ADD diagnosis as an adult

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hi folks,

This past Thursday I finished my last testing appointment. After eight hours of various skills tests and a thick stack of questions filled out at home, I am awaiting a formal report. At the end of the appointment, the psychologist (he is a specialist in the area, the referral came from our school’s more general psychologist) went over his preliminary thoughts. In a nutshell, he said that though he has yet to formally evaluate the results of the testing I exhibited strong indications of ADD. He recommended that I make an appointment with one of the school’s psychiatrists to discuss medication options. He took the extra step in agreeing to speak to the doctor before an appointment and will be forwarding him a copy of the report.

I made the appointment, but for after the date the report should be done. To be a bit frank, I’ve always been somewhat skeptical of ADD diagnoses. That is why I invested in seeing a specialist (I’m an impoverished student – it cost me this winter’s heat budget). But if the report does come back positive (and convincing) it will explain a lot. A lot. Going back to five and six years old lot. Failing out of high school yet going on to graduate from Columbia University and now Georgetown Law lot. A lot.

It has only been a few days and it is still sinking in. How will my life change? Subtly? Dramatically? What will it take to make those changes? What’s in store for me? Any Dopers go through a similar process? Any Dopers with stories to share? I must admit I’m a little bit frightened – anything you share will be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Rhythmdvl

I’m really not sure which forum to put this in. IMHO seems the place for polls and asking opinions, this is the place for personal stories. My apologies if I guessed wrong.

2

IMHO, I don’t think this will dramatically change your life. It will probably just give you a bit of a different perspective of the world as you once perceived it.

I was diagnosed as ADD at around 6 years old. To me, it’s not that I have a lack of attention, it’s that I am bored very easily. WHen I want to learn something, I will, otherwise, you might as well be talking to the wall. When I perceive something as being insignifigant or inneffectual, I’ll usually occupy my mind with better things. When I have to take a class that I don’t want to take, I learn best by studying on my own time. When I’m in a class that I like, I rarely have to even take notes.
What’s helped me most is to understand how I learn, and to recognize the need to focus when I need to. It takes a bit of self-concious thinking, but it’s helped me a lot. Just remember, nothing’s really different about yourself.
For me, medication does not work, but I’ve talked to others who it works wonders for. Test yourself reasonably , and decide whether the medication really helps you, or if it adds unneeded stress to your life. Good luck!!!

3

IANAD, and obviously YMMV.

Mr. Kitty (43) recently went on ADD meds. Other than needing to figure out the small window of opportunity for the second dose of the day (too early and he loses the effect too soon; too late and he’s awake all night), he’s had only positive things to say about it. Like you, he can go back years and years and finally say “WOW, that makes so much more sense now.” He’s lost a good bit of weight (which is a good thing- his doc had wanted him to lose about 20 pounds), so if you do go on meds you may want to monitor that.

I will say this- he’s getting a ton of stuff accomplished, and I can actually understand his arrangement of tasks (before it seemed like he had A Plan, but only he could understand it, not that it ever really amounted to much). So thumbs up from this camp as well.

Good luck!!!

-BK

4

Mr. Ujest’s best friend, a PhD and Doctor and all around friggin’ genius was diagnosed about a year ago with ADD.

I asked how did it come about that he needed to go into testing. Basically, his wife said that he needed to talk to someone about his attention span problem.

Tested very very very high on the ADD meter, the Doctor /shrink who did this said in all the years he’s worked on adults, our friend was the worst case he’s come across and the fact that he has a bunch of degrees and is Mr. Smartypants/overacheiver, has over compensated for the “buzzing” that has always been in his head.

The medication, he told us, made him stop juggling the five or six different subjects that were going on in his head all the time and focus for once in his life.

His marriage is much better now.

5

moe.ron’s post sounds a lot like me in High School. Now that I’m an adult, I have 83 “projects” going on at any one time, 81 of wich will never be completed. I’ve been thinking about asking my doc about ADD.

6

Hey, a topic I actually know something about! I was diagnosed at 30. My background, as briefly as possible: intelligent underacheiver; my grades in school were either As or Fs… I never got anything in between. If the teacher or the subject was able to capture my attention, I succeeded, otherwise, I was the kid always accused of daydreaming. Fast forward to adulthood - tried a lot of jobs, was reasonably good at all of them, but they never lasted long. I never got fired, I just got bored and started looking for other things to do. I’m a chronic project-starter, and I generally have several things going at once - most of which will be “works-in-progress” still when I am dead. When I got married, I struggled mightily to live up to some unrealistic expectations I had for myself, and failed miserably. It got to the point where I simply could not do the dishes. Period. I would forget they were there, and then spot them and freak out. My husband decided I needed some time-management skills – I decided I needed a lobotomy. We compromised, and I went to see a psychiatrist for what I thought was depression. In the consultation, the doctor and I both realized I didn’t really have the symptoms of depression - but the doctor had recently learned that kids do not necessarily outgrow ADD, and that females are often not diagnosed in childhood. (In short, ADHD is more prevalent in boys, ADD in girls – and because the ADHD kids can be disruptive, they get attended to.) I took tests, and I have ADD.

My first reaction was to sob with relief - what was wrong with me was REAL, and more importantly, FIXABLE. I started on Ritalin, in combination with therapy. The medication by itself will help, but IMHO the therapy is essential – especially for those diagnosed as adults, because you have a lifetime of bad habits, coping behaviors, and inappropriate response skills to unlearn.

Almost eight years after my initial diagnosis, three years of therapy and a much lower dose of Ritalin than I used to need - my life is just about normal. I still get easily distracted, I still start too many projects and lose interest too fast in most, BUT – I am able to spot it when I start losing it, instead of when I am totally buried and frantic, and I can get myself back on track much more easily.

GOOD LUCK, and if there’s anything I can do to help (assuming you are diagnosed so) please don’t hesitate to ask.

7

It won’t change your life per se … but the meds certainly make it easier to function. Really, the ADD diagnosis explained a lot of my habits, a lot of my personality traits, and a lot of the things that have happened to me in the past. Finding my birth mother recently, I’ve discovered that there’s a history of mental illness on my birth father’s side; she described some of his negative traits, and for more than a few of them, I thought “Oh shit … me, too.”

Nine days ago, I was asked to resign from my job. I’m very well recognized among other professionals in the same field; something of a mini-celebrity, if you push the definition. However, the thing that does me in is when I’m in a position where I have absolutely, positively no opportunity to prioritize or manage time whatsoever … something that is a must for ADDers. When I’m constantly interrupted, and much of my work is determined spur-of-the-moment by walk-ins, I end up getting very little done; I describe it as stuffing 16 eggs into a 12 egg carton. 60 hour workweeks with nothing to show for it at the end made for a very unhappy elmwood, and it showed.

If I didn’t have ADD, though … I probably could have coped well.