ADHD

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by melbo, Apr 22, 2012.


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  1. UGRev

    UGRev Get on with it!

    I wish I could tell people that this not a disorder.. there is nothing wrong with this except for people who can't keep up. Sorry, but you're fine.. everyone else is just slow ;)
     
  2. Expatman

    Expatman Monkey


    A very similar situation with me. My wife was diagnose as an adult with ADHD. She showed the exact same symptoms that you described for yourself. It almost destroyed our marriage. I know that sounds dramatic but it drove me so crazy that I could barely stad it.

    I thought she just did not care what I had to say since she would never respond to be during a conversation. Little did I know that she had already moved on (in her head) because she got bored with what I was saying.

    Sometimes she would be in the middle of a conversation with me and then rapidly change subjects. For example we would be discussing our plans for a trip the following day. She would suddenly look up at me and say "I think yellow would be a nice color for the master bath". At this point I would almost lose my mind not to mention my cool.

    My buddy and I were sitting at the bar facing into the kitchen drinking a beer and watching her clean up as we chatted. We watched her put away dishes and such and begin to put away odds and ends. She came across an old VHS tape that was left on the counter. She had it in her hand, took a few steps towards the kitchen cabinets, paused as if in thought, then proceded to place it in a cabinet with the dishes. After she was done cleaning she started shuffeling things around as if looking for something. I asked her what she was looking for and she told me it was that VHS tape she just had. I told her she put it in the cabinet with the dishes. She did not believe me. My friend and I looked at each other and then back to her but could not keep from laughing. She opened the cabinet and there it was. She still thinks to this day that we climbed over the bar and put it there.

    Her problem is that she thinks soooooooo fast and about soooooo many things that she never finishes anything.

    One last example is when she sweeps the house. She makes all these little piles of dirt and bits of trash but never goes back with the dust pan. she simply gets redirected. What is amazing is that once she was diagnosed it was explained to us it all seemed to make sense. Took a lot of stress off of our marriage because I now see why she does these things. She is also medicated and it allows her mind to slow down and focus on individual tasks and thoughts.
     
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  3. Jeff Brackett

    Jeff Brackett Monkey+++

    When I was growing up, my parents were told that I was "hyperactive". I was the one who couldn't sit still, always had several books I was reading at once, and was always trying to complete other people's sentences because I couldn't wait until they fiished the thought themselves.

    Payback is a bitch.:D

    When my son was in elementary school, we were told by the school nurse that she thought he was ADHD. I called BS and refused to hear anything more about it. The next few years, he got himself into all sorts of trouble. My initial reaction was that the schools simply didn't know their butts from a hole in the ground, and were simply taking the easy way out, demanding that I zombify my son so they wouldn't have to deal with him. I refused again, raising hell with the school until they backed off again.

    The next year, he went into jr. high, and his grade went into the crapper. Once again they told us to have him checked. I finally did. After all the questions and forms, Doc said he did exhibit signs of ADD (not ADHD), but that she didn't necessarily feel that we needed to medicate him yet. That held them off for that year, but his grades were Ds and Cs. I kept getting stricter and stricter with him until all the poor kid did was eat, sleep, and go to school. We spent hours on end working with him on math, english, science, etc. At the end of his first year of jr. high, he made his first F on his report card. We reluctantly took him back to the doctor for another evaluation.

    This time she confirmed that he was no longer "borderline". She recommended minimal dosages of adderall, gradually increasing over a six week period until we hit the "sweet spot" where we began to notice a difference in his attention levels. At that point, the dosage increases ceased and we let him keep going with that minimal dose. Within a few months, his grades rose, and he was soon an A & B student.

    Our experience was a good one. We had a good doctor who didn't believe in jumping in with a high dose of meds that would turn our kid into one of the walking dead. I honestly still feel guilty that I was so adamantly against the initial nurses' evaluations that I delayed getting the doctor involved for three years. As a result of that, my son stayed a few years behind his classmates in reading level, and that made it harder for him to keep up in school. It eventually resulted in him being waitlisted for two years for USNA. He kept missing out by the skin of his teeth, and eventually gave up on that particular dream altogether.

    I've seen plenty of other kids whose experiences weren't as fortunate as ours - lots of kids who went through days zoned out because the parents and doctors simply jumped them into a high dosage of ritalin or adderall without regard for the kid's emotional stability. Their only concern was for getting the kids to "settle down" in class.

    I'm no doctor, but our experience convinced me that there was something going on with my son that the medication affected to his benefit.
     
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  4. there was a fellow who used to write for 'succuss" magazine, I think he was called harold wilson . I recal he was the fellow who brought out formula 409 if you need to figure out who he was.

