Good to hear from you. Ive been in denial off and on all my life. A big part of my ADD has been my dishonesty. I've always felt like somekind of "retard," and spent my whole life lying and deceiving and over-acheiving to try to cover it up.
The great thing is there are many medications that help ADD, and a lot of those are not stimulants. I prefer the longer lasting medications over the short-acting stimulants. There are several non-stimulants that can work for ADD: reboxetine, duloxetine, milnacipran, prozac, and effexor. All these increase norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin in the brain's prefrontal cortex, the area that affects ADD.
Finding the right medication can be a process of illimination because no two people are the same. Most ADD is co-morbid with other problems, such as depression, social phobia, over-focus (OCD), BDD, ect... A lot of adults chose to combine an SSRI and a stimulant for the greatest effect.
The ideal way to use medication is to use them allong with a program of self-help, where you make a commitment to yourself to improve in mind, body and spirit. The wholistic approach is always the most effective way to battle ADD.
WOW is that TRUE! I know when I am UP I will come down and vice versa but they get a little easier the more you learn about yourself. Your right about when on an UP swing we get more done than others! Fine line btw Bipolar and ADD at times.
It's great to be UP and creative but sucks to be tired/unmotivated. Medicine helps, counseling, support groups/boards all help! None of this was available when I was young. School was pure He## for me, making friends, learning (our style is different than others)
The more you learn about ADHD,ADD the more you can learn to work with it and yourself. I can totally identify with boredom, not really fit in with any social groups, very forgetful, cant handle *tedious* tasks too long, creative is ok.
Life is a roller coaster Up/Down, doesn't matter what we have or not ....so remember it is heightened for us but EVERYone has good/bad days.
What helps me is meditations, subliminals, grateful journel. These sites have good CDs and tapes. www.dicksutphen.com and quantumquests.com Due to my ADHD (hyper) I need chill time EVERY day and it really helps. Meditation has helped me to retrieve things quicker when I can't remember.
Good Luck, your NOT alone!
I just read your post, Alexander, and I wanted to tell you a bunch of things, but of course, I can't get them all organised in my head right now. I'll just blurt some out, and if later I think of more (and remember them!) I'll add them.
I wasn't diagnosed with ADD until 11 years ago (I'm 42) when my daughter was diagnosed with ADHD. I went through a period of relief initially, finally knowing I wasn't "lazy, crazy or stupid," as they say. Since then, I've gone through a repeating cycle of "cures" and realisations that there is no cure. What do I mean?
When I started on Ritalin, the tranformation was fantastic! I though I had found the solution! I could do anything... except it wasn't long before various events (catastrophes!) showed me that I still had ADD. Then I found a great training course that taught coping skills for adults with ADD. Changed my life! Temporarily, at least. I started working with a coach after that. What a change that was! I accomplished amazing things... and then reality hit again. Having ADD is so much like riding an emotional roller coaster.
As a teenager, I wasn't on Ritalin. I did manage to discover a variety of other forms of self-medication though. However, with or without the entertaining substances, I, like most teenagers, was pretty f*cked up, to use your words. Maye you shouldn't necessarily put all the blame on Ritalin. Just a thought... I love it and it's been a Godsend for me. My daughter (16) hates it, so you never know.
Anyway, back to the roller coaster. I've been working on trying to realise that even though life is chaotic, with more ups and downs than most people, on average, it comes out pretty good. When I'm in a down, I have to look back and see where I've come from. You see, when we're in an up, we get more done better than anyone else. Then when we fall, we get depressed and beat ourselves up because we're no longer performing like we were at our peak. If we stop comparing our performance at a particular time with our performance at a different point in time (when we may have been hyperfocussed and driven) and focus instead on the journey and the progress we've made overall, maybe things will get better. Again, I'm still working on this, so ask me in a year or two and I'll tell you if this approach works.
One thing I can tell you (at least, based on my experience so far) is that you CAN'T pull yourself out of this... things will go much better when you accept that you're a roller coaster. There are ups, and there are downs. The downs are much easier to take when you have the confidence that it's temporary until you hit an up again. Use the down to rest up! lol
There's probably more I wanted to say, but I've lost track of where I was, so I guess that'll be it for now.