I’m not alone!! | ADHD Information

'I was diagnosed with Adult onset ADHD.' Mommymedic

From what I understand You have always been ADHD. It just hadn't
affected your life till later. What I'm trying to say is ADHD starts from
birth or at least in childhood.....

Welcome to the board!I was also dx bipolar and was prescribed Lamictal as a mood stabilizer and wellbutrin.  I had a hard time believing I have been manic for the last 2 years !!!! I have now started adderral (today is only my second day) but still will stay on wellbutrin. I hope it this combo will make a differenceMy father and now my sister have been told they are bi-polar and I've been diagnosed with depression and now AD/HD. I too took one of those check off lists and then my DR. decided to check me out and 'yes' I have AD/HD. But DR.s don't have all the answers not after all the horror stories out there. We must know ourselves and be sensitive to who we are.

Do you think that after having your son that you experinced depression like some women do becuase it happened to my wife.

yes- please more white space.

got told i was bi-polar, that i was depressed etc. the thing about bi-polar was noone could point to any real 'mania'.

i either felt terrible- moody, down, sad... or i felt o.k., normal. but i was always kind of flaky.

after all those years struggling with impulses and behaviours i couldn't explain, yeah i was depressed!

those online tests were very helpful.

this forum has made a world of difference for me. i keep reading my story posted by others.

[QUOTE=MommyMedic]

I have spent the past 6 years being told by multiple physicians that I was bi-polar.  The miracle diagnosis!  Seems like that is the new thing.  Once you tell a physician that someone in your family is bi-polar, thats all it wrote.  

[/QUOTE]

Same exact thing for me. Finally I found a pchyritist that was smart enough to know the difference and to screen for ADHD instead of handing out  mood stabilizers and anti depressants.  I just joined yesterday and it's a breath of fresh air!

Mommy our stories sound very very similar.  Things started falling apart for me after I had kids.  Prior to children I was on the hyper-aware side of ADD. I knew where everything was, what people had said and could repeat it back to them months later down to the latest detail- what they were wearing that day, where we were and time of day that they said it.  Then during and after pregnancy things fell apart. After #2 came along it got even worse.  Zero sex life, couldn't get off no matter how long or hard we worked at it, husband accused me of being frigid/crazy- just what a mother/wife needs to hear.  I got on Wellbutrin but after 2 years on I dropped it.  The depression had lifted but I was still extremely scattered. 

After #1 started to school and ADD behavior started making itself known I researched on his behalf and found myself doing the Shazam! thing. 

I kind of knew that I had ADD but it wasn't until I was starting a new career in a new field that I realized that I HAD to do something about it or else I'd fail at this like everything else in my life.   I went to a psych and he agreed with me.  I've been on 120mg. Strattera since late August.  It is like coming out of a thick fog into sunshine, fresh air and birds singing. 

Congratulations and welcome to reality.

 

 

This is the best site I have ever seen!!  Just over a month ago I was diagnosed with Adult onset ADHD.  I have spent the past 6 years being told by multiple physicians that I was bi-polar.  The miracle diagnosis!  Seems like that is the new thing.  Once you tell a physician that someone in your family is bi-polar, thats all it wrote.  I refused to believe this however, and have been a pain to deal with for everyone in my life.  After the birth of my son, in Feb of 03 things got worse.  All of the problems that I had before were now 3 times worse.  I have always been a forgetful person but this was insane.  I had no sense of anything in my life.  I could start a project then get side tracked and end up somewhere else strating another project that never got done.  This was a vicious cycle that left me standing exhausted at the end of the day with nothing finished.  What had once been a very exciting intimate relationship with my fiance had now turned into an every other month, if your lucky, thing.  Finances were another story.  I put my family in debt without ever having to.  I could not seem to focus on bills and was never able to keep track of the money even though I spent 60% of my day trying to figue it out.  My biggest problem was that no matter how much I slept, it was never enough.  I would lay in bed at night and I could not stop my mind.  I would think of things I needed to worry about and things I needed to do.  I would worry about thing I started and didn't finish, and worst of all I would worry about loosing Paul(my fiance).  I knew that things were getting bad with us but I didn't know how to fix it.  I was afraid to do back to a Dr only to hear that I was bi-polar.  I finaly broke down and got on-line.  I took a quiz and ended up scoring the top score.  No doubt about it, according to the quiz I had ADHD.  That explained so many things for me.  I scheduled an appointment with a family doctor.  When I went in to see him I took the results from the quiz.  To my amazement, he agreed with me.  He also felt that I had a mood disorder which he says 1 in 4 people with ADHD have.  He put me on Adderall and asked to see me in a month.  He also recomended that I keep a journal to track my feeling and emotions, and a planner to help with a schedule.  The first day on Adderall I felt "high".  I sat in front of the TV and just spaced out.  The big difference came when I went to the laundry room to fold clothes.  The only thing I thought about while folding an entire load of clothes was, "man these dryer sheets smell good"!  The best part was, I finished folding the entire load!  I have been on the Adderall for 5wks now.  I am now taking Wellbutrin (for the mood disorder) and I am feeling great.  My only problem has been waking up in the morning.  I have had the hardest time with this since starting the med.  My doc says the depression is coming out now that the ADHD is being treated and that once the Wellbutrin is in my system if should be ok.  All I know now is that I feel like I can see things clearly now.  Unfortunatly I have also noticed how much of my sons life I missed, actually didn't notice.  Things are much better now and I cannot imagine life going back to the way it was.  This forum is something that has helped alot to.  I know now, I am not alone!!!! 

WELCOME MOMMYMEDIC.  This is a great place!

Welcome, MommyMedic!

You are definitely among friends who understand. I'm glad you found us.

But please, a little more white space in your posts! 

BDLB, I did suffer from post-partum depression.  However, I had a problem w/depression before this that wasn't being treated.  The post-partum depression was worse because of this.

I applaude you now for what you had to go through if your wifes was as bad as mine.  My fiance is the most incredible and sensitive man in the world.  I accused him of being "emotionally involved" with his partner at work. 

I didn't feel there was anything sexual but I thought he was cheating on me emotionally and mentally!!  I was hard enough to deal with, there is no way he could have handled another!! 

It was several years of mis-diagnosis before my ADHD was confirmed - all sorts of mental/psychological/emotinal disorder were assigned to me before my wife did some online research to pin down my symptoms to ADHD.

Still not out of the woods, but looking for an axe!

Hi Mommymedic...your story sounds like mine, too!  After years of trying to figure out what was wrong with me, I finally found an online quiz about ADD and scored very highly on it, then took it to my MD (who was wonderful).  She said she felt about 99% sure I had ADD and talked to me about writing a journal after starting Adderall (if I can remember ).  I burst into tears of relief at the appointment.  I just felt like finally this is it!  Now I know.  Now I can help myself.  It was an amazing feeling.  I started Adderall 4 days ago and it has been like magic.  I feel calm and relaxed and have been able to sit at my work desk without getting up 600 times an hour.  This forum is great, too.  It is so nice to know other people are like me (and you!)  Maybe I'm just high on Adderall  but I feel like everything is so much clearer and things are going to be better now that I know what I'm dealing with.