Hey Skear
Your message is very encouraging to me, as I am in the diagnosed stage - but have not been prescibed medications yet... I see my doctor tomorrow. I am 40, and have been struggiling with this for years and accepting it as "normal". My daughter is on Concerta - so I will probably request the same.
Thanks! SteveH
skear,This is my first post to this message board. I'm hoping to gain additional insight into my recently diagnosed ADD and hear from people that have overcome some of the obstacles in life that I have faced. I'm a 29 year old male working in the Environmental Engineering field, this is a very detail oriented job with a whole slew of distractions.
It was not until a year ago that I decided to work up the courage to face a problem that has plagued me for as long as I can remember, and knew it. Coming from a dysfunctional family I was used to fabricating the superficial to conceal my own problems/situations from others. From K thru 12 my academic performance was as sporadic as it gets. My inability to pay attention and focus in class and at home severly impacted my performance. After sliding by in high school I managed to get into a private university through a family connection. After the first month of college I knew it was only a matter of time before I got my walking papers. The distractions of dorm life where overwhelming and my sporadic effort proved to be abundantly obvious to everyone who looked. After flunking out of school, I got a job and worked really hard to try and rebound from an embarrassing but fun period of my life.
I ended up earning my degree 4 years later from a state school where I grew up. I worked full time, lived at home, went to school part time and graduated. Even though my persistence payed off my effort in school was still the same. Having to re-read science text books over and over infuriated me, I felt like an idiot. I landed a good job once I graduated ,but my good buddy ADD got hired the same day I did. I found myself in a situation where I was making mistake after mistake and it was not due to a lack of effort. This was apparent to all my cooworkers and my boss finally gave me an ultimatum, "address the problem or your gone".
The specialist diagnosed me immediatly, and asked why I had waited so long to "face the music". I told him I looked at it as a trait of weakness and that noone in my family ever really addressed their problems. I started on Concerta 54 mg a day about 11 months ago and haven't looked back since. My performance at work reached levels I never thought possible and was noticed companywide. I recieved two performance awards and a promotion since starting on medication. I've experienced some of the side effects like weight loss, occasional sleeplessness and sinus infections. These side effects don't outway the benefits in my opinion.
My situation is pretty typical of most ADD sufferers, but there is a lot of satisfaction in knowing that you can take potential and turn it into personal success.