I am 30 years old and was diagonosed with ADHD two months ago. I'm one of the lucky ones because I managed to get through life up to this point with my self esteem still intact.
Please allow me to tell you my experience: I worked my way through school, but often cheated on assignments, almost always on book reports, and sometimes even on tests. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I think perhaps because of my ADHD I found the path of least resistance, even if it meant cheating here or there. In college I made a resolve not to cheat, because I knew it was morrally wrong, and college was a choice not an "expected" like k-12. I remember as a college student being in a gen-ed class of 250 students; on test day, once you finished the test you turned it in and left the auditorium. With out exception, finishing the test very last would be me, and a couple of foriegn students that barely spoke English. Again, to protect my self-esteem, I simply told my self that I was the "Analytical type". But the bottom line is my classmates would finish the test in half the time it took me, and did just as well if not better. I graduated from the University and decided that in order to make enough money I would have to get an advanced degree. It was when I was preparing for the GMAT, and taking practice timed test I finally sought help. See the GMAT allows extra time on the test if you are Diognosed with a learning disability. I sought help at the Univeristy's learning disabilities center. I went through a battery of test over 4 diffrent sessions that tested for test anxiety, Acheivment, aptitude, and IQ. Test result showed that Anxiety was not an issue, and the gap between Acheivment and Aptitude was not wide enough to "label" me as learning disabled, however the IQ test revealed, that while I had an above average IQ, the processing speed portion was signficatly lower than it should be. Amazingly, the Grad Student conducting the tests didn't say anything about ADHD. Perhaps because I didn't share any other symptoms like the disorganization etc. Believe it or not, even though I walked away without knowing I had "formal" condition, I felt a sence of relief knowing that I was still a smart guy, just a little slow on the processing side. This didn't allow me any concessions on the GMAT. I didn't get the score I was hoping for, that coupled with a meger 3.0 in college, I had to settle for the local state-funded school's MBA program. It was five years later, my wife was listening to a strattera commercial on TV. (thank our Father in Heaven for our ADHD counter balancers) when she suspected I had the condition explained in the commericial. I straight away set an apointment and formally was diagnosed with ADHD.
This leads me to my Question, Are certain meds better for certain conditions with ADD. I have huge distractability problems, lack a little tact in public, am horribly disorganized, and have the processing speed problem allueded to above. Ritilin has worked well until I come off it, and then I am very short with my Kids and My wife, I seem to have less side effects with Adderall, but I am still somewhat distracted. One doctor, (I think they are spiffed) is really pushing me toward strattera, and I tried if for three days and felt nothing. Are there subsets of ADHD and if so what medications are better for "processing speed" and inattention? I would welcome all advice.
Also, my son seems to have it he is 5 and my wife and I decided to hold him back a year. How early do you put them on medication? Please advise
I use Concerta which is a reformulation of Ritalin. It is in a time-release form so I take it once in the morning and then it stays pretty stable all day long.
Straterra takes several days if not a couple of weeks to really take effect. It does seem like a lot of doctors are prescribing Straterra first. I am not really sure why. I think part of it is that the makers claim that Straterra is non-addictive. But it is a new drug, so who knows.
The Riatlin, Concerta, and other stimulants are addictive to the degree that the body eventually builds a resistance to them and you have to increase the dosage. But it is not a problem for most people. My doctor recommends that once the dosage gets to a certain point that I take a "drug vacation" and stop taking it for 3-4 weeks. Then I can start back at the original dosage. But some people have said that they do not need to do this and have been on the same dosage for years.