Do you suffer from or know someone that suffers from AD/HD?

[dartworth]

If so, are you on meds? What kind?

How did you discover you had ADHD?

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (formerly known as ADD) is a neurological disorder, usually diagnosed in childhood, which manifests itself with symptoms such as hyperactivity, forgetfulness, mood shifts, poor impulse control, and distractibility.[1] In neurological pathology, ADHD is currently considered to be a chronic syndrome for which no medical cure is available. Pediatric patients as well as adults may present with ADHD, which is believed to affect between 3-5% of the human population.

 

[Aimster]

ADD is BS
Everyone has ADD

ADHD - take straterra. Problem solved

 

[OSX]

ADD exists just to sell more pills.

 

[Legend]

I take Ritalin. I tried the alternate health strategy, and it worked well after the stimulation addiction wore off (takes several days), but Ritalin is $5/month after insurance and elminates the need for coffee, while alternate health is $80/month and requires coffee.

I was told I had it in 5th grade when I kept daydreaming in class. I went from a struggling student to the top CompE student in my class. While I don't think it's the best way to handle it and I may not need it anymore, it did help me tremendously academically.

 

[dartworth]

Originally posted by: Legend
I take Ritalin. I tried the alternate health strategy, and it worked well after the stimulation addiction wore off (takes several days), but Ritalin is $5/month after insurance and elminates the need for coffee, while alternate health is $80/month and requires coffee.

I was told I had it in 5th grade when I kept daydreaming in class. I went from a struggling student to the top CompE student in my class. While I don't think it's the best way to handle it and I may not need it anymore, it did help me tremendously academically.

How old are you now?

 

[Legend]

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: Legend
I take Ritalin. I tried the alternate health strategy, and it worked well after the stimulation addiction wore off (takes several days), but Ritalin is $5/month after insurance and elminates the need for coffee, while alternate health is $80/month and requires coffee.

I was told I had it in 5th grade when I kept daydreaming in class. I went from a struggling student to the top CompE student in my class. While I don't think it's the best way to handle it and I may not need it anymore, it did help me tremendously academically.

How old are you now?

22

 

[xSauronx]

ive suspected for a while that im ADHD, especially after reading the DSM IV criteria

but i dont care enough to go to a doctor, and im not sure id like to be medicated daily

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: xSauronx
ive suspected for a while that im ADHD, especially after reading the DSM IV criteria

but i dont care enough to go to a doctor, and im not sure id like to be medicated daily

Me too.

 

[TheoPetro]

they told me I had ADHD in like 3rd grade or sometime around then. Took ritilin for it untill 8th grade. For highschool I took myself off of it because it made me a very quiet/serious person. It was hard to make friends while on it because I was so quiet but it was harder to make friends off of it because I was too damn hyper. All in all by sophomore year (highschool) it all evened out and I figured out how to act socialy and now im going into my Jr. year of college and have an excelent social life. It hurt me early on but I think I have completely grown out of it by now. Either that or Ive learned how to control it.

 

[yukichigai]

This thread's a little... old, but I'll ramble about ADD. I have a lot to say. You may find it interesting.

First off, to the people who say it doesn't exist: are you a doctor or licensed medical or psychiatric professional? No? THEN SHUT THE F%$# UP! Skepticism is one thing, but the opinion you hold is the exact opposite of what roughly 20 professional medical societies believe to be true, including pretty much every regulatory body in the US, Canada and UK.

Now, that being said, I think there's something to the skepticism. But more on that later.

Anyway, ADD is something I've been diagnosed with since I was in 7th grade. My parents were hesitant to even consider the possibility at first, but after coming across a few ADD kids and going, "why does that kid remind us so much of our son," they decided to give it a shot. I can tell you that right off the bat the medication helped, though interestingly enough I only know that from what OTHER people tell me. The initial round of medication was supposed to be a four-week, double-blind test. After two weeks my teachers all requested that the double-blind be stopped because, "from his behavior we all know which was the sugar pill and which wasn't." (And yes, they were accurate)

As far as my symptoms, I have most of the usual ones: easily distracted, appears not to be listening (though I usually am), poor to no grasp of subtlety, excessive speech, forgetfulness, procrastination, interrupting others, and I'm ludicrously disorganized. The symptoms are drastically minimized (though not eliminated) by the medication, save for the grasp on subtle social cues. (Watch me try picking up a girl sometime; it's different. It works, but it's different) Interestingly enough, there's another symptom I have which I hear very little of; one of the few things I noticed when I first started taking medication was that I would get a feeling of relief and happiness when I completed schoolwork. I never got that before I took medication. I had no idea you're supposed to feel anything after finishing a job, other than slightly less annoyed now that whatever it was isn't taking away valuable video game time.

