So who's got ADD/ADHD?

Do you have ADHD?

  • Yep, where's my Adderall?

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • Nope, not that I know of...

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1
I have ADD and I can say that it is both a blessing and a curse, which i think most people with it who work in a creative industry will tell you as well. It is a gift when it comes to creative, outside of the box thinking, or creating something entirely new. It helps you to connect disconnected thoughts and come to conclusions that others without it would be less likely to make. I also find that myself and many other Adders that I have met are generally interested in just about ANYTHING, literally almost any topic, which makes them exceptional generalists.

It can be a curse when you are working for other people or in an industry with rigid schedules and deadlines. It can be very hard without medication to follow through on tasks or complete them on someone else's timeline. It's not that I am not a hard worker, because I am, but I have learned that I can only do tasks when I am completely focused and that can shift throughout the day. It was easier for me to get through college on my own schedule than a regular 9-5 job.

This is why I think many ADDers eventually end up working for themselves to accommodate their needs and style.

Also, I am glad to see that schools are now realizing that there are other learning styles and beginning to teach in a multitude of ways. I found it very hard growing up to be tested in a reciting the facts, one answer is correct fashion. For me it was much easier to explain the answer in essay form or short answers.

I often take medication to help me stay on task, but I am careful to not take it all of the time and to give myself opportunities to sit there and space out and make those connections. Many people think that ADDers are just staring out in the middle of nowhere when they aren't paying attention, which couldn't be further from the truth. They are making new connections and processing things differently.


You hit it right on the head. I can't tell you how many times I would work on something for hours and hyperfocus until completion. Then on the other side of the spectrum some days I could not learn a thing in class, or be even be close to 100% at work.

It just upsets me to see how much stigma there is around mental illness. Not just ADHD, but all of them. People either don't believe it's real, or they just assume it's a personality thing. I, like many others, think it is a combination of learned experiences and genetics. Environmental factors also could impact your brain.

You are totally right though, about working for yourself to accommodate my disease. Truth is I work for a large tech company in the Midwest, but it is probably the perfect job for me. Lots of free time and traveling, and even if I'm in the office I can basically do what I please. Half the time I just work from home as well. Then whenever I have nothing to do for work, I do my other "job".

Having the freedom to do my internet marketing and writing is what makes me happy. Sure the money is great too, but true happiness especially for an ill person is hard to categorize. Physical or mental illness really makes a person see what life is about. I think when a person finds a point in their life where they are satisfied, it's hard to remember the past pain in your life. Hopefully, you all get there too!
 
My pdoc said i needed a day off of adderall to ward off its addictive tendencies. Man, was i fiending for it this morning! I did sleep a lot better off of it.


Sent from my iPhone http://fiverr.com/adnagam
 
Damn, keep hearing about this hyperfocus thing, never happened to me though. :(
 
I don't but I have the symptoms sometimes. Is not because I have a mild form of ADHD but because people frickin bore me to death and don't talk about interesting stuff.
 
Well ADHD/ADD is a real disease and half the people that think they have the disease really don't have what DSM would call underdevelopment in your brain.

Unfortunately many doctors do give pills anyway because many people fall under the symptoms. The same symptoms can also be caused by a generation that is raised on stimulation (internet, vidya games). That's not to say preceding generations didn't have similar stimulation (punk rock, etc) but it's always an upwards climb towards more stimulation.

People that are a victim to over stimulation will have the same symptoms as ADHD, but do not necessarily need pills to solve the problem. As usual, getting out more and hitting the gym can solve the issue at hand with an increase in dopamine levels in your brain (this obviously won't work magic for people that actually have underdevelopment).

I don't buy the whole marketing hype for ADHD to the complete extent but I think doctors should be a little more stingy when handing out mind altering drugs and coming to hasty diagnoses.
 
who have both ADHD/ADD and OCD?
These guys have been making me sick but knowing a thought is just a thought and a working plan have helped me a lot.
Personally, I think people with ADHD are multi-core processors, who can do a lot of things at the same time so depends on what your point of view, it could be a gift or a curse.
 
People that are a victim to over stimulation will have the same symptoms as ADHD

You mean if you have sex 3-4 times a day you end up with ADHD? God dammit, I'm screwed!
 
I have been diagnosed but never took the medicine.

I originally was tested because in 2nd grade I tended to stand up doing all my work and sometimes paced instead of sitting down. I was in trouble all the time but my teacher didn't know what to do as I had some other special needs as well.

Whenever I didn't eat too much sugar, got to stand or pace at my leisure while studying/working, had frequent breaks like in a different "learning center", and a bit of sympathy, I did well in school.

I think that some people don't fit into the "sit in a desk all day long" because I don't think kids are meant to do that.

As an adult I still have the same tendencies. I stand up and work for a few hours a day sitting the laptop on top of my TV. I pace alot when thinking. I can't sit for more than 30 minutes without moving around.

I need to work on 2 or 3 things at once bouncing between them every 10 minutes or so to be able to get anything done. Sometimes I'll watch something on netflix for 10 minutes, do project A for 10 minutes, and then project B for 10 minutes rotating between them to be able to get anything done. I do the same when reading book switching after each section or chapter to a different book.

Thanks for explaining how it is. I don't know shit about ADD/ADHD but I would like to ask you something. Are they bad because you guys who have this feel them as being bad, or are they bad because you can't fit in other people's (society's) patterns of behavior?

I mean I get it in school feeling a need to not sit in the desk would produce problems because you're supposed to behave and shit like that. But that is a problem because of how school wants you to be not because how you are.

