I have ADD and was wondering who else here does. Do you take Ritilin when you need to focus? I take Dexedrine. Works like a miracle for me.
I thought I could make an ask the ADD guy thread. But that line of threads has been overworked. Feel free to pose some questions concerning ADD. I and mabye the other ADDers here will try to give you a good answer.
-later, Mike
Hi, Silo – just checking in as a fellow ADD’er. My case is just mild/moderate, so I try to get along with various tricks and workarounds. I was on Wellbutrin for a while, and it helped (can’t use Dexedrine since my heart rate is naturally too fast already :(), and I sometimes wonder if I should try it again.
Catrandom
I’ve got the first question, I guess. Have you always known you had it? What are the symptoms in an adult? I lived with a guy whose son was ADHD, among many other problems (prenatal cocaine exposure) and I always thought his Dad probably was, too
Hi Catrandom, welcome. Have you tried Ritilin? that seems to work for a lot of people.
I have a lot of trouble focusing on something I do not find interesting for a long period of time. Likewise things that fascinate me I can hyperfocus on for hours. But when I take my Dexies things I normally can’t hold a decent focus on become things I can hold a good focus on for an extended period of time. It’s like it (the Dexedrine) turns me into a machine for a couple hours and I can get the things done that I need to. I only seem to take it when I really need to concentrate on something, so I don’t take it on a fixed schedule. Helps me out.
I’ve never thought I had it, but I’ve been told by several people that they think that I do. They say this because they see me get distracted easily sometimes. I think that it comes down to “does it interest me?”. I can focus for ten straight hours on something that interests me, but get distracted very easily when I don’t care about whatever it is that I’m supposed to be concentrating on. Seems more like a discipline problem to me.
I could be wrong though. Once when I was going to the
I found out I had ADD about 5 years ago, but looking back when I was growing up it’s ovious it has always been there.
ome of the symptoms are inattension (easily distracted), short attension span, misplaces things, impulsivity, thrill seeking behavior, difficulty organizing things and following through on tasks, careless mistakes, bedwetting past age 5, family history of ADD, poor listening skills, restless, always in a hurry/late, short fuse, worries a lot tendency for addiction…everyone has a handful of these but if you have say 10 or more of the symptoms I wrote it is likely you have ADD. I have all of them with the exception of two or three.
adderall
depakote
prozac
lucky me
HappyDave what is the point of this?
Yes, I know all those drugs. I have taken all of them.
oh, well, ummmmmmm… no point really.
those are the meds i’m on.
dave
Hey everyone, has it ever occured to anyone that Cecil may have ADD? I believe he does. I have a strong case of ADD, and it is easy for me to spot others with it. When you comb through Cecil’s published work it basically shows us an intelligent ADD person. If you guys want me to disect him I can write a little paper and post it? Well?? (if I do it it’s gonna take a day or two)
Nice to know your medication Happy Dave. 
I’m a med-free ADD/ADHD, Spatial Dyslexic. I’m horribly against Ritalin. I think giving crank to kiddies is a joke.
So, I’ve just generally tried to live my life as un-ADD as possible. Not easy, but I somehow manage(except for the messes leave around).
*Good for you GaWd being med free and all.
*I think (as well as many other people think) that ritilin is over prescribed. Bad trend. I think roughly 1/3 of the kids prescribed it should have it. I could ramble on about this…but i’m gonna get to bed and get some sleep.
True Silo,
ADD is under-diagnosed(properly, that is), and WAYYY over-medicated. A terrible fix. Doctors and parents give it out like candy in the hopes that they will somehow miraculously improve…and some of those who truly NEED the stuff go unnoticed and not diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD.
As a caveat, my mother has seen a disturbing trend in her drug treatment program. That is this:
1- Kids diagnosed(sometimes faultily), with ADD or ADHD, go on to abuse stimulants.
2- Some people who go undiagnosed end up self-medicating with stimulants–never knowing that they are combatting their undiagnosed LD’s!
Funny little observation…
I am an ADDult too.
Been off and on with medications since 15 (31 now). I do best on my medications but after a while when it’s under control I get lax about it and go off it. Stupid me, you think I would learn but after a while my life goes to hell when not on my meds and I hit a depression, excessive drinking and the like.
