is very hard to read -- it's geared towards educational professionals, is not in laymen's terms, and mostly deals with the various tests that are available for educators to pinpoint the problem. Towards the end there are various tools given to try and work with the problem of a lack of working memory, and for that bit, it is probably a worthwhile read.

The third book is mostly for parents and teachers of kids in highschool, but it may be helpful for those in college as well There are plenty of "tips" in this book.

The first book is written by a guy who is a specialist in the field -- a field where there are virtually no other speciailists. For some reason, nobody is researching this subject, which is very frustrating to people in your and my situation. He is the developer and proponent of a type of training called CogMed, something developed to improve working memory, which he discusses in the book to a small degree [very minimally, so the book is not totally a sales vehicle]. I highly recommend this book.

We are tryng something called Cognitive Educational Therapy -- basically training given in a setting like Sylvan Learning Centers, where the teacher has gathered a bunch of games that work on attention and processing speed, starting out slowly and building up to faster speeds using a metronome. My son liked the demo, and during the demo the teacher told me that he has worked with med students to improve their attention and processing speeds. You may want to look into this sort of thing. We are just beginning, so I cannot tell you whether or not I think that it works. After this program, I am thinking of having my son do the CogMed program as well. This is all fairly pricey, but I can't just sit and do nothing for my son, and he wants to work on this sort of thing as well because he knows that it has the possibility of helping him be able to do things better in school.

I hope that you can get some good information on this subject -- as it is very important to anyone's ability in work and school.

Warm thanks for both for your help!

Those links and books hopefully help me to find some useful advice