Have you ever made what you would consider a careless mistake? Or made so many mistakes at work that you get fired or lose count? I have done all of those because of the NLD. I have made many mistakes in my life and at work, big and small ones. I’ll give you a few examples.
At work, I’ve made many mistakes by not proofreading newsletters enough for my mom. I’ve been working at getting better for over a year. I know that’s a long time and too long but I think it takes a different amount of time for each individual to make a new skill a habit because of how their brain works. Everyone’s brain is different, especially if they’re neurodiverse.
One of the other mistakes I made at work was with the social media posts. I need to proofread those too and make sure I have the right facial expression illustrated in the image that connects with the quote. I used to pick images that were too serious, flirtatious, or too sad. Consequently, it used to take me hours to find the right image and sometimes days. Now it only takes me maybe an hour depending on the quote.
Now if I have any issues with these posts it’s usually more visual than with the verbal content.
For example, in one of the posts, there’s a phrase “life is good” on the top of it and it has been moving around too much from where it was at the beginning of designing them. So I had to go back to the beginning and use those posts to solve it. I overestimated how long it would take me to fix this mistake. I thought it would take all day when in reality it only took a couple of hours.
In life, I have also made many mistakes such as dating my ex, car accidents and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Please listen to the song called “I Learn (And Forget)” by Daniel Nahmod it is so fitting for this blog. All right enough about me now it’s time for some quotes from articles.
Here’s an article titled “5 Mistakes People Make When Interacting with NLDers” by Peter Flom. It is about some of the mistakes neurotypicals can make when interacting with NVLDers.
1. “Assuming we’re stupid.
2. Assuming we’re deaf.
3. Assuming we’re not listening.
4. Assuming we’re not interested in you.
5. Assuming we’re like other “spectrum” people you know.”
We’re not stupid we actually might be smarter or more gifted in some areas than a neurotypical like in memorization, audio memory, verbal memory, long-term memory, and in some academic areas too.
We’re not deaf. And we are listening to you. We might be taking longer to process what you said to us though but that doesn’t mean we didn’t hear what you said. Or might take longer for us to understand because of trying to interpret a nonverbal cue.
We might even listen better than neurotypicals because we can usually remember what you said to us better and for longer than they can. We also tend to be more sensitive than a neurotypical usually is.
We’re not on the ASD spectrum unless we have NLD and Autism at the same time. Or NLD and Asperger’s. Yes NLD does have a spectrum in terms of every NLDEr experiencing the symptoms of it to a different degree than others.
Here’s a blog post titled “Adults with LD or ADHD making ‘stupid’ mistakes,” from idonline.org.
“Hello everyone. I was diagnosed with a visual-spatial learning disability in 2009. I was suspected of having full-blown NLD, however, I did not proceed with the remainder of the testing. I’m having a problem that I’m not sure is related to: I do things I have already learned how to do wrong. I either do the right thing the wrong way or the wrong thing the right way, or I forget half of whatever it was I was supposed to do. Once I became aware of this problem, I started pausing and asking myself whether what I was doing was really correct. But the answer at the time is always “yes” …then a few hours or a day later I will realize my mistake. It does not seem to matter how often I have done the task before or how complicated it is. Is this problem related to NLD or something similar? Is there anything I can do about it? It has gotten worse over the last few years, which has shattered my self-esteem, led to significant anxiety, and put me at risk of losing my job. I am in need of help but at this point, I don’t know whether I should be contacting a neurologist, a psychologist, or a career counselor.”
I can definitely relate to this blog post because of what I said earlier in the episode about the proofreading mistakes I make often.
I’ve learned many lessons from both my mistakes in life and at work. I don’t regret making them now because they’ve made me the person I am today. And for that, I will always be thankful.
I want you to remember that everyone makes mistakes in life and probably more so if you have a learning challenge. But that doesn’t make you stupid. I think it makes you stronger as long as you try to learn something each time you make one so you don’t make it again or as often.
For your reference here are the links for the articles I quoted:
~https://www.iamlearningdisabl
~http://www.ldonline.org/xarbb
Jennifer
I am 26 and Project Social Ambassador. I have NLD and a chronic migraine condition. Yet I’m able to hold down a full-time job for almost two years now. I work as an admin assistant, tech, and social media support. I also help clean our workplace as the COVID-19 Hygienist. I love my job because I never get bored.
