Anybody else here living with A.D.D. ?

[bigblue77]

Attention Deficit Disorder has a hold of my life, and I don't like it. I was diagnosed 11 years ago, and have gone thru Ritalin, Dexadrine, and now I am on Adderal. And don't forget the other drugs to counter the side affects of Adderal. I am sick of taking pills. I want to wake up some day and be free of my line up of bottles. [/rant]

I am sure there are others out there like me, I am wondering what you are doing about it.

I am also starting to get almost daily migranes, as well as heart burn no matter what I eat. I think it might have something to do with all the meds. I am on a daily heart burn med now, but its just more pills.

Oh, and I have recently tried going off my meds. It was not good, not good at all.

I guess this is a feeler to see how many people also have A.D.D.\A.D.H.D. or live with someone who does here.


Jer

[NeoStarO1]

My daugther and Myself both have been diagnosied ADHD amoung with other things. I will post more in regards to this later tonight. I saw this as I was about to log off and wanted to let you know that I won't be ignoring your post. So watch for a response late this evening if you are around your computer.

NeoStar

[bdj]

Bigblue77,

Both of my kids are on meds, one for ADD the other for ADHD. Both my wife and myself feel that we both were affected by one form or the other as kids. Our whole family went through a study at U.C.L.A. along with about 300 families. Prelimary results indicate heredity is involved. There is no doubt that our kids need something as there grades and concentration do suffer if not on the meds. I wish it were otherwise, but until and unless there is a different treatment that is proven to work and is safe and available, this is the way it has to be.



bdj

[Tomteriffic]

Bigblue, my sympathies, I know it's tough. My oldest and best friend has A.A.D.D. (Adult Attention Defecit Disorder) and has been very active in an organization devoted to this. It's been a tough row to hoe for him, his sister and the people around them. He's doing pretty well, though, even though I gotta steer him back once in a while. The guy's a genius and sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's the throes of creativity or the ADD I'll PM ya a way to get a hold of him.

[bigblue77]

Thank you Tomteriffic, I'll get ahold of him.

My Doctor dosen't believe in A.A.D.D., even though I do. Heck, I have it, although my ADD developed into AADD. So getting any info on it thru him is impossible. He is also the only one in the area that deals with it that I know of, so support around here is limited, unless your a kid. And I always seem to forget to research it online (imagine that).

I remember when I was diagnosed, I was told I would grow out of it by the ago of 20. HA

Jer

[Ritalin Kid]

Did someone say A.D.D?

I never really saw A.D.D. as a bad thing.. I have it my brother hasit my cousin has it, my roomate has it, and my best friend has it. So far my brother and cousin both took ritalin and my mom tried to get me to take it but after I had seen what an emotional wreck my cousin was I refused.. I see it as more of a blessing if anything. When my mind wonders it seems like I get the best ideas or I tend to be alot more creative and after my cousin refused to take it he could embraced it too.. there are plent of people out there with A.D.D or A.D.H.D that learn to just deal with it.. have fun with it..

If you want to stop taking your pills then just stop... you'll live and as long as you can notice when you are having what we call an "A.D.D. Moment" and learn to make the best of it you will learn that having A.D.D can be a blessing in disguise.

[bigblue77]

Well, there are times I embrace my ADD because it does make me more alert(so to speak). It also helps me to come up with some sweet ideas. Thats the part I like, what I don't like is the super bad temper, starting 100 things and not ever finish one. Stuff like that.

