Sorry if this offends anyone, but my understanding is that having ADD/ADHD untreated doesn’t make your life a living NIGHTMARE like with my OCD in the past,
That ADD/ADHD is basically nothing compared to OCD, and it usually isn’t Chronic like OCD, or require lifetime Meds
Am I wrong?
ADD/ADHD isn’t considered a serious mental disorder like OCD.
I’d take ADD/ADHD any day.
But ADD/ADHD might be “Fun” compared to OCD
Umm, Garf? You may want to read a little bit more about the board, and what forums are the most appropriate places for what topics.
Neither this post nor your post about the Jews has a “General Question”–i.e., a question that has a factual answer. This one’s kinda close. Maybe:
“Does ADD/ADHD require lifetime meds (like OCD, some forms of depression, etc.), or is it only a temporary condition?”
I don’t know what has led you to this conclusion that it is not chronic? I personally know 1 ADHD and 2 ADD people. Without meds, they are a mess…and they don’t (usually) see it. It affects their performance in school and on the job. It also impacts relationships be it: family, friends, or significant others.
From my experience, ADD or ADHD seems to be more hell for others than the individual s/her self…who knows no other way to be and cannot see the problem. I can only WAG a OCD is the same? They don’t even know they’re being Obsessive-Compulsive? For example, I know one OCD person pretty well, and she didn’t know she had a problem…until the impact from her OCD came to a head once she had children, and the OCD went into overdrive. Still, she couldn’t understand why others with kids didn’t feel as she did. Ultimately, it took others to get her some help because others were suffering more than the individual!
In general, doesn’t it seem all mental disorders affect others more than the individual, itself? Depression might be the exception. It’s more subtle. Much like an optical illusion, I can see it can be argued either way, and yet I can’t quite put my finger on either arguement because my perspective flip-flops when I try to pin it down. - Jinx
My wife is ADD, and my two step kids, both in High School, are ADD. After being off meds for 20 years my wife is considering getting back on them again. Why? She has trouble concentrating sometimes at work. Could she live without them? Yes. Would it help her concentration at work? Absolutely. It’s her choice.
My two step-kids would be failing school without their meds. They both realize this, yet they both play games to avoid taking their meds (there’s still a stigma at school). On meds they are both well behaved and “B” students. Off meds they are almost intolerable.
I believe that ADD is in many cases a life long condition and that many patients don’t “grow out of it”… but I am not a doctor. OCD, from what I know, can be more debilitating for some… but I don’t think either condition is really preferable to the other.
There are varying degrees of these conditions and a “light” case of OCD might be easier to deal with than a “severe” case of ADD/ADHD.
I have both ADD and OCD. Both require medication. Untreated, either one will seriously screw up my life. Both will last the rest of my life.
Neither is fun.
Yeah, same here. Treated, I don’t really have that many problems with either. Untreated, it’s hell on earth.
I, also, have both. While they’re both non-severe cases, neither is fun.
I also have anxiety and depression. Weeee! My life is a roller coaster ride!
I believe in most cases, the person knows that the thoughts they’re having are irrational, and they try to stop engaging in the behavoirs, but the thoughts torment them more and they end up doing their behaviors anyway. They know what they’re doing is abnormal, yet they do it anyway because they literally can’t stop.
I really don’t know about OCD, but the most destructive thing about ADD-PI (primary type inattentive) & ADHD (primary type hyperactive) is the person does not notice it. They can see that things don’t work for them but really have great difficulity understanding why.
I went to the USA channel’s website for the show Monk, and Tony Shalhoub there discussed how he studied up for the part of the OCD detective Adrian Monk. He watched actual videotapes of OCD patients during therapy, and he noted that they were very aware of their problem. In fact, some became somewhat virtually agoraphobic because they were embarassed to exhibit their behaviors before other people.
One of my bosses is kind of OCD, and now that I think of it, he stays holed up in his office a LOT. I don’t think he’s a very happy person.
One of the hallmarks of an ADD/ADHD diagnosis of adults is that it was present in childhood. Cite. There’s no “onset” of this disorder, nor is there a cure. Medications like Ritalin and Adderall ameliorate some of the symptoms, but are taken on a daily basis.
So in response to the OP, by definition, ADD/ADHD is something its sufferers have to live with their entire lives.
i Have both ADHD and OCD, it is a pain in the ass and i take lots of medication for it. I think it depends if you have chronic ADHD or not to consider it a mental disorder. That’s just my opinion
OCD is fucking horrifying. IMHO.
Especially when you get it as a second-grader, don’t tell ANYONE the weird shit you have to think and do, and keep it a secret long enough that you don’t get adequate treatment until you are almost thirty years old.
That actually happened to my “friend.” ahem
P.S. For those who have a treatment resistant case (and there are definitely people in that category), you have my prayers.
Can someone give a description of
ADD? ADHD? OCD?
How does each affect the individual, and those around them?
The ADD’s are an inability to stay focused on task, unless that task is stimulating enough (over a certain threshold) to cause a conditing caused hyperfocusing which then the person with ADD will have trouble breaking away and is unaware of other things like time passing. The person with ADD will constantally and automatically scan around to find something stimulating enought to satify his personal threshhold.
Inattentive vs hyperactive ADD has to do with the the way one ‘scans’ for stimulation. Hyperactive ADD will try to change the external enviroment to satify that requirement, in a child it may be acting out. Inattentive will go into their minds seaking this stimulation (space cadets), interestingly this process is simular in some respects to meditation.
To give a brief followup on kanicbird’s description of ADD, that inability to control attentional resources can have far-reaching effects. For example:
Doing paperwork can almost literally be torture–so bills can go unpaid, forms at work can go uncompleted, and so forth.
Massive amounts of impulse buying: “Ooh! Cool! Must have it!”
Tasks that are repetitious will be dropped. Which kinda sucks if your job involves a lot of them.
It’s really hard to schedule and prioritize tasks.
And then there are effects on relationships and social interaction. For example, I have inattentive-type ADD (and I’m an INTP on top of that), so here are some of my experiences:
It’s really easy for me to just go off and entertain myself–but you can only be a hermit for so long. The problem is, you then tend to forget your social skills.
Making small talk is very hard–if it’s not interesting, there’s no point in continuing the conversation. So it helps to resort to mental gymnastics like thinking “Okay, this is really boring, but let’s see how long I can string this person along…” Is it manipulative? Yep, but I’m manipulating myself as much as the other person.
Going out to events with other people is also hard–do I pay attention to what’s on stage, or do I pay attention to the person I’m with?
If I’m going to a performance, I have to be right up front, because otherwise the other people in the audience will be too much of a distraction.
If I’m driving my car and have a passenger, I can either talk to them or have the radio on–not both.
And having a girlfriend? Oy. Look at it this way–most people think that acknowledging their existence and paying attention to them is, like, the absolute bare minimum and, while necessary, is not enough to make a successful relationship. But for me, paying some level of attention to the other person is a really big deal–after all, there’s a world of other things I could pay attention to. So there’s a major disconnect between her expectations and what I’m able to give. And needless to say, relationships are few and far between. My last girlfriend and I recently drifted apart, and frankly I don’t mind too much, because there’s plenty of other stuff to occupy me.