As I have mentioned, I have always had difficulty staying on task, following instructions or conversations, and reading to learn something. When I was a kid few doctors or educators had heard of Attention Deficit Disorder–I’m not sure it had been named in 1968, when I entered high school. A few years earlier they had discovered Hyperactivity, but since I wasn’t disruptive in class or bouncing off any walls, I couldn’t have that, could I? :rolleyes:
I have heard the “You just aren’t applying yourself,” and “You test so high/are so smart; why don’t you do better in school/work/life?” crap for 55 years and I’ve wanted to scream, “I don’t know!” Then a few years ago PBS was broadcasting a show with Bill and Harold from The Red Green Show. This needed a look, cuz I love that show. Turns out it had a serious intent and was called ADD & Loving It?! Not as funny as I had hoped; in fact it had me in tears as I thought about the wasted decades. So I wasted some more time because I had neither insurance nor a psychiatrist.
Then, after nearly drinking myself to death, the county gave me a shrink. He gave me a one-week sample of Strattera, which I didn’t bother taking because he said it cost about $1000/month. He seemed unclear on the concept of being a worker in public health. I hauled it out a couple months ago, not expecting much because my experience with head meds is that it takes at least a week for blood levels to rise to where it starts working. In fact, I had forgotten about it entirely when, 3.5 hours later, a switch in my head was pushed and all of the extra thought processes stopped–I’ve counted as many as nine running at once, including at least one song.
This little bit of Heaven lasted a few days past the last of the pills. As you might’ve guessed, I didn’t run to my doctor to get more. However, I wrote a reminder and brought it up at my next appointment, last Thursday. We discussed the options, especially taking into account my unstable job and upcoming change of insurance, and went with generic Ritalin. I ran right out, after a few days of my normal dawdling, and got it filled this afternoon, Monday.
On the one hand, my experience with modern psych medicine tells me that it usually takes a while before it kicks in. OTOH, my experience with speed tells me it starts working 20-25 minutes after taking. Before I left the store I took one and sat around for twenty minutes.
Initial results showed that I drove better on my way home, keeping my mind mostly on driving and tracking traffic around me. I’m normally a lousy driver and this was positive. Second, I wrote this entire thread in one sitting. No visiting other threads. No checking out YouTube beyond seeing if the documentary were available. There’s a preview, but you have to go elsewhere, like your library, or gasp buy it to see it. It’s informative, but repetitive and way too self-congratulatory about the “advantages” of being an adult who is ADD.
This is an experiment, and I’ll update this thread if I see changes, positive or negative. I’d post it in my blog, but even I don’t read that crap. Anyway, it’s in my real name and my wife doesn’t like how open I am about my mental problems.
