In this post, I’ll try to tell something more about my tics and OCD at school and how I (and the teachers) tried to handle it.
If you’d ask my teachers if I had a lot of tics in class, they’d probably say no. Ask the same question to me, however, and I’d definitely say yes! Everything is going on in my head, and if I had to do some movement like touching the floor, I dropped a pencil to hide it. With tricks like this, I was very good in hiding my tics in class.
Other tough thoughts that I had (and still have) were constantly thinking about the same thing over and over again — especially the littlest details. This took (and still takes) a lot of time, with the result that there was not a lot of concentration on what the teachers where teaching me.
To better concentrate, I started painting in my books. I know, it sounds silly, but it really helped me better concentrate in class. Maybe it works for other people, too? I don’t know, but it definitely helped me a lot! Teachers didn’t always understand the fact that it was easier for me to concentrate on what they were saying this way, so I got a lot of comments on it in class (even after talking about this with them).
Another problem I had (and have) is that I never liked to put my hand in the air when a question was asked. Even if I was the only one who knew the answer, I simply couldn’t put my arm in the air. I talked about this with a lot of teachers, but they all seemed to forget about it. After a while, I gave up and now I only answer a question when it’s asked directly to me.
I had some conversations with my teachers about how these things can work better for me — how drawing helps and how it would help me if they asked some more questions directly to me. Sadly, most teachers forgot about it. But even today, I’m still drawing in books and not putting my hand in the air in class! And I’m happy with that, since it’s the best way to learn for me.