Jer

[NeoStarO1]

My daughter is 7 1/2 years old and was diagnosised with ADHD at age 3. I have always known since the week after she was born that something wasn't quite right with her. Took me 3 years to find a doctor willing to listen to me. We did not start any type of medication therpy till much later but did start her early in behavioral counseling which has benifited her to a great degree. I have since taken my daughter off the medication as of May of 2001. I have choosen to keep her off the medication because when she was on the medication (few different types) she was extremely volatile. I had taken her off the medication for a medical test that I needed done for her and she needed to be off the medication for one full month before taking the medical test. This in my thinking was a good thing because I saw the bright bubbly side of my daughter for basically the first time. She slept better, she was happy all the time. abit going a hundred miles an hour. I felt that dealing with her hyperness was a small consolation for the benfits I was seeing. That was her constant happiness. I felt the benifits of not medicating her outwieghted the need to medicate. It was hard with her old school because the shcool was practically begging me to put her back on medication and I flat out refused. I am the parent and I have the right to make that choice. The school ended up calling me on a daily basis to take my daughter home an hour after she arrived at the school. I think the school took gross advantage of me with the ease they were able to get ahold of me through my text pager. In the end I ended up pulling her out of school 2 weeks before the school season ended because I was so frusterated with the school. Thus the reason why I moved to portland.
Her new school I have made it very clear to them that I would not medicate my daughter unless its a last resort, The principal and I have been working very hard to provide my daughter the education and special needs she needs in school in order to excell. We are slowly accomplishing our goals. Part of my goal plan for behavior modification is at home with a very structured inviroment (with the exception of this last month with house problems) and also because of Karate.

Now let me speak a little bit of on this. Karate. My best friend went to several meetings with the local C.H.A.D.D support groups and found several other parents with ADD/ADHD children not being medicated. So he inquired well what do you do for them? Thus we found out the secret of Karate for Kids. These parents raged about how karate is the best form of medication they have done for thier kids. So I decided to inquire with several different karate schools to see if there was any truth to this. I found one school who has several children that are not medicated and that are diagnosied with ADD or ADHD. He told me the progress these children have made through karate, I can tell you this was not a sales pitch because he was able to define what ADHD was and the whole bit and I knew this man knew what he was talking about. Since my kids have started karate 2 months ago, they are slowly developing better social skills and more confidence about themselves. They are also slowly learning how to control thier own impulses.

Think about it. What does karate teach besides defensive fighting? You answer that to yourself and you will see how a form of martial arts will be benificial for anyone whether or not they are ADHD.

As for myself. I at times embrasse it and other times I despise it. For one I have a hell of a time remembering things which makes school all the much more harder for me. I know all this stuff from classes in my head, when I am not under pressure I can tell you forever on the subject till you tell me to shut up. But when I am under pressure it just is blank. I just freeze up and my mind totally wanders to subjects that I should not even be contemplitating in my mind.

My daughter and myself need high structure in our lives. I can not handle chaos and neither can my daughter. So when a rug gets pulled out from under us we tend to be come walking time bombs. Someone mentioned earlier the inablity to handle our own anger, That is all too true for someone who is ADHD, the overwhelming of feelings and thoughts in the head is unreal and often times we explode with anger cause our minds just doesn't know which way else to handle it.

I have an extremely short temper just like my daughter. now my son who is not adhd handles stresses the very opposite of us. He is the calm one when life becomes choas. My daughter and I we tend to be motor mouths around the people we know well and are confortable with. but the very opposite around strangers.

It basically boils down to this. We must have a structured routine that we following day in and day out. anything out of the norm or unexpected we tend to loose all wits about us and become extremely spacy and forgetful. I tend to fair better in the work enviorment as long as i am left alone because of the high structured inviorments work places offer provide we are kept busy. We are not the kind of people who can sit idle for any lenth of period of time with the exception of being in front of the computer.

ADHD for us also we tend to hyperfocus or be "obbessed with a project" but if the project takes to long we tend to abandon the project for a new idea or a new project interst. I have numourous projects started and left unfinished. This is one of my annoyances as I see my projects and I think gee i reall need to finish that and in the next heartbeat my mind is off on some other train of thought. I relish short term projects that I can finish nicely and quickly, anything that lastes to long I loose interest really fast. Same with my daughter.

all in all, its just a fact of life for us and we just find ways to manage the best. As for taking medication, that is a personal choice, I used to take the medication myself and it helped me wonders, I no longer take the medication as it gave me too many migraines and I suffer from mingraines enough as it is without the mediation.


eh hem, I think I have babbled way too long, typical of me.

