add/depression | ADHD Information

Hi,

I'm 29 and have been diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder. I've been on antidepressants since last year September, and this week my psychiatrist had the funny idea to let me try Ritalin as I have always experienced problems with concentration, attention paying, agitation, sleep etc. I would like to meet other people around my age, i.e. young adults, who have been diagnosed recently with add /adhd / depression and take medication (in particular antidepressants and ritalin). I am also wondering if there might be a connection between add / adhd, depression and an IQ above the average (gifted children / adults)? 

x sheen 

Well, I am already taking anti depressants so I don't know whether that's gonna work.... I'm a bit afraid as I'm still not feeling stable. Did you take antidepressants with the other medication? And what is happening now?

I guess I am almost always having some sort of sleeping problems - since I'm on anti-depressants, I feel extremely tired though. Then again, I am wide awake sometimes and don't need coffee, something unusual for me. But I think it also depends on when I take the medication and how much etc. Quite complex and difficult to find out! Haven't dared yet to try ritalin... I'm afraid I might feel very agitated or very tired.... Have you heard about any other people taking both Ritalin (or similar) and Anti-depressants?

Thanks for you comments! Good luck!

Hi there

I took Concerta (same as Ritilin) and PaxiL and  for the first 2 months I felt great and slept like a baby for the first time in my life.  However after that time I started having side effect: low blood sugar and serious depression.

My condition may be very different from yours so try it and good luck. Please just be aware.  (Take the antidepresent at night--I suggest)

Do you have problems sleeping? 

Hi Sheen,

I'm a 26 year old Australian male who has just been officially diagnosed with ADD! Hurrah! Well, it was much more heartening than the original diagnosis: Generalised Anxiety Disorder. I definitely have GAD, but I've found that the ADD diagnosis has put everything into greater perspective - I've realised that a lot of my worries were performance-based; a complete inability to get a grip on life, despite the fact that I've been frequently reminded of my high intelligence and creative flair ever since I received my first school report. I've always found everything (bar English at school and uni) strangely difficult. It's not much fun knowing inherently that you are more than capable of doing godknows how many different things, yet finding the actual act of doing them (or sustaining them! The classic 'half-reading-ten-books-doing-the-dishes-stressing-about-uni -or-work-and-ending-up-catatonic-on-the-couch-chain-smoking- and-doing-bugger-all' syndrome) almost impossible.

I'm a highschool teacher - a job not terribly compatible with my scattiness. Anyway, a couple of months ago I lost the plot (almost) entirely, and was haphazardly put on Aropax (Australian trade name for Paroxetine). This did the trick for a couple of months - I still had the same panicky thoughts, but none of the panic. I also lost all interest in the opposite sex and had difficulty sleeping. My psychiatrist took me off Aropax and put me on Ritalin. Unfortunately, the withdrawal symptoms from the Aropax prevented me from seeing how the Ritalin worked for a couple of weeks. Now the paroxetine is out of my system (thank god - some people can have very adverse reactions to Aropax withdrawal - see the websites 'quitpaxil' and 'paxilfree' for futher info.) and, while not feeling a million bucks, I'm WAY better. I don't particularly want to be on medication for the rest of my days, but everything is making a great deal more sense now. Does this help? Hope so. Ben. Feel free to reply!

I liked the description Ben gave (half-reading ten books, doing the dishes..). My adult brother has been diagnosed with ADHD since he was a teen. He took Ritalin then, but went off of it. From high school on he has struggled, and was a druggie and alcoholic. (i have heard these are calming to ADHD people). Now he is back on Ritalin due to an extreme episode of anger, and is reportedly feeling much more in control. Keep experimenting and researching. Good luck..

Hi Dixiebeep,

welcome to the club... I get the impression there are loads of adults out there who now finally find out what has been causing them stress / trouble all the previous years. Probably mainly because when I was young (i.e. around 15 to 25 years ago), there was no awareness towards psychological/ psychiatric problems in children or teenagers among adults. I still cannot understand why parents or teachers are not alarmed when a child has trouble at school or with other kids, and that hasn't changed until today (at least not in Germany, where I grew up), but it happened, so we have to live with it. I'm sure it wasn't much different when you were a child, was it? I had such a frustrating childhood, and now, finally, I start to explore who I really am, why I am the way I am, and what I can do to finally start living.  Me too, I was called lazy and cheeky (because I dared to ask questions that sometimes the teacher or whoever else didn't want to answer, or couldn't answer), or I commented something he / she had said that upset me, and I always heard "you could do really well if only you would start to study!" Well nobody was bothered to tell me HOW to study (because in primary school I didn't need to, I just had to repeat stuff that was in books or on my papers), nobody would help me, nobody was wondering WHY I can't concentrate or what problem I really had with the teacher and whether it really was my fault or not. And so on and so forth. So far at least I haven't lost a job, but I may in the near future, as my performance is way below average, mainly becuase I start five things at a time and then "get lost in it" half way through. Same with my studies. Fortunately, my university is very helpful, and they recently set up mentoring for students with mental health issues so I will try that so my work doesn't mount up and I get lost in it. I hope I might finally do as well as I could, intellectual. I find it very frustrating to know that you can do better if only you would find out how to use your full ability! Do you know that?

