suspect daughter and self is ADD Inattentive - ADD / ADHD Message Board

mouse62 · 07-07-2004, 10:26 AM

I am new to this topic 'cause ADD is something I have NOT been diagnosed with. Yet it seems to be the missing piece of my life puzzle.

I was the top student in class through grade school and high school. I was not physically hyperactive but spent 90% of time in highly developed fantasy world. I don't know if that means ADD.

College, requiring more actual concentrated work and team work than did prior education, was more difficult for me but I still graduated with a 3.0 GPA. My main problem was deciding on a major, and it is telling that I picked journalism because it seemed to allow for a lot of jumping around in different subjects.

I always had a messy room. But not too bad at losing things or keeping schedule . . .

My problem now is concentration. My complete LACK of it. I need to be able to spend hours every day on a single project and I can't for the life of me do it. I jump up every ten minutes for air!

Also telling -- I know I have the brains and ability to be a freelance writer, but I can't get started. This is 20 years after college graduation.

Now for my daughter -- honor student, extremely imaginative and friendly. But she will forget what you told her to do in one minute. She takes forever getting dressed, is distracted every second by her stuffed animal or something. She talks from the time she wakes up until sleep time about all sorts of subjects. She fidgets a lot.

I know you will say we will have to be tested. I just wonder if any of you had an "AHA!" moment where you knew it was ADD. I am also a recovering addict and have gone in and out of depression/anxiety for about 15 years now. Other diagnosis don't fit as well, such as bi-polar. (Although I can't stick to a budget for too long, I never have gone off on a true manic spree)

If getting on an ADD medication would help me stick to my job with very little side effects, then I am willing to be tested for this. As for my daughter, I'd like to know just so her father, who is definitely not ADD, stops losing his patience with her.

apinecone · 07-07-2004, 10:46 PM

Your story resonates with me in several ways: at various times of your and your daughter's lives and my and my sons'. The apparently contradictory extremes of AD[H]D, like those of BPD, OCD, and ASD, are somewhat confusing, but that's what they are: apparently contradictory extremes existing in the same brain. [I have PANDAS, which has affective-behaviors in all the "D"'s, with some PT[S[D]] thrown in for 'good' measure, so I'm like an XDmutt!]

In the case of AD[H]D, Hallowell causes it "Driven to Distraction", in that a biochemical imbalance induces a tendency to an extreme, which is then opposed by auto-balancing forces [could be meds or other co- or sub- disordered reactions], which get into sometimes very confusing behaviors to Dx/Tx/Rx; plus, they are quite 'personalized', thus requiring special care in all of the x's.

These imbalances are by definition unstable, and can vacillate and have various longer-term behavioral consequences that are characteristic of the 'pure' disorder but can also be somewhat overlapping with symptoms of co- or affective- disorders, typically depressive behavior in the case of ADD, corresponding to the 'inattentive' part, and 'hyperactive' [thinking and/or acting], corresponding to manic and obsessive behaviors, in BPD and OCD, respectively.

But, for levity's sake if nothing else, look at it as a 'packrat' analogy: a packrat pack[rat]s a bit at a time, but is always packratting, impulsively scurrying around to and fro to get packrat pack stuff who-knows-where-but-it'll-know-it-when-it-sees-it, and so quite naturally, its house looks like a packrat lives there, and thus, yep! it's a 'packrat', all right!

And it wouldn't surprise me that it might never occur to the packrat that there's something wrong with the packrat, since the packrat is a packrat; or why the thought of the packrat itself cleaning up the packrat's own house would seem somewhat depressing-- ie heavily inertial!-- or that the packrat, like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, would always be in a hurry, and late, knowing there's many places to go to, but not being able to get to any one of them and always getting distracted. And why meds might not alter the fundamental behavior [deeply ingrained? genetic? duh?] of the packrat and might not even make the packrat feel 'better' but might make things worse, certainly help get the packrat depressed!

Yea! And what's the story with this being a "disorder" anyway? Who do these "non-'packrats'" think they are, anyway? [So-called "ASpies" call such folks, "NT"'s

, but, then they're ASpies, so what would you expect? [Just kidding/ sik humor, unfortunately; please don't hold it against me-- I have many psychological "disorders"!

]

Anyway...

Nice to hear from you! Please hang in there!

brainf0g · 07-08-2004, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mouse62

I am new to this topic 'cause ADD is something I have NOT been diagnosed with. Yet it seems to be the missing piece of my life puzzle.

I was the top student in class through grade school and high school. I was not physically hyperactive but spent 90% of time in highly developed fantasy world. I don't know if that means ADD.

College, requiring more actual concentrated work and team work than did prior education, was more difficult for me but I still graduated with a 3.0 GPA. My main problem was deciding on a major, and it is telling that I picked journalism because it seemed to allow for a lot of jumping around in different subjects.

I always had a messy room. But not too bad at losing things or keeping schedule . . .

My problem now is concentration. My complete LACK of it. I need to be able to spend hours every day on a single project and I can't for the life of me do it. I jump up every ten minutes for air!

Also telling -- I know I have the brains and ability to be a freelance writer, but I can't get started. This is 20 years after college graduation.

Now for my daughter -- honor student, extremely imaginative and friendly. But she will forget what you told her to do in one minute. She takes forever getting dressed, is distracted every second by her stuffed animal or something. She talks from the time she wakes up until sleep time about all sorts of subjects. She fidgets a lot.

I know you will say we will have to be tested. I just wonder if any of you had an "AHA!" moment where you knew it was ADD. I am also a recovering addict and have gone in and out of depression/anxiety for about 15 years now. Other diagnosis don't fit as well, such as bi-polar. (Although I can't stick to a budget for too long, I never have gone off on a true manic spree)

If getting on an ADD medication would help me stick to my job with very little side effects, then I am willing to be tested for this. As for my daughter, I'd like to know just so her father, who is definitely not ADD, stops losing his patience with her.

Yes all of those symptoms are definitely textbook inattentive ADD.

If you want that "ah-ha!" feeling, read "Healing ADD" By Dr. Daniel Amen, and "Driven to Distraction". If you truly have AD/HD, you'll have the "yep that's me" about 1/4 of the way through Healing ADD or Driven to Distraction.

mouse62 · 07-08-2004, 07:13 AM

thank you, I will check out the books