What made you decide to dig out? | ADHD Information
My daughter was the main reason, my marriage the second. And wanting to actually understand myself before I die was at the top of the list too.
first in 1995 age 45, as 'fairly severe ADD' by PhD psychologist after TOVA test and recently, age 55, from Brown's scale for ADD and WAIS 3 subtest profile, admin. by another prof. psych... and ' strong likelyhood of ADD inattentive type on online ADD site hosted by neurospecialist, Dr Daniel Amen of Amen clinics.
JAYAR38748.9700115741[QUOTE=TheDog]
Reisa, JAYAR and kibbles002 -
How long have you been diagnosed?
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I was diagnosed this August I'm 40 years old. I'm ADD combined type, with Inattentiveness more of a disorder than the hyperactivity. So I'm still digging too, but the digging certainly is easier.
Sherry
kibbles00238749.2016435185
Reisa, JAYAR and kibbles002 -
How long have you been diagnosed?
I am 34, I was diagnosed when I was 29.Dig out. I am still digging. Diagnosed since 16, began seeking treatment this year (22 now), still waaay deep in a hole I have no idea how to dig out of. Sometimes the hole is cozy. It would be if climate was regulated better and life did not require maintenance. That would be utopia. To be happy capable unbreakable plastic that does not have to claw out from hole to perfom daily life. ...
Some of you want to dig out of a hole and become better adjusted to society's needs for productivity (like making $ and doing stuff that helps you not die young).
I just wish that life skill competence was not a necessity. So I could just sit around and indulge whims without having a metric to live up or down to.
Ditches are seductive --- Mud is soft and warmth is your own....if were inorganic I would not need treatment. cozy fork in a landfill daydreaming.....ahhhh
(ativan talking)
Luckily I was diagnosed and medicated shortly before going to law school, so yes leaving school was not about academics -- although the choice in boyfriend was courtesy of ADHD.
R -
Why did you leave law school? Are you glad or do you want to go back?
R -
It sounds like your leaving law school, etc - had more to do with your boyfriend than your add. I'm glad that it all worked out for you though.
Well, I left because my then boyfriend had a psychotic break of some kind. I decided my personal safety was more important than finishing school.
It actually turned out for the best, because I got a job where I had to deal with attorneys all over the country all day long. A few of them are great, but 95% of them are utter jerks. I would have been miserable in that kind of career.
Um, truthfully? Being divorced, deported and homeless is not something I ever want to do again.
Once I did it, I found out it had lots of great benefits and I fight really hard when something threatens my independence. My ADHD makes me flaky and irresponsible, but it also makes me resilient and more stubborn than 5 other people combined.
Faith in the Lord mixed with a generous helping of self-initiated gumption; self confidence in one's native abilities, even in the face of failure to show up such on tests and yes, stubborn resilience in rising above circumstances. Separates the men from boys and women from girls alright. Not the seven times you fall, but the eight times you get back up that does it. There's gold in them hills; God gave each of us the tools. It's those who use them that find the gold.
Wow, all this sounds familiar.
Everytime somebody called me stupid or airheaded or told me I couldnt do something, it just angered me so much that I set out to prove them wrong!
I had to prove to the world that I wasnt a total screw up. One way I tried to do that was to go to college and get that degree. I started in 1983, I finally got the degree 1 marriage and 2 kids later in 1999. took a long time, but worth it to my self esteem and self worth. In the beginning, I don't know how many times I prayed for a D on tests and exams.. 
Stubborness, gumption, and refusal to give up.. maybe some slightly common ADD traits??? Or ones we've learned because of our ADD.
SHerry
yeah, i've heard that it's a shame that it's only 99% of lawyers can make the other 1% look so bad.
as far as digging out- i think my shovel's broken.
i'm actually self-diagnosed, at age 42. doctors only see the depression, and therefore, i'm bi-polar.
however, all the diagnostic tests, books, and this forum, all reflect that i am, in fact adhd. except for serious and recurring depression, bipolar does not seem to fit.
btwn depressions, i just work hard. i try to power through the difficulties. now, i'm armed with some self-knowledge i didn't have before. i can understand why i struggle with some of these issues, and not be so unforgiving towards myself when my natural tendencies are prevailing.
that being said, i do run out of energy. i hit lulls, and blue patches. it could be depression caused by chemical imbalances, or it could be depression brought on by sustained efforts with bad results, and the everpresent 'here i am- f***ing up again, few problems solved, new problems created, old ones made worse."
or it could be a combo of both.
it's hard to separate me from the other things in life. some days it's "my life s**ks b/c i must s**k!". other days, it's "if only the world wasn't so stupid, my life wouldn't be such a mess."
not only does it seem like my shovel is broken, but i think with the amount of s**t pouring in this hole, i'm gonna need a bigger shovel!