To this day I'm still taking Ritalin for ADD, but usually all I need is one pill in the morning and I'm (relatively) normal for the rest of the day. It is very obvious to everyone around me (but not me) when I am or am not on my medication. It's obviously doing something. I certainly know I couldn't function as well without it, or at least without some form of treatment. (Pills are just a lot easier and effective)

Now to the skeptics (again) I do think there's something to the skepticism over the disease, particularly how it's "just an easy fix for bad parenting." I actually kind of agree with that sentiment, but in a limited sense. See, there's a lot of difficulty with diagnosing ADD; there are no medically verifiable symptoms, just psychological ones. Hell, they don't even know what exactly causes it. (Though my personal opinion is that what we know as ADD is really anywhere from 6 to 20 different diseases which have markedly similar symptoms) One of the key symptoms of ADD, but not criteria for diagnosis due to the nature of it, is fragmenting internal thought patterns. Here's an experiment: try asking a kid how they think, and if its fragmented. You probably aren't going to get a good, reliable or even consistent answer. On top of that, there are dozens of other things that can cause textbook ADD symptoms: high sensitivity to caffiene, hyperthyroidism, even a simple protein deficiency can cause ADD symptoms. Since diagnosing ADD is basically done by identifying symptoms and then eliminating all known "testable" causes this can lead to TONS of misdiagnosises. So many of these possible "ADD imitators" are fairly obscure, usually only known to specialists in a particular field, NOT by General Practitioners or anyone who's likely to be doing the diagnosing. Even if they've specialized in ADD and read up on alternate causes for the symptoms more than likely they'll have missed one or two really obscure ones.

I've had second-hand experience with misdiagnosis of ADD. My little brother was diagnosed as ADD, but no matter what medication or treatment he tried it didn't help very effectively, or at all. Several months after the diagnosis he went in for an unrelated problem and the matter of his low protein intake was brought up. He'd had protein deficiencies off and on all his life, what with being a vegetarian and a picky one at that, but what we weren't aware (nor was our GP and the shrink he saw to get diagnosed) was that it would cause ADD symptoms. Sure enough, as soon as the folks started giving him a protein shake every day his symptoms went away.

The point of this is that I think ADD is probably the most over-diagnosed disease in the country right now. I'm sure plenty of kids have it, but I'm equally sure that plenty of misdiagnosises (or quick-fixes at the behest of helicopter parents) are putting kids on meds they don't need to treat a problem that either could be treated and/or cured otherwise, or that they don't actually have.

And finally, as a last parting shot at people who still think ADD isn't real, let me sum up my situation as thus: normally I am an unlikable jackass who interrupts people and can't focus for more than a second. When I take Ritalin, I'm fairly pleasant, complete my work on time and am generally normal(ish). Whatever the cause of my problems, the Ritalin makes it go away. This cannot be disputed. I'd say that pretty much indicates, no, defines my problems as symptoms of a medically treatable condition.

 

[pontifex]

sometimes i wonder if i have add or something like it.

i don't have a problem sitting down and reading book for hours on end if i like it. if i don't like, forget it. my mind wanders and i just don't want to do it. same with other things. especially hobbies. if i don't get something down right the 1st time, i get really frustrated and don't touch it again. if something frustrates me because i can't do it well right away, i tend to stop doing it.

for instance, i tried to play guitar. i couldn't get it at all, so i just quit. ended up selling my gear to a friend.

i don't know if thats any form of add or just being bored/frustrated.

 

[Molondo]

Sometimes i feel like im sorrounded by them.

 

[Geekbabe]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
This thread's a little... old, but I'll ramble about ADD. I have a lot to say. You may find it interesting.

First off, to the people who say it doesn't exist: are you a doctor or licensed medical or psychiatric professional? No? THEN SHUT THE F%$# UP! Skepticism is one thing, but the opinion you hold is the exact opposite of what roughly 20 professional medical societies believe to be true, including pretty much every regulatory body in the US, Canada and UK.

