Hi, I'm a 23 yr old intelligent grad student. However, I am struggling a great deal in school. I have difficulty listening to lectures, retaining information, studying notes, or reading for more than a few minutes without getting up and moving on to a new task or getting sleepy. This is honestly not even a conscious decision. It's almost as if I forget I was trying to study.



I have very high reading comprehension skills and language skills. This is not the problem. I know it is my ADHD (inattentive). I'm about to fail out of school because of this. I need to speak to my director about the fact that they may be asking me to leave, and will obviously have to give an explaination.



I don't know whether to mention ADHD directly or just describe the symptoms. She should pick up on it, as she's in the medical field, but may not. I think she tends to think that I'm either lazy, unmotivated, depressed, or anxious, leading to poor performance.



I never went through formal 6 hour testing like most kids because I only because aware of the problem a few years ago. Structural defects in my prefrontal cortex were measured using special instruments. I underwent biofeedback therapy for a while, but then seemed to max out it's benefits.



My primary care physician has prescibed me Adderall (horrrrible... caused major depression). My PA prescibed Straterra (mildly effective at first, lost it's zest, and sliiiightly depressing). None of these were done under formal testing, so my prof may not believe me because I don't have a certificate or whatever you get!



Right now I take Provigil for fatigue. Some people with ADHD are helped by this, for me, it simply keeps me awake.



I don't know if I want to just throw out the ADHD label or not. I'm not medicated right now. Possibly if I were things would improve. Right now I'm the classical underachiever (although not tooo bad, I have much much more potential than I'm able to access). She may just thinks it's a load of crap and that I need counseling, not medication, since I'm intelligent and a lot of people don't believe intelligent people who graduate from college could possibly have ADHD.



It's such a sensitive subject for me. I don't want to bring it up. But I also don't want to throw away the chance of being successful with proper treatment.

Howdy. Talk to you doctor ASAP. Go over every symptom. I'm in grad school too and I know what you are going through. I'm inattentive ADHD (big time). My wife is actually ADHD/Hyperactive and while getting her undergrad degree she discovered the university actually has a disability resource center and apparently most or all colleges do too. With a doctor's note explaining her conditions (since ADHD is a learning disablity and is protected by federal law) she then worked with the disability center and they assigned a note taker for her classes and she even made arrangements to take her exams in a private, quiet room, with extra alloted time, and unlimited breaks. It was a life saver for her.

Go back to your doctor and get some different meds. See your doctor since a PA cannot prescribe a CII medication although I maybe wrong since that is on a state by state basis. If Adderall (IR or XR?) wasn't good then try something else such as Ritalin or Focalin (improved cleaner form of Ritalin) or even Dexedrine (cleaner amphetamine than Adderall). Once you get a med that works with you then adjust the dosage that suits you best. Get a note and go to your school disability center. They will handle everything from there (any teachers, departments, dean have to accomidate anyone with a disability).

BTW, I was just diagnosed back in August and I'm 33. Good luck and keep us informed.

Jellybeanz - Just wondering [removed] My son has ADHD. My daughter was said to have ADD without the hyperactivity - she just seems not to be able to pay attention to things, forgets things, etc. But to the question: do you have other symptoms, or just the ADD? When I say other symptoms, I mean physical symptoms, like intermittant rashes, upset stomach, infections, etc.? If so, I might be able to give you a little more information that might be of help. Since I don't exactly know how this board works, you can email me if you like: [removed].

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I see that my posting already was applied to the board. Now I know that I can post only on the board, so if you care to reply to the above post, I will give you the information.

Is your daughter being regularly treated by a physician? If she is ADHD, a psychiatrist is fine, but she also need a pediatrician or family physician. The rashes and infection are definitely not related to ADHD in any way shape or form. She needs a thorough physical exam ASAP along with lab testing to look for anunderlying cause.

Jellybeanz,
I brought up my daughter, because two of my 3 "kids" (now 21 and 24) have had symptoms that, if you do a little research and are open to new things, will find can reach across the board - from headaches to ADD, to other types of things. It took me quite awhile to make connections to things that have happened from their childhood until now. If you look up Candida and leaky gut syndrome, you will find a lot of connected information. When my son was younger, I had him tested for food allergies (of which he tested positive for 9 of the 9 intradermal tests done). I personally could see the responses to the foods in day-to-day activity. But, I could not understand why a person would have so many sensitivities to foods - sometimes exciteability, sometimes moodiness, etc., depending upon the food. I read the books by Dr. Doris Rapp (now out of print and available only through used book sources), which refered to the culprit of food sensitivities, also mentioning certain physical symptoms many ADHD and ADD individuals often have in common (such as frequent infections as infants, trouble sleeping, sometimes rashes, allergies or asthma, exciteability, moodiness, stomach problems, etc.). In addition to the books by the above-mentioned author, after experiencing health issues with my daughter, including headaches and ADD without hyperactivity, I began reading about Candida. It makes connections to many illnesses, ADHD being one of them. My son is near graduation from college and has done well. He apparantly altered his diet, on his own. Perhaps medication will do the trick, for you, but if not, now you have something to investigate. By the way, the books I referred to were titled something like: Allergies and the Hyperactive Child, and a second one that I cannot remember the name of at this particular time. Good luck with your studies.

I see what you're saying. ADHD is a somewhat broad and vague term, akin to depression. I suppose my point was that ADHD caused by inherent structural or chemical deficits in the brain, present at birth, would not be related to the symptoms you described.

You mentioned "leaky gut syndrome", Candida, and food allergies. I wonder if technically, ADHD-like symptoms that can be traced to these disorders would disqualify someone from being classified as ADHD. (i.e. Syphilis can mimic schizophrenia-like symptoms, and therefore the patient cannot be diagnosed with schizophrenia. There may not be a clear answer to this question since ADHD research, theory, practice, and guidelines and fairly new in comparison to other mental health disorders.

Still, if you aren't currently encouraging your daughter to seek treatment for the physical symptoms, it would be wise to do so. It sounds like she definitely does have one or more chronic GI, allergic, or autoimmune conditions.