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Huntington's Disease Youth Organization

How does HD affect an individual’s school life?


Q. How does HD affect an individual’s school life?

Latifa, teen, UK

A. Hi Latifa,

Thank you for sending in your question to HDYO.

This is a very interesting question. The simple answer is that HD can impact an individual’s education a lot. It depends exactly what you mean by your question. If you are asking about someone who has the symptoms of HD themselves, then their education can be severely impacted by the progression of the condition. A person may have difficulty concentrating on their work and find themselves getting slower and slower at school. As HD progresses, the person would need a lot of help to keep their education going, and eventually they would likely drop out altogether.

If you are asking about someone who perhaps has a family member with HD and whether that has any impact on their education, the answer is also yes. A lot of young people in families with HD experience difficulties at school, usually due to the changes happening at home. A young person may also become a young carer, spending a lot of time focusing on helping their family member with HD, and not having enough time to focus on their school work. They may experience bullying too because of HD being in their family. Consequently, they might start behaving differently at school or miss more and more of it.

Hope this helps.

Take care,