Learning disability or physical ailment?

[Kriminal99]

Someone who is very dear to me has been diagnosed with a "Learning Disability". This person lived in a neglectful home until being placed into foster homes where she was abused sexually, until finally being adopted by someone who teaches disabled children. She was also seemingly haphazardly diagnosed with many "disorders" such as Reactive detachment, Bipolar, ADHD possibly others. Most of these diagnoses consisted of her becoming irritated at a doctor or some other pseudo authority figure (She lacks the same natural trust and natural acceptance of authority that I lack) and arguing or reprimanding them. As usual these diagnoses were used to justify selling hard drugs to her, which she stopped taking due to various side effects such as inability to sleep. She stopped taking them when we met, and since then has been doing fine in academics as well as regarding her issues with others.

 

I told you that the person was dear to me to disclose my lack of objectivity on the subject, but nevertheless certain things about her so called condition do not add up.

 

Leading to the question

 

To get to the point, I have been trying to tutor her in mathematics, as I have other friends and family members. I notice that early in the day, the girl practically teaches herself, whereas at night she displays a frustrating inability to retain knowledge or recognize patterns in presented information. Her ability during the day exceeds other people I have tutored who have no learning disabilities.

 

Being an actuary, I know that the same thing happens, although to a much lesser degree, to me when I am studying. Once it becomes a certain hour, or if I have recently eaten a meal including carbohydrates, my ability to learn is greatly diminished. It occurred to me, that if the same person was less capable of learning at a later time in the day there must be some physical difference other than raw brain power at work. I was able to overcome this by managing my electrolyte balance and be able to learn effectively later in the day and after eating.

 

The girl apparently began having migraines at an early age, which the doctor felt was quite unusual. I also experience migraines on occasion. Migraines disappear overnight. Again I reasoned that if the migraine was dispelled with the body's balancing cycle, then it was probably caused by an imbalance in the first place.

 

When I get a migraine, I am able to get rid of it in a few minutes with vinegar. When she gets one, she is able to get rid of it in a short time with salt. My migraines mostly consist of a sharp pain in the back of my head, usually occurring after lack of food intake or excessive salt consumption. Her migraines consist of her hands and feet falling asleep, occasionally nausea, etc.

 

I am familiar with her type of migraine because the same things happened to me when I used to try working out after sexual activity... I would turn completely blue and throw up and the whole thing would be dispelled very quickly after drinking Gatorade (which has electrolytes in it), and later learned that just salt alone would fix it.

 

The question

 

So basically my question is, could she have some kind of physical ailment other than of the brain that if fixed could greatly supplement her learning ability? Like maybe she has the hardware but there is something wrong with the power? Perhaps some kind of mild Addison's or something like that (but the symptoms do not seem to fit particularly well in that case)

 

 

A little background for the interested

 

For starters, she has been denied a typical education, and yet even without the necessary education was able to successfully pass some tests of the knowledge other students would have been exposed to. She reads and writes at advanced levels, despite having some kind of speech impediment. She is especially knowledgeable in history. She is a good student (unlike me) and loves to learn and read. The girl's parents were Russian and Romanian and speaks some of each from childhood but little can be certain about where she lived when and what language was spoke.

 

She talks in a typical fashion but every so often stutters (I do the same thing and this could just be the effect of having a past that makes you question your every move) but she also stops on occasion and appears to have trouble pronouncing a word. She claims "to be trying to think of how to say it in English", and the girl has been socially isolated through secondary education due to her status which could validate her claim. It could partially be a side effect of heavy medication.