Raise your hand if you have ADD

Or AD(H)D. No, they are not the same thing.

I get so frustrated with myself some times. My mind wanders so far it needs a homing beacon to bring it back in.

I never quite know what to do. Most people are generally not understanding about it and so I get perceived as lazy or ditzy.

Anybody want to share/vent/suggest?

Raising hand. . .

I’ve got it, but not bad. I’ve tried several different drugs, but the side effects weren’t really worth it to me. I can really only focus in intense bursts, then my brain starts to wander a bit.

If you’ve been diagnosed you can try some of the meds and see if they work for you. If you just think you have it, get tested. My test took about an hour and was paid for by the insurance types. As I understand it, without insurance the test will run you 3-400 bucks.

For myself, I find that my ADD increases exponetially as my stress level increases. When I’m extremely stressed I find that I cna barely follow a conversation, much less get stuff done. So I try and work on keeping the stress down, getting things done when I’m in a focused mood, and trying not to let it get me down when I’m in ditz mode.

I think I have it. I’ve got a very hard time focusing and studying, I think the fact I never got it checked out may be to blame for me failing college. But I don’t know for sure.

Hmmm, I never made a correlation about the stress but I’ve noticed that as well. I almost shut down to the outside world, but my mind is flying thousands of miles per second. What kind of test were you given? I answered a very very brief questionnaire, talked to the doctor a bit, and she said that I “probably” had it, and asked if I wanted to try a prescription. I told her I’d think about it. I eventually did try it, and didn’t notice anything huge. So we tried a higher dosage and I did notice some improvement, but I haven’t continued to take it because I just don’t know how I feel about “needing” medication to be “normal.” I know, I know, who’s to say what “normal” is anyway- maybe ADD is the norm and the rest of you just have Attention Surplus Disorder.

Cripes, I don’t know anymore. I was diagnosed with ADD years ago, went off my meds, went into my doctor recently to complain about being unable to sleep and concentrate, asking about any new medications I could try, or perhaps finding a way to help me sleep and maybe that would, you know, help me focus a little better when I wake up? She whips out a little questionaire to which most of my answers were “maybe”, “sometimes”, and “I don’t know”, and decides I’m bi-polar. Sigh.

Haven’t gotten a second opinion yet, but ADD meds worked in the past, so I’m going to have to go with ADD. For now. Until I get a good night’s sleep, anyway.

But my mind does wander, I can rarely focus or concentrate (and when I do, holy shit, there’s nothing else in the whole world except what’s in front of me, and I can get a lot done), when it’s really bad I sit, inert, staring around me unable to speak because there are too many thoughts at once… and if I’m in a crowded area, I suddenly feel like I can’t see or concentrate. Oh, my eyes work just fine, I just can’t figure out what I’m looking at. There’s too much buzzing. My husband and I went to the zoo this weekend with friends, and it was a beautiful, sunny Sunday, so naturally, the place was filled to the brim with kids of all ages. The lion was out and walking around, right in front of the glass, and my husband said, “Can you see the lion, dear?” because I kept turning around in circles, feeling agitated, looking all around me at all the kids. I found myself face to face with one of our friends and I said, “I have to get out of here. I can’t see anything because it’s so damn noisy.”

Tell me that’s not ADD. I don’t want it. I want it to be something else, something that people “get”, and is easily taken care of. Tell me I just have to increase my eggplant intake and it will all go away. Anything! I hate it.

I, too, am often perceived as ditzy, flaky, or lazy. Know what my nickname in school was? “Spacey”. Everyone was shocked when I was moved from regular classes into the student enrichment classes, because, duh, everyone knew I was “Spacey”, dumb as rock and just as bright. There were a few kids who beat me up in the halls because they thought they were smarter and more deserving, and that I must have been bribing the teachers or *sleeping with them * to get into those classes. :eek: :frowning: I dropped out of those classes when the beatings became too much to handle. Also, there was this girl who sat beside me all the time, reading her hippy poetry out loud. I think that was the final straw. :wink:

Oh, and I ramble. :smack:

I think I’ve got it but I’ve never been diagnosed with it. Some people occasionally drift off into a daydream but it happens at least 3 times a day with me, where my mind just suddenly drifts off and I ‘come to’ trying to remember what I was doing/ thinking of before. I also don’t have a good memory at all, can’t remember much from past months/ years - I can remember basic important stuff but months blur together and if I try and estimate when a certain thing happened I get it really wrong, apart from the obvious like Christmas etc. Its even put me off the idea of driving, I’ve had a few lessons and in some of the last ones I’ve really felt my concentration going so unless I can control it I don’t fancy the idea of me being on the road!

<raises hand>
Um, Mrs. Jelymag? Um, so I…
Yes. I raised my hand. I was going to answer you, and you called on me, and…
I forgot…OH! Can I go to the…nope. That wasn’t it…1492? No. Um…

Can I go outside and play?

What?

Heehee. I’m with ya.

Absolutely. I couldn’t say it better. The total obsessive ability to pay attention to one thing, intermittent with utter stupification of staring into space as my mind goes on holiday.

