Being on Sport Teams Has Buffed Me Up!

As I am sitting in school looking around me I see a lot of kids with sport t-shirts on. My school’s athletic program is HUGE and very well recognized. Not to mention our football team won five state championships in a row while our in-a-row ended this year. But anyways, I have been playing soccer since I was a five year old little girl. I have participated in sports for 12 years now (soccer, baseball/softball, basketball, one year of girls lacrosse, snowboarding and field hockey). I am very athletic and love sports. Not to mention I received All-State second team for field hockey this year! Being a part in sports teams has only been a positive experience for me and continues to stay that way.

Expressing Myself With The Team:
Sports, and right now Field hockey gives me a way to express my emotions. Anger, excitement, frustration, how strong I can be, and other emotions. Verbally emotions don’t come out the way I plan them to. Mentally, up in my head they spin like crazy, but a lot of times I don’t know what they mean. Physically, when I have the option, they just take off and fly. In sports there are many emotions left out on the field, the court, or in the pool. In my case, it’s on the field playing on my field hockey team. It's one thing to express these emotions alone, but another thing to express them with others. My team wins together, laughs together, sings together, cries together, yells together, and gets frustrated together. Together, together, together.. Everything is TOGETHER. I don’t have to try to express myself alone anymore because I have a team to do this with. I often find myself not expressing myself very well when I am at home, with friends, and especially in the school environment I am sitting in right now (but when I write, like I am now...Well that's a different story!). I don’t really know why it is, but I do recognize my emotions inside, but that doesn't do me or anyone else much good. So, having a team and a sport to express myself is a huge help! We are not a bunch of mini cliques like some teams at my clique-filled school has. We are one BIG clique, but an unusual clique because we let anyone in that wants to be a part as well and I am very proud to say that I am one of the captains that makes this happen.

The Nasty Social Situations Only Made/Makes Me Stronger:
Yes, I have endured many uncomfortable situations on some teams and yes I´ve been put down sometimes, but that has made me only that much stronger. You never want to see your children go through that pain, but really in the end there are great results. (Look at who I am now! I never on the face of this Earth thought that I would ever write a blog about Auditory Processing Disorder and become this strong about explaining it.) I mean think about it... If you never introduce your children to social settings or shelter them to what you believe is going to be a bad social situation, why complain that they have a hard time socially? Yeah, they might have it harder than most people, but if you shelter them from this, how will they ever learn? One day they will be on their own and will need to know what to do.

My Social Skills Have Improved:
I am not the outgoing one, or the talkative story teller, but I have developed lots of skills from being on sports teams. I have learned through my team how to communicate with different types of people. Although I don´t communicate as well as most people, I have improved my social skills immensely. When to say what, when to laugh, when to make a joke, etc... Appropriate timing of when to ______ was a hard concept for me as a child, and today I still mess up, but that’s just the APD I can’t control barking at me. BUT I do have to say, from the times I do mess up I know how to cover it up. Someone- “What did you have for lunch?” Me- “Um, I had like a salad with ugh chicken on it” Someone- “So a chicken ceaser salad? (giggles from people)” Me- “You just one the lottery! (giggles from people)” or “Well, that’s what I meant (giggles from people)”. I turn those “awkward” mistakes around with a little humor. Gotta say, it works like a charm! 

My Confidence Level Jumped:

School isn't my thing, and usually is a huge burden... I try to imagine myself not being involved in a sport, and I can't because who would I be? It's something I LOVE verses school which I can HATE sometimes. Sports come easy for me and then on the flip side there is school which does not come easy at all! Recognizing my talents in sports gives me a lot of confidence in myself. It let's me know and say that I am in fact GOOD at something. I can't imagine going through life disliking and just finding all the tasks I do to be hard. I wouldn't have much confidence in myself, would you? I know I wouldn't. I deal with enough daily hard tasks and it's tiring. Sports are fun BECAUSE they come natural for me. Having confidence in life is very important for everyone to have! 

