Meltdown at a school workshop

Over the past two days, I attended a “safety training” at school. I know that this is a class that I've taken before, but we need to be re-certified each year. Today I'm a little more concerned about this class than previously and that is because of my lack of cognition lately. On the first day of training, I was able to talk to the trainer privately about my short-term memory problems. I explained to him that there may be times when I would need things explained again. He said that would not be a problem. When we each had to show competency of some techniques that we had been taught, some were fairly easy for me to do and some were not. We were shown how to do things while it was verbally explained to us. I listened, then told him that I was trying to remember all of the things that he just told and showed me. He patiently repeated or summarized it for me. The patience that he had with me helped to reduce my stress and made it possible for me to complete the tasks. I don't think that any of the staff at the workshop knows about my diagnosis!

On our last day of class when we had to prove competency on some skills that we were taught, I had great difficulty with this! There were too many steps, too many verbal directions and it was just so overwhelming that I left the room crying! I went to the ladies’ room and two teachers came to look for me and found me. I was so embarrassed, but I was able to go back and I finished the rest of the class. Later that day, I was able to do the skill that had caused my meltdown.

Unfortunately, there were other skills that I was unable to do and because of this, I will become certified, but will have some restrictions. I will probably not take this class again because it was way too much for me to handle. I only took it so that I could get two days’ pay. There was a written test and we were able to use the manual. I was the last one to finish and I had to have the trainer show me where I could find a couple of the answers. There was just way too much text to scan. The test results were fine and I passed. I'm so glad that class is done!