People say I have ADD
I don’t know what they’re talking about!
Oh look! A Chicken!

Is on my favorite T-shirt.

I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 21. I have tried several different meds, however currently I just started Concertra 18mg 1x daily.

I was in the clinical trial for Strattera, I hated it. I think its funny that they are now finding out that it isn’t the wonder drug they thought it would be.

Also as a side note testing without insurance costs more like $1,000 not $400. I found that out the very hard way :frowning:

Barrels

I was diagnosed with it as a child. Starting in the first grade I’ve been on Ritalin in one form or another and had counseling in one form or another. Did it help? Absolutely. Was that all there was to it? Absolutely not.

For me, ADD is rather insidious. It’s taken me since that time, 13 or 14 years, to be able to recognize when it’s having an effect on me and force myself to snap out of it. My childhood was punctuated by various incidents of me losing my temper. Much of my childhood was devoted to controlling that. I self-ostracized, and my peers were only too eager to assist me in that endeavor. I was the spaz, the kid who’d flip out if you annoyed him enough.

I’m getting very close now to the point where I can turn it on and off like a lightswitch. It’s been a long and grueling road, but when I can manage it like that, the combination is so much more effective than either one alone.

The ADD ebbs and flows for me. When it was really bad back at school, I’d go to the cafeteria to study (which was quite an accomplishment in and of itself), sit down, open the book . . . and three hours later I’d read two paragraphs. I’d spend the whole time sliding the salt shaker across the table, diagramming football plays, daydreaming, and saying “Ok, back to work.”

I’d also compose massive letters (8-12 pages, generally) to friends, often including humorous collages that involved intricate planning and careful execution. My friends would see these things and the attention to detail that went into them, then declare that my ADD must be bullshit if I could do this in my spare time. If they only knew.

Anyway, medication (Ritalin) helps a ton, although being unemployed nowadays, it’s mostly used for poker.

Q: How many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: Wanna go ride bikes?
And yes, I have it, but I’m not medicated.

A friend of mine thought that joke was so funny she bought me a pair of tiny little bicycle earrings to commemorate it :slight_smile:

Barrels

(Wow! I am posting a ton today!)

Yup, got it and got it bad. Wasn’t diagnosed until 31 though. Plus a little side-effect called bi-polar. (BTW, the platypus has only been in existence for 34 years. My proof is that God made me right after them after he almost used up all his practical jokes.) :smiley:

Anyway, went on Strattera for 6 months and found out I was in something like 1% of the population that has a liver that can’t handle it. (The laughs just keep coming.) And that sucked because I loved it.

Anyway, after getting overly aggressive on Concerta and Ritalin doing nothing, we tried Provigil.

Best move I’ve ever made in my life. (And I think it’s getting ADD approval in a few months, so it’ll be cheaper. It’s currently off-label right now for ADD). Anyway, if you have a doc you’re seeing about it, mention this drug and see what he thinks.

I once had a brown puppy. He would play in the sandbox with me and drink water out of the pool. When I rode my bike he’d chase me down the street if I was riding with Nick. Nick had this awesome gym set set up in his backyard. His dad built it from scratch. And his dad knew this guy that had a Corvette and…
Well, OK. It’s not perfect. :stuck_out_tongue:

I came in here to say something, but I’ve forgotten what it was.

I also have ADD (or ADHD non hyperactive type, as my shrink likes to call it). My story is similar to everyone else who has posted so far, with just a few variations on the theme. When I was 10 I was diagnosed with a fun little grab bag of psychological disorders. I was ADD OCD ODD with latent terrets syndrome and chronic clinical depression. Fun!

The OCD is mild and manageable as is the terrets (and I am not totally convinced that ODD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, is real) The only ones that effect my life on a daily basis are the ADD and the depression, though the OCD and Terrets do keep things interesting.

I am currently unmedicated, mostly because I hated being on the drugs. I deal with my depression…ok, but I like myself better off the drugs than when I was on. I had to learn to live with being unmedicated for the ADD because my psycopharmicologist and I could never find a combination of drugs that both controlled my ADD and didn’t send my terrets into overdrive. And given the choice I would rather be able to pass for normal and deal with the ADD than twitch all the time.

It could be worse, I met people when I was in high school who would never have the option of not being on the drugs. I probably do a fair bit of self medication (I am a highly caffeinated person), but on the whole I have managed to become a rather balanced and reasonably successful person. I went to UCLA and graduated with honors, and am now pursuing a career in the theatre where ADD type behavior is more normal and less of a hindrance. I don’t know how I would survive a standard office job though.

Damn I can’t figure out a good way to end this post…

meh :smiley:

I read this as latent ferret syndrome.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, shiny penny!

By the way, I should say that I’m self-medicated with nicotine, now in gum form. I have been debating whether I should stop with the nico-gum, and take a regular, FDA-approved medication, or if I should just stick with what I know.

Wait… what was the question? Yes, it worked out well for me in critical care. since every stimulus has the same value, I could multi-task with the best of them. Of course, I had to buy new dishes every few months, and I owned 30 towels, since I never did dishes or laundry… I’m better now.