[quote]PimpBot5000 wrote:
I think ADHD does exist, however probably in less than 10% of the people who are diagnosed with it.
The pharm companies can be pretty shrewd. “Hey! People don’t like studying and actually applying their brain towards a specific task. Let’s make a socially acceptable ‘condition’ that we can medicate!”. I write this in a kidding manner but this is actually how it happened. Same with “Social Anxiety Disorder” and Paxil.
I can’t wait for the next one. 100 bucks says its “Lipolysis Aversion Disorder” (LAD), and a drug will be created for all the lazy fatasses in the world [/quote]
This.
I was “Diagnosed” when I WAS 8 (17 years ago). I think it didn’t occur to them that I was just a nine year old who didn’t want to be locked up in a school all day. Ritalin, and then Adderall, made me feel absolutely terrible.
[quote]force of one wrote:
Yep I totaly fucking have it. It was ADHD when I was younger, and then the hyperactivity part mostly went away as an adult.
Im going to tell the truth here… I’m not whining or anything. OP asked and I am answering. Growing up my parents and teachers didn’t know what to make of it. They thought I was crazy, or just a bad kid and that’s how I was treated. They punished me for things I did because I have ADD, and it went untreated and undiagnosed.
So I had the worst high school and college grades ever, and now I have no skills and no career.
It’s weird because in some cases it almost seems like a talent. I think very very well on my feet. In motion or in a high action situation I perform brilliantly.
But sitting in a quiet room in front of a fucking piece of paper trying to take a test with some tool breathing down my neck and expected to remember a bunch of boring shit, forget it.
So there it is. belch[/quote]
I think I have adhd and am in the midst of being tested. But we got almost the same story. In Detroit they just push you through school to keep their graduation rates up so the teachers passed me anyway. but my parents, especially my father, think the same way about me.
[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
You sound an awful lot like my youngest daughter (9). I’m in the midst of having her diagnosed by a pediatrician. She also has the attention span of a fruit fly, forgets shit all the time, is socially awkward, can talk for Canada, etc., etc. She really struggles in school without extra attention. I spend a lot of my time teaching her at home and trying to figure out how she learns best. The other night she was crying saying that all the other kids seem to understand immediately what they are supposed to do in school and she doesn’t.
I’m very resistant to medication such as ritalin and adderal. I don’t like the idea of giving a child stimulants. I’m just looking for ways around it. All it means to me is that she learns differently and we have to figure it out. So far it’s pretty tiring.[/quote]
That sounds a lot like I was when I was her age. The one thing to remember about ADHD “stimulants” is that in a true ADHD patient, they act like depressants. If you want something a little less “intense”, ask your doctor about Stratera. The stuff is so harmless they can actually just GIVE you a 1-2 week sample pack of the stuff without a prescription. The only caveat that I found with stratera was that if you forgot to take the pill for 2-3 days in a row, it could hit me like a truck (the doses are supposed to be ramped up from not having it). This might be less of a problem with a wise mother keeping an eye out, but for a slightly rebellious high schooler heading out of the house before my mother was even awake…
I will say that I went off stratera, but it was because of something that I thought could have been a side effect of the medication. I won’t go too far into it, but it’s something that won’t have any effect on your pre-adolescent. Aside from that, you should keep trying to find your daughter’s particular habits that work best for her. For me, simply adding an extra stimulus or two to the mix can help me focus on the task at hand. At any given time, I’ve got the TV on, and possibly music if I’m working on my computer, and I have a special playlist on my ipod for taking exams which jumps around from classical to jazz to japanese electric to death metal to country. I CAN’T focus on one thing very well but I CAN focus on two things very well, but that’s me.
All in all, I’ve been on 5 different types of ADHD medication and they all had their pluses and minuses. PM me if you want more details.
My son had ADHD and so does my brother. They did not have meds for my brother back in the day, he was just a hyper kid and we lived with it. That is why I did not put my son on the meds. I did a lot of research and found somethings interesting about ADHD.
