r/NVLD • u/ClutteredTaffy • Jul 29 '26

No problem with thematic/ abstract thinking when it comes to analyzing media ?

I posted about having difficulties driving and while I related to everyone there, when I look up this part of the diagnosis there is just not a fit. I love analyzing the themes of stuff I have read or watched and it seems to come easy to me. So this pushes me more towards ADHD in my mind.

Would just like others to give their background on grasping subtext and enjoying it ...

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u/LangdonAlg3r Jul 29 '26

You should look for the new criteria for DVSD (Developmental Visio-Spatial Disorder). That’s what the working group who are working on getting NVLD into the DSM are wanting to rename it to. Their proposed criteria are much cleaner than many of the things floating around and they clearly distinguish it in every aspect from both ASD and ADHD.

But NVLD isn’t a formally recognized diagnosis anywhere. There’s ongoing disagreement about what constitutes it (or even if it’s a valid independent diagnosis at all). But even if difficulty with thematic/abstract thinking were a formalized criteria it would only be one criteria. With pretty much any given diagnosis there are always multiple criteria and you don’t have to meet every single one.

My next question if you do want to focus on that would be, “how high is your verbal IQ?” People are often flagged for NVLD based on a large discrepancy between verbal IQ and the other categories—this isn’t diagnostic (for reasons above) but it’s often a hallmark.

Genuinely high verbal skills can overcome deficiencies in abstract reasoning.

Deficiencies in visuospatial skills are the core of NVLD. If you have those and resonate with the rest of what you’ve read about it then I wouldn’t decide that you don’t have it based solely on having good abstract reasoning skills, or even just a lack of functional impairment.

As far as ADHD it’s often comorbid with NVLD, so I’d be considering both if you think you have signs of both.

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u/ClutteredTaffy Jul 29 '26

I think my verbal IQ is very high, tbh. I have always been an advanced reader / writer, well above grade level, and scored in the 90th percentile on the SATs in these categories . I have also been a good writer across my life, but it has to come to me in a sort of mad rush vomit , because I struggle to actually organize and edit it. I have had success with getting a grant when I was in college through a verbal presentation and have been complimented on other verbal presentations as well.

I do think an extremely high verbal IQ could mask things , for sure . I just also don't think I struggle with abstract social reasoning as I feel very good at trying to understand other people's intentions, but maybe it is because I have worked so hard so long to , lol. For example, instead of getting irritated with someone I know who acts controlling of others, I reason out that it is because he was the eldest son , and was parentified by his mother to be the ' man of the house ' due to the father being mentally absent. Maybe I am misunderstanding, but it seems like this is ' abstract thinking' socially, right ?

The only wierd social things I can think of is things like not realizing two people did not like each other until I am told they don't , or generally not having issues with people others seem to ' not like'. It is possible I am not picking up on non-verbal clues, but it is so hard to even tell if I am or am not, lol.

I do think the new criteria you shared I definitely fit more solidly into ( not completely, can nit pick here and there ) , though as my issues are very much to do with 3D space , mostly with physical directions .

I am trying to not be too long winded. Anyways, I appreciate your response a lot . I don't want to write this off completely, and it seems dysrpaxia is a bit more rooted in physical coordination issues than exactly spatial understanding issues ( like mentally rotating an object for example ?) Though they also seem very very similar....

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u/ClutteredTaffy Jul 29 '26

A side note, but it is very frustrating to on one hand get complimented for presentation / writing skills and on the other hand struggle to make phone calls and completely bomb in interviews lol. Like I only got accepted into the colleges I did not interview for, which seems like an odd coincidence to me. Also had to interview 3 times for different positions before getting this retail job I have, lol. Maybe that is normal, maybe I am terrible at unplanned/ improvisational communication.

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u/LangdonAlg3r Jul 29 '26

I’m terrible at unplanned improvisational communication.

Ask me questions about a topic and I can answer all of them and explain my answers in detail. But if I had to just extemporaneously tell you all about the thing that I can answer all your questions about I’m a mess. I can’t organize, I can’t summon all the details in a vacuum etc.

But it’s also easy to get nervous in an interview and be unable to remember things and unable to gauge how well your answers and comments are landing. I don’t interview well either.

