On another thread,
[url]http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=576147[/url]
janewhite1 says:
Quote:
Oh, yeah. There were so many things I didn't do until my parents screamed at me for a while. A logical person says, "You know you're gonna get yelled at, then wind up doing it anyway, why not do it first?"
What the ADD child may not realize is that he WAS NOT ABLE to do the task before being yelled at! The yelling frightens the child, which releases stress hormones, which have about the same effect on the brain as Ritalin. Course, Ritalin doesn't usually make kids cry first.
Come to think of it, that's probably the best pro-medication argument I've ever heard. It beats many people's alternative, which is self-medication with adrenaline.
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I've never thought of my melt-downs as my brain's attempt to find a solution -- I've always just thought of them as failures. I mean, I'm not advocating having tantrums and freaking out everyone around me as an ideal solution.
And I certainly recognize that freaking out when I'm faced with too many choices or I'm being asked to deal with life "on the fly" is not a very effective method of getting anything done in life.
But it's refreshing to look at the melt-downs as a (admittedly poor)
solution that my brain has discovered to deal with things that are too much to handle. By generating adrenaline, I either shut down from the over-load and retreat from life for a while, or I grab one activity out of the chaos and focus on it, all the while ranting and panicing and generally making life miserable for myself and all around me.
It's a learned response. For a long time it was the only method that I had. My parents didn't teach me any other methods to deal with life. I'm pretty sure my father had ADD, and he definitely didn't have any healthy coping skills to teach me.
So here I am in middle age, slowly learning alternative ways to deal with things, while taking low dosages of (generic) Ritalin. This post by janewhite1 is another piece of the puzzle. Stimulants help. A lot. Having a tantrum or a melt-down produces adrenaline. How many times have I said that I work best with a deadline, and it's a lot easier to get something done when I'm panicing trying to get it done at the last minute!
Strong tea calms me and helps me to focus. I limit myself to 2 strong large mugs a day, because I don't want to have to deal with the physical side-effects of overdosing on caffeine. So it's of limited help over the course of a day.
People keep saying that regular hard exercise helps. I avoid exercise like the plague. But if it helps as an alternative to having tantrums and melt-downs, then perhaps it is better to substitute a healthy habit for an unhealthy one, no?
Just some thoughts. Any responses? What other methods are there for producing adrenaline?
--Rheanna
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