In the second grade, I put my son on this regiment, told his teachers what I was doing and 3 months later the teachers could see a change in him in class.
“Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are called ‘essential’ because our body cannot make them, and they must be ingested in our diet. About 25% of children with ADHD seem to have lower serum levels of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It would seem logical that giving supplements of omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids would be beneficial for ADHD. However, most studies have not found EFA supplements to be of benefit. A recent study did find that a combination of flaxseed oil and vitamin C improved restlessness, impulsivity, and behavior in a significant percentage of children studied, but additional research is needed.”
[quote]stevo_ wrote:
The problem is that the cure becomes worse than the disease.
Everyone i have ever known to start using Adderall etc find it very hard to function without it now.[/quote]
X2 I took it for about 3 years. It’s a great short term fix because intitially it is awesome, but your toerance level will eventually become so high it’s like being a crackhead. I would take 2 30 xr’s and always keep a 30 generic on me to break up.
[quote]SirenSong61 wrote:
I think I have it. I have the attention span of a nat (knat?) and have real trouble focusing on things as simple as those weekly grocery store ads. I dread going through them because they seem so… disorganized. I had a lot of trouble learning in school and everyone said it was the artistic temperament.
I remember trying to learn a foreign language (German) in a classroom setting and I just couldn’t do it the way everyone else was doing it. I remember thinking ‘I have to see the word written out, see how it’s used in an actual sentence… to understand the present, past and future tense…’ It was like I just couldn’t get it without a lot of extra info and I needed visuals.
Nobody else seemed to be having the trouble I was having. Had the same problem trying to learn French when I was younger. Always, I’d be the only one and always, I knew it was something other than stupidity. I’ve always learned differently and traditional methods that work for most are a waste of time for me.[/quote]
That’s quite similar to me. However, it also gave me the advantage of being able to easily understand things that others can’t. As the result, I actually did better than most of my classmates.
I have ADHD. I took ritalin from about 8-17. Have never had Adderall, my friends in college used to swear by it for test prep.
The year I quit ritalin my grades went from honor roll to Bs and Cs. I also went from 178lbs to 248 between school physicals. Granted I was in the gym for sports, but we all know that 70lbs in one calendar year is not 100% muscle gains.
Im 28 now. If i had the option to go back and say to my parents that I didnt need it I would. It was harder relearning how to focus at 17 than I think it would have been if I could have gradually worked at it.
That said… I’ve learned to manage my daily tasks and catch myself when my attention begins to wander. This is where the remedy should be, self direction instead of medication.
My 12-year old son has it. He had a TON of challenges in elementary school, I probably had to meet with the school 30+ times over 5 years. Anxiety, ADHD, low grades, didn’t fit in with the class, etc. I’m lucky because his classmates were good kids and nice to him.
Like many of you I resisted medication all through elementary school, but in 5th grade we tried a small dose of Aderall. I have to admit it worked wonders with our son.
Within 2 weeks he liked taking it, and it made him happier in school. He’s still on the same dose today 2 years later, he’s in 7th grade now. Now he’s in GT science (gifted talented), and he’s getting A’s and B’s in everything else.
He’s still on the same small dose, so he has a healthy appetite. He is very skinny, but so was both me and my wife when we were younger.
He is having trouble with Spanish. It’s pretty much an accepted fact that ADHD kids have a tough time with foreign languages, medicated or not. I had a heck of a time with Spanish as well.
We’re thinking about taking him out of Spanish, because at this point he dreads it. I might do it, because in the end he’s doing great with everything else- why make him miserable?
Let me know if you have any more questions. Good luck.
One other thought- I don’t fully support medication, even though it helped my son leaps and bounds. I hate it when I see parents jump on medication immediately as opposed to working through a challenge. We tried with our son for 5 years straight with everything- testing, therapy, healthy diet with omega fatty acids, etc.
In the end, the Aderall actually worked, worked great in fact. But it doesn’t for everybody.
I still have to sit with him every night and work through his homework, help him plan his week, plan his projects, etc. But that’s what a good parent does.