University & College Issues

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UNIVERSITY AND COLLEGE ISSUES

Written and collated by Poppy Ellis Logan

“It’s not a disorder of not knowing what to do, it is a disorder of not doing what you know.”

Acknowledgement

AADD-UK are grateful to Poppy Ellis Logan for providing us with the following collated information for this page as well as all the sub-pages in this section of our website.

Poppy is a recent graduate in Education from the University of Cambridge. She wrote her undergraduate dissertation on the experiences of students with ADHD at the University and founded a support group for these students, and spoke about these experiences at the UKAAN conference in July 2016.

After graduating she took up the role of elected Welfare & Rights Officer and head of the Students’ Unions’ Advice Service, where she organised career and other events specifically for students with ADHD and created a resource kit for incoming students with ADHD.

She also wrote a successful business case for the University of Cambridge to provide an ADHD screening and support service to students who have, or may have, ADHD, and this service is now in development.

Poppy will be speaking in September at this year’s UKAAN conference with Jane Sedgwick about the implications of grouping ADHD with SpLDs in educational institutions.

At present Poppy is working for Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest but is also hoping to publish her research on the needs of students with ADHD in HE in the near future.

Poppy’s Notes

1. The contents of this section of AADD-UK’s website is a mixture of collated and original information. It was only after I had already collated most of this information that I actually found a way to record reference information that worked for me (which is the one I describe here as well as in the following sub-pages)… As a result, there are a lot of references missing, and I really apologise for any material here that doesn’t credit its original authors! Please get in touch (via AADD-UK’s Contact Us page) if we’ve used your material so we give you the credit you deserve 🙂

2. For ease of reading the information has been divided into 2 sections (Academic/Study Issues & General Life) which have been sub-divided into manageable units (rather than having one very long and indigestible page). These sections can be accessed via the links below:

SECTION 1: ACADEMIC/STUDY ISSUES:

SECTION 2: GENERAL LIFE [this section will be added soon]

Some Other Very Useful Websites!

Employment-related resources:

1) templates for professional correspondence are available here: http://www.vertex42.com/WordTemplates/resignation-letter.html

2) Good Copy • Email copy from great companies template emails written in businesslike way. Very useful for ensuring your emails are professional!

Emails, letters and administration:

1) The Bureau of Communication – Fill-in-the-blank Correspondence Templates for writing letters (e.g. thank you letter, apology letter, etc.)

2) Email Template Generator Very useful email generator – allows you to generate email templates depending on audience and occasion.

3) Doodle – Doodle can help you take the headache out of coordinating a time to meet with friends or colleagues.

4) This Free App Is The Best Thing To Happen To Email Since Gmail (The app is called ‘unroll me’ and is a really useful way of keeping your subscriptions but putting each subscription email into one long email each day – you can go from 40 junk emails per day to only 1 really long one).

Packing planning [aids to prevent shop trolley/suitcase overfilling]:

1) Interactive Packing List | IndependentTraveler.com

2) FREE: The Ultimatest Grocery Lists at grocerylists.org ☠ The Grocery List Collection (weird lists, funny books, downloadable PDFs & more) The best pre-formatted grocery lists ever created – and they’re free. Print ’em out, hang ’em on the refrigerator door and mark ’em up before you go to the grocery store. There are comprehensive versions for both meat-eaters and vegetarians

Tips for telling others how ADHD feels:

1) Really useful explanation of ADHD for anyone who doesn’t understand how it affects you: http://neurodiversitysci.tumblr.com/post/139769513631/adhd-community-philosophium-do-i-have-any (honestly, take a look, it understand you better than YOU understand you)

2) 21 Things People With ADHD Want You To Know This buzzfeed understands it all. Seriously useful for explaining why something might be difficult because of ADHD to someone.

3) Finish It Friday! : ADHD (reddit forum made up of ADHDers for transatlantic support and solidarity at all times)

Tips for general organisation:

1) Free Planners & Productivity Worksheets • Productive Flourishing (all sorts of different planner type so you can find one that is exactly what you need)

2) Organization and Time Management | CHADD (ADHD-friendly guide to getting organised!)

3) Tab (free, iOS and Android) makes complicated bill splitting *super* easy.

4) Google Photos (free, iOS, Android, web) is the ultimate photo search tool; unlimited storage, frees up your iPhone, turns bursts of photos into gifs, can be searched in cool ways e.g. ‘food’, etc.

5) Google Drive – Google Drive is the ultimate cloud-based platform for storing, managing, sharing, and collaborating on files. Everything saves automatically and two people can edit a document at once. Its magical.

6) Habitica | Your Life the Role Playing Game (boring things become much easier to get yourself to do when you earn GOLD for doing them)

Tips for adult-specific organisation:

1) NASMA – Welcome to the National Association of Student Money Advisers (has a very useful ‘money and mental health’ leaflet which can help make thinking about your finances or accepting them as something you might have to take responsibility for a lot less scary)

2) Cleaning Basics | Unfuck Your Habitat (this website will give you any information you might need for pretending to be a functioning and sanitary adult)

Self care:

1) You feel like shit. (a step-by-step self-care walk through for when you feel like shit)

2) 15 Easy Things You Can Do That Will Help When You Feel Like Shit (buzzfeed version of self-care walkthrough)

3) Mental Health Resources: 81 Awesome Resources When You Can’t Afford a Therapist | Greatist (this list is very long, if you need support now, try one of the links above this).

Further suggestions about useful apps/technology/resources:

1) http://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolenguyen/life-changing-apps-we-downloaded-in-2015#.xayNl9DBG Includes: Neko Atsume which is a game where you take care of cartoon cats and it’s really cute. Doesn’t actually help you organise your life but cats are super therapeutic so.

2) http://www.lifehack.org/372021/15-free-resources-get-you-more-organized-2016

3) ATTENTION APP-USING ADHDers: I am going to create a mega list of apps that y’all have found useful for coping with ADHD and need your help! : ADHD (even more apps, as used by ADHDers around the world)

And finally do feel free to chat with other university/college students about all matters ADHD here on our forum.