What is Digg?145 Comments
- mediaphile, on 05/25/2008, -4/+51Honestly, it's much easier for me to think clearly and focus when I use Adderall. I never was prescribed Ritalin, but I don't believe it would be as effective. For whatever reason, though, cannabis seems to have the same effect on me that Adderall does, but with more benefits.
I'm sure children are over-diagnosed and over-medicated these days, but that doesn't mean ADHD isn't a legitimate disorder with legitimate medications. I wasn't diagnosed until I was in college, and my doctor only gave me a prescription after discussing my symptoms at length. - 80hd, on 05/25/2008, -5/+28Hey look a bird! ! !
- DeskFlyer, on 05/25/2008, -4/+24I personally think they should do a few more studies on whether hey look at that butterfly.
- mediaphile, on 05/25/2008, -3/+18Ritalin
- thumber, on 05/25/2008, -1/+15i was diagnosed, fed lots of anphetamines and it ended with a drug addiction and me being cronically depressed for years, only excorsise got me out of it
- VanillaIcee, on 05/25/2008, -1/+14Thank you for showing reason (so rare on Digg).
ADHD is a neurotransmitter disease. Sure, it may be over-diagnosed but that doesn't mean real cases don't exist. We all know that Schizophrenia is ~1% of the population so why do some people pretend another NT disease is simply a bunch of obnoxious college students who want an upper or parents that can't raise their kids properly. - inactive, on 05/25/2008, -4/+16Man, people are so paranoid about our dependence on drugs. Thankfully, I think there's a pill for that.
All kidding aside, I will never understand this obsession over our "pill-popping culture." I mean, so what? Maybe it's over-diagnosed, but it is a real condition, and if a pill can help, I say why not? No, it's not terribly serious, but neither is getting a rash, and you don't hear people harping on about our culture's tendency to immediately reach for the rash cream. - chrispix, on 05/25/2008, -2/+11I had ADHD as a child, and it pretty much just changed to ADD in Highschool. I was medicated when I was in grades 2-5, then again in 9-12, and somewhat as needed in college. I have to say that Ritalin did wonders for my attention span. The only issue with it was making sure I was focused what I needed to be focused on when it kicked in.
An example where it backfired : I was pulling an all nighter for an exam in college, and I was certain I had missed 2 classes. I was trying to figure out what 2 classes I had missed to get the notes from another student so I could study. I probably spent close to 2 hours creating a calendar, and doing who knows what trying to figure out and verify what 2 classes I had missed.
But for the most part Ritalin helped me stay on track and focus where I would have been bored and distracted by anything. I have not really had ritalin for the last 10 years, while some tasks at work (boring monotonus) are somewhat hard to focus on, if I push myself to get those finished and done, I have a good time on the hard, complex tasks which I enjoy. The other thing that I feel that not being on ritalin helps me accomplish is looking at things from different angles.
Not being stuck in a one track mind opens me up to quickly use ADD to my advantage to try and quickly (and I mean quickly) look at all kinds of alternatives, inside and outside the 'box'. People at work sometimes look at me funny b/c we will be talking about something, and I will seem to skip right to a different subject, but it is tied in with what we are talking about and adds a new perspective on our original subject. - Metasquares, on 05/25/2008, -1/+10I was thought to have ADHD as a child, but my parents refused to medicate me. In retrospect, this was the smartest decision they could have made - first, because I was actually able to focus quite well on intellectual tasks and there was a good chance I was just understimulated, but also because my "hyperactivity" led me to pursue a very broad range of skills, all of which are now paying dividends.
One of the chief dangers with medicating for ADHD (or Autism, or Asperger's...) is the risk of medicating a normal person exhibiting overexcitability, due to the overdiagnosis of such diseases and the widespread confusion between OE and ADHD. OE is actually a very positive thing to have, and not something that should be "corrected" - see Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration for more info. on that. - MovieQuest, on 05/25/2008, -1/+10Sometimes it takes a team to answer these questions. I worked with a child who would fake-swallow his meds, and so his "symptoms" never got any different. So the doctors would up his doses, up his doses - then he was caught fake-swallowing. This was taken care of, and he began taking his meds at the twice-upped dose. This caused him to be over-medicated. The parents didn't know any better, they just followed the whim of the doctors. His classroom teacher and I are the ones who figured it out.
