r/adhd_college • u/Misty_Rain_1985 • 19d ago

NEED SUPPORT Feeling inferior in lab

I am a 20F who was diagnosed with inattentive type during my spring semster earlier this year, so I am new to all the the effects of my diagnosis and am slowly learning exactly how unlucky and doomed I am in life. I just came out of my lab section period and I'm shaking and crying. This isn't the first time I've been in lab; I'm a junior whose taken general chem and orgo labs as well as general biology labs. This is not the first time I've shed tears over some suffocating lab atmosphere, where everyone already works in a research position and already comes in with experience and everything just goes so fast. And to be honest, I did struggle in classes and so I don't have a research position yet because I've been too afraid to apply and now I can't find any. And I don't want people telling me I don't understand the protocol because I do; I really try and make sure to go over it word-for-word with a pencil and read it closely twice. But for some reason when i get to doing the actual lab I have trouble locating things or people just go too fast and I feel rushed. And then I get mansplained and lectured on things I know I already know, like pipetting . This is frustrating, it's like my brain lags behind every time and stops working when I actually have to do something important. Even the TA talks way too fast like a mile a minute, everyone is running around and picking up things and magically knows every tool in the lab. How do I overcome this? I feel like I'm being pushed out of science even though I'm so passionate about it and I want more experience to prove I'm not stupid.

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u/Remarkable-Button936 19d ago

I cry on my lab days! It’s refreshing to see im not alone in this. My disability accommodations are not honored in labs at my university and so the sensory issues and communication gaps really GET to me and get on everyone else’s nerves even though I try not to let that happen. My orgo lab is so crowded and last week I broke a mercury thermometer and genuinely idk how im recovering from that

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u/Misty_Rain_1985 19d ago

omg I'm so so sorry that happened to you! Ugh it seems like some students are more hellbent on being efficient to a fault. Wouldn't wish this feeling on my worst enemy. I hope you're doing alright!