when I went to get checked out for this, I had myself checked for OCD as well. A lot of these terms get tossed around as buzzwords, and get thrown on kids who’s only actual problem is being pummeled by sugar in their diets. OCD people are much more serious. If you have to wash yourself like 40 times a day or you will DIE, you have OCD. OCD is hardcore serious, and you will definitely know you have it, or those around you will.
ADHD basically you have too much energy. You can’t pay attention to things, you interrupt during conversations (and if you have something to say but can’t, you can literally feel it), you get nervous tic’s, mood swing’s, trouble sleeping, and not being able to sit still (you’ve undoubtedly seen people sitting there just tapping their leg nonstop for no fucking reason at all). It’s a genetic disorder, with possible environmental causes, and has been known to have been caused by brain damage. You don’t fix it with diet and exercise, you pretty much HAVE to medicate it.
Imagine injecting yourself with pure adrenaline every morning…that’s ADHD.
Hmmm, this might explain why you have all these stories and are one horny MOFO:
That being said on a more serious note, I’m neutral on this topic. On the one hand I don’t think there are any medical doctors in this thread and our opinion really can’t hold much weight. On the other hand, money does talk and volumes and volumes of data do show that we are overmedicating our kids and ourselves. One only has to look at the ridiculous new proposals and changes for DSM-5 to see how the everyday “things” that one might experience at one time or another become medical conditions all of a sudden.
At the end of the day, neither I or anybody else can tell you what is right for you. If you feel that these pills will help you than by all means go right ahead. However, I do feel that “these pills” are Band-Aid solutions a lot of times to problems we do not have the answers to or don’t want to take the steps necessary to answer…
Our brains are different, they don’t make enough of a kind of neurotransmitter, or our brains don’t take in enough of what we make. This is why medication works so well for so many people. We lack a balance and the medication puts it back in to balance. Like how diabetics take insulin to manage their blood sugar levels.
It’s a deficiency in our frontal lobes, self-regulation and behavior. Learning and knowing what to do? Not a problem. Doing? There’s the problem. Which is why whatever you might try, whatever you might learn, won’t quite stick in