Musings on Researching NVLD; Link to Newsgroup
It’s awesome to see all the hits on my NVLD pages, both on my website and the re-print on my blog (start here). There seem to be more and more all the time.
Not only was it cathartic to write my life story and how I believe I have NVLD (or maybe even mild Asperger’s), but it was very informative, a gathering of links and research I have gleaned over the years as I wrote and updated that page, even information I’ve gotten from the NLD Yahoo group I belong to.
It’s good to see other people finding it so helpful in their own research.
(That group is NLD Adults. Their description: “Meeting place for adults diagnosed or self-diagnosed with NLD (nonverbal learning disability.)” Among our members is Peter Flom, a self-diagnosed NLDer who has been quoted and interviewed for various articles and books on NLD. We also have Pia Savage, an NLD blogger for Psychology Today. Feel free to join if you fit the criteria.)
Going through my diaries from 20 years ago is also bringing in more tidbits I had completely forgotten about, such as that I used to be far more resistant to schedule or routine changes, even if the change would be for a fun activity, and that my psychologist in elementary school helped me a great deal socially.
This brings more pieces to the puzzle, a puzzle which has intrigued and obsessed me for 12 years, since with a perpetual lack of resources to see a neurologist for expensive tests, I’ve been forced to do this on my own.
I put it with the old elementary and middle school papers which my mom found in the attic and gave me several years ago, and all sorts of old forgotten information:
–the unreadable chicken scratches of my early grades,
–Ds and Fs despite an IQ in the 140s,
–my French and Social Studies teachers constantly yelling at me in red ink for not following directions when I know I would not have deliberately gone against them,
–and all sorts of other difficulties which I have described in detail on my website, things which fit the NVLD profile.
It also amazes me just how far I’ve come over the years, from complete quietness and no eye contact and never greeting people to at least some more talking and much better eye contact,
from terrible grades in middle school to graduating college with honors,
from resisting schedule changes to going with the flow,
from a room so disordered and dirty it was called a tornado to keeping my house clean and being an organized file clerk.
There is still much farther to go, which a neurologist could probably help with, if one of these days I can afford one. Such as, driving and socializing are still constant frustrations.