Now, that being said, I think there's something to the skepticism. But more on that later.

Anyway, ADD is something I've been diagnosed with since I was in 7th grade. My parents were hesitant to even consider the possibility at first, but after coming across a few ADD kids and going, "why does that kid remind us so much of our son," they decided to give it a shot. I can tell you that right off the bat the medication helped, though interestingly enough I only know that from what OTHER people tell me. The initial round of medication was supposed to be a four-week, double-blind test. After two weeks my teachers all requested that the double-blind be stopped because, "from his behavior we all know which was the sugar pill and which wasn't." (And yes, they were accurate)

As far as my symptoms, I have most of the usual ones: easily distracted, appears not to be listening (though I usually am), poor to no grasp of subtlety, excessive speech, forgetfulness, procrastination, interrupting others, and I'm ludicrously disorganized. The symptoms are drastically minimized (though not eliminated) by the medication, save for the grasp on subtle social cues. (Watch me try picking up a girl sometime; it's different. It works, but it's different) Interestingly enough, there's another symptom I have which I hear very little of; one of the few things I noticed when I first started taking medication was that I would get a feeling of relief and happiness when I completed schoolwork. I never got that before I took medication. I had no idea you're supposed to feel anything after finishing a job, other than slightly less annoyed now that whatever it was isn't taking away valuable video game time.

To this day I'm still taking Ritalin for ADD, but usually all I need is one pill in the morning and I'm (relatively) normal for the rest of the day. It is very obvious to everyone around me (but not me) when I am or am not on my medication. It's obviously doing something. I certainly know I couldn't function as well without it, or at least without some form of treatment. (Pills are just a lot easier and effective)

Now to the skeptics (again) I do think there's something to the skepticism over the disease, particularly how it's "just an easy fix for bad parenting." I actually kind of agree with that sentiment, but in a limited sense. See, there's a lot of difficulty with diagnosing ADD; there are no medically verifiable symptoms, just psychological ones. Hell, they don't even know what exactly causes it. (Though my personal opinion is that what we know as ADD is really anywhere from 6 to 20 different diseases which have markedly similar symptoms) One of the key symptoms of ADD, but not criteria for diagnosis due to the nature of it, is fragmenting internal thought patterns. Here's an experiment: try asking a kid how they think, and if its fragmented. You probably aren't going to get a good, reliable or even consistent answer. On top of that, there are dozens of other things that can cause textbook ADD symptoms: high sensitivity to caffiene, hyperthyroidism, even a simple protein deficiency can cause ADD symptoms. Since diagnosing ADD is basically done by identifying symptoms and then eliminating all known "testable" causes this can lead to TONS of misdiagnosises. So many of these possible "ADD imitators" are fairly obscure, usually only known to specialists in a particular field, NOT by General Practitioners or anyone who's likely to be doing the diagnosing. Even if they've specialized in ADD and read up on alternate causes for the symptoms more than likely they'll have missed one or two really obscure ones.

I've had second-hand experience with misdiagnosis of ADD. My little brother was diagnosed as ADD, but no matter what medication or treatment he tried it didn't help very effectively, or at all. Several months after the diagnosis he went in for an unrelated problem and the matter of his low protein intake was brought up. He'd had protein deficiencies off and on all his life, what with being a vegetarian and a picky one at that, but what we weren't aware (nor was our GP and the shrink he saw to get diagnosed) was that it would cause ADD symptoms. Sure enough, as soon as the folks started giving him a protein shake every day his symptoms went away.

The point of this is that I think ADD is probably the most over-diagnosed disease in the country right now. I'm sure plenty of kids have it, but I'm equally sure that plenty of misdiagnosises (or quick-fixes at the behest of helicopter parents) are putting kids on meds they don't need to treat a problem that either could be treated and/or cured otherwise, or that they don't actually have.

And finally, as a last parting shot at people who still think ADD isn't real, let me sum up my situation as thus: normally I am an unlikable jackass who interrupts people and can't focus for more than a second. When I take Ritalin, I'm fairly pleasant, complete my work on time and am generally normal(ish). Whatever the cause of my problems, the Ritalin makes it go away. This cannot be disputed. I'd say that pretty much indicates, no, defines my problems as symptoms of a medically treatable condition.

cliff notes ? christ I can't read all that !

