ADHD Coping Strategies, please

[kermalou]

listen its all in your head, i take it as a gift. i can do many things other people can't and leave it at that. i learn quicker, i do the things that i like doing very well and become good at them, so the real coping strategy is finding what you like doing, becuase that is one of the major things that will help you. all through college, i used it as a crutch because that is what you have been told. it is time to turn the tables.....

hope this helps a little.

 

[kermalou]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Provigil

It's a non-amphetamine drug that is originally indicated for daytime wakefulness and anti-narcolepsy. It has shown promise in the ADHD arena as well.

amish

i use to fall asleep at work and then my doctor gave me a sample. it was great, in a good way. it worked better than anything else. i haven't taken it in about a month now ( i have been drug/alcohol/meat free also).

but if drugs are your answer, try it. it really works

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: glen
Diabetes Coping Strategies, please.
Does anyone have strategies for helping me to maintain my blood sugar levels? I'm opposed to using drugs for my own situation. I don't want to become dependent on insulin, and I especially don't want to rely on them in my future career as a third-world missionary (bringing technology to shitholes like Haiti and Bangladesh). I can do computer stuff as long as it's hard, but as soon as something gets as easy as Visual Basic I mess up by not doing the homework.

Some people (including many psychologists) don't even believe that the set of symptoms we call "ADD" is really a disease. Conservatives said this above. My father is one such person. Diabetes, however, is undeniable. There's an big difference there. Your article is interesting, though. I'll give that some thought tonight.

Why has this been such an issue in the last couple of decades? Have we not had it in the past 10,000 years of human history? I think a bunch of people didn't have the discipline to try to overcome it without drugs first. Drugs are a last resort, not a first attempt. Discipline comes first.

I never want to use this as a crutch. This is just one of those things that I believe I can overcome with a little help from upstairs.

 

[nan0bug]

Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
I have ADHD. I didn't really have any problems in elementary and high school because I skated by with minimal homework. That worked until college.

During my freshman year, I learned a lot about running a Linux web server with PHP (completely outside of a classroom and for no credit), but I didn't finish my Visual Basic homework. (I did the first half of the semester's homework in a 3 hour stretch, but I did the last half of the homework the day after the professor would have taken it.) I did 90% of almost all my papers for other classes but 100% of none of them. I just never finished them. I had a couple of 1400 word papers (minimum 4 sources) that I smoked out to over 2700 words (more than 12 sources), but finishing them killed me.

Does anyone have strategies for helping me to stay focused on important things? I'm opposed to using drugs for my own situation. I don't want to become dependent on them, and I especially don't want to rely on them in my future career as a third-world missionary (bringing technology to shitholes like Haiti and Bangladesh). I can do computer stuff as long as it's hard, but as soon as something gets as easy as Visual Basic I mess up by not doing the homework.

Wanna play some counterstrike?

 

[sciencetoy]

Check this out Dr. Amen Clinic - test to see what kind of ADD/ADHD you have. This guy has come up with several different types of ADD/ADHD, based on brain scans, and he has several different suggestions to cope with each type, including non-drug.

Also, try Omega-3 supplements. When I need to concentrate I use Carlson's Fish Oil, take a couple, and it makes a huge difference. It's food, not medicine, if you don't need it it won't hurt you, and if you need it, it's great. Try it.

 

[Vic]

I was "diagnosed" with ADD as a kid (they hadn't come up with the ADHD label back then) and I think it's a load of reeking bullsh!t. Any energetic kid who acts like an energetic kid gets a "disability" label and a prescription to speed. I met a 20-something year-old the other day who told me she couldn't read a book because she has ADD

All you have to do is sit down with the kid, teach him some self-discipline and the ability to focus his excessive energy, and you get a superstar kid. But I guess that's just too much for parents and teachers to do nowadays, isn't it? Hey, just give Tommy a pill... it's easier.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: sciencetoy
Check this out Dr. Amen Clinic - test to see what kind of ADD/ADHD you have. This guy has come up with several different types of ADD/ADHD, based on brain scans, and he has several different suggestions to cope with each type, including non-drug.

Also, try Omega-3 supplements. When I need to concentrate I use Carlson's Fish Oil, take a couple, and it makes a huge difference. It's food, not medicine, if you don't need it it won't hurt you, and if you need it, it's great. Try it.