    Anyway he wrote on the back page most issues and year ago I recall reading that he had figured out that a bunch of the most succussful CEO's were ADDH or something like that.

    Apparently once kids learn to channel all that excess energy it gives them the drive to produce some amazing results that others get worn down by.

    Also Mom was a school teacher (first grade) for like 40 years and she hated when someone wanted to medicate a kid in her classroom for misbehavior. To my knowledge she never pushed for such and I do recall kids later telling her that her insisting that they master themselves was how they made it through school. (small town old school style, pre PC days.)

    I also recall one kid that everyone thought was impossible and then Mom made this educated guess and got his Mom to cut him off wheat. Apparently the kid was allergic to it and when he was weaned off of it he calmed right down and became a top student. Mom later told me that she had learned this from some older teacher that had mentored her and that often food of some type was at fault for certain types of acting out.

    I think people are way to quick to slap a label on people when they cannot get them to conform to their rules. Perhaps there are those who can find help from various medications or diets. Others just are what they are.

    Sometimes punishment works, sometimes not.

    I think I prefer to view each person as an individual with individual needs and abilities. I don't like giving people a easy crutch to lay the blame for their actions on. Much of us want to act in ways that will get us into trouble. Learning how to avoid getting into trouble is as important as learning the three R's.

    JMTC< YMMV

    Thad
     
  5. Cruisin Sloth

    Cruisin Sloth Special & Slow

    The food YOU eat is dangerous !!! Has so much truth in it.

    Drugs in my opinion should be used for action right now to repair / change / boost some internal problem we have or get a bug. Living to take drugs to survive is what Pfizer / Bayer and the rest strive to hook you. FIX the food intake , to repair whats wrong .
    My Diet has been radically changed instead of drugs. Side effects are I feel great & needed new clothes after they couldn't be taken in any more..

    Just my take.
    YMMV

    Sloth
    Edit add: I had viewed this tube sometime ago Just on this subject:
    TEDxAustin Robyn O'Brien 2011 - YouTube


    Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat - YouTube


    Cary Fowler: One seed at a time, protecting the future of f - YouTube


    And now in the Queen's English ;) Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food - YouTube
     
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  6. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    Hmm ...Only met 2 in the last few year's with this ADHD or something like that...
    Both SINGLE mom's that smoked WEED..and now their spawn is hyper...One's spawn appeared to be very smart...The second ...not so much...Dumb as a box of rock's...
    I'm sure we the tax payer's are paying for these lil' ba%#$Rd's..Med's and what ever else is needed..So when they grow up..They can rob us...Since they are Bored...
    True story...Gator 45/70
     
  7. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    Thanks for all the responses. i have not read a single post yet as I'm pretty tied up with a couple other projects but will absorb this in a few days. I was purposely refraining from reading here as i wanted a broad spectrum of opinion.

    Thanks again./
     
  8. Gotta stick my nose in here one more time. Seems a lot of people are saying the same thought.

    There are probably a few folk who have one of these add adhd etc and can benefit from some helpful medication

    A lot feel as do I that misdiagnosing in this area is pretty rampant with the system pushing mind numbing drugs at parents and teachers who want a quick fix for potentially some of the best and brightest kids as well as some or the least and worst kids.

    helping the bright kids not become bored, and discipline for the not so bright ones misbehaving for being able to get away with it might go a long way.

    When teachers got to the point (been tied up with teachers / educstors my whole family except me is pretty much involved so I hear / live it all the time) that it became a job instead of a calling, lost the right to whip little johnny, or even clean him up if he got sick to lawyers looking to get a buck for themselves n mommy n daddy, things started down hill.

    Food, and rearing have a lot to do with behavior.

    There are and will always be that few that do have problems. Just not the endless amount. If it has reached the point where a large percent are so called adhd, then perhaps it is a normal and not a abnormal, and medicating that to make it easier for other groups is just another form of group control over individuals.

    I am a "an ye harm none, do as thou wilt" sort of fellow. The rights of one to live and do as they please extend right up to the point it meets the rights of another to do as they please. I'm maybe not expressing this to well but the individual trumps the whole whenever possible in my approach to life.

    I have / am rearing 4 kids, all are different, and all are going to be very successful or already are in living their life and producing a good outcome for themselves while harming no other. Not a huge population sample for statistics, but the only bonifides I really have to offer for my opinion. That and observation for a lot of years of how humans have acted around me and in my sight.
     
  9. fedorthedog

    fedorthedog Monkey+++

    Its is a condition, they over use the name for kids that are a little harder to handle than most. My brother is adhd and a bunch of other learning disabilities, has an above average IQ but cant do third grade math. He can talk all sorts of college level theory, and cant make change.