- Dr0x, on 05/25/2008, -3/+12Ok this is kind of long I apologies, but this subject hits close to home for me, and I'm at work with nothing better to do (desk receptionist at dorms v.v).
I personally have ADHD, teachers suspected that I had it ever since I was in the 4th grade. It had even got to the point where some outside observer came into my class during 4th grade acting like a teachers aid to observe if I had ADHD (didn't actually find out the truth about that until last year). My parents were always really skeptical about being diagnosed with ADHD and wanted to make sure that if I was going to be diagnosed with it then I better actually have it, so they actually put a lot of time and effort into learning about ADHD and everything that could be done to help without the use of medication. Either way at the time I was not diagnosed with ADHD because I never showed any sign of hyperactivity. However, what was always extremely frustrating to my parents and teachers was that I always knew how to do whatever was being done in class, I just never could get myself to sit down and finish any of the work. To make things even worse I had already put my family through a lot of stress while I was growing up because I developed Social Anxiety Disorder (aka Social Phobia in the DSM IV TR) sometime around 2nd grade and It was always very hard for them to get me to school or anywhere that I was away from them or my home. As you can guess it was also easy to blame my poor school work on the fact that I was always anxious and feeling sick at school.
From 2nd grade until 6th grade I saw and worked with many therapists/psychologists in an attempt to find a way to deal with my social anxiety. None the less all forms of treatment seemed to make little difference and by 6th grade the only option left was to try SSRI's. The medication worked wonders for my anxiety and overall my life in general improved greatly. Sadly, from 6th grade until my sophomore year in high school my grades continued to sink, and finally after failing algebra 2 twice and Spanish my parents and teachers started talking and one of them brought up the possibility that I may have ADHD. At the time the idea of having ADHD had still never even crossed my mind, I in no way fit the stereotypical hyperactive trouble maker type which we are lead to believe kids with ADHD are. None the less I went to a cognitive psychologist and went through god knows how many hours of testing over an entire summer.
The results were shocking, not only was it clear that I had ADHD, I had a type of ADHD I have never even heard of known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - Predominantly Inattentive (ADHD-PI for short). I never even knew it was possible that someone could have ADHD and not be hyperactive, but in the end it made sense when the psychologist explained to me that there was a possibility that my social anxiety actually may have kept my hyperactivity in check in a way, which to me made lots of sense because even though I had anxiety issues I always enjoyed being around people (talk about a catch 22). Regardless, even though most psychologists tend not to like resorting to medication right away like many general practitioners/psychiatrists do he felt that given the situation that I had around a 2.4 GPA going into Junior year that it would be best to medicate while working on other types of coping.
Due to the whole experience even I cannot deny the help stimulants can provide people with ADHD. After I started taking them something weird happened, it wasn't just that I could concentrate better, but school actually became something I enjoyed. I ended up graduating high school with just over a 3.0 and got into DePaul University where I am currently sitting at a 3.5 GPA, made honor society my freshman year and my sophomore year I managed to make it onto the deans list. Ironically enough am working on a Degree in psychology. In the end even though I don't particularly like the idea that I got where I am today because of pills and that is something that I will always have nagging at me in the back of my mind, but because of the support system I have around me I can say that the treatment has provided me chances in life I would have never had if my parents and teachers never cared enough to say anything. I know there are a lot of skeptics out there, myself included, and honestly I can say most of the professors here i speak to that also work in clinics will also tell you they are very unhappy about the way ADHD is diagnosed. After doing some research on the subject it can be seen that a majority of the kids diagnosed are done so by general practitioners or pediatricians without giving the kid proper testing like a psychologist or psychiatrist would. Thankfully more practitioners have begun recommending people to professionals these days all though the new disorder everyone thinks they have is shifting over to bipolar for some reason. - DrMatt, on 05/25/2008, -0/+8What seems to be missing from all these stories is any use of therapy. How does anyone believe their cognitions/behaviors are going to change by meds alone? It seems we've fallen deep into the medical model of taking a pill to get something... the quick fix.