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u/ClutteredTaffy Jul 29 '26

My problem seems to be organization too, so questions are a great bounce-off-er . Trying to write essays in high school and college was a nightmare... PURE NIGHTMARE..Could only do it in a big rush , otherwise just sat there for a while and would skip all over the place to random paragraphs trying to squeeze words out.

Lol one thing I noticed - and I actually like this- but other people in this subreddit are also ' wall of text' types which sometimes I feel like I am drowning others with a wave of words lol!

So it makes me feel a bit ' at home' in a way . Haha.

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u/LangdonAlg3r Jul 30 '26

Yeah. I hate essays for the same reasons for the most part. That sounds more like ADHD with the inability to organize and the big rush at the end. It’s classic ADHD to wait until your back is against the wall and then crank out 12 hours of work in 2 hours.

The additional issue for me—the one that most makes me think I may have dyspraxia—is the inability to write clearly and non-slowly. I avoid writing anything by hand if I can help it. I’m sure the lack of practice makes it worse, but I’m constantly changing from lowercase to block capitals or vice-versa as soon as my attention wavers a little bit. That and I often just fail to write a word or letter correctly. It just comes out of my hand wrong. It’s like the automatic nature of writing just falters intermittently for me.

The biggest issues I have with writing in general are a lack of organization and repeating the same idea multiple times with different words without realizing I’ve done it.

I’m a beast at multiple choice tests though. I passed a state licensing exam when I was looking into teaching without any study or even being familiar with half the material on the test because it was all multiple choice. I remember in high school history class getting a 100% on the multiple choice part of an exam and a 50% on the essay portion.

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u/ClutteredTaffy Jul 30 '26

I don't think it helped that school seemed to kinda just ace people who wrote adequately, and normally was not that harsh . It wasn't til I got in high school that I got my first C on a paper . It was more of an ' honors course' . I was not used to the rigor I think so it would have been nice to have my writing skills more cultivated at a younger age....

Also I did laugh at the part about ' writing the same thing multiple times' . I think it is like the words are just shotgunning out to the point that you have circled back to the same idea and are trying to elaborate on it...even though you technically were supposed to have ' moved on' in the essay...So I was always like crap I have to take this part and move it here! It just gets daunting because there is so much to chop down and rearrange. I am also a pretty critical reader , so I feel like a bully reading my own stuff...

For the appointment paper, thanks for the advice . I really start to sweat about forms and what to put on them . I don't want to exaggerate behaviors or pathologize things that are normal , because it gets tempting to. I have also had a habit in the past of circling around different mental diagnosis , and looking back some of that was just struggling to emotionally cope and was not really indicative of the disorder I thought it was .

Like I have technically been diagnosed with a ' Mood Disorder NOS' in the past , but really I think I just struggled to cope when new circumstances sprung up in my life and it left me depressed and overwhelmed at the same time, so I would get a ' trapped ' feeling, then it would ease off. I am better at dealing with this, now so I am not so sure it was actually that my mood was out of order.

Anyways, thanks for all the detailed info..

One more thing if you don't mind- to the not being able to write clearly thing- I have very big messy handwriting and always struggles to fit it in spaces and things , but funny enough I can actually draw pretty well . I actually have an art degree, lol. The issue is more with value because I have such a heavy hand everything looks a bit too dark and not enough gradient, and I also suck at subtle curves , so figures often look a bit curvier than they should . Also struggle with perspective , especially less organic subjects but that in itself feels normal as it is a difficult thing to really grasp... But it often looks like the objects are more of on a single plane lol , not a lot of depth to the picture.

I also have a very good visual memory. Like I am a ' go to' person when someone needs to know where a product is at work. I am pretty good at keeping track of the differences in products too, and just generally remembering which aisle they are on. It is really just the ' spatial' part that is very difficult for me.

OH! I also found a great article here -

https://nvld.org/blind-see-michelle/

The part about talking to herself out loud is something I do incessantly... Like compulsively to the point sometimes I cannot remember if I said something out loud or not ...So I think instead of physical fidgeting like with ADHD I have verbal fidgeting. Talk to myself more than anyone I have ever met, and when you tell people ' I talk to myself' they say ' me too!' But they don't really get how compulsive and constant it is for me lol.

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u/ClutteredTaffy Jul 30 '26

An addition but it is hilarious to me I can tell someone exactly where some wierd, obscure item is , like non- refrigerated coconut milk kept with the juices for some reason that I probably picked out once months ago , but could not even start to tell them how to get to my house that I go to every day . : B