Adult ADD

Adderall, as I'm sure 21 is quite aware, is an amphetamine. Those feelings, the drive, the focus, and the need to do the tasks completely, are the reason that it was so prevalent in MLB.

Think about the MLB player having a day game after a night game. It isn't the normal routine or schedule. The body is feeling a little sore. There is just less effort there to put forward.

Pop one of those in and suddenly that next day's game is in full focus.

 

My doctor sees quite a few pro athletes, and he told me they are lining up for ADD prescriptions. No kidding. I think if I concentrated enough, I could see through a brick wall right now.

But I really don't think I can stay with this. I am taking a dose prescribed for children who weigh slightly less than I do, and I feel completely wacky. Can't sleep, can't eat. I just do tasks. I am searching for tasks. I HATE tasks. I probably need to take this stuff long enough to clean out all the closets, and then go back to my irresponsible self.

This is the weird thing about these meds: it's all a guess. You have to figure out by trial and error what your dosage should be, and you have to decide for yourself if it's working. If you genuinely have ADD, it works. If you don't, you probably don't tolerate the meds the same way. Not sure where I fall into this picture. But I can't stop talking and I can't stop typing and that concerns me. Plus Boom is away, and he would be the best judge of observing whether I'm being helped or damaged.

 

If they help you see things so much more clearly now, are you going to begin voting Democrat? ;D

 

My wife thinks I have ADD but I think she's oh look, a chicken!

 

Holy crap, 21, you have just accidentally stumbled onto the secret of life: "Clean the closets, then quit."

Or is that the Third Secret of Fatima and not the secret of life?

Damn it, damn it, damn, it ... I hate it when I get confused.

Oops, gotta go file another story. And wash the car. And then workout. Later ... 

 

My entire family slaved for the Daley machine. I have no choice.

However, since I will never be the kind of domestic partner who can organize Boom's sock drawer and put all the photos in numbered and dated albums, the least I can do is stay out of his way politically.

 

Ah ... the dangerous assumption that all couples must think exactly alike bites me in the you-know-where.

 

Well, we're probably not going to agree. I understand it's a case-by-case basis, but it's a chemical discrepancy and that's the common base. You're misreading me. I'm not taking a Tom Cruise tack with this, I am saying the biggest fear of all can be a feeling of captivity and subservience to "the disease." I don't know about you, but I would rather first try to dope out the problem on my own in my mind -- where the problem resides and takes mail -- than walk around with minor palpitations from being on a low-grade amphetamine. That can't be a good solution to anything. It could be as simple as a change of diet. It could be making lists. Whatever it takes. Just as the problem is unique to everyone, so is its solution.

I had severe anxiety after a few unexpected deaths in my family a few years ago and I was able to find a solution independent of prescription medication. I was involved with something where I needed my mind to be sharp and was afraid of medication. I researched the problem and I readjusted my way of thinking, the way I choose to process life and process problems every day. How I react to bad shit. Etcetera. Further, I took on a project with a long-term committment and objective. I immersed myself in something new. That was the medicine I really needed. That's not going to work for everyone. But it worked for me. That's all I'm saying.

 

I'm a little troubled that buckweaver called ADD a 'mental illness'....although I can tell from a lot of the posts and wonderful PMs that a lot of people seem to view it that way.

I see no 'illness'aspect here. I just see it as a different way of thinking...not a deficiency at all, despite the 'Attention Deficit" title. In fact, I sometimes thought I was just too 'smart,' that my brain thought faster than the rest of me could keep up with it. Forgive the arrogance of that, but that's what it feels like. Never once have I wondered if I was messed up or deficient in any way.

I tend to agree with LJB, in a way: in the end, I'll probably go back to my chaotic mind and leave the drugs alone. I think it's different for children, who have to sit in school and perform specific tasks for a grade and reach certain expectations and compete against others--if you can help a kid get better grades, and raise his/her self-esteem, and allow them to 'fit in' with other kids, that is not a bad thing. You're probably doing them a disservice by forcing them to go it alone.

 

Perhaps I was wrong to throw ADD in with the others. This thread evolved into being about more than just ADD, though -- including social anxiety and depression, which are real mental illnesses, not just "a different way of thinking" -- and that's what I meant.

I was just speaking of mental illness, in general, which is not an "illness" or a "deficiency" or "messed up" at all. That's a social stigma that should have stayed in the 20th century. Whether ADD is among those others is a matter of perspective and opinion, but I wasn't trying to demean the condition by calling it a mental illness.

Personally, I don't have any experience with ADD, or the drugs commonly prescribed for it, so I don't know enough about that aspect of it. I agree with LJB, too: I think more people should leave the drugs alone, and try to deal with the root of the problem first. If drugs can help, great. But they shouldn't be used as a crutch or a "quick fix."

 

I saw my mother and sister on Zoloft, and that was really all I needed to see to make my judgments about prescription medication. My sister went from about 105 to 135 in about a year and a half. She was working on an advanced degree in a scientific field and it fucked up her focus. My mother was so out of it. Just a completely different person. It made her really dopey and she's not like that at all. So I made my mind up. Not for me. I will choose to see this world as it is, my problems as they are and through my own eyes.

Anyway, yeah, I'm getting away from the main topic of ADD so I'll duck out here. Good luck to everyone. You'll make it.

 

a lot of people have trouble with this categorization. i think people are too quick to think 'mental illness' means 'insanity' but it's obviously not true. depression is a mental illness. so is multiple personality disorder. look at it this way: you can't claim you're not guilty by reason of insanity if you have depression or ADD or anxiety, but you can use that defense if you are insane.