First was the thread sending feelers out
Then week one there was a survey
We talked medication
And some coping strategies
Work
General chit-chat
Our hardest issues
Sleepiness
What we hate about ADD
And the silly thingsthat happen.
I’ve run out of ideas, is there anything else we can talk about?
How about co-morbidity? What else do you have that influences or is influenced by ADD?
I also have diagnoses of depression and anxiety, and I’m currently exploring the possibility of Asperger’s. I’m in therapy for the first two, in addition to an SSRI, and I’m finding CBT to be very helpful. I find controlling the ADD is making work on the depression a lot easier.
I’m not keen on anyone self-diagnosing themselves, however I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately and I need to talk to my therapist about the possibility that I’m an Aspie. It would explain sooo much about both myself and many family members on my father’s side.
Bipolar, mixed, rapid cycling. Smoothing out the mania with depekote and the depression with Zoloft has helped ADD quite a bit. What really gets me crazy is when the BPD, the OCD, and the ADD get into a power struggle. Only cure for that is Valium.
Does anybody else get sleepy with Adderall? All the info warns not to take the stuff 6 hrs before bedtime, but when I take it it puts me out.
ADD jokes.
What’s the ADD cheer-leading chant? “Give me an A, give me a D, give me a- ooh, shiny!”
Q: How many ADD kids does it take to change a light bulb? A: Wanna go swimming?
I missed most of those threads. Now I have to go catch up and I’ll be late to this thread.
My partner has bipolar II in addition to ADHD-combined, her dr. has her on Lamotrigine (Lamictal) for the bipolar and it’s done wonders for her, along with Ritalin for the ADD. Before she started medication, life could get … interesting. An extreme mixed state combined with high impulsivity makes for a lot of stress in those nearby. I have on occasion wished for valium for her.
I use Adderall XR in the morning but I also take fluoxetine (generic Prozac) which makes me yawn for no apparent reason, I’m not tired or sleepy. I also take an instant release generic adderall in the afternoon to ease and extend the comedown from the morning dose. I do get very sleepy when it wears off. I’ve also noticed that my insomnia is significantly better since starting on it.
Don’t let yourself get distracted by the shiny and forget to come back 
It doesn’t put me out, but it relaxes me. It also lowers my blood pressure. I was on BP meds when it was prescribed, and one of the possible side effects is BP rise, so I was told to test my blood pressure at about 4 PM for a few days before taking it and then for a few weeks after.
4 PM was supposed to be when it was most likely to peak. Instead it dropped 20. Stayed down, too. The niece in pre-pharm says that means it was the right diagnosis.
Is it OK to use this thread to catch up on answers for the previous threads that I missed?
I’m Yllaria, and I’m very interested in this, or any other support group. I’ve been trying to find one locally, but they’re only available for parents of kids who have been diagnosed. The nearest adult group is an hour and a half away and I really don’t see myself working that into my schedule.
I’m 54 and I was diagnosed just before last Thanksgiving. Not that I’d never been in counselling for ‘the problem’ before, this was just the time I said the right thing to the right people. The previous 5 sets of sessions were with general councellors. I would always come away with a few more coping skills and a little more insight into the way people worked together. But it never seemed to take. I’d get over the hump, past whatever crisis had finally made me spend the time and money, but the struggle would go on.
This time I was older and was reacting to a buildup of a lot of stressors with fatigue. Among other things, I was taking a lot of medication for diabetes (2), BP, and cholesterol. I went into an Employee Assistance Program and since I was tired of all of the other things that I usually talked about in counselling, I kept talking about wanting my memory checked and wondering about the effects of all those pills. So instead of sending me to a counsellor to talk, they sent me to a psychiatrist for an evaluation. Hallelulia.
I’m taking generic Adderall. It lowered the BP, lowered the blood sugar a bit, and lowered the arthritis pain in my knees (oh, I’m taking meds for them, too). I’m less fatigued and less forgetful. There’s still a lot to work on. I have a lot of bad habits and need to lose weight. But it’s been easier sticking to an exercise plan, and losing a few pounds is a side effect. Even if it didn’t help my focus, I’d still take it.
My AD&D self zones out or dives into a book. Or the internet.
I have no idea for a group name. InADDvertant? Not a noun. Spot check 4? Unconcentrated? ADD dopers seems to be working. (Was there a concensus on that that I missed?)
Question: Are any of the rest of you lucid dreamers? Dreaming feels a lot like losing myself in a book. I was grown before I found out that most people don’t know that they’re dreaming. That still seems wierd.