I just started on Wellbutrin SR 10 days ago so I am not sure how it is working on my ADD. The nice thing about this is it working on my depression (in a bad one) and hopefully when I get to my full dosage it will help curb my intense need for nicotene. It will hopefully kill 3 birds with one stone.
Ritalin has always worked for me, and any person who is properly diagnosed and treated with Ritalin does well on it. I have never been addicted to stimulants, in fact I have tried non-legal stimulants and find that they don’t affect me like they do my non-ADD friends.
That said, I love coffee and my smoking is outa control, so I spose that those two would classify me as a stimulant junkie. I can go without coffee though, there are many days I don’t drink it.
Hi Techchick:
*I hope Wellbutrin works to help you quit smoking (but from what i’ve heard the patch is the best). That’s fantastic Wellbutrin is helping you with your depression. I once had a 2 year bout with major depression and went through 16 different anti-depressants (that really sucked bad). You may want to take the regular form of the drug than the SR. I have found slow release pills to disperse inconsistant levels of the drug throughout the day. Try the regular for of the drug, you take it more often, but you may get a more desired effect.
*Ritilin worked ok for me but with Dexedrine I notice much more of a difference. Different people different strokes. People with ADD do not get addicted to stimulants like non ADD people do. Stimulants make the ADD person more normal per say (less easily distracted, well until the drug wears off). I’m kinda a stimulant junkie too. I suppose we have some things in common, Techchick. 
-Mike
Silo,
I once went through a 2 year bout of depression too. It sucked. I kinda just laid in bed when I wasn’t working or getting high on pot.
I tried my hardest to not go the pharma route for it, and I succeeded! 
It finally broke, and I’ve been good for the last few years(wanna know my secret? I stopped having relationships with women!).
Really though, I just did a drama reduction, and after some time I normalized. I could feel my LD’s coming on, and I pretty much figured they were the cause of my depression.
How do you know what to do about it, if you don’t want to medicate?
I have definitely 13 of the symptoms you listed. My son seems to have tons of them too. Family history being one of them, as my brother was diagnosed with it as a kid (though never medicated - and we were all so much alike that way that I always wondered…).
What can I do? I am going to have him see someone soon to be checked out, but I don’t really want to medicate unless it’s absolutely necessary due to a loss of ability (say, his grades in school (when he goes there this fall) really really suck even though it’s obvious he’s highly intelligent). Are there ways to deal with this, both in yourself and in others, that can help without meds?
-Elthia
Silo,
Isn’t that weird, about the stimilant thing?
During my wild youth, my friends and I would dabble in cocaine, speed pills, among other type of stimulants. Oddly enough, I would have to “use” twice as much as my friends to have any effects of the drug.
With regards to medication, of course we each react differently to medications. I misquoted myself in saying that people properly diagnosed and treated with Ritalin does well with it. I should have re read my post to ensure accuracy. We are all individuals and react differently to medications.
As for my Wellbutrin, I have been going through a pretty serious depression for a year that was not treated. Also, he felt (even though I am not trying to quit smoking, that’s too much to deal with at a time) this would at least work to lesson my need for nicotene as I am smoking like a train.
One thing I notice, and two of my doctors and I have discussed this in detail, is that people sometimes mistaken ADD with depression as being bi-polar and vice versa. I often wonder if people are not being diagnosed properly via psychological testing.
My (psychiatrist) docs and I have gone through an extensive history and in the past, treated with Ritalin the mimicking (sp?) side of ADD to bi-polar has been controlled.
Elthia,
There are hundreds of books written on the subject from a parenting/self-help angle. One I highly recommend is “Driven to Distraction” by Edward M. Hallowell.
THere are good tips for anger/depression/anxiety management, establishing routines Etc. It also goes quite a ways in educating you about ADD/ADHD.
Also, I must note that in younger children, regulating their diet is definitely easier, and it’s a good place to start. Many foods affect ADD or ADHD children directly(like corn and tomatoes, for instance).
One last thing–My LD’s were gotten over easier than most because of the way my mom taught me, studied with me, basically she filled in where the teachers lacked. I cannot over-emphasize that fact.
Stick with it Elthia, and things’ll turn out fine