Adult ADD & Fatigue - ADD / ADHD Message Board

exhausted · 05-09-2002, 02:01 PM

I am 30 years old and I was diagnosed with ADD over a year ago. Initially, I went to the doctor for severe fatigue, which I had had for 5 years. I went to a family doctor, a sleep doctor, and I got nowhere. Finally after MANY tests, my doctor told me she thought I had ADD.

I have read as much as possible about ADD, but I see very little people mentioning the fatigue. This is my #1 symptom. I can hardly make it without medicine. I am also having trouble with medicine. I am switching often, because it seems they quite working. I have been on Ritalin & Adderall. Adderall seems to work best for me. All generics are horrible.

ANyone else have bad fatigue as their major symptom?

Thanks.

mlgable · 05-10-2002, 06:37 AM

I cannot say much about fatigue but my son has definate ADD and he was the baby that would sleep for 2 naps every day for a couple hours at a time. They do mention my son "looking" like he is so sleepy mid morning at school and this was a concern as far as his teachers felt but a physical showed no specfic problems. A good breakfast didn't seem to make any difference as the report of looking sleepy was still there at conference time. This could possibly be the fatigue that you speak of. My best suggestion is to take a good multivitamin supplement daily as well as an antioxidant supplement. Also you may want to be sure you eat a snack that is high in protein mid morning, mid afternoon, and before bedtime in case your blood sugar is getting low at these times causing you to feel fatigued. A good snack would be peanut butter on soda crackers or cheese and crackers or maybe some yogart etc. If you feel more fatigued at certain times of the day you may want to see if you can borrow someones glucometer and check your blood sugar at these times of the day or when these spells happen just to see what your blood sugar is. Normal reading should be between 70-110. This is one possibility I discussed with my sons doctor but as he said unless we specifically test his BS at the times the teachers feel he looks tired we will never really know if that is the cause. Good Luck.

Markie Mark · 05-13-2002, 07:37 AM

I suffered from fatigue before I was diaganosed with ADD at age 38. I am now 46. It seamed like I could get to sleep fine but I wasn't sleeping well all night. At first I use to take an antihisimine (not the no drousy type) Then I found out about Melitonin, your brains own sleeping hormone, that you can buy over the counter. I currently take 4mg. I have done some reading on long term use and have found there is no problem in taking it for years. they have also found that it is a great antioxidant. hope this helps.

cameron82 · 06-09-2002, 09:23 PM

I am 21 years old and was diagnosed with ADD when I was 16. One of the major symptoms I have is fatigue. Often times I wake up in the morning and I can't wait for my first dose of 10 MG adderall to kick in. it often feels like its hard to accomplish tasks because i'm too tired in my mind and/or in my body. i'm currently switching meds to concerta because i've heard good things about it. anyway, you're not alone in the fatigue department.