ADHD.

[Apathetic]

Has anyone been diagnosed with ADHD? What urged you to seek help? What's your experience been like? What helped you?


It'd also be interesting to see if some of you got diagnosed as adults and what "difficulties" you have/had in the adult life.

 

[DDNatureLover]

I don't have ADHD, and haven't been diagnosed with it, but one of my nieces has. There's a marked difference between how she handles things from how her sisters do. Each has a distinct personality, but the other two are able to focus on multiple different tasks/projects and do most, if not all of them well. She has very different interests, and a different lifestyle. We are all concerned about what will become of her, because she doesn't seem to understand how life works, and that she needs to buckle down and figure out what she wants to do with her life. She's beautiful and has a lot of talents. Academics did not come easy for her, and she's stumbled through a few different tries at college and career training, without those attempts culminating in anything that will enable her to make a living. She starts and stops various things as her interest waxes and wanes. I hope she is able to find something she enjoys that will ultimately pay the bills and give her a good life.

 

[kelden]

I know a friend of mine who was diagnosed with ADHD after assisting to a stress management session with a professional. His life changed completely afterwards, He found a justification for attention deficit and general anxiety, and used medications that reduce hyperactivity and improve concentration, along with behavior therapy to address some of the more subtle symptoms, such as difficulty with organizational and social skills. Also He began to find new relaxing hobbies to relieve his stress like cycling and leisure travel.

 

[EntropiaAddict]

I am a little too old for the "ADHD Craze" so I had to make it through school with severe ADHD and no medication, however I have been diagnosed with it during my psychiatric visits for other issues. In my adult life, I have found that I need really high stress jobs to function well at work. This is somewhat counterproductive sometimes since I have other issues that do better in a low stress environment. For working, I definitely must have timelines to get anything done (no due date and a wander around doing other things instead). I also need a timeline that makes me feel like I have to work on the project. When I have projects that are due in a year, I take them and break them into smaller components with closer deadlines so that the project doesn't get out of hand. Anytime a co-worker, customer, whoever tells me something that needs done, I stop and write it down. This one was a little difficult for coworkers to accept at first, but they eventually got used to me always having a pen and paper on-hand and writing it down, even if it was just 1 thing. During meetings, I need to have a pen and paper out and take notes on what is being said. If I don't take notes by hand (which requires me to pay attention), my mind will wander off and I will miss what is being said. Those are some of the coping methods I use off the top of my head. Outside of work, I self-medicate with video games (something about them just relaxes my mind and helps me settle down).


On a side note, my children have also been diagnosed with ADHD. They are on medication for school in order for them to be able to focus. The problem with school (elementary and high school in this case) is that rules have to be followed and they are too young to do some of the coping techniques I have found work for me. So, for the time being, I am content to have them on the medication, increasing their focus and ability to learn, and we work on teaching the other coping techniques outside of school.

 

[Roscas]

People commonly associates ADHD with children. This illness is evident in adults as well. I do not have it. What I do know is this. 1) Inability to stay on task; 2) Inability to take on tasks that require sustained concentration; 3) Forgetting appointments; 4) Habitual lateness; 5) Poor listening skills; 6) Mood swings; 7) Restlessness, these are symptoms characterized with adult ADHD. With communication, there is the compulsion to finish other's sentences or interrupt the one speaking. There is also a high level of impatience, being high-strung, and nervousness.


But these quirky character traits does not automatically indicate an individual is manifesting adult ADHD. I suppose the constancy of those mentioned traits is something that one can consult with a professional to know for sure if the adult has ADHD. After all, all individuals have each of their own personalities and character traits and these do not automatically mean there is an illness.


It is always best to know from one whose expertise is on such matter. Otherwise, we might assume wrong and unnecessarily go crazy with something that is none existent in us.

 

[aimeepoo]

I have never been officially diagnosed with this disorder, although I did horribly in school and could not focus on my studies at all. I also had a very hard time concentrating and I was shy for the most part but I did tend to talk to my peers even when I wasn't supposed to. I would daze off lots of times and not realize it. Or I would start something and not finish it (Homework for example). It has gotten worse as I am getting older. I'm unsure if this is ADHD or if I'm just unable to absorb things like most people do.

 

[Corzhens]

My husband's nephew was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 4 years old. My husband's brother and wife were both wondering why their toddler son was kind of abnormal in his behavior. At first, they though it was just tantrums but later on they realized that something was wrong so they brought the boy to the specialist. And the diagnosis was ADHD or mild autism. The boy grew up and given special care by their parents. In fact, the parents aimed to go to the US for their boy. And they were successful in getting an immigration status. Now they are in the California and the boy is already 25 years old who is given an opportunity to work in a government program for autistic people. Here in our country, the boy would just be at home and not useful at all unlike in American where he earns his keep.

