ADD/ADHD adoptees? | ADHD Information

I'm adopted, and I would agree with you Chocoholic.

My natural mother had a 2 week fling with a guy and got pregnant. She never told anyone about it, she was in complete denial, and her parents didn't find out she was pregnant until she had gone into labour.

She wanted to keep me, but her parents thought she wasn't in a position to be a good mother at that time, so I was adopted.

I've just recently been diagnosed and I'm now fairly sure both my natural mother and father have ADD. (I've met them both.)

 

Nowadays there are less babies available for adoption, but that may be because more people have abortions. For anyone who is 25 or older and adopted, it's quite likely they would have ADD, because their parents may have had ADD at a time when not much was known about it, in the 50s, 60s, 70s.

I found out I was adopted in 1994. It was strange for me at that age, but I am fine.That is really interesting! I'm adopted I was told my Birth-mother was 16. I think there is something to ADD/ADHD and being more promiscuous. A lot of my friends who have add/adhd have all had affairs or cheated on there BF/GF this might be a great poll questionWell I heard that ADD might be hereditary. My birth mother was a wild-child in the 70's even though she was married. They say that people with ADD get bored with their mates and may stray.There is no doubt in my mind that ADD/ADHD is hereditary I knew my youngest had ADHD at about a year. But the doctor's wouldn't make a diagnosis till he was 6 years old. I believe My oldest son might have add (mild) I read and the doctors also warned me being diabetic(Not in good control) during pregnancy can also contribute to ADD/ADHD

I recently read an article that stated that people with ADD/ADHD were over represented within the adopted population by something like 8fold. I tried to relocate this article but can't find it, however this is just a curiosity question, as an adoptee with ADD, do you find this to be true?Any more adoptees out there?

I'm not adopted, but at the first talk I ever heard about adhd, the psychologist speaking mentioned that the rate of adhd among adopted people was really high. He said he didnt have any concrete evidence as to why, but a popular theory is that one of the birth parents had adhd which led to impulsive sexual behavior as a teen. This led to teen pregnancy and the need to find a good home for the baby since the birth parents were not well equipped to take care of him/her bc of their age. I thought that was very interesting.

[QUOTE=chocoholic]I'm not adopted, but at the first talk I ever heard about adhd, the psychologist speaking mentioned that the rate of adhd among adopted people was really high. He said he didnt have any concrete evidence as to why, but a popular theory is that one of the birth parents had adhd which led to impulsive sexual behavior as a teen. This led to teen pregnancy and the need to find a good home for the baby since the birth parents were not well equipped to take care of him/her bc of their age. I thought that was very interesting.
[/QUOTE]

An interesting, and entirely possible concept....I could see how this could happen a lot.

I am an adult adoptee and I have both ADD and ADHD. Last month was pretty amazing, I finally got the chance to meet my biological mother for the first time in 21 years. Even though it's been almost a month now, I can already see that she already has autistic characteristics. She doesn't like crowds, doesn't like the sound of babies crying (also irritates me), doesn't like to express emotion in public, she's very quiet. Those are just some of the traits that relate to me. There are some others as well. I have already been diagnosed as "Asperger's". However, I have yet to tell her. I also have many other biological family members such as neices and nephews and siblings that do some of the same things that I do. I already have one biological relative that has adult ADD and is taking Ritilan for it.

    psychgirl ! Thanks for bringing this topic up, I
think I might have never gotten around to it.
    I'm an adoptee, both my biological parents were
alcholics .   My mother ditched us when I was about
two and a half. My father couldn't handle the
responsibility so the oldest went to an Aunt, my other
sister and I bounced around with foster "familys" for
five - six years.
   Everything I've read tends to come to the same
conclusion. ADhD is hereditary, if it already hasn't
been scientificly proven yet, it will be soon. Adoptess
do tend to have a higher rate of ADhD then the
general population, it's not sure why yet. It might be
because of all the copeing systems ADhDrs
sometimes are lacking.
    This is a great subject to talk about, as I think only
adoptees know what it's really like. Anybody
interested in starting an Adoptee/ADhD site ?
       

That website sounds very interesting! I think there needs to be more like that out there!