I think I have ADD–I talked with my doctor about it last year and he put me on Adderall. It worked great, but when I had my “Major Depressive Episodes” last summer he took me back off it. And now he thinks I may be bipolar, so instead of putting me back on the Adderall, he’s sending me to a psychiatrist. I’m already on medication for depression, so he wants to be sure that I’m getting specifically what I do need and not getting what I don’t need.
Now my ex was also mildly ADD and also depressive. Once she took our son’s Adderall by mistake, and told me all about how much it helped her (she usually takes Welbutrin). As a former abuser of all manner of drugs, I was able to dissuade her from taking any more Amphetamine salts. Her doctor backed me up eventually.
I did several questionnaires, then took a computer based test. Basically you sit in front of a machine and respond to different things. The computer keeps track of the amount of time it takes to respond. The test is very repetitive, and very boring, and apparently a pretty good assessment of your severity. On the ADHD test I took the “normal” range is scored from 85 to 115. Above 115 and you’re not only ADHD, you’re anal. Below and you’ve got some concentration issues. My score was 42.
As for the drugs, I did’t like any of them, but your YMMV. I think part of it is in my doc, who is all about the “new” ones and not about the old ones. For example, he never prescribed any of the supposedly tried and true stuff. Which is actually fine by me, since I usually get evey side effect listed on the bottle.
I actually asked my doc about it, he said to talk to a shrink about prescriptions. I even took along a whole bunch of stuff where people with ADD were saying it helped them.
If you don’t mind my asking, how good is it for your symptoms? Any trouble sleeping or with side effects?
If this gets ADD approval, I’m headed to the doctor’s office.
I was diagnosed with it during my 2nd year in law school (age 28), and was prescribed Ritalin. After we figured out the correct dosage, I was able to sit in the law library for 4 hours at a pop and study, and actually absorb what I was studying. For so many years (like high school through the first year of law school), I thought everyone “studied” like I did- spent a few hours looking at the book, procrastinating, reading a paragraph and re-reading it, not really learning anything, and picking up what I could through osmosis. Once I realized that the rest of the non-ADD-afflicted world was able to do, it was like a new lease on life. I remember one day in the law library, after a particularly successful 4 hour stint, I broke down in tears. I realized how hard I had always tried to study, and how I was punished for not getting better grades in school, and how I would get so frustrated that I couldn’t seem to read a paragraph, much less a chapter, of anything without having to re-read, and re-re-read, telling myself to really concentrate this time, etc., and now I could do it, all with the help of a little pill, it just made me cry.
And if that paragraph isn’t an indication of my ADD-inspired rambling, I don’t know what is.
Anyway, now I’m not medicated, mainly because my job doesn’t require me to be able to concentrate in deep focus for extended periods, plus I just got tired of feeling like I was in a constant state of chemical dependence. So I go au natural, and manage to get by.
Yep, diagnosed at age 40, after a too-short military career, a too-short marriage.
I no longer take meds. They are too controlled here. Still the diagnosis itself is a lot of the treatment.
I have ADD, in fact, I use the boards as one of my distractions when I am trying to write a paper or study for a test. Since I’m not on medication, I find it best to do at least 3 things at once when I am trying to concentrate on one thing. Right now I am eating breakfast, getting ready for school, chatting in IRC, and posting at the dope. I have stories that I play with in my head during tests or lectures so I can actually concentrate on the material. I’m not as bad as some of my friends who have ADD, one of them constantly has 6 things going on in his head at once. I normally just have 2.
Wow, this sounds really familiar. Especially the part about telling myself I can read and understand something if I just concentrate, but really not being able to do it.
I also tried the Adderall; it was okay but I intentionally didn’t want a real high dose and it helped some and I noticed practically no side effects. I’m not on it now but am considering it again… I just don’t like feeling like I NEED it.
From what I understand, it tends to get very unnoticed in girls, because they tend toward not having the hyperactivity, and so they just appear to be daydreamers. It makes me mad to think what I could have done in all those years of grade school and high school if someone had noticed that I was having problems and that there was a real actual reason.