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: Legend
I take Ritalin. I tried the alternate health strategy, and it worked well after the stimulation addiction wore off (takes several days), but Ritalin is $5/month after insurance and elminates the need for coffee, while alternate health is $80/month and requires coffee.

I was told I had it in 5th grade when I kept daydreaming in class. I went from a struggling student to the top CompE student in my class. While I don't think it's the best way to handle it and I may not need it anymore, it did help me tremendously academically.

It probably helped academically because what you were learning made you bored stiff. Seems like these meds just allow people to take more ****** from others..

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: Geekbabe

Originally posted by: yukichigai
This thread's a little... old, but I'll ramble about ADD. I have a lot to say. You may find it interesting.

First off, to the people who say it doesn't exist: are you a doctor or licensed medical or psychiatric professional? No? THEN SHUT THE F%$# UP! Skepticism is one thing, but the opinion you hold is the exact opposite of what roughly 20 professional medical societies believe to be true, including pretty much every regulatory body in the US, Canada and UK.

Now, that being said, I think there's something to the skepticism. But more on that later.

Anyway, ADD is something I've been diagnosed with since I was in 7th grade. My parents were hesitant to even consider the possibility at first, but after coming across a few ADD kids and going, "why does that kid remind us so much of our son," they decided to give it a shot. I can tell you that right off the bat the medication helped, though interestingly enough I only know that from what OTHER people tell me. The initial round of medication was supposed to be a four-week, double-blind test. After two weeks my teachers all requested that the double-blind be stopped because, "from his behavior we all know which was the sugar pill and which wasn't." (And yes, they were accurate)

As far as my symptoms, I have most of the usual ones: easily distracted, appears not to be listening (though I usually am), poor to no grasp of subtlety, excessive speech, forgetfulness, procrastination, interrupting others, and I'm ludicrously disorganized. The symptoms are drastically minimized (though not eliminated) by the medication, save for the grasp on subtle social cues. (Watch me try picking up a girl sometime; it's different. It works, but it's different) Interestingly enough, there's another symptom I have which I hear very little of; one of the few things I noticed when I first started taking medication was that I would get a feeling of relief and happiness when I completed schoolwork. I never got that before I took medication. I had no idea you're supposed to feel anything after finishing a job, other than slightly less annoyed now that whatever it was isn't taking away valuable video game time.

To this day I'm still taking Ritalin for ADD, but usually all I need is one pill in the morning and I'm (relatively) normal for the rest of the day. It is very obvious to everyone around me (but not me) when I am or am not on my medication. It's obviously doing something. I certainly know I couldn't function as well without it, or at least without some form of treatment. (Pills are just a lot easier and effective)

Now to the skeptics (again) I do think there's something to the skepticism over the disease, particularly how it's "just an easy fix for bad parenting." I actually kind of agree with that sentiment, but in a limited sense. See, there's a lot of difficulty with diagnosing ADD; there are no medically verifiable symptoms, just psychological ones. Hell, they don't even know what exactly causes it. (Though my personal opinion is that what we know as ADD is really anywhere from 6 to 20 different diseases which have markedly similar symptoms) One of the key symptoms of ADD, but not criteria for diagnosis due to the nature of it, is fragmenting internal thought patterns. Here's an experiment: try asking a kid how they think, and if its fragmented. You probably aren't going to get a good, reliable or even consistent answer. On top of that, there are dozens of other things that can cause textbook ADD symptoms: high sensitivity to caffiene, hyperthyroidism, even a simple protein deficiency can cause ADD symptoms. Since diagnosing ADD is basically done by identifying symptoms and then eliminating all known "testable" causes this can lead to TONS of misdiagnosises. So many of these possible "ADD imitators" are fairly obscure, usually only known to specialists in a particular field, NOT by General Practitioners or anyone who's likely to be doing the diagnosing. Even if they've specialized in ADD and read up on alternate causes for the symptoms more than likely they'll have missed one or two really obscure ones.

I've had second-hand experience with misdiagnosis of ADD. My little brother was diagnosed as ADD, but no matter what medication or treatment he tried it didn't help very effectively, or at all. Several months after the diagnosis he went in for an unrelated problem and the matter of his low protein intake was brought up. He'd had protein deficiencies off and on all his life, what with being a vegetarian and a picky one at that, but what we weren't aware (nor was our GP and the shrink he saw to get diagnosed) was that it would cause ADD symptoms. Sure enough, as soon as the folks started giving him a protein shake every day his symptoms went away.