Since starting these anti-depressants, I also have the problem of not waking up anymore. Sometimes it was that bad that I didn't even wake up enough to realize there is an alarm clock, who i am, where I am and that I have to get up to go to work. Then, once I was awake, I was VERY awake, something I hadn't known for years!! Amazing feeling. Then, suddenly, it changed. Now I did wake up in the morning, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open, which is exhausting at work and quite dangerous on the way to work. Also, it takes hours to wake up properly.I don't know why that is, it may be related to when I take the medication, or when I wake up (unlikely), or it may be related to starting to take Ritalin. It may also just be this bad becuase my eye muscles are a bit weak which makes it hard to focus my view on anything, and also gives me blurred vision which is great when you are on a motorway.

Have you always felt like you feel now? Have you always been that tired? And how do you wake up in the morning? And how on earth can you raise three children like that? Even one would be too much for me - I get stressed so easily, then get lost, then panic, then get depressed again, crying and just wanting to curl up in my bed and flee from the big bad world out there... Is there a trick?

I don't really know what to suggest so you feel more awake... Is coffein of any help? I get a "buzz" from Ritalin, it has the same effect like coffee had when I started to drink it (now it doesn't do much, except from ruining my sleep when I drink it after 8 pm). I read that some people use it as a drug, like cocaine, because it's an amphetamine, so that explains why it "picks me up". Another member told me (see above) strattera was similar to Ritalin, but I must admit I haven't checked yet what exactly it does or is supposed to do. Have you spoken about this with your doc? Are you on any other medication? Or do you have any other problems, i.e. anxiety or depression? Perhaps that is a part of your problem. I'm not a doc, but I found that you are the lucky one who will have to diagnose yourself. There is way too much information out there for every doc to know everything, and also they don't see you everyday and can't look inside you. Only you know your full history back to your childhood, you know what you feel, what happens to you, what you eat, drink etc. I just started to look around a bit (that's how I found this forum, and I'm glad, too, cause I feel so alone in this world), and I think it'll take me years and various doctors, psychologists and "ordinary" people I talk to to find out what exactly I have and why and how to cure it (if there is cure).

I hope we will be lucky!

Thanks for your reply Sheen

I could never have children(endometriosis) so we are fostering to adopt the children.  When I got them I had a hysterectomy ( I was in a lot of pain) and since then my ADD symptoms have gone from bad to there is no way to hide it bad. I always could kind of hide and really I did not know what it was just that something was not right.  I was diagnosed as generalized anxiety disorder and given prozac which did not help the mind fog thing.  I always had trouble waking up but now it is like 10:00 before I can be productive at work.  I start work at 8. If I get up ahead of everyone else and I can wake up alone without noises I do better.  I am taking Stratttera 40 mg but although it helps me to concentrate I am so tired.  I was tired a little before because I have a heart condition that causes my heart to beat too fast and I have to takes meds to slow it down.  I will see the doc on Friday and I will ask him if I can take Adderal or Concerta.  Oh, also on the strattera I am gaining weight and I do not need to gain weight at all.  I am a little depressed about the weight gain too.  I used to be able to walk on the treadmill but with the kids I am unable to excercise.  I am going to take the kids to the lake with me this week-end and make them walk with me.  The 3 and 4 year would love it.  The Strattera also causes some mood swings that I am not crazy about. I have to watch my temper and not just say something stupid.  Did you take the test at www.mindfixers.com?  I took it twice just to see if I got the same results and i did.  It was a long test but very informative.

I am a  year old 38 female. I was recently diagnosed with ADD and put on Strattera.  It helps with the concentration and even some motor skills (typing) but I am a slug(slow moving) .  I did not have hyper, I have hypo which means I can pretty much fall asleep unless someone is smacking their gum . I dont know what to do.  I am so tired and sleepy all of the time.  I can barely get up in the morning and am not a real live person till 10:00 a.m.  I have to be at work at 8:00 and have to commute with three children.  Now that I have been diagnosed I am kind of upset that It was not caught earlier like in school.  I had such a hard time.  I wished that I could have understood that I had a problem then instead of being called lazy and has potential.  I also lost some jobs because I could not catch on as fast as my bosses wanted me to. I thought I was stupid.  I am so glad to find others like me and it does make me not feel so alone.  Any suggestions or posts would be appreciated.