Hi,

I’ve had this issue for a while of not being able to concentrate. It didn’t really bother me in high school because I could get by with minimum amounts of studying. I noticed when I get frustrated I usually just abandon tasks and my mind often wonders during lectures. I’ve always been told if I just worked a little harder I could excel in my academics, but I can’t seem to get myself to stick to a task. I’m currently working on a long term goal that I am passionate about, and my grades are a really important aspect in achieving it. So I think it’s really about time I address this issue. But I don’t know how to get started.

Thank you for your time.

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your experience. It is not unusual for students to present with the difficulties you describe when they shift from high school to post-secondary. The amount of studying (and concentration required for that), the longer assignments (and longer term planning and persistence required to complete them), the attention required during lectures,  the more difficult material, and the raised performance expectations, can shake us up. I certainly experienced this (many years ago!).

However, some of the difficulty you describe might not be about this transition alone. It can be that the difficulties you describe first present themselves as a problem in post-secondary because the high school conditions did not present a sufficient challenge to attention regulation.  The minimum amounts of studying required to pass, the possible parental supports for healthy eating and sleep, and the exercise through team sports, can all mitigate attention regulation difficulties so that they are less impairing of performance. In order to assess if you meet diagnostic criteria for attention problems (Attention Deficit Disorder), an assessment by a psychologist, specialist doctor, or psychiatrist is required. To learn more about these kinds of assessments you can visit my ADD in Post-Secondary blog and check out the assessment page.  I hope you will find this additional information useful for answering your question about how to get started..

In either case, you have stated you are ready to address this issue. So even if you don’t meet criteria for a diagnosis, there are many things you can do to address the difficulties you describe. It is wonderful to read that you have a long term goal that you are passionate about. This will serve you well since excitement about the material will often support attention. As I’m sure you are already aware, not every course you need to take will match your interest. It is often in courses that are of less interest to you, that students need to figure out how to sustain attention, get themselves going on assignments that don’t yet feel urgent, and persist when it takes a long time to learn the material. I also get the sense that you have not fallen into the trap of thinking you are experiencing problems of intelligence or laziness. Indeed, you seem to already frame your difficulties as a problem of performance.

There are many resources at MRU that support student success. With what you describe, Student Counselling Services will give you a chance to explore your challenges in more detail with a counsellor and discuss the best place to start.

All the best,

Mirjam Knapik, Ph.D., R. Psych.

Counsellor

Student Counselling Services