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If there is anything that has helped me, it has been being a part of a team. If it isn’t a sport team, maybe it’s drama, or a church group, but “team building” is very important and great practice for everyone, but especially people with APD.

"I promise you that for every disability you have, you are blessed with more than enough abilities to overcome your challenges" – Nick Vujicic

ADD vs. APD: Notice The Middle Letter Changes

I was diagnosed with ADD since I was in 3rd/4th grade. I was on ADD medication until I was in 8th/9th grade when I was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder. Now there are SLIGHT similarities, but how do you mix Auditory Processing Disorder with Attention Deficit Disorder? They are NOT the same… At all. Many people get confused with this. EVERYONE knows about ADD so that’s what they would pick over APD because they probably don’t know what APD is.

My Experience With ADD Medication:

Now that I look back on taking ADD medication, I wish I was diagnosed with APD the first time because the medication affected me negatively 3rd-9th grade. Yes, maybe I was a little more focused in school and homework and what-not, but it didn't help me with how long I get things done or how I can verbalize things, or my social skills with people. It didn't help me what was really the issue. What I've been able to understand from my doctors as well as my personal experience with ADD medication is that the medication made me MORE anxious when I was taking it... ADD can be negative in the way as you’re TOO focused if you "don't have it" or have a higher anxiety level... I was too focused on the big test I had, or the words a boy said to me at lunch and the amount of homework that had to get done. The medication magnified and focused too much on things for me… BUT it is different for everyone's situation. ADD medication in my experience wasn't worth it. I KNOW my brother has ADD.. VERY obvious ADD when he is off of it, so it is worth it for him.

ADD:

ADD as everyone knows… Is when kids have a hard time focusing and commonly have behavioral issues along with the focusing aspect. Kids will often fidget, and will keep their body (and especially their hands) busy as much as they can. Some kids keep their mouth busy, too (blurting things out in or speaking in inappropriate instances). Some doctors say everyone has ADD, and some doctors say the opposite. This is because ADD is a very hard thing to diagnose correctly. From my experience, I was about sick of going from pill to pill because “I had ADD” even though the pills never seemed to work. Yes, there’s more to ADD but that’s a quick little summary.

APD:

If you haven’t already found out what APD is from my blogs, it’s a disorder that also affects the brain, but affects the auditory. Our ears will hear fine and clear, but our brain will spit and jumble totally wrong messages back to us. APD also affects on how LONG correct information will be sent. Sometimes if I’m asked a question I pause for 3 and even 10 seconds sometimes. It can be that long because my brain is also trying to PROCESS what I want to say as well. Verbalizing is difficult. Our brains “hearing” is difficult, so PROCESSING information is difficult. That’s what APD is summed up.

ADD vs APD:

Now seeing APD and ADD right next to one another, APD is TOTALLY different than ADD… Although, people would say “Oh Johnny wasn’t focused on what I was telling him to do so he forgot”. Well, that’s the case if you have ADD, but really what Johnny has is Auditory Processing Disorder because he did not UNDERSTAND what was just said to him. He was totally focused, but did not have the right message sent to him from his brain. ADD and APD are confused a lot especially in young children because little kids’ attention span’s aren’t very high to begin with. Also, ADD and APD are both very well hidden. Teachers and professionals don’t have as much knowledge on APD as they do ADD… (“Oh, he has ADD” – Or are you saying that because you have more knowledge on ADD? (Just sayin’!)) 

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Think about it… Trying to cure a disorder your child doesn’t have and not curing a disorder they ACTUALLY have is kind of a big deal. I thought I had ADD 3rd grade through 9th grade. Heck, I was very confused when I was told I had this one disorder called “Auditory Processing Disorder”. I didn't believe I had a different disorder because I was SO stuck on the idea that I had ADD. In fact, I was SO confused just a half a year ago I thought it was called “Audio Processing Disorder”. The more people can be educated on BOTH the disorders, the more advanced ideas people will generate to help BOTH of the disorders separately. But most importantly, parents and teachers will be able to start working with the children’s true needs earlier, and start curing the RIGHT one earlier. With me? :D