A Clinical Trial | ADHD Information
me too.i think i'll go for the sun option. aha maybe - that's why i'm in LA instead of freezing my butt off in London town....??
i don't get email replies to my posts so sometimes it takes me a while to notice that there has been a new post on the topic --- just splaining in case this seems kinda late to respond??
1 hr. daily is also good and helps make vitamin D. i'm too unfit to do aerobics.. i think i would die from a cardiac arrest
having said that, i try to get at least 20 mins of sun per day.. always makes me feel better.. no doubt that my skin will regret it when i am in my 40s...
ADD, for me, can be a form of laziness on some levels...
to be constantly alert to your life. to be constantly steering the ship - constantly altering even tiny details that don't suit and affecting change to avoid them. constant scanning. it is constant awareness
rather than sitting back in the boat, looking at the sky and letting it take you where it will.... in my case to a stagnant by-water and then getting frustrated because you see everyone else on the river moving on and you want to be there --- but blooming well don't think to pick up an oar (either because someone has always steered the boat for you or because you don't understand that you can steer the boat, having always drifted on the current so are at a loss as to why the movement stopped or how to start it again)
there is a huge element of that for me. it is not physical laziness it is 'responsibility laziness'...
to be constantly directing one's life. no rest for the wicked, eh....
my brain seems to be pre-wired to be more fatalistic. but self-discipline can help i would like to learn that but (again) don't know how/where to start.....
hopeless!
still it will work out i guess, somehow, somewhere.
(gotta go, as i said - no rest for the wicked) and ain't it just the perfect day to be wicked....
witches unite! "when shall we three meet again? in thunder, lightning or in rain?"
or on santa monica boulevard - perhaps???
chjones38656.5617708333
Chjones - I like how you put it "fatalistic". Thats a LOT of what makes us with ADHD put the brakes on improvement. That little chattering voice in our brains hardly ever has nice things to say. Typically it's "why bother? you'll just fudge it up anyhow!" or the like.
And for depression - many time its so true that you can validly feel depressed about things when they are depressing!! There truly are times in everyone's life when it is more than justified to feel sad about things. True "depression" is when things should feel good but you can't do it. Many times people with crappy lives take anti-depressants to avoid feeling anything about where they are at in life. I don't blame them - but it's a whole different thing when someone with good spouse, great kids and a wonderful life spends all day in bed and just can't get it together.
I've spoken to a lot of people who tell me they are depressed. I say "of COURSE you are - if you weren't with the way things are I'd be worried!". The meds can help them make it through - and that's ok too.
Thankfully - my depressed thoughts all disappeared with the first day of ADHD meds. I was validly sad when things never seemed to change. That's depressing in and of itself. For those who haven't found that wellspring of hope I have - then the meds for that are beneficial and probably most needed!!
It's so upsetting when someone comes along and says "just buck up - go jogging!" to someone who can't get dressed and go to work let alone put on track pants for a quick run around the neighborhood. Of COURSE exercise would help - are they going to personally go and cheer up these folks long enough for the jogging/whatever to begin??
Jonesy - you are never lazy - I don't see that. It's our ADHD minds - it tells us "well you KNOW how the status quo works - why on earth try something scary like change?". We agree with that mindset - it's anxiety ridden to change. It's even harder when loved ones say the same thing about us being lazy, we read here how we're full of it and just need to get a backbone. Makes me ever so angry.
We'll cheer you on girl. I know I will for sure!! Things WILL change for you - everything changes whether we like it or not.
Big smiles from me to you . I'd stay and help more - but work is coming up soon and I'll try to cheer you up again after work.
It's all going to be ok - you'll see.
i do think for me, situational depression, (ie not those huge lows that come out of nowhere and knock for your six when you were absolutely fine the day before) is ALL to do with managing change. or rather 'not managing change'.
i posted somewhere before about a friend of mine who was living in a shared house and a new person moved in whom he didn't get on well with. and it took him two weeks to look for a new place, find it, move in, continue on happily with his life.
my reaction would have been to stay, think it will get better, blame myself for not liking this person, think it was because i was rubbish, begin to resent the person, not want to go home, get depressed, let that affect other areas of my life, not realise why this was going on, get into a spiral, see less people because i was feeling down........ etc. etc.