Don't get me wrong, I believe psychotropic meds are useful... in combination with therapy. Meds get you to a place to do good therapy so that you can then get off the meds.
(Hypnotherapist, 10 yrs - Psychotherapist, 6 yrs) - Dr0x, on 05/25/2008, -1/+9Sounds a lot like me, I wasn't diagnosed until after my sophomore year of high school. I agree with you though that ADHD is being over diagnosed and because I'm working on a degree in psychology I tend to do a lot of research on ADHD. From I've seen its mostly in young children who get are being over diagnosed. Many times because mommy or daddy doesn't know why their kid wont just sit still quietly and keep behaving like.....children.
- addingyears, on 05/25/2008, -0/+8First of all, I pay a $10 co-pay. so it's not really free.
Second, it's very easy to believe the whole thing is BS. I was diagnosed at 34 and still spend time wondering if I'm a lazy piece of crap who found a convenient excuse for being a failure.
I spent most of my life believing that I was just smart enough to realize how stupid I was. That feeling comes naturally when you flunk school for 12 years straight, have difficulty socializing because you have a hard time following the conversation, can't plan your way out of a paper bag, and always feel as if the rest of the world is about 12 seconds ahead of you.
So i was pretty shocked to learn, after being diagnosed with ADD and starting to take Adderall, that being normal isn't something that only happens to other people.
Stimulants don't make everything better. They aren't magic pills, and for the pill to work, you actually have to show up to work. But they helped me help myself to function as I always wished I could, but for some reason never would.
It hasn't changed everything in my life, and I was disappointed to realize that that is usually the case. And I still wonder if I'm just fooling myself. But being able to coherently form that thought is proof enough (to me) that adult ADD (following a childhood where being diagnosed would have helped me tremendously) has negatively impacted my life, and doing something about it has made it better.
(By the way, Adderall gives me the patience to babble on like I just did. Thanks for reading.) - explnx, on 04/27/2009, -1/+9Then do it, since you are so sure they have nothing wrong with them. If they are pretending you can pretend too. Go fake ADHD and get yourself some speed. It must be easy, right?
- MickJT, on 05/25/2008, -2/+9Is that because you have a short attention span?
- Infidelcastr0, on 05/25/2008, -1/+8Many people don't realize that while these drugs may help with grades they take a toll, As someone who was diagnosed with ADHD and medicated during childhood I HATE these medications, but more so I hate this culture where every little nuance to someones personality must be classified and categorized. When I was put on Ritalin my grades improved as did my "behavior", I became what my teacher referred to as a "model student". I prefer, "robot".
What many people don't seem to grasp is that these medications, for ADHD patient can be very dehumanizing, and can suppress ones personality, creativity, and desire to socialize. When I turned 18 the decision became mine, and in defiance to my parent's and doctor's wishes I immediately stopped the meds. It was the best decision I ever made, I quickly made friends, and my peers were taken aback when I would talk to them, saying that I never spoke to anybody. I even improved in certain classes (such as art) where I had teachers who let me cultivate my own abilities instead of trying to force conformity, while others were messing with clay I was teaching myself Photoshop, while others memorized names and dates in history class I would read about the geopolitical causes of WW2.