BigBlue, if you want to msg me just check out my profile and you can find out how to get ahold of me.

NeoStar

[sharder8]

Well folkes, I hesitate to get involved with this discussion after the heated discussion at the old place! Ritalin Kid, Doc, and a number of others here know that I'm A.D.D. and have been on 15mg. Adderall x 2 for the last 4.5 years. (For the first 39 years, I went without medication and learned to deal with it.)

A.D.D. can and is mis-diagnosed way too often, but when you find the right medical help, the truth comes out. In kids mis-diagnosed with A.D.D./A.D.H.D., many have an allergic reaction to certain types of food and display similar symptoms. One of the easiest ways to tell if a child HAD A.D.D. is to see if they out-grow it. If they do, they didn't have it, since it is now known that A.D.D./A.D.H.D. is a chemical irregularity in the brain, as well as the brain handling processing differently in the A.D.D./A.D.H.D. person.

Additionally, Dr. Danial Amen, Amen Clinics in Newport Beach and Fairfield, CA, uses an imaging technic called SQECT, which measures brain blood flow and activity patterns. In the past 12 years, they've built a database of over 10,000 brain images related to behavioral problems.

Right away we saw that the ADD brain is different. Typically, when people with ADD try to concentrate, there is decreased activity (rather than the expected increase) in the part of the brain that helps with sustained attention, short-term memory and forethought. In theory, stimulants increase brain activity in this region. But in looking at our ADD patients, we found different brain patterns: those who departed from the norm were the ones for whom traditional ADD treatment did not work, Eventually, we classified these into 6 distinct types.

Newsweek, Feb. 26, 2001 Dr. Amen goes on to explain that stimulants aren't always the correct treatment. In some types, depressants or no medication is the correct treatment. But more importantly, diet and exercise play the biggest part in the treatment in all cases.

Ritalin Kid's attitude is similar to mine when I think about life and A.D.D. I see it as a blessing because it has allowed me to more fully enjoy my life and it has given me many abilities that someone without it will never have. Yes, there are down-sides to it, I'm not allowed a checking account or credit card since money isn't high on my priority list (go figure), sleep also isn't high on my list and people can't understand how I can function with as little sleep as I get/take. Medication helps smooth life into a more enjoyable family and job atmosphere, but without it, my mind is faster but not sharper.

Unfortunately, my daughter, who is also A.D.H.D. uses it as an excuse! I've been trying to get her to see the good benefits and combine them with her strong points (she's also gifted). She has what it takes to REALLY succeed in life if she can get it together.

bigblue77, you're not alone in the "super bad temper", I'm of German/Russian (now there's a combination -- Mennonite to be exact) extraction and temper is short and explosive! I'm still working on that as well as tact (I have NONE)

More later.

Harder

P.S. Just hope the un-informed don't start the discipline/gullible/no-such-thing B.S. again! I'm not on meds this week and don't have time for ignoramus' when it comes to A.D.D. discussions this week!

[NeoStarO1]

Unfortunately, my daughter, who is also A.D.H.D. uses it as an excuse! I've been trying to get her to see the good benefits and combine them with her strong points (she's also gifted). She has what it takes to REALLY succeed in life if she can get it together.

My daughter also has tried to use this as an excuse before. I refuse to allow her to use it as an excuse. I tell her she is bright and she needs to use her brain rather than use a "label" to try and excuse her bad behavior. Don't let her get away with this because if its gotten away with too many times it will become a huge habit and also used for a smpathy getting and then they won't have no friends.

Im glad you jumped in the conversation Sharder8, and I also know what you mean by being hesitant for not wanting to post, I have been into too many conversations with people who think they know what it is and are so ill informed.

Nice to know we are not alone in this eh?

NeoStar

NeoStar