Vet school with ADHD

[pittiesfurever]

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Hello!

I am currently in my second week of vet school, and I am struggling with my ADHD. I have an appointment tomorrow with a psychiatrist and a therapist.

I had my first exam today, I feel so discouraged.

Am i not studying well, is it the information.

I can not sit through 8 hours of lectures because i clock out within 30 minutes to an hour of each lecture.

Is there any advice how to study, how to navigate this.

 

[pp9]

Hello!

I am currently in my second week of vet school, and I am struggling with my ADHD. I have an appointment tomorrow with a psychiatrist and a therapist.

I had my first exam today, I feel so discouraged.

Am i not studying well, is it the information.

I can not sit through 8 hours of lectures because i clock out within 30 minutes to an hour of each lecture.

Is there any advice how to study, how to navigate this.

There may be some accommodations that may be helpful. One of my classmates struggled heavily until she got a diagnosis and was able to get accommodations - the main change I remember (and knew about) was that she was given extra time to take our exams. Hopefully your medical team will have some options for you too.

As for the lectures...that's a tough one. How are your lectures timed/broken up? do you get breaks between lectures? Are they recorded? Is attendance mandatory/monitored?

'How to study' is a really difficult thing to generalize. What works for one person may not work for another. some parts of vet school are pure memorization, other parts require you to understand concepts/disease processes that you can't always just memorize. Although I don't have any formal diagnosis, I could not sit and memorize anything for the life of me. It's not how I learn, and I couldn't sit long enough at my desk to go through flash cards. I did far better working from big systems/concepts down to smaller concepts. ie the legs flex/extend thanks to ____ muscles, which are innervated and blood supplied by ____, and the muscles insert here. Although tbh I never actually learned my insertion points...that felt far too impossible at the time (probably still would be for me...). But for me that was far more helpful than sitting and staring/pointing at a cadaver for hours. You do still have to get into the lab for better visualization and lab practical prep, but I found it was a more efficient use of my time if I prepared myself that way first. Sometimes drawing was helpful for visualization too.

 

[renacuaja]

Seeing a psychiatrist and therapist are excellent steps.


I would also see if there are people within the school that can help you figure out how to best study. That could be a professor, learning counselor, peer mentor. Depends on personal preference and what official channels your school may offer.

My auditory attention span is garbage and it's especially bad during non-interactive lectures. I do a few things to cope:
- taking my ADHD meds before lecture
- blank note pages where all I write are questions, things to look back to, and/or details to remember. annotating slide decks is nice but when I get bored from listening, I start reading ahead and stop listening it just become self-study time
- using textbooks as my main learning source when studying (lectures point out what is important -- I found the "story" in textbooks much easier to follow and keep my attention longer)
- use lecture time to study relevant material if my coping mechanisms aren't working that day
- sitting next to people that are paying attention
- fidget toys
- taking a break and taking a short walk

My strong preference is to skip lecture altogether. I go to lectures these days because unfortunately they are kinda useful.

 

[max_wildlife]

Hello!

I am currently in my second week of vet school, and I am struggling with my ADHD. I have an appointment tomorrow with a psychiatrist and a therapist.

I had my first exam today, I feel so discouraged.

Am i not studying well, is it the information.

I can not sit through 8 hours of lectures because i clock out within 30 minutes to an hour of each lecture.

Is there any advice how to study, how to navigate this.

Hi! I struggled with adhd throughout vet school. I *really* struggled to separate important information from the more arbitrary stuff -- I included everything in my quizlets and anki decks because I couldn't localize the important info the way some of my classmates could. This led to a lot of brain fatigue, and burning out from studying. Studying in very small groups, or with at least one friend, helped both keep me focused and allowed me to narrow my focus.

Drawing and hand-writing out notes also helped a lot, because it meant I was participating in the material rather than just trying to absorb it via reading.

I often was more attentive when I had music or a movie I'd seen a bunch of times playing in the background. I skipped many lectures just because I found the lecture hall distracting, and really only started attending in-person the last semester of classes. If your school allows you to watch recorded lectures, this may help because you can pause, rewind etc -- or put on 2x speed depending on what you need on a given day.

I also struggled with executive dysfunction. I did better doing a hobby that I enjoyed before committing to study time, like running or skateboarding or something rather than trying to turn my hobby into a reward to do after if that makes sense. It was like my brain would stage a protest.

Seeing a therapist and psychiatrist helped for sure, but honestly they helped me most in developing patterns that helped create a routine that I stuck to, and helped me identify spirals before they happened.

I hope some of this is helpful. I really thought I was going to fail out of vet school first year. It's for sure overwhelming, and you are not alone.