Adult ADD

Well, while it did wonders for my self-esteem when my mom says I have messy handwriting because my brain's moving so fast, I haven't felt all that confident lately, because I DO feel as if I'm deficient. I do feel as if I'm messed up. I want to be like Lee, curing whatever ails me via lists and self-improved focus. And maybe I still will.

And I'm glad I grew up when I did, becaues there was never a mention of ADD or the concept of me taking a pill to focus better in school. It seems like folks, to borrow a phrase from Buckweaver, are using the readiness of these pills as a crutch. "Oh, Billy does poorly in science, give him a pill."

But still, when it gets to the point where my actual work suffers--not just my chores and my housekeeping abilities, but my work--I wonder if meds are the way to go, at least to see if it helps.

 

I should take it. I have a son on it, and it is amazing when he arises in the morning, his body cleared of the drug, how insane he is. We're talking ADHD.

 

That's a good point, leo. And I think I said something after that to the effect of ... the stigma of mental illness is something that still exists, too. And that's unfortunate.

It's easy to get freaked out by the age-old impression of the Mentally Ill getting thrown into the "loony bin" or an "asylum" with the rest of the freaks. We still have that characterization of mental illness in society, even now. So it's hard to get a lot of people to consider the possibility that they might have a serious mental illness, because who wants to be lumped in with the padded-room, strait-jacketed set? Who wants to get labeled with the Sylvia-Plath-primitive-electroshock-therapy-treatment group? Nobody. And for good reason.

But it's obvious from this thread that a lot of us have various emotional and mental issues that affect how we interact/work/live ... not all the time, necessarily, but consistently enough to where you can recognize how it affects you individually. Sometimes it's depression, sometimes it's ADD, sometimes it's ADHD, sometimes it's bi-polar, sometimes it's social anxiety ... sometimes, it's a combination. And if nothing else, that should show all of you that it's really a more common situation than you think -- there's a lot more people than just us who go through this -- so it's not something to be ashamed of or beat yourself up over. It's just part of life.

It's just ... something you have to deal with. And you have to find what works best for you, and keep trying when something doesn't work. If LJB can deal with his on his own, cold turkey-like, and get through it, more power to him. I haven't used any drugs for mine, but I've gone to therapy before and that helped. I know a lot of people for whom therapy didn't help at all. But I know some others who have had success with Prozac and Paxil and other such drugs, once they found the right dosage for them.

There's no quick fix for any of these situations, though, and sometimes it will never go away for good. But keep confronting it, keep attacking it, and you'll do yourself a world of wonder. Keep talking about it, as I'll keep harping on(!), but it really does help to know that there's others who face similar problems. But again, it's a common problem, it really is. And nothing to be ashamed of. That's something we can all have a part in changing. Life's hard, man, and sometimes it can be overwhelming ... but you're not alone.

 

buckweaver, good post. It wasn't all some Zen abstraction, mind-over-matter bullshit for me. I went to a grief group and I stayed busy. I would have been open to a light dosage but I was in a doctoral program and I was afraid of the side effects. This is never going to be like fixing a car and using a tried and true method for repair. The person knows what it's going to take for them to be happy/comfortable again in a way nobody else will. With this stuff, I think you have to try to place everything on its side first and inspect the broken or "deficient" parts on your own even if you decide to go a specific route.