wonder what disorder I might have

I am not smart, but I am not dumb either. However, sometimes I seem very witty, while sometimes very stupid. I am known for my being mixed up by close family, while I am known for being highly careful, observant, and aware by friends and strangers as well. I have always loved arts, visual art and classical music in particular, since the date I could remember things as a kid. I am a nearly perfectionist, while I am being careless a lot of times. I am terrible at numbers, yet I got all A+ for college algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. I could understand very well all math lectures. However, I forget everything that's past a few weeks. It's not only math, but also everything else I learned. I cannot remember any knowledge I acquire during my school years. I have a master degree in art history, yet I cannot remember any artist's name except a few very famous ones. I cannot remember any art term out of thousands of terms.


When my husband asked me how much I spent on something after a week, I could not remember. My husband does not ask me the price of something I buy on a regular basis or something ordinary. When he asked me how much the new armoire was, I could not answer. It was hundreds of dollars, yet I could not remember the number.


Sometimes I help out at my parents-in-laws' restaurant. Tonight, my husband showed me a ticket I wrote up and calculated the total price by a calculator. On the ticket, 5 orders of $6.79 dishes ended up only thirteen something dollars. He added, "the chef' helper in the kitchen caught the mistake, and he only took his education up to 6th grade." I was mad at the time my husband said it, because I felt insulted and belittled. Nevertheless, now I think about it; my brain does not function better than perhaps a true 6th grader. Of course it was such an obvious mistake when my husband showed the ticket to me, but it did not seem to be my consciousness that it was obvious when I wrote it up. However, I can subtract, add, multiply, and divide huge numbers in my head in a snap and accurate that most Americans cannot do.


This is just one of many incidences I have been so mixed up. Calculating tickets wrong by using a calculator happens quite often. I cannot give the rough number how much we have paid for our mortgage. That's perhaps due to my not pay any attention to the statements. I did not find out some unauthorized charges on my credit card statement 4 months later for each month. Perhaps I did not check or I missed it; I am not sure.


I look normal, behave normal, and I am very able to do anything I want to. People even call me talented and believe that I do everything well and perfectly. I never miss any appointment, payment, deadline, or anything. Whatever people ask me to do, I do it well. Everybody at work has trusted me and believed that I am the most capable person ever since the date I started working. I have never made any mistakes at work for my own career as an art restorer, art teacher, art designer, and music teacher (have a BA degree in music too, besides MA and BA in art). However, I make a lot of mistakes at the restaurant where a junior high school kid could probably work better better than I could, by miscalculating price, giving out wrong orders, and only giving partial orders out. The ticket says 10 orders, and I only gave one bag of 2 orders out without realizing the number of the actual order not matching the number of order on the ticket.


I have never considered that I have any disorder, but i am simply a mixed up person. However, I am now starting to think that I might have a serious disorder, yet I just have never been diagnosed. I am 38 years old, and my situation has always existed. What's wrong with me? Thank you.

Welcome to PC.

Nobody here can diagnose you, only a professional can. Have you talked about this with your doctor, or other medical professional?

Does this bother you at all? If it does, it would be wise to seek some sort of professional help (whether that be for a general check up, a neurologist appt, or an appt with a psychologist etc).

Christina is right in that only a professional can diagnose you, but I bet you're wanting to hear general suggestions too.

When I read your post, it made me wonder if some parts of your brain just aren't relating some things to others, or just aren't as used to different ways of functioning. So for example your brain naturally handles mental arithmetic well, yet when a calculator is involved those links of thought which calculate the bill are broken so things don't make as much sense. So maybe your brain is used to another way of thinking?

Where memory is involved, and you seem to have difficulties in particular areas more than others, some testing could be very helpful to help you and others no what to expect, and give you an understanding of your abilities and any possible impairments. A standard psych eval could be useful, and maybe some neuropsych testing also.

Some important considerations might be whether you have always had the problems you are having now, or when they started to show up. Has it gotten worse recently? What's in your family history? Any learning problems, mental illness, dementia of any kind? Your age may be important. Also your general health status.

If any of these problems affect your work, you might be able to get the testing through vocational rehabilitation.

Another thing that might be of interest is Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences. Basically, he says that intelligence has traditionally been defined too narrowly. We all have different ability levels in a number of different areas:

Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
Musical intelligence ("music smart")
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

More here: http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multi...elligences.htm

Or if you like taking quizzes, you can find out which of those areas are your strengths:
http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/reso..._int/index.htm