Of course then there was the leavinglawschool-runningfrompsychoex-almosthomeless fiasco a couple years ago. I don't know if it is digging out so much as it is weathering the storms.
If diagnosed after childhood, many of us have been beaten down for a long time - prior to diagnoses. I think it used to actually be part of the screening criteria to determine if an adult had the disorder.
It used to be that counseling was not recommended - so the beaten down person would go off with a prescription, and dirty looks from much of the medical community. Now, this type of treatment would probably be considered malpractice, and certainly would be considered disgraceful by most.
It wasn't a fad then - and, at that time, there weren't support boards. Many of us felt guilty, defective and alone.
Now, of course, things have gotten better. Some say it is now too easy to get diagnosed and offered treatment. I don't know whether or not that's true.
However, even now, most of the time, treatment doesn't involve helping the person to learn to become self-sufficient (to catch their own fish) most of the time. I think many of us would fail forever if we didn't learn to change and figure out how to accommodate ourselves.
For those of you who did stand up, decide to change and became self-sufficient, what inspired you to do it?
[QUOTE=kibbles002]Stubborness, gumption, and refusal to give up.. maybe some slightly common ADD traits??? Or ones we've learned because of our ADD.
SHerry
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A good friend is a neuropsychologist and I'm almost the same. (Taking both education and psych courses for a PhD in education w/ a focus on brain-based behavior). Point is that I'm learning a lot of similar stuff to what she has. We have some cool discussions about it all.
Anyway... She told me that neuropsychologists, especially, are now looking at many of these conditions (bi-polar, AD(H)D, ODD, CSD [is that the right acronym? obsessive-compulsive disorder) as co-morbidies that all tend to be present in varying degrees. Also, studies are indicating that they're a BIOLOGICAL brain configuration--not some kind of character disorder. Interesting to see what the DSM-V, when it comes out, will make of all this.
Just wish the neuropsychologists and neurpsychiatrists had a chance to do more research, but the machines they use (fMRI, PET, MEG) are expensive and are often tied up with physiological diseases like Alzhemimers research. That's certainly important but still leaves us behind the 8-ball. (Once I finish my degree, hope to do some of it since one of my positiveskills is writing good proposals and research grants. One can hope!)
ODD -- "something" deviant disorder--may actually be a bit of a godsend, if not too severe--in that it keep us from completely buying into feedback that we're a worthless piece of crap--feedback that's so often thrown up at us by people who don't understand. How could they when most of the professional community doesn't fully understand yet? For Pete's sake, most AD(H)D testing is still done via paper and pencil tests when it SHOULD be dx via brain scans. Duh!
sachetm38749.5318055556Sorry, got distracted from original question. (Now I wonder how THAT happened?) 
After being dx as bi-polar II (with consistent episodes of depression), first learned how to self-manage that so that now, I'm rarely depressed and when I become so, can get myself out of it within a day or two. (Involves CHOOSING to see the glass half-full, in simplistic terms.)
This past summer, counselor I was seeing for health problems (breast cancer and bad side-effects from it), suggested I might actually be ADD rather than bi-polar. Neuropsychologist friend thought that was probably right-on. Knew nothing about adult ADD so started research it and yep, no doubt in my mind. Fit the mold to a tee!
Getting breast cancer and almost dying from side-effects of both it and my ADD caused me to get serious about doing something about it. Because of heart problems (one of many side-effects from chemo), can't take ADD meds, so have to learn how to compensate. Am making some progress but still a LONG way to go.
But at least I'm making progress. Also, am learning to remove myself--to the extent possible--from situations that appeal to my weaknesses (e.g., a business environment) and appeal more to my strengths (intellectual and academic arena).
Whether one is AD(H)D or not, believe a big part of life success is learning ones strengths, weaknesses, passions, and dreams, and going toward those and away from things that don't tap our strengths and passions. The more we learn about ourselves and opportunities in the world, and the more we try to match ourselves to the right opportunities, think the better chance of success and happiness we have.