A question about ADD

[Fenris]

*Originally posted by Crafter_Man *
**

*Originally posted by JillGat *
**Children with ADD are often very good at sitting in front of TVs, computers, video games and gameboys. **

Agree. It is MHO that ADD is not a “disease” in the strictest sense, but simply the result of too much TV & video games + too little discipline at home. **

That is a crock of sh*t.

I had a very disciplined home-life, video games didn’t exist until I was in my mid-teens (Pac Man, etc), I rarely watched TV.

Next time you want to make a stupid, bigoted statement like that, make it in the pit, and I’ll be glad to continue the conversation.

Fenris

[Fenris]

*Originally posted by techchick68 *
**
Silo and I are both ADD. He and I have very similar symptoms but deal with things very differently. **

And me.

**

ADD can and often (not all the time) has other problems like self medication with drugs or alcohol (usually in untreated people) can hyper focus on tasks that are of great interest but can get very frustrated even while trying to focus on that task. There are some broad symptoms but again, ADD must be diagnosed by a trained professional. **

I’m the king of “hyper focus” (or I was, before I learned to manage it.) I used to “lock in” on a book that I wanted to read or a task that caught my interest (but not always, which was extremely frustrating), and focus so intently that I could read a 300 page novel in about an hour and change (but it was a bitch to get me to STOP. My parents and I had some of our worst fights when they were trying to get me to “pay attention” to something other than what I was “locked in” on). But at the same time I couldn’t focus for 10 minutes necessary to, say…do the last three math problems or balanceing my checkbook. (It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, but I’d always find myself doing something else and I couldn’t make myself “hyper focus”). With the help of some mild medication (Ritalin at a low dose…not the generic stuff which made me twitchy, grouchy and gave me an upset stomach) I was able to…learn…for lack of a better word, how to find a middle ground between the two extremes. I’ve tapered myself off the meds. But I still have to think about doing mid-level focusing.

Fenris

[bdgr]

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Fenris *
**

*Originally posted by techchick68 *
**

With the help of some mild medication (Ritalin at a low dose…not the generic stuff which made me twitchy, grouchy and gave me an upset stomach) I was able to…learn…for lack of a better word, how to find a middle ground between the two extremes. I’ve tapered myself off the meds. But I still have to think about doing mid-level focusing.

Fenris **

We found that the generic version of Ritalin didnt work well on my son at all. We had to fight the HMO tooth and nail to get them to approve the real stuff. I HATE pacificare with a passion.

As a kid, since I didn’t know about ADD (my dad didn’t tell me) and wasn’t on meds I learned somewhat to control my symptons and function. When I went on Welbrutrin I at first didnt notice the differance(my wife sure did), but I did eventually realize that I was not nearly so stressed all the time, because I was not having to fight it constantly anymore. Welbutrin has a pretty mild effect, at least for me. It kinda just takes the edge off, I still have to manage myself, but its not so hard to concentrate now. The most noticable change has been at work.