I’m definitely inattentive, to the max. No hyperactivity at all. I’m going to check out those mindfulness links.
coping strategies:
Write things down. Spend the time it takes to go over the lists and plan and go over the lists again. (No matter how much of a waste of time it seems.) ((And I hear you about the infinite loop task prioritization. Has anyone else ever made a list and then rolled D&D dice so that you could bloody start doing something without feeling dragged back by the things you weren’t doing?))
Schedule things that other people just spontaneously think to do. Phone calls to friends and relatives is one I’m working on.
I think these threads just convinced me to get an iPad.
I’m working mostly as a project manager, which I suspect is not a good fit for me. I’ve sort of become the person to give the wierd project to, because I’m happy to have to learn new stuff rather than disgruntled that I won’t be able to just follow the template from other projects.
I’d offer to join in a half-finished project swap, but over the years I’ve learned to hold off on fully starting projects. I’ve got files and books on things that I’d like to do, rather than things started and half-done. Except stories. I’ve got a lot of half-done stories.
Yes, I get sleepy when facing stressful tasks, but not always. Yes, I think I do have a reading condition. I strongly suspect that I’ve imprinted socially on books, stories, and the internet.
I’ve been depressed, but I suspect that it was mostly secondary.
Thank you for your patience.
Man, I love these ADD threads - they really make me feel better about my problem. I know intellectually that it’s a brain disorder and blah de blah, but sometimes I still feel lazy, disorganized, stupid and generally a bad person*. Reading the comments here helps me to focus on workarounds rather than my weaknesses.
I read recently (I think it was in Scientific American Mind, but I can’t find it now (surprise!)) that clumsiness is a common symptom of ADHD. I’ve noticed that I’m remarkably clumsy, and my theory is that I can’t hold a thought long enough to complete a physical action. Thus, when I’m going down stairs I sometimes forget momentarily that I have to take ALL the intervening steps and not just reach out for the bottom step with my foot. I’ve taken some bad falls on the stairs at home because of this.
Anyone else clumsy?
Not clumsy per se, but I don’t have any fine motor control to speak of. When I was diagnosed, I was told that it’s a pretty common symptom, and no one really knows why.
Same here - I can remember getting fussed at (teased?) by Mom for “not coloring inside the lines” when I was in elementary school.
I’ve noticed when I am trying to do fine motor control activities like drawing that I’ll be doing great, then I’ll get a muscle jerk. Is this similar to what y’all experience?
Oh jeez, yes! What the hell is that? It’s just like you said - I’ll be going along doing great and suddenly, for no apparent reason, there goes my hand. This morning I had mascara up in my hairline.
Sometimes I get real lucky and spill something as part of the jerk thing, so I not only smear the paint or whatever, plus knock over the can.
My son has a similar problem. His small motor control falls apart when his intrest level wanes. This is most obvious with his shoes. He cannot tie his shoes. She shuffles around all day with his laces flopping. However, he can tie his baseball and soccer cleats and his basketball shoes. He ties them fast and hard so they rarely come undone. But his sneakers, no way.
When he is stressed he can barely grip a pencil. His dexterity picks up dramatically when he cooks in the kitchen.
So how is y’all’s handwriting?
Awful, atrocious, embarassing. When I moved from 8th grade into 9th, the guidance counselors at the new high school had everyone fill out a sheet with our goals for high school. Mine were boring, like get all A’s, make a bunch of friends, etc. When I graduated high school, they gave them back.
My handwriting was infinitely better in middle school than it is now.
Pretty damn good. I’m frequently told it looks like “architect handwriting”.
Don’t let a deviation from the norm become your identifying feature.
Mine is like this if I am doing something for other people to read. If I am making notes, it starts out like this and after about five minutes it looks like scribbles.
I told my Doctor a few months ago that he had no idea what it as like being a perfectionist with ADD. The whole "nothing is ever good enough"but no way to finish it the way I want it done. I am working on this now though because I am renovating the house and driving myself insane trying to finish. Small nick in the drywall, trim that is not perfectly lined up and other things that nobody else notices that look like giant holes to me. GRRRRR!
My handwriting has been described as ‘draftsman’s’ handwriting. Very neat and uniform - until my hand goes crazy and everything looks like an EKG tracing.
I’m also in the process of doing some minor upgrades and repairs to the house, and it’s freaking unbelievable how much time and effort I’m putting in because IT HAS TO BE PERFECT. Gah. I keep telling myself that perfect is the enemy of complete, but, well, it has to be perfect.