I mean if you jump from one thing to other every 10 minutes but can get the stuff done, I don't really see it as a problem. Obviously it could look like a problem or not be able to adapt as a child because you are in this way and the people teaching you are in a very different way. Would and ADD/ADHD teacher that teaches children with ADD/ADHD be more efficient?

I hope you guys understand what I mean here. Is it a problem of *yours*, a problem because the other people are not like that and you don't fit, is it reducing your ability to do something, etc.

Before you answer, I highly believe this to be true:

I think that some people don't fit into the "sit in a desk all day long" because I don't think kids are meant to do that.

Not just kids but adults too. I think we are born free and happy and joyful and playful but progressively are being dummbed down and forced to fit in a box instead of being encouraged to do things our way. Of course mass control and global manipulation are hard to implement if folks start to do things their way and don't go to job and do what they're supposed to do. But anyway I don't want to go that route because it might be read and interpreted in a different way than I actually think it.
 
For those of you out there looking to actually educate yourself on ADD or learn how to maximize your strengths I recommend reading all of the books by Dr. Hallowell and checking a few other titles that have helped me -- "The Disorganized Mind" and "You mean I am not lazy, crazy or stupid."


"reading all of the books by Dr. Hallowell " tends to be a bit hard, because they are just toooo long :) ..AND still have that mindset/stigma of "disability"!

Instead: read all of Thom Hartmann's books, they are straight to the point,precise, action-orientated, and will be a revelation, if you have not read one of his books or theories.

For example, start with "Focus Your Energy: Hunting for Success in Business with Attention Deficit Disorder" (Paperback,used from $0.01) (above is NO aff-link *lol*)

The Man is Genius & Genuine! He gives good Family-advice as well, not only Business-ADD-Advice (in case you are a struggling parent)

Another good example of "knowledge vs pills" is the (big) pdf-book of Garret LoPorto "The DaVinci Method" (..if you don't wanna buy it due to BlackHatSpirit, pm me..)

He's also founder of Wayseers.org ..check out the video, it has some inspiration, and, IF you are ADD, you WILL notice an emotional reaction: :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPR3GlpQQJA
 
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People get way too caught up with getting a diagnose and medicine for every psychological/personality problem they might have..

If I went to a US doctor I would definitely walk out with several diagnoses and a pocket full of perscriptions. Would I be better off? Sometimes I wonder.. some people here said "countless lives have been improved from gettiing a proper diagnose and medicine", but I tend to think a lot of lives just might have been ruined by relying on pills to fix every problem.

For example as a teenager I had periods of extreme depression - i couldn't do anything productive, couldn't interact with people, i just felt terrible all day long and though I might be better of dead. I'm positive if I had taken SSRIs instead of finding a purely psychological healing to my natural teenage phase I would have been much worse off in the long term.

Now one of the diagnoses I'm sure I would get with a US doctor is ADD. I've tried to medicate it with drugs varying from street amphetamine to Modafinil, piracetam, caffeine, etc. Some drugs prove effective in the short term, but in the long turn they all burn you out and in fact most phenetylamines or amphetamine-like drugs are neurotoxic to one degree or another. A more subtle and time consuming therapy would be getting a whole bunch of mnemonics and NLP books and slowly trying to train your brain to act in certain ways. It does take time and it certainly takes effort, which are things which put off someone with "ADD", I guess, but one can be motivated by knowing that while the changes are more subtle than 10mg of Adderall, the effects are lasting and they don't mess up your neurochemistry :)

So basically what I'm saying is don't rely on drugs if you don't absolutely have to and research anything you could be ingesting thoroughly, don't rely solely on your doctor's word.
 
To answer the topic, Yes: diagnosed as adult, "ADD inattentive subtype" ...the ones who don't fidged or bounce around :)

Where there's nothing to change, there is potential:
Everyone who was told he has a "mental disability" should realize it depends on who says it - have a deep breath, and be proud of it :)

A easy,makesense explaination is the theory of Thom Hartmann, the "Hunter-Farmer" Theory...Society consists mainly of "Farmers", who consider "Hunters" as odd, un-normal, different, and as a thread.

Entrepreneurs most likely are AD(H)D-Hunter-Types; look up ADD + Edison, Lincoln, Richard Branson or Bill Gates and you will notice.

The downsides have their roots in bad experiences in school, leading to all sorts of problems...not surprising for me:

take an intelligent,stubborn kid and try to break it...what do you get?

A drop-out, terrorist or entrepreneur!
Welcome on the dark side! :D


I can speak for all three cases out of experience :rolleyes:

There are schools who encourage the Hunter-Gene, but very few - a shame I wasn't on one of these back in my (damn) school days. Hell, there wasn't even something known as ADD today.

Medicating "different" kids into sick schools I find highly wrong. But that's how the "society" works.

Medication for Adults; why not - they can choose (...same with religion by the way,ha!)

Great to see a thread about it eventually - a year ago I searched without result:)
 
I don't think im suffering from adhd but sometimes when i'm all by myself JESUS CHRIST did you just see that fucking bird????
 
i dont have ADD but i do have adderall :D

helps me pass my exams ;)
 
The thing I can't understand is where was this "condition" when I was a kid. Most of us were fidgety and couldn't concentrate on anything other than playing with friends.

That one symptom that says, "Child can't concentrate on anything, unless they find it enjoyable", says it all. If it were a legit condition, wouldn't it permeate all levels?

As I write this my 5 year old grandson is being diagnosed with this and my daughter is considering putting him on meds. When he is with her, he is wild, over bearing, and over the top. When he's with me he's , calm, focused and engaged.

My conclusion: My daughter becomes overwhelmed easily and is fairly inconsistent with discipline. End of story!
 
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