The point of this is that I think ADD is probably the most over-diagnosed disease in the country right now. I'm sure plenty of kids have it, but I'm equally sure that plenty of misdiagnosises (or quick-fixes at the behest of helicopter parents) are putting kids on meds they don't need to treat a problem that either could be treated and/or cured otherwise, or that they don't actually have.

And finally, as a last parting shot at people who still think ADD isn't real, let me sum up my situation as thus: normally I am an unlikable jackass who interrupts people and can't focus for more than a second. When I take Ritalin, I'm fairly pleasant, complete my work on time and am generally normal(ish). Whatever the cause of my problems, the Ritalin makes it go away. This cannot be disputed. I'd say that pretty much indicates, no, defines my problems as symptoms of a medically treatable condition.

cliff notes ? christ I can't read all that !

Someone's got ADD

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
This thread's a little... old, but I'll ramble about ADD. I have a lot to say. You may find it interesting.

First off, to the people who say it doesn't exist: are you a doctor or licensed medical or psychiatric professional? No? THEN SHUT THE F%$# UP! Skepticism is one thing, but the opinion you hold is the exact opposite of what roughly 20 professional medical societies believe to be true, including pretty much every regulatory body in the US, Canada and UK.

Now, that being said, I think there's something to the skepticism. But more on that later.

Anyway, ADD is something I've been diagnosed with since I was in 7th grade. My parents were hesitant to even consider the possibility at first, but after coming across a few ADD kids and going, "why does that kid remind us so much of our son," they decided to give it a shot. I can tell you that right off the bat the medication helped, though interestingly enough I only know that from what OTHER people tell me. The initial round of medication was supposed to be a four-week, double-blind test. After two weeks my teachers all requested that the double-blind be stopped because, "from his behavior we all know which was the sugar pill and which wasn't." (And yes, they were accurate)

As far as my symptoms, I have most of the usual ones: easily distracted, appears not to be listening (though I usually am), poor to no grasp of subtlety, excessive speech, forgetfulness, procrastination, interrupting others, and I'm ludicrously disorganized. The symptoms are drastically minimized (though not eliminated) by the medication, save for the grasp on subtle social cues. (Watch me try picking up a girl sometime; it's different. It works, but it's different) Interestingly enough, there's another symptom I have which I hear very little of; one of the few things I noticed when I first started taking medication was that I would get a feeling of relief and happiness when I completed schoolwork. I never got that before I took medication. I had no idea you're supposed to feel anything after finishing a job, other than slightly less annoyed now that whatever it was isn't taking away valuable video game time.

To this day I'm still taking Ritalin for ADD, but usually all I need is one pill in the morning and I'm (relatively) normal for the rest of the day. It is very obvious to everyone around me (but not me) when I am or am not on my medication. It's obviously doing something. I certainly know I couldn't function as well without it, or at least without some form of treatment. (Pills are just a lot easier and effective)

Now to the skeptics (again) I do think there's something to the skepticism over the disease, particularly how it's "just an easy fix for bad parenting." I actually kind of agree with that sentiment, but in a limited sense. See, there's a lot of difficulty with diagnosing ADD; there are no medically verifiable symptoms, just psychological ones. Hell, they don't even know what exactly causes it. (Though my personal opinion is that what we know as ADD is really anywhere from 6 to 20 different diseases which have markedly similar symptoms) One of the key symptoms of ADD, but not criteria for diagnosis due to the nature of it, is fragmenting internal thought patterns. Here's an experiment: try asking a kid how they think, and if its fragmented. You probably aren't going to get a good, reliable or even consistent answer. On top of that, there are dozens of other things that can cause textbook ADD symptoms: high sensitivity to caffiene, hyperthyroidism, even a simple protein deficiency can cause ADD symptoms. Since diagnosing ADD is basically done by identifying symptoms and then eliminating all known "testable" causes this can lead to TONS of misdiagnosises. So many of these possible "ADD imitators" are fairly obscure, usually only known to specialists in a particular field, NOT by General Practitioners or anyone who's likely to be doing the diagnosing. Even if they've specialized in ADD and read up on alternate causes for the symptoms more than likely they'll have missed one or two really obscure ones.

