I am now at the end of Year 2 of my Professional Doctorate, and whilst I have learned loads about methodology, methods, literature searches, alongside this has been a very significant personal learning journey. I realised in the October of my first year, because of many posts on Facebook for ADHD awareness week, that I had an ADHD brain. An absolute clanger at the age of 48 years, but all suddenly made sense! Time blindness, executive functioning difficulties, procrastination, emotional dysregulation, poor working memory were all things I could identify with and the descriptions of women with ADHD resonated strongly with me. I am the type of A-grade student who is also ditsy, extremely untidy and very disorganised. I knew my brain could cope with doctorate studies, but I was instantly in overwhelm at the advanced level of juggling skills that would be required alongside being a full-time working parent.
The challenges of being an ADHD learner
The first year was awful, highly stressful – I was often anxious and in constant fear that I would not meet the deadlines. At home I became shouty, forgetful, misplacing items and any routines and sleep pattern went out the window. I fall into the category of student that works right up to the deadline, submits just in time and often knowing just a couple more hours would have made for a better piece of work. Sometimes I fear that students like myself are perceived as not caring or not capable. Yet, I really do care and I spend huge amounts of time worrying about the deadlines because I know that paralysing procrastination can strike at unpredictable times. I cannot guarantee that my brain will function on the day I put in my diary as a study day, so time available for study never feels guaranteed.
What has worked
Self-awareness has been key and as a result I have coped better with the requirements of year 2. As readers will likely be aware, there are a diverse array of experiences linked to ADHD, just as there are with the spectrum of autism. I share these reflections of what has helped me, in case they help others, but in knowing that we are all different and the best we can really do for ourselves is explore what works for us as individual learners.
- No WhatsApp
I worried that I would be isolated, but I made the decision to remove myself from the student WhatsApp group and decrease what to me felt like constant noise. I found other people’s comments overwhelming and instead selected key people who would support me as study buddies. This has allowed me ongoing support but planned by me, rather than always feeling interrupted by messages pinging through.
- Pretend deadlines
Whilst I can’t submit a full draft of something, sharing ‘where I have got to so far’ for an agreed deadline set with my supervisors several weeks prior to the actual deadline has helped me considerably. This doesn’t work if I set myself goals, nor if I put pressure on myself that the draft will be complete. But because I respect my supervisors and I don’t want to impact their workload by messing them around, I can commit to earlier dates. These help me keep on track better than just the assignment deadline and allow time for helpful feedback.
- Trusting that my own style can work
This has been a hard lesson to learn but has paid-off. I sometimes start late at night and work well into the early hours, but I have got better at trying to factor in quieter days and time to catch-up on sleep later in the week. I never follow the module materials in a methodical way but start from the assignment task and select my own route through regarding what I need to learn and what my brain is ready to cope with. Single days of study are rarely helpful, and I now plan out blocks of time, preferably 3-4 days and often away from my family home. This way I know that even if I procrastinate sometimes, I can be completely immersed in my studies and embrace my dream-like state of hyperfocus.
I have no doubt that I have far more to learn about myself as well as my research. But I now feel more accepting of my learning style and hope that others might learn to know that it is OK to have different ways of learning.
Jo Strang is a Staff Tutor in Social Work at the OU and a second year EdD student. Jo is qualified as a social worker, reflexologist and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) practitioner and has worked in Higher Education as a lecturer since 2010. Her research combines her professional interests and aims to explore social work students’ experiences of learning about EFT, a self-help tool often more easily referred to as ‘acupuncture without needles’. This simple tapping technique can reduce the fight-flight response to situations we experience as challenging and assist in processing a variety of emotions.