have the medicine helped you?

[Captain_Rit]

This is for all of you with ADHD who have (even if after much tweeking with it) had benefits with the medicine you are on.    there are so many people out there who say the medicinces we take are faulty and that unfortunately ADHD isn't a real disease at all.    Please tell your expieriences with ADHD and the medicine so that they can see that the disease and the medicinal affects are real and positive.

[TiggerGrrr]

Thanks man. You told my story.

[cauchy]

I will obsess over things, I can't even take a bath without getting distracted and sitting there for sometimes up to 30 minuets at a time without even realizing it. Homework was increadable difficult, I would sit there and read a few lines, and even though I was reading, I was thinking about something else. The words went through my  mind, but did not enter my active thought process, instead I would be repeating a 30 second coversation I had with my math teacher over and over, imagining how I could have said things differently. I come home and the days events play over and over, sometimes it is painful, sometimes I enjoy it. As a kid, I had such a great imagination, I could be anyone, be anywhere, do anything, all in my mind. Increadable adventures, wonderful things, a whole group of imaginary friends, why would I want to do homework when I could be flying on a unicorn through outerspace visiting other dimensions. And so that is what I would do. Daydream. Saturday detention? this is punishment? Yeah right, I loved it.

I made failing grades, they thought I was retarted. They gave me an IQ test and I scored way above average, they didn't know what to do. They put me in special education where I didn't learn anything at all, I fell years behind my peers. I loved science, I read about it all the time. I thought I would be a scientist, but I couldn't make passing grades, so I thought my dreams would never come true. I became extreamly depressed. I didn't care if I lived or died. I felt worthless. The only way to escape was into my fantsy reality. I got into drugs, I dropped ot of school, I got put in jail, but still I loved science. I was obesssed with physics and the universe.

I started taking amphetamines like ritalin. I didn't like the way it made me feel. I wouldn't take it consistently. Finally after being in jail, I went back to school. I started taking adderall. Once I had made the decision to change my life, I took my meds consitantly, and I went from F's to A's. I am not lying, I made almost straight A's after that. I didn't make one C after that. In college I ran into hard times and couldn't take my meds any more. It wan't easy, but I had the determination to still make it through. However, something that would take an average person a few minuets would take me gruling hours and hours, as my thoughts would drift and I could only focus for a few minuets at a time; however, on physics tests, I would just blow every one else away. I would make an 90 something when the next hightest grade was a 50 something. It was a struggle, but I made it. I became an engineer and started taking my meds again. Now I can read a scientific paper in a few hours when before It would take me weeks, if I finshed (which I rarley did).

[TiggerGrrr]

LMAO the cool thing is I can see a more consistent and stable future and laugh at opinions others have which hold no experience. I don't know how badley it feels to have a baby but i can see that it hurts like hell.

[psychdoc551]

Me too, tigger. A true blessing.  The only folks who claim that ADHD is not a "real" disorder are those who do not have it.  They have no clue what it means to live with it, and can therefore never understand what a blessing it is to have a treatment for it.  

When people say that ADHD is a disorder invented by pharmaceutical companies, or that everyone has it, It is kind of like telling a woman that PMS is all in her head.  

[TiggerGrrr]

Dear Jennifer,

I am a 42 year old male. I can tell you it has been subtle and sometimes intense suffering for years with ADHD. It's a miracle I have a college degree.I retook at least 25 hrs. of classes. The condition makes the individual appear to be inconsistent and self absorbed. My life was unmanagible to say the least. Many failures. I started taking serequel about 6 months ago because of a second in 3 years bout with depression. Feeling better after a few months, I told my doctor I still felt a little spaced out. She prescribed adderall. People with ADHD like myself who take a stimulant like this get a reverse effect. I am now for the first time in 42 years able to stay on task without having to be interacting with something like a guitar or golf clubs which I am highly accomplished in both. I use to alway have to be working with a tangible object to stay focused and sometimes that became difficult. Everyone in my family and also my friends can tell a difference. This medication is not for everyone but I can tell you it has been a blessing for me.

With warmest regards,

Tigger

[Jennifer375]

yeah,,, once again half truths,,, if you actually LOOK for yourself at the graph curves regarding deaths and injuries from polio, what you'll obvoisely be shocked to find is that polio was already STRONGLY on the decline years before the vaccine was introduced. The whole 'erradication' was blamed on the vaccine though wasnt it? Interesting how all the sudden we are seeing a re-emergence of diseases like measles and mumps in college studens, people who were vaccinated as children!!

Its a load of balogny,, and captain, your comments were just uncalled for and cruel, Ill not honor them with a response.

[Captain_Rit]

add and adhd is not something new it has been around since the beginning of humans like all mental disorders.    if you wanna say things like that that we should treat our children naturally and go natures route we should have let you die.   survival of the fittest.    thats the species survives.    

[Jennifer375]

yeah,  I have. Lets say just for once look at US (humans) as a species... how did we as a species raise our young before the last 100 years or so?

1. we nursed (not much of that going on nowdays) with real milk from mother

2. we held our babies.. we've been told NOT to do that for the last 100 years or so my psycholists,, it 'spoils' them we are told

3. we are told to work instead of staying with our babies caring for them , financially we must

4. we are encouraged to dump them into daycares or schools from under a year on so that we can work.......

5. when they dont act the way we expect them to, give them pharmacudicals...

where did we go wrong?

[Captain_Rit]

have you ever thought that you WANT it to be entirely our fault? or our parents fault?

[Captain_Rit]

in OUR country adhd is treated with both.    look at the brain scans of children with adhd and tell me there isnt a noticible difference.    look at the MRI's and the FMRI's and tell me  its a weakness of will.   tell that to someone with bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia tell them to control it and that its all their fault.    and by the way the definition of disease isan impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning.    i think adhd fits that criteria.

[Jennifer375]

adhd may be a deficency,, but its not a disease..... a disease threatens the life.. being irritated by your child is not deadly unless you hurt them as a consiquence of their behavior. In that instance its YOUR issue though , not his/hers. Did it ever occur to you that MABEY just Mabey its the kids teachers who have the issue insteadd of your child? MABEY the typical schools program, the way they teach thats the problem instead? Mabey?

In several other countries add and adhd are not being treated with pills but rather with behavior therapy and by changing the way they are taught... our country could learn alot from this......