 

[MahiFury]

My 10 year old son has been diagnosed with ADHD, but in achieving this diagnosis I have to ask, does this seem to be a coverall diagnosis to anyone besides me? We fluctuated between that, Autism, ODD, and Conduct Disorder. I read a great deal, so in what I have discovered is that most mental issues don't have a very reliable basis for diagnosis, and they just run down a list throwing at it the closest of the disorders to the behaviors. After 5 years of being on every downer type medication (depakote, seroquel, ranitadine, etc.) sometimes up to 3 different ones in a day, he went into a near comatose state. The response was to pull everything, and put him on Adderall and Saphris. He turned into a completely different child. I discovered at this time that there are genetic marker tests that help determine which chemicals are compatible to a degree. Why aren't these done before medicating? I've noticed I even have symptoms of adult ADHD, but after my experiences with my son's situation, I no longer have much faith in accurate diagnoses.

 

[doryQ]

During meetings, I need to have a pen and paper out and take notes on what is being said. If I don't take notes by hand (which requires me to pay attention), my mind will wander off and I will miss what is being said. Those are some of the coping methods I use off the top of my head. Outside of work, I self-medicate with video games (something about them just relaxes my mind and helps me settle down).

This is exactly like me!


I've been diagnosed with ADHD by two different psych doctors, so I'm pretty sure I have it. I space out extremely easily, and have difficulty concentrating if I can't do another thing at the same time. But since I've been like that my entire life, I've found ways to cope with it that works for me. The real problem is when ADHD symptoms contradict what I have to do as an adult -- for example, I am habitually late to everything and have difficulty with conversations sometime because I answer to what people are saying before they're done saying it. I do my hardest to counteract these things, but if I'm on autopilot, I come off as extremely rude to people. I am currently unmedicated because I've had bad experiences with psych drugs. Finding the right prescription is a gamble, and I am unwilling to throw away my good GPA and solid school work for a medicine that could throw my entire life's balance off.


Ultimately, ADHD just makes me a little different. As long as I understand myself and why I do the things I do, I'll be able to curb the more unsociable traits with enough time and effort.

 

[fcuco]

There appears to be a pandemic of ADHD with the number of cases growing alarmingly specially among children each year. Well, some people started to look into this and discovered a couple of very interesting things: most of these cases were actually cases of self diagnosis or parents misrepresenting or exaggerating their children's symptoms to the doctor in order to get the diagnosis. I think that it was related to the fact that parents prefer to claim that their kids have this problem when they misbehave because this does not reflect as poorly on them and their parenting skills as a child that is simply misbehaving because he wants to.


This is specially problematic since the long term side effects of most of the medication used to treat ADHD is not well known or understood, we will only knew this after all those kids that were treated become adults.


Be specially careful if you suspect that your kid is suffering from ADHD, don't self diagnose and seek professional help.

 

[JennyorAlice]

I do have it. I've always known I was different from my peers in school. It always seemed that I had to work harder than my class mates on the assignments, homework, etc., however, it wasn't until I was an adult that I was officially diagnosed. I do take medication for it and that helps out a lot. I can tell a difference between how I was before the diagnoses and medicine and how I am now. But I understand that I the medicine isn't a cure all, end all. It just helps. There are still some things that I struggle with, even with the medicine.

 

[Jasmin Cottontail]

I don't even know if I have one as I am not regularly visiting a doctor but I've been researching about it and I have some of it's symptoms like having troubles getting organized, easily distracted, restlessness, time management and easily get annoyed. I don't know if it's related to that but I've been experiencing these symptoms for quite some time now. I thought kids are the only ones who could have ADHD but I guess adults can be also diagnose with it.

 

[hayleyR11]

Does anyone have a kid on ADHD meds? My 7 year old son is on Focalin and it speeds up his metabolism. He does not like nuts, meat or starchy vegetables. He will eat them if there is no other choices and he is really hungry. We are on day 8 and he has not cheated at school. He frequently barely eats breakfast and comes home with 1/2 his lunch uneaten, This morning he woke up tired, cranky, lethargic and in pain. I'm concerned he is not getting enough carbs and am wondering if anyone else has had this situation. We are thinking about adding rice and cheese back to his diet because we are not sure what else to do. Any ideas?