#1 - Feb. 11, 2012, 12:05 a.m.
It doesn't sound like much to most people, but to anyone that has any sort of physcial or mental impairment something as simple as completing a quest may be trying. But hey, we are just as capable as others. This isn't a thread for us just to complain. this is a thread for sharing any stories you might have and sharing tips and tricks for others with physical limitations.
Tell me how you get around your challenges? How do set things up to better your gaming experience? any advice you want to share with your fellow gamers? Post it here!
I find that locking all of my toolbars and addon windows and setting things up so I can't double click and turn them off unintentionally really helps with the unintentional button presses.
I also managed to set up my actions bars so the important things I tend to forget to use, such as buffs and enhancements are near eye level, becausxe as long as I can see it I can remember to use it!
For those of you who want the mostly-full story please read on. This was pulled form one of my later posts and I thought I would leave it here for clarification.
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((Taken from ucanlearn.net, a resource for people with learning disabilites.
"Working memory is described as “the ability to hold several facts or thoughts in short term memory while solving a problem or performing a task.” We use our working memory all day long without thinking about the process. People with working memory problems can’t “hang onto” the information long enough to do that.
Poor working memory has been proven to influence a person’s ability to learn or to pay attention to a task for a longer period of time. Poor memory can come about because of Dyslexia, ADHD, a brain injury, people recovering from chemotherapy, or persons with generalized specific learning disorders. Whatever the cause, we now know that greater focus needs to be paid to the working memory ability of an individual instead of the person’s IQ or intellectual function."
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ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Is something that isn't easy to explain to someone and have them take you seriously. Nowadays the term is use very loosly and is used by a lot of people as an 'excuse disease' by people who self-diagnose. Like aspergers, its a very real and very serious disorder for many, many people. For those of us that suffer from ADD/ADHD, We can tell you it is very very real, and incredibly frusterating. The best way to explain it in my case would be it's a lot like trying to do 10 things at one. I could be doing something as simple as washing dishes. and my mind is constantly going. its racing and thinking hundreds of random thoughts a minute. No matter what I do I cannot keep myself focused on that task because its like there are 10 other things my brain is focused on and no matter what you do you cannot stop it. At night when you try to sleep your mind never shuts off. Its always going, always moving. You get restless, you get irritable, you loose sleep and the ability to function within normal limits. For those of you have never experienced it the best way to explain it would be You are trying to read a book, but at the same time. there is a TV Blaring, three people talking to you at once about different things, music playing, and a baby crying. There's just so much going on you get overwhelmed. Those of us with ADHD cant seem to finish anything we start becasue of this. It affects your memory since you can no longer keep important things in mind becasue the non-necessary thoughts knock them out. Its frusterating and tiring and it makes functioning on a normal human level difficult. The other side to ADHD is something called Hyperfocus. Once you get focused on something you cannot seem to be pulled away from it and you tend to forget to do things like sleep or eat. I only suffer it rarely but I know others that have a huge issue with it. My ADHD is so bad I cannot sit still and watch a movie. It just feel like I'm always needing to move and my mind is always racing.
I have always lived in a small, and isolated town, in a place where most people have no concept of some of the disorders that are out there. I have had ADHD all my life and it was severe to the point where I couldn't focus on anything long enough to get it done. I was constantly getting things backwards and could never seem to sit still. My cognitive processes were so out of whack that I could barely remember something said to me a few minutes ago since my mind had already focuse on something else, rendering me unable to retain things. The doctor in our little town mere said I had a very 'bubbly' personality and it was just my curiosity and I would grow out of it. They didn't bother to test, they didn't look any further into it.
It never got better. It got worse. I struggled so badly just to focus in school I ended up breaking down in tears. It left me depressed, lonely and I eventually developed heavy anxiety due to it. It wasn't until I was 29 and literally had a mental breakdown they figured out why. Only now, am I getting the treatment I so desperately needed and because it was left so long my chances for recovery to a normal functioning level is gone and my short-term memory is completely fried. My thought process jumps around so much all the information I recieve is disjointed, leaving me unable to remember most of what I am told.
The nerve damage that causes twitching in my hands and legs is related to one of the first treatments I underwent for the anxiety related to the ADHD. I was given an antidepressant/anti anxiety drug to help balance out the incredible mess in my head. I reacted badly and developed a condition called serotonin syndrome, and while it is fixable by stopping the medication causing the problem, some people develop a form of permanent ataxia known as myoclonic temors. It's not nearly as severe as the more well known types of ataxia but it does cause random spasms in my hands, arms, legs and feet. My worst is in my hands and it gives me a lot of trouble some nights when I try to play. You don't feel anything out of the ordinary then suddenly your fingers are twitching and hitting random buttons, you click things you dont want to and/or aggro the wrong mob. I have done this so many times and there is nothing I can do that will stop that from happening. This serotonin overload has also affeted my brain chemistry making an already bad memory worse.
That's what my disability is. That doesn't mean I'm going to let it get to me. I made a decision when I finally got a name to my issue that I would find away to help myself improve!
I outlined a few of the things I do to make my gaming life easier in the first post, but I thought I would share something else that may help any of you that have a hard time concentrating on things.
One thing that really helps me focus is to get goals for myself and increase them bit by bit. For example. If I am working a profession like mining or herbalism, I set a number of skill points I want to get, say 10. Then I turn on the skill up notifier and the node tracker. then I work until I have 10 points. Once I do, I stop myself and take a break or move on to something different. Then as I go I gradually increase the amount I do, teaching myself to focus for longer periods of time. The same goes for levelling or raiding. Its easier when you have a close group to help but I find teaching myself to focus this way byt using WoW's many different features has actually helped me overall.