I've had second-hand experience with misdiagnosis of ADD. My little brother was diagnosed as ADD, but no matter what medication or treatment he tried it didn't help very effectively, or at all. Several months after the diagnosis he went in for an unrelated problem and the matter of his low protein intake was brought up. He'd had protein deficiencies off and on all his life, what with being a vegetarian and a picky one at that, but what we weren't aware (nor was our GP and the shrink he saw to get diagnosed) was that it would cause ADD symptoms. Sure enough, as soon as the folks started giving him a protein shake every day his symptoms went away.

The point of this is that I think ADD is probably the most over-diagnosed disease in the country right now. I'm sure plenty of kids have it, but I'm equally sure that plenty of misdiagnosises (or quick-fixes at the behest of helicopter parents) are putting kids on meds they don't need to treat a problem that either could be treated and/or cured otherwise, or that they don't actually have.

And finally, as a last parting shot at people who still think ADD isn't real, let me sum up my situation as thus: normally I am an unlikable jackass who interrupts people and can't focus for more than a second. When I take Ritalin, I'm fairly pleasant, complete my work on time and am generally normal(ish). Whatever the cause of my problems, the Ritalin makes it go away. This cannot be disputed. I'd say that pretty much indicates, no, defines my problems as symptoms of a medically treatable condition.

Let me ask you a question, is there such thing as a person who is patient with ADD? Or is that a contradictory statement in it's self?

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: goku
Let me ask you a question, is there such thing as a person who is patient with ADD? Or is that a contradictory statement in it's self?

It depends on compensation methods. Most people with ADD (myself included) like to keep their brain occupied with something. If we're talking "patience" like "sitting for 4 hours in a waiting room with nothing to do" then no, you probably aren't going to find anyone ADD who will have that kind of patience. If you're just talking about waiting for things to take their course, not trying to rush things all the time, etc. then yes, you can be ADD and patient. When it comes to most things I'm very patient, provided I have something to occupy my mind with in the meantime. Just... every now and then I do try to jump the gun a little. That's part of the poor impulse control.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: goku
Let me ask you a question, is there such thing as a person who is patient with ADD? Or is that a contradictory statement in it's self?

It depends on compensation methods. Most people with ADD (myself included) like to keep their brain occupied with something. If we're talking "patience" like "sitting for 4 hours in a waiting room with nothing to do" then no, you probably aren't going to find anyone ADD who will have that kind of patience. If you're just talking about waiting for things to take their course, not trying to rush things all the time, etc. then yes, you can be ADD and patient. When it comes to most things I'm very patient, provided I have something to occupy my mind with in the meantime. Just... every now and then I do try to jump the gun a little. That's part of the poor impulse control.

i'd liek to fidn ANYONE, with ADD or not, to sit in a waiting room for 4 hours and be patient.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
cliff notes ? christ I can't read all that !

Bah! Fine.

1) ADD is real. Unless you have a medical degree, STFU and stop trying to say it isn't.
2) ADD is often overdiagnosed because lots of things can cause ADD symptoms
2a) ADD is also overdiagnosed because of "helicopter parents"
3) I have ADD
4) If you STILL don't believe in ADD, I have behavioral issues which are reduced/eliminated by medication. By definition that makes it a real disorder. Jackass.

 

[Albatross]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
This thread's a little... old, but I'll ramble about ADD. I have a lot to say. You may find it interesting.

First off, to the people who say it doesn't exist: are you a doctor or licensed medical or psychiatric professional? No? THEN SHUT THE F%$# UP! Skepticism is one thing, but the opinion you hold is the exact opposite of what roughly 20 professional medical societies believe to be true, including pretty much every regulatory body in the US, Canada and UK.

Now, that being said, I think there's something to the skepticism. But more on that later.

Anyway, ADD is something I've been diagnosed with since I was in 7th grade. My parents were hesitant to even consider the possibility at first, but after coming across a few ADD kids and going, "why does that kid remind us so much of our son," they decided to give it a shot. I can tell you that right off the bat the medication helped, though interestingly enough I only know that from what OTHER people tell me. The initial round of medication was supposed to be a four-week, double-blind test. After two weeks my teachers all requested that the double-blind be stopped because, "from his behavior we all know which was the sugar pill and which wasn't." (And yes, they were accurate)

As far as my symptoms, I have most of the usual ones: easily distracted, appears not to be listening (though I usually am), poor to no grasp of subtlety, excessive speech, forgetfulness, procrastination, interrupting others, and I'm ludicrously disorganized. The symptoms are drastically minimized (though not eliminated) by the medication, save for the grasp on subtle social cues. (Watch me try picking up a girl sometime; it's different. It works, but it's different) Interestingly enough, there's another symptom I have which I hear very little of; one of the few things I noticed when I first started taking medication was that I would get a feeling of relief and happiness when I completed schoolwork. I never got that before I took medication. I had no idea you're supposed to feel anything after finishing a job, other than slightly less annoyed now that whatever it was isn't taking away valuable video game time.