I look at the poor performance of ADD students not as their failure but a failure of the educational system, which treats everybody as though they were they same, which nobody is. Some people just learn differently and in a system that emphasizes conformity they are doomed to fail. I've learned far more by educating myself based upon my own interests than from any teacher, and my best teachers recognized this. As far as behavior goes there were certain teachers that I respected and listened to regardless of medication, for me respect is something that has to be earned, not simply deserved because you happen to be older than me and in a position of "authority", and the teachers that commanded respect got it, period. Perhaps some ADD people are different, and need medication, but after my experience I could never, in good conscience, force it upon a child. - Detritus, on 05/25/2008, -3/+10I have ADD, which is very much it's own "Disorder" when compared with the effects of ADHD. I believed a lot of the nonsense about how ADD/ADHD are over-diagnosed and assumed I just had a problem with concentrating. After being prescribed Adderall for a month I realized it was very real, but I came to this conclusion so late in life that it was impossible for me to adapt to a "Medicated Me".
I spent the whole month reading really dry stuff that I had wanted to read but could never keep focused long enough to get through. At the end I decided that although I was grateful for the opportunity that just wasn't Me. I had spent 26 years being ADD and was quite happy being "Scatter Brained" and a massively-multi-tasker. I don't recognize it as a Disorder to my life that needs treatment, it is just a part of me.
Just so I don't get labeled a Scientolgist: I do believe in medicating people with ADHD, as I've seen the benefits in others when their Hyperactivity is treated. Additionally, I found Cannabis to also have a beneficial effect on my attention span, but dosage is an important factor in this and is hard to regulate with differing qualities and quantities. Some days I'd find I could put myself in front of some science/technology literature and absorb everything, others I'd be too busy giggling and ***** around. Although to be fair; this combination of being well educated and having a proclivity for mischief has been amusing. It certainly beats being well educated and boring, or uneducated and impish. - Dubyman23, on 05/25/2008, -0/+7obviously you don't understand the reason adderall is a schedule II narcotic. It's a lot more serious a drug than most think. I personally had taken it since 4th grade (I'm now a Freshman in college.) And have been addicted to it once.
You say you don't understand the paranoia regarding the dependence on drugs. Think of it this way. You take a medication every day for 5 years and you are told that this drug is what's making you do well in school. Then you take the medicine away and you now think that you can't do well in school without it. - FuZi0nDET, on 05/25/2008, -1/+6As some one that still struggles with ADHD and has popped pills I feel that doctors aren't treating ADHD right. It's very easy to get the pills, I once told my doctor about my ADHD (previously diagnosed by psychologist,) and how it was really bothering me. He tossed out 3 or 4 medications, this guy wasn't a psychologist, just my normal physician. I was really surprised at how easy it was to get the pills, I've since taken myself off meds. It's really a trade off, deal with known/unknown side affects, or learn to cope with ADHD. For me personally fighting my ADHD daily minus the pills has helped to build my character and work ethic, which is one blessing to come from my ADHD.
- clynnc, on 05/25/2008, -1/+6I was diagnosed with ADHD in college, too. I took Adderall for about a year, and while it did help with some of my schoolwork, it seriously hurt me in some. My mind just felt dulled. I have always been a very artistic and creative person, and the medication made that aspect of my personality disappear. I finally just quit taking it, and learned other ways (through therapy) of dealing with the ADHD, and actually working it to my advantage.
- halicore, on 05/25/2008, -2/+7duh adderall helps you - its amphetamine
- mardybum, on 05/25/2008, -1/+6Wow that's the most ignorant comment I've read so far. First of all, hyperactivity =/= ADHD. That is just one type of ADHD. And personally I have ADHD Inattentive Type and have the best, most responsible, most disciplined parents you could ask for. As a child I was calm and well-mannered and got good grades. I am tired of this ridiculous stereotype that all kids with ADHD are just sugar-high kids who get bad grades and have careless parents.
- SeaweedWater, on 05/25/2008, -8/+12adult adhd = free ritalin
- chompysweat, on 05/25/2008, -1/+5Ever thought of going on Ritalin?
- inactive, on 05/25/2008, -0/+4It's amazing how much time it can take to figure out learning / social disorders. My son started medication for ADHD about 3 months ago. We had him tested for at all kinds of stuff including autism, and spoke with psychologists and met with the school MANY times and no one could nail down what the problem was. What was clear, was that everyone knew he "had something."