    The funny part is the school we were in as kids in the 60s had may 20 students out of 500 that had these problem, now there are 20 kids with this issue in my sons grade school of 110 k-8. They get extra money for it so they make more.
     
  10. dystopia

    dystopia Monkey+

    My story. When my son was little took him to doctor because of ADD qualities, doctor didn't even look at him just suggested Ritalin. Well i've never liked drugs (well maybe certain drugs) but we got a second opinion and it turned out to be aspergers, a kind of autism and that ritalin would have made things worse not better. And a footnote on Ritalin, a recruiter freind told me that Ritalin is cinsidered a mind altering drug an d can keep you out of the military and some federal jobs.
     
  11. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    I have three nephews, that have ADHD. They are all Adults, now, but as children, they were always a bit different. My sister raised six children. She is a Early Childhood Education Specialist, with a Teaching Degree, but instead of working in a Public School, she ran he own Private PreSchool, for children, ages 3-5 in her basement. She just reTIRED from Her PreSchool, after 40 years, this last summer. There are a FEW Real ADHD Kids. There are also a whole lot of diagnosed ADHD Kids, who are NOT ADHD, and it takes a Specialist in Child Psychology/ADHD, to determine the difference. You do NOT find these Specialists in Public Schools, or just looking in the Yellow Pages. They are usually found in Academia, doing Research, on the condition. some of the better ones are at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Lots of things get lumped in the ADHD Classification, by nonSpecialists, and Public School Counselors, for various Political and funding reasons..... ..... YMMV....
     
  12. TheEconomist

    TheEconomist Creighton Bluejay

    [ditto]
     
  13. mysterymet

    mysterymet Monkey+++

    People who used to be on ritalin when younger but who have been off it for a certain amount of time can join the military. People with aspergers can join the military. (depends on the individual). I think in the last 5-10 years or so aspergers has been over diagnosed. Now and days it seems like any kid who is a little socially akwards or geeky is called an aspie. It used to be much more difficult to get that diagnosis and no one wanted their kids to have that diagnosis as an "autism spectrum disorder". Now half the kids are on IEPs and a bunch are receiving SSI. We had a name for them back when i was in school too: future scientists or engineers.
     
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  14. Jeff Brackett

    Jeff Brackett Monkey+++

    When my son applied for USNA & went through MEPS we were told that he had to have been off any ADD meds for at least one year while still maintaining his GPA in college. He had already done his homework & knew about this requirement. He had talked to us during his junior year in high school, told us of the requirement and we worked with his doctor to taper him off the meds by the end of junior year. Went through senior year medication free, and while it was harder for him, his determination to get into the academy served as an incentive.

    That is most of what actually applies to this thread.

    However, there is plenty more to his story, if you're interested. If not, it's just me rambling....

    During his senior year in high school, he worked his butt off. Without his meds, it was tougher, but he was older and could maintain a higher level of self dicipline than when he was first diagnosed. He maintained his A-B average, became XO of his high school NJROTC battalion, was co-captain of the school's armed exhibition drill team and took them for the first time in more than a decade to state finals. He was accepted into Greystone Academy, one of the only college level academy prep programs.

    In college, he made the dean's list on a 14 hr academic program, plus mandatory 5AM phys-ed (6 days a week), plus mandatory study hall from 6PM to 10PM (which was a huge help to his grades), plus mandatory community service (Big Brothers/Big Sisters). "Stoners" were "advised" to take as many ACT and SAT exams as they could afford, and went through monthly CFAs that matched or exceeded those required by the various military academies.

    In spite of all that, he was wait-listed for two years. There are 1200 slots each year, and an average of 15000 applicants for those slots. The cold reality was that there were better candidates than him. Personally, I counted getting the wait listed slot for two years straight as an achievement to be proud of. But Greystone only allowed two years, so after his second year, he went into a Marine program (can't remember the name) where he got to take some of the actual pilot exams, and he was told he scored higher than many actual pilots. This qualified him for prelim flight training, and he was one of six candidates who actually got to go up and take the stick in a trainer.

    Then it was discovered that his recruiter had been padding paperwork to make her recruiting quotas look better. She was court martialed, dishonerably discharged, and since they had no way of knowing which records were accurate, and which were tampered with, they tossed out all the candidates' records. My son was back at square one for the third straight year.

    That, combined with the obligatory college aged girl troubles (fiance messed him over emotionally) caused him to throw in the towell on his military dreams. He dropped out of college in his senior year, and is working at the local branch of everyone's neighborhood coffee joint. We let him take a year to get his head back on, and I have now planted my boot up his ass to get him to apply back into college. He has an appointment with a school councilor next week (YAY!!)