situational depression is because of a situation. and with those mormon women on anti-d's forget medicating yourself so you can put up with an unhealthy situation by numbing yourself for crying out loud. no, face it head on and change it the MOMENT you even have an inclination that this is something you don't like, like my friend.
i would've said two weeks isn't long enough - you might end up really liking him. WRONG ATTITUDE if something feels wrong, change it as soon as you possibly can then YOU will feel in control of your life rather than life in control of you.
i say this, not because i do it, but because i want to be able to do it. there are an awful lot of dysfunctional problems between me and my mother - i should change it but i am a. afraid to and b. not quite sure how to ---- probably because i am looking at it all in the wrong way.
if i use the previous housemate analogy as an example of my mother/daughter dysfunction (and btw i love my mother an awful lot and she does me too) --- i would be looking into ways to solve the problem by learning to live with my housemate, trying not to get fussed when they did X that pissed me off
rather than the obvious "move out" stupidhead!
so simple, so obvious to non-ADDers. so straightforward for normals who are in control of their lives and not so fearful ----
equally my brilliant brother-in-laws sister had a great job, got a new boss and it took her two months before she was in an alternative, even better job. CHANGE.
it is what i am SO bad at. taking hold of the reins of my life. taking responsibility for my life rather than just enduring. i am a phenomenal 'endurer' would put up with almost anything that be arsed to get off my backside and create change.
it is probably the thing i find hardest in life. to take responsibility for my own happiness, for the direction of my life, for my life.
i find it SO hard.
chjones38656.4573032407Chuckles, I think there's a difference here. Many people diagnosed with depression arent' quite at the unable to function level. I feel that if you can avoid medication or do something to increase it's potential benefits then it should be looked at.
I have ADD, but I also a little bipolar and have taken anti-depressants to help control it. Even taking medication (I take a very low dose anti-depressant) I find that regular exercise keeps me far more stable (enough that my employer comments on it) than just the medication alone.
I would say that exercise for anyone is tough if they're not used to it, depressed or not. A large part of the trick is finding a way to keep people motivated. I've been working on this myself, instead of telling myself i'll do 30 minutes practice every day I tell myself to do 2 minutes practice every day. That way i always have time to do it, never feel its a real issue and many days find myself practicing for hours.
I think a reliance on medications over personal responsibility (ie, getting up off your ass and doing something) can never be a good thing. While clinical depression *is* undoubtably a chemical inbalance, there are things that can be done outside of medication therapy, or alongside it, to help someone heal. I simply cannot buy into the 'poor me, medicate me well' attitude that I see some of my friends take (like the girl on year 4 of anti-depressants who has finally kicked herself in the ass and is taking measures to change her life for the better)
This of course makes perfect sense and I actually can't believe there needs to be a study about this. The problem though, "reality"....is the "reality" of expecting a clinically depressed person to begin an exercise program on their own and without the help of a medication to control their symptoms. Have you ever met and interacted with a clinically depressed person or a person who has just attempted suicide? Sometimes the very, very severely depressed people cannot even bring themselves to commit suicide, they just don't have the energy...it is called failure to thrive. They waste away, day in and day out, not eating, not taking care of themselves, waiting to die.....doesn't sound like someone who can be motivated to start an exercise program, does it? They can't get out of bed to even take a shower, but they are going to get up and go for a walk? I guess I am not suprised that you would post something so easy....think about it for awhile, "reality".
Shape Magazine, April 2001
Regular aerobic workouts help clinically depressed
people at least as much as the antidepressant drug
Zoloft, a study at Duke University Medical Center in
Durham, N.C. found. There, 133 men and women with
major depression either exercised aerobically for 30
minutes three times a week, took Zoloft or did both.
After four months, exercise worked as well as either
Zoloft alone or the combination. After 10 months, the
exercisers were half as likely as the others to be
diagnosed with depression. Researchers believe the
mood-elevating results of exercise may be due to the
sense of self-control, mastery and accomplishment it
imparts.
Julie Walsh
She's so worn out by the ordeal that even though she knows what she should do she isnt able to do it. (its tough to sit and watch this happen every day)
It's pretty frustrating all around. I'm very close to making the anonymous phone call myself. The physical toll on her has been unbelievable.
It's my understanding of clinical depression, that in this sort of long term situational depression the brain can become confused and start pumping out the mental chemicals that cause depression after things change, necessitating further treatment (at least, that was how they explained my exes depression).
vent vent blah blah blah vent vent.