A family friend who found out their children had ADD told us their story. Sure enough, I got online and discovered my son was a direct match with most symptoms. We got help. Today, it isn't perfect but now we are all doing better with his medication. I say "we" because people may not realize the toll it takes on the rest of the family when this goes undiagnosed.
Thanks for sharing your story. It gives me some hope. - danz32, on 05/25/2008, -0/+4If you get to addicted to it, you can always take some Ritalout
- Ghoztt, on 05/25/2008, -1/+5Meditation > Drugs
- JrGhoull, on 05/25/2008, -0/+4i'm hyperactive...which is basically a low form of ADD. i dont take meds, as i dont like the idea of taking medicines in general (though i take them when i really need to) one thing that can help is exercise. providing you're not too out of control, tiring yourself out enough can make it so that u can get through the day. either that, or it'll give you too much energy and you'll feel like ur going to explode. either way this stuff can make ur life extremely difficult
- RandoTheKing, on 05/25/2008, -0/+4Being disagnosed at 5, I've taken over 4 different types if medicine for my ADD and saw a shrink for a 3 year period for having 'night terror' side effects. I've taken Ritalin, Aderall, and a few others. It's not that I was hyper, it was that I couldn't focus my attention long enough to learn something. I used Ritalin probably for 5 years, and it worked but it made me not eat. One very bad side effect was 'night terrors' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror I eventually grew out of them. My doctor switched me to Aderall when it first came out so I could take it once a day and not destroy my appetite. I've seemed to grow out of my dependence for the medicine since graduating high school. I work FT and go to college FT and have zero problems focusing on my work. I'm thankful for the medicine treatments.
- catachip, on 05/25/2008, -3/+6There is no evidence at all that eating sugar makes one "hyper". There is just as much sugar in a glass of orange juice as there is in a can of coke. That sugar myth perpetuated by parents to explain their child's behavior or as a means to discourage excessive consumption of junk food.
- Abomonog, on 05/25/2008, -0/+3I was one of the first diagnosed cases back in the 60's. Nothing, Ritalin, Adderal, and now Imipramine, has worked.
As with most other people with ADD/ADHD, weed appears to be the only solution that works without extreme side effects.
With me it's so bad that I can only do lengthy work in complete isolation. A necessity that I am not allowed at home or at work. Nor was I allowed it at school. In fact I lock my door whenever I so much as reply here or said reply may sit for a week unfinished. - Hangly, on 05/25/2008, -0/+3Caffeine helps, just like any stimulant. That is, if your nephew really does have ADHD.
- oneoverzero, on 05/25/2008, -0/+3Yeah, according to my doctor, the reason stimulants are prescribed isn't because of their stimulant properties, but because of a side effect that increases neurotransmitter production, or something along those lines.
- inactive, on 05/25/2008, -13/+16Prescribing Ritalian (Methylphenidate) and Adderall (mixed amphetamine salts) is child abuse. You wouldn't give your kids three cups of coffee in a row, nor would you give them a toot of cocaine or crystal-meth. But somehow it's ok to give your kid these drugs because there is a glossy spread in Red Circle bought and paid for by the drug companies....promising you peace and quiet, just like the time before you had your kid.
But you think it's perfectly ok to mess with a child's mind with powerful drugs....when all it takes for them to control themselves is: self control. Practice, maturity, experience, real stimulation of life and life acts. Try parenting.
You pharmaphiles can go choke on your pills and you parents have no idea what you are getting yourself into once your kid realizes what you did to their brains, assuming it is still functioning. - Ethek, on 05/25/2008, -1/+4Sugar is fine. Food preservatives invoke in my kid a very subtle food allergy. Pretty much any type of food dye will do it. Its very subtle but he will get a very subtle puffiness around the eyes, he'll want to chew on things because his tounge is slightly inflamed with (again very subtle) 'geographic tounge' and of course ADD like behavior. We are able to home school our kid and were only able to make the connection after logging activity, diet and behavior for a month. What we thought was a normal has revealed itself to be connected directly to food dyes and preservatives. Cutting this out is really only practicle if you prepare pretty much everything yourself, but It works for us without medicating our kid. Hes happier and less fustrated for it.
