Sooo happpy to find this forum!! | ADHD Information

Chief, Some of us do use chat rooms.  Check out www.brainchat.org and go to the classic chat rooms section. Week days are fairly slow but once in a while we get hopping!  I can assure you that you will make friends there.

I was on welbutrin and it didn't seem to help my focus very much. I was on it for depression tho, so I may have needed a higher dose for that. It can take a couple of weeks to build up enough in your system to make a difference so don't give up.

My son is doing fairly well taking omega acids and flax seed oil. It is supposed to help the neurons in the brain connect better, to put it simply. I didn't realize how much difference it made until I went a couple of days without giving it to him. I won't make that mistake again!

I hope to meet you and Gr8art in chat sometime soon.   Barb (Babs)

Thank you so much for responding to my post Gr8art,

I can empathize with you regarding the way your social isolation came about.  I have met people who have alienated themselves through antisocial aggressive behavior.  You seem to be introspective enough to have pinpointed the source of your isolation.  I think it is worth investigating how you and I have the same social ineptitues only steming from different sources.  Just an observation.  I think that in my case, Dr. Mate said it best when he qouted a patient as saying "I am most comfortable when I am alone".  Is this the case with you?  

Don't give up Gr8art.  Some way, somehow there IS hope for you and I.  So many others with ADD have gotten it together we WILL be next.  I just know it.  When I said that I didn't know what I was going to do if the therapy and Welbutrin didn't help, deep down inside, I DID know what I was going to do and reading your story solidifide it enough for me to now articulate it. 

If this doesn't work, I'll keep trying until I find something that does.  I refuse to be beaten by this impairment.  I have seen people with even greater impairments struggle and fight on until they found a way through.  That is what you and I must do, Gr8art.  We are like the blind, the deaf, the lame, the mentally retarded.  They all wish that they were "normal".  They aren't, yet the blind feel their way.  The deaf use a hearing aid.  The lame use a wheelchair and the retarded use the intellect that they have to climb as high as they possibly can.  Somehow, Gr8art, we WILL find a way.

Be Blessed Always,

Chief B

ChiefB38127.3255208333

Hello ChiefB

I can relate to your dilemma about wondering if this will work. I don't know if you've read any of my posts, but I am also just in the discovery stage of this. Today I find out the results of my tests for ADHD. I'm 50 years old, and have gone through my whole life feeling like I had a screw loose or something. I was always a misfit for some reason and like you; I don't have any friends. I'm not sure if I pulled away from people; or they pulled away from me because of my ..."wierdness" (but I guess I know the truth deep down) I am a freelance artist; but have a hard time getting inspired. Some of what you said about not knowing what you are gonna do if this doesn't work rings true for me as well. I've been to counselors; but no lasting fix has ever worked. About  a year ago; I simply just gave up on life. Ya know? I said "Forget it! I'm not even gonna compete any more!" Well...as you can imagine; that was not a good decision. Luckily; my wife sees something in me. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. But she is hanging in there. She has a very stable career in banking; so we are not  hurting for money. (Thats how i can afford to be a struggling artist) But before we were stable; I would go from job to job. I thought the rest of the world was nuts. People really bugged me. And occasionally I would let them know just how much. This was a viscious circle. I would get bugged; and then become a burr under their saddle so to speak. They would pull away from me; and I would feel sorry for myself that nobody wanted to be around me. And I would get bugged by their unloving behavior. Gosh; the madness! I too hope like crazy that the right meds will fix this self destructive machine.

  It is so so great to have discovered this forum.  It would be great if we could begin to use chat rooms but perhaps the fact that none of us does is also a function of our impairment.  This forum really does help.  I love reading about you guys' charactaristics and am amazed by the similarities.  It is as if we are all blood relatives.

Background:  I am a 43 y/o black male.  Married 20 yrs w/3 sons all grown and imancipated.  I live in FL.  I work as a security officer for a large Health Care org.  Not rewarding work but provides steady income and allows me to persue primary goal of blazing through school.  I expect to graduate w/MPA degree in summer 2006.  I attend university full-time and get decent grades.  Currently maintaining a 3.7 avg.  School is a struggle, especially in the summer with the abbreviated sessions.  Each semester, I start out great and then right after midterms, my work starts to sink.  Fortunatly, I do so well in the beginning that those grades offset the end of semester failures.  I have NO friends.  NONE!!!  It is a source of frustration for me.  I really am a great guy.  I have a great personality and most people think that I am very attractive.  I have a natually muscular build and a great smile.  But I am painfully shy about initiating conversations and I think that most people find me unapproachable or even stuck up!   My wife and I have serious issues but are resolved NOT to divorce.  We spend a lot of time away from each other and get along best that way.  We love each other dearly but have few interests in common and tend to irritate one another.  My hope is that resolving my ADD will also mitigate some of the marital difficulties.

Discovery:  I was in therapy for passive aggression when my counselor at university mentioned that my symptoms sounded like ADD.  I researched through the web and library and came across the book "Scatterd" by Gabor Mate, MD.  I am convinced that I have found the answers to all of my questions about me.

Diagnosis and Treatment: When I finally got an appt, my symptoms were clear enough that the DO placed me on 100 mg of Wellbutrin SL 1x/day.  I felt that there may have been some ethical concerns since he prescribed the meds w/o testing me first but he convinced me that he had lots of experience successfully treating this impairment and that his reputation was impeccable even among the shrinks in the community.  Not only that, I am in the middle of a summer session at school and need to get my focus under control quickly.  He said that after 21 days I would be bumped to 300 mg/day.  It has been 7 days on the 100s w/no noticible change in focus/concentration.

I would be happy to keep you all abreast of how my treatment is going.  Reading about yours gives me hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that I am not alone.  I hope and pray that Wellbutrin and therapy will help me put my life together.  If it doesn't, I don't know what I am going to do.  Please stay in touch.  If I can't help any of you, pls shoot me an email. 

 

ChiefB38126.3044560185