Broken link... it's a 500 error (probably server-side).

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: Vic
I was "diagnosed" with ADD as a kid (they hadn't come up with the ADHD label back then) and I think it's a load of reeking bullsh!t. Any energetic kid who acts like an energetic kid gets a "disability" label and a prescription to speed. I met a 20-something year-old the other day who told me she couldn't read a book because she has ADD

All you have to do is sit down with the kid, teach him some self-discipline and the ability to focus his excessive energy, and you get a superstar kid. But I guess that's just too much for parents and teachers to do nowadays, isn't it? Hey, just give Tommy a pill... it's easier.

I'm trying to force myself into that mentality, but as we all know... it's difficult. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke said it best, though: (from Letters to a Young Poet)

"That something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it."

"But those tasks that have been entrusted to us are difficult; almost everything serious is difficult; and everything is serious."

"And if only we arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, then what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience."

"[ I ] wish that you may find in yourself enough patience to endure and enough simplicity to have faith; that you may gain more and more confidence in what is difficult"


Basically, life sucks because it's supposed to suck. Growth is the acceptance of the fact that life sucks. We eventually become almost masochistic, enjoying pain with the faith that every pain brings a greater joy.

Now, to be willing to travel on a journey is not good enough. One also needs to know where they are, where they are going, and how to get from point A to B. The first is becoming obvious to me. The second is slowing coming into view. The third is, unfortunately, my reason for asking this question.


I'm slipping into my somewhat-poetic mode when I start thinking about philosophy at this level. Forgive me.

 

[glen]

If ADD is simply immaturity, you can and will outgrow it.
If it really is a chemical imbalance, drugs are appropriate.

 

glen: I read that article, and didn't like at all how it used political party boundaries to leverage an opinion about the mental health of children.
Why does it matter if it's a conservative or liberal view? How does using thoes distinctions help to create a more objective view of the subject?
Although, the points made in the article are all valid, I really don't see much evidence of where they have ever been seriously challenged.

MYTH: RITALIN IS "KIDDIE COCAINE."

Ritalin get's ya high if you crush it up .. etc. But, so do 50% of other pharms out there.

 

[tcsenter]

Yes, you can take ritalin and become focused but that is not going to solve the problem in the long run. What did people do before ritalin came out?

As was the case before schizophrenia became treatable, those suffering from ADHD probably failed horribly in every aspect of their lives; socially, academically, financially, professionally, personally.

What did you think they did, pulled themselves up by the bootstraps? Schizophrenics were usually tossed into asylums for the insane, or in prison after they committed some violent crime during an episode of psychosis, or just wandered the streets picking lunch out of dumpsters, then died.

 

[erub]

GO TO THE LIBRARY, WITHOUT FRIENDS OR YOUR CELL PHONE.















that is all

Also, I've found that I procrastinate the worst when writing papers because I like to be able to use AIM or surf the web so easily. So I have a junky old laptop (NO WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS, THAT DEFEATS THE POINT) that I take down to the study room to write my papers. Bottom line, don't leave yourself the opportunity to get distracted.

 

[glen]

Originally posted by: SammySon
glen: I read that article, and didn't like at all how it used political party boundaries to leverage an opinion about the mental health of children.
Why does it matter if it's a conservative or liberal view? How does using thoes distinctions help to create a more objective view of the subject?
Although, the points made in the article are all valid, I really don't see much evidence of where they have ever been seriously challenged.

MYTH: RITALIN IS "KIDDIE COCAINE."

Ritalin get's ya high if you crush it up .. etc. But, so do 50% of other pharms out there.

I think conservative pundits have made it a political issue, and the article is simply responding to that. Rush has made "restless leg syndrom" a long running joke on his show.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Yes, you can take ritalin and become focused but that is not going to solve the problem in the long run. What did people do before ritalin came out?

As was the case before schizophrenia became treatable, those suffering from ADHD probably failed horribly in every aspect of their lives; socially, academically, financially, professionally, personally.

What did you think they did, pulled themselves up by the bootstraps? Schizophrenics were usually tossed into asylums for the insane, or in prison after they committed some violent crime during an episode of psychosis, or just wandered the streets picking lunch out of dumpsters, then died.

Right... like having excess nervous energy is the same as having voice in your head telling you to kill people...