    I love the kid, and he's been screwed over more than a two dollar hooker, but it's past time for him to get back in the game. Life doesn't care whether or not you've been screwed. It'll chew you up either way.

    His story isn't over yet, not by a long shot. He just hasn't really realized it.
     
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  15. Mechwolf

    Mechwolf Monkey+

    Just throwing in my 2 cents. In high school I was diagnosed with ADD. Which I do still in fact have. I do not see it as a disability. I do get bored easily and my mind does tend to wander. However as an adult I have learned to control it when I NEED to. I can multitask better than most of my co-workers , and I do not like to stay on one mundane task but rather work on several things at one time. One of my twins was also diagnosed with ADD . They did the typical zombie meds which took away his creativity and independent thought. I told his mother to take him off the meds and to tell his teachers to leave him alone in class ( he doodles a lot and does not make eye contact during lectures). What amazed them that even though he wasn't paying attention to them, or so they thought was that he answered every question they asked him correctly. They now leave him alone to doodle and not worry if he is watching them teach. He is currently in a magnet program in high school and is taking 3 honors classes. What people fail to realize if that having ADD is used as a crutch it will inhibit them. However if you look at it as a gift and force someone to learn how to use that gift their potential is increased. Patience is definitely the key with any child that has ADD. As a parent though my job i to nurture the child not coddle to them. My son I feel is a much stronger individual because we did not let his teachers dictate to us how to handle the problem, but we as his parents dicated to them how to work with him....end rant lol
     
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  16. enough

    enough Monkey++

    Seems like the subject has been covered quite a bit. Here is my bit ...

    ADD/ADHD has a lot of different faces. My daughter is technically diagnosed through an extensive three day evaluation as "ADHD-Inattentive type". She is me, 20-some years ago.

    She is intelligent, creative, and personable. She is also impossible to motivate, and has very little fear of consequences.

    When she is interested in something, good luck dragging her away or breaking her concentration. When she is required to do something but not interested, she will not engage for her life.

    When she is "graded" on a result, in a contained "system" she will fail, unless she is tuned in. If she has interest in that subject, she will score nearly perfect. No amount of parental support and tutoring or punishment will change that. She is now on the smallest dose of adderal XR and its like having a new child. She is scoring straight A's, and we are not dragging her to the table to study. In fact, she hardly ever has homework because she gets it all done during the day. We see her grades real-time and we are still in awe. It has changed her life to keep her on a strong academic path, and improved our family life in ways that I would have trouble articulating.

    We tried nutrition, structure, exercise/activity, rewards/punishments, everything we could conceive to help her focus. Nothing worked. We reluctantly tried medication. The first day was funny. She was a little wired, but it was instant. Later that day, she sat down and finished a school project that she had been ignoring (and was not due for another full week) in about an hour. She did it of her own accord. She started reading books for fun, producing more artwork, and expressing herself in a more reasonable way. After that first day, I have never noticed any more "wired" activity. She only takes it on school days (most), or other days when her focus is important. She won't be taking it over the summer, or at least that is our plan. We are planning ahead to create a summer "program" for her that allows her to focus on the things that she really likes. We will see how that turns out.

    For us, its been a blessing. She is happier, more successful, and at this point and this low dose, I don't see any side effects at all. We don't intend to keep her on it forever though. She needs to continue to learn to cope with the world around her.

    I was nervous that this was going to be a mind altering drug to her. So, after we filled the prescription but before I gave it to her. I tried it. I can not deny that it had a measurable and positive impact on my work for that day. Most notably, I didn't hesitate to do the types of things/tasks that I would normally not do or procrastinate because I don't like them. I just felt like they were "easier" somehow. They only way I can really describe how it made me feel is to say that it was like having a mild coffee effect. I didn't feel hyper or "buzzed". My thoughts were very clear and I was ENGAGED in whatever I need to be doing. I do not have any concerns about this at the dosage she is at. If we found ourselves needing or wanting to increase her dosage, I would become concerned. I think the strategy of using it only when needed is our best approach right now.

    A previous poster mentioned something about CEOs and ADHD. When someone with ADHD is not longer measured in terms of a "closed" system of academics and they allowed to roam free to find their own success, many will flourish. The school system is confining in so many ways. I say this as someone who graduated with honors in HS, but flunked out of college. I say this as someone who has studied his own mistakes and has come to terms with them. I say this as a husband to a public school teacher that has a bachelors in child development, and multiple masters degrees in education with years of real world experience with a lot of kids.

    ... and yes ... it took me four hours to write this. I kept clicking to other things, or going to other places here in my building, or getting distracted by the "shiny things outside my window". :)
     
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