I hope the next time anyone looks at a study they remember who is funding it and for what purpose. The FDA or the Government is not our ally in this. They work with lobbiest and reps more than parents. They love to point out that 'sugar is fine' It is. The elephant is the room is the multi billion dollar industry behind getting food to stay on the shelves longer with a range of artificial additives. - Ethek, on 05/25/2008, -0/+3Of my two kids one has behavior of what you would call ADD. He is 'typical' of a larger segment of todays kids. At this point I would not call it a disorder but more a personality trait. If he were in public school he would be labeled and I am sure the teachers would make a push to have him medicated. Fortunately we are able to homeschool him
After carefully watching his behavior and tracking his activities environment and diet we determined he has FOOD allergies. Not to any type of food but to food ADDITIVES in general. He'll get a very slight puffiness around his eyes, he'll chew on things and suffer from what is called 'geographic tongue' Its all very subtle in the physically symptoms until you look at behavior. He can have sugar all day long and be fine. However if you give him a sucker with some red dye 40 or something you've got hours of ADD behavior to deal with. Look at the study that projected 90% of the food consumed in the US will be process and it makes a person wonder. - Infidelcastr0, on 05/25/2008, -0/+3That's awesome that the meds worked so well for you. If you don't mind my asking, Have you noticed any problems with side-effects? It seems like many people are indeed helped by these drugs. My grades did improve, but in my case, the medication came with so many awful simply side effects that I couldn't continue with them.
- Dr0x, on 05/25/2008, -0/+3No, then everyone will think I have OCD.
- thekassette, on 05/25/2008, -0/+3I was diagonsed with ADD (they hadn't included the H at that time; hyperactivity was just seen as part of the general disorder) as a child and wasn't given much sugar or caffiene at all.
That said, it's worth noting that the most popular medications for the disorder are, of course, stimulants. I know folks with ADHD who, if their prescription lapses, make do by downing as much coffee as possible. It's counterintuitive, but that's what works. - DatoeDakari, on 05/25/2008, -0/+3Kids were abusing it back when I was in school, 6-7 years ago; I think if it was going to become a bigger issue, it would've already.
- Helloween2008, on 05/25/2008, -1/+4Northwestern U runs on Adderall, i kid you not.
- BitKid, on 05/25/2008, -2/+5Kid with ADHD = free ritalin/adderal for mommy.
- bottlesandcans, on 05/25/2008, -0/+2I like it when kids go ballistic. Who are we to mess with other people's Karma. Let the kids take over.
- marmotman, on 05/25/2008, -1/+3Well personally I think that what I have is not a disease but more of a side-effect of how we live in toda- Oh a butterfly
- thumber, on 05/25/2008, -0/+2hehe exercise. na, they stopped my medication so i started useing base, meth etc and that led to everything else. i still have times now when im just so low. my memory is ruined and i look alot older for my age
- Dr0x, on 05/25/2008, -1/+3Na, its a psychological one or a biological one depending how you would rather look at it. Its not something that can be cured through only physical means. ADHD is something effects peoples mental processes, which may result in some sort of physical change in behavior. Although currently medication has shown the best results for treating ADHD it is by no means a cure. As far as I know behavioral therapy is shown to have some short term effects, and some types of cognitive therapy have also been helpful.
- inactive, on 05/25/2008, -5/+7Drug free FTW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkzytidhP1M - TalahRama, on 05/25/2008, -0/+2For some reason, I kind of expected everyone here to have ADD, as apparently evidenced by the comments.
- Dr0x, on 05/25/2008, -1/+3That's a interesting perspective. Points out the thing I enjoy most about psychology; the fact that everyone has their own ways of coping and thought process. Koodos to you for getting through 26 years on your own. Its clear that you were diagnosed some time ago because The terminology of ADD expired with the revision of the most current version of the DSM, but if you don't mind me asking how did you do in high school/college with ADHD?
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