To this day I'm still taking Ritalin for ADD, but usually all I need is one pill in the morning and I'm (relatively) normal for the rest of the day. It is very obvious to everyone around me (but not me) when I am or am not on my medication. It's obviously doing something. I certainly know I couldn't function as well without it, or at least without some form of treatment. (Pills are just a lot easier and effective)

Now to the skeptics (again) I do think there's something to the skepticism over the disease, particularly how it's "just an easy fix for bad parenting." I actually kind of agree with that sentiment, but in a limited sense. See, there's a lot of difficulty with diagnosing ADD; there are no medically verifiable symptoms, just psychological ones. Hell, they don't even know what exactly causes it. (Though my personal opinion is that what we know as ADD is really anywhere from 6 to 20 different diseases which have markedly similar symptoms) One of the key symptoms of ADD, but not criteria for diagnosis due to the nature of it, is fragmenting internal thought patterns. Here's an experiment: try asking a kid how they think, and if its fragmented. You probably aren't going to get a good, reliable or even consistent answer. On top of that, there are dozens of other things that can cause textbook ADD symptoms: high sensitivity to caffiene, hyperthyroidism, even a simple protein deficiency can cause ADD symptoms. Since diagnosing ADD is basically done by identifying symptoms and then eliminating all known "testable" causes this can lead to TONS of misdiagnosises. So many of these possible "ADD imitators" are fairly obscure, usually only known to specialists in a particular field, NOT by General Practitioners or anyone who's likely to be doing the diagnosing. Even if they've specialized in ADD and read up on alternate causes for the symptoms more than likely they'll have missed one or two really obscure ones.

I've had second-hand experience with misdiagnosis of ADD. My little brother was diagnosed as ADD, but no matter what medication or treatment he tried it didn't help very effectively, or at all. Several months after the diagnosis he went in for an unrelated problem and the matter of his low protein intake was brought up. He'd had protein deficiencies off and on all his life, what with being a vegetarian and a picky one at that, but what we weren't aware (nor was our GP and the shrink he saw to get diagnosed) was that it would cause ADD symptoms. Sure enough, as soon as the folks started giving him a protein shake every day his symptoms went away.

The point of this is that I think ADD is probably the most over-diagnosed disease in the country right now. I'm sure plenty of kids have it, but I'm equally sure that plenty of misdiagnosises (or quick-fixes at the behest of helicopter parents) are putting kids on meds they don't need to treat a problem that either could be treated and/or cured otherwise, or that they don't actually have.

And finally, as a last parting shot at people who still think ADD isn't real, let me sum up my situation as thus: normally I am an unlikable jackass who interrupts people and can't focus for more than a second. When I take Ritalin, I'm fairly pleasant, complete my work on time and am generally normal(ish). Whatever the cause of my problems, the Ritalin makes it go away. This cannot be disputed. I'd say that pretty much indicates, no, defines my problems as symptoms of a medically treatable condition.

ADD isn`t real.however,it might be that Ritalin is effective against jackasses.

 

[lokiju]

Originally posted by: pontifex
sometimes i wonder if i have add or something like it.

i don't have a problem sitting down and reading book for hours on end if i like it. if i don't like, forget it. my mind wanders and i just don't want to do it. same with other things. especially hobbies. if i don't get something down right the 1st time, i get really frustrated and don't touch it again. if something frustrates me because i can't do it well right away, i tend to stop doing it.

for instance, i tried to play guitar. i couldn't get it at all, so i just quit. ended up selling my gear to a friend.

i don't know if thats any form of add or just being bored/frustrated.

Sounds like me.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: lokiju

Originally posted by: pontifex
sometimes i wonder if i have add or something like it.

i don't have a problem sitting down and reading book for hours on end if i like it. if i don't like, forget it. my mind wanders and i just don't want to do it. same with other things. especially hobbies. if i don't get something down right the 1st time, i get really frustrated and don't touch it again. if something frustrates me because i can't do it well right away, i tend to stop doing it.

for instance, i tried to play guitar. i couldn't get it at all, so i just quit. ended up selling my gear to a friend.

i don't know if thats any form of add or just being bored/frustrated.

