An individualized cure that may work for others

by Ben
(New York)

I was diagnosed with SPD when I was 11 and I think I found a cure that works for me. I am now 27 and have no interfering issues relating to SPD as I did as a child. I am currently a paid firefighter in new york and I believe that I am a little above average in skills and abilities. As you could imagine firefighting involves activities that a person with SPD would find difficult.

When I was younger, I always felt clumsy and awkward and I was not very good at sports. However, I liked sports and tried out for teams and always got cut because of my poor abilities. My favorite sport was hockey but Ice skating and SPD? Forgetaboutit. As a kid I did put a lot of effort into practicing hockey and skating. I even played on a non-competitive team but I was never very good. So I stopped skating for about 5 years or so.

Then when I was in college I became interested in a girl who worked at the ice rink. To hang out with her I would go the ice rink and skate. I went to the rink about 4 times a week for about 5 months. I noticed that after skating for three months i became very good. In fact when I got the "feeling" of how my skate was to interact with the ice and the other motions down I could skate better than most of the experienced skaters. This was a major breakthrough for me because it was the first time I felt that I overcame my condition.

I started to put more effort in other physical tasks and realized that if I spend enough time on them I would eventually become good at it, it just takes a ton patience and a lot of time. So I then took the test become a firefighter. I had to work twice as hard as others to get good at various firefighting tasks but once I mastered the skills I retain the ability to perform them well. I estimate that it takes me 6 to 7 times longer to get good at a task as it does it normal person. (a normal person not even someone who is naturally good at learning physical activities) So if it takes a normal person 20 minutes to learn how to tie a knot it takes me over 2 hours.

After the fire academy i learned that extreme physical activity keeps me "sharp", as in my ability to learn new physical activities is cut in half and my overall status is improved. By extreme physical activities I mean 5k's in 22 minutes, 40 push-ups in a minute, 50 sit-ups in a minute, and 15 mile bike rides all in one day. (always pushing myself to the extreme.) Doing this turns the volume down on everything else. If I could back in time would I do this level exercise as a kid, would i spend more time mastering skills? I would like to think yes but I dont think a teenager could have the patience or the ambition to devote that much effort into something. This might work you for you, but it just takes a lot of work.