Sounds like me.

I'm not qualified to diagnose ADD, but I'll give you a good rule of thumb to go by.

Do you know that weird thing your brain starts to do as you're about ready to doze off? The one where your thoughts get really confusing and illogical, where you'll be thinking about some TV show you watched and all of the sudden it transitions to contemplating why Matthew Fox drives a car made of cheese on the Sopranos, or something equally nonsensical, without any idea where the cheese, car or Sopranos parts of that line of thinking came from.

Imagine your brain doing that all the time.

That's ADD.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: goku
Let me ask you a question, is there such thing as a person who is patient with ADD? Or is that a contradictory statement in it's self?

It depends on compensation methods. Most people with ADD (myself included) like to keep their brain occupied with something. If we're talking "patience" like "sitting for 4 hours in a waiting room with nothing to do" then no, you probably aren't going to find anyone ADD who will have that kind of patience. If you're just talking about waiting for things to take their course, not trying to rush things all the time, etc. then yes, you can be ADD and patient. When it comes to most things I'm very patient, provided I have something to occupy my mind with in the meantime. Just... every now and then I do try to jump the gun a little. That's part of the poor impulse control.

i'd liek to fidn ANYONE, with ADD or not, to sit in a waiting room for 4 hours and be patient.

Me It's amazing what you can do to keep your mind occupied. I usually try to work out problems I have, like when I'm on the crapper. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. Keeping yoru mind blank though, can be soothing if you let your self do it.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: lokiju

Originally posted by: pontifex
sometimes i wonder if i have add or something like it.

i don't have a problem sitting down and reading book for hours on end if i like it. if i don't like, forget it. my mind wanders and i just don't want to do it. same with other things. especially hobbies. if i don't get something down right the 1st time, i get really frustrated and don't touch it again. if something frustrates me because i can't do it well right away, i tend to stop doing it.

for instance, i tried to play guitar. i couldn't get it at all, so i just quit. ended up selling my gear to a friend.

i don't know if thats any form of add or just being bored/frustrated.

Sounds like me.

I'm not qualified to diagnose ADD, but I'll give you a good rule of thumb to go by.

Do you know that weird thing your brain starts to do as you're about ready to doze off? The one where your thoughts get really confusing and illogical, where you'll be thinking about some TV show you watched and all of the sudden it transitions to contemplating why Matthew Fox drives a car made of cheese on the Sopranos, or something equally nonsensical, without any idea where the cheese, car or Sopranos parts of that line of thinking came from.

Imagine your brain doing that all the time.

That's ADD.

So basically, if your mind wanders from topic to topic with no connection to them that YOU can think of, that's ADD? I've had my peers tell me they think I have ADD, but people in a profession/true adults? Forget about it. It's funny when you say one thing and then another and people are like WTF? Your mind wanders, but then you can explain to them how you made the connection between Dogs humping couches and interior designers. Woah.... Let me put it to you this way, I'm a stoner's best friend.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: goku

Originally posted by: yukichigai
I'm not qualified to diagnose ADD, but I'll give you a good rule of thumb to go by.

Do you know that weird thing your brain starts to do as you're about ready to doze off? The one where your thoughts get really confusing and illogical, where you'll be thinking about some TV show you watched and all of the sudden it transitions to contemplating why Matthew Fox drives a car made of cheese on the Sopranos, or something equally nonsensical, without any idea where the cheese, car or Sopranos parts of that line of thinking came from.

Imagine your brain doing that all the time.

That's ADD.

So basically, if your mind wanders from topic to topic with no connection to them that YOU can think of, that's ADD? I've had my peers tell me they think I have ADD, but people in a profession/true adults? Forget about it. It's funny when you say one thing and then another and people are like WTF? Your mind wanders, but then you can explain to them how you made the connection between Dogs humping couches and interior designers. Woah.... Let me put it to you this way, I'm a stoner's best friend.

A little wandering thought pattern here and there is okay. It's when it happens constantly, even when you're trying your hardest to think or just in the middle of talking, that you have to wonder if its ADD.

Everyone's mind wanders now and then. It's when it becomes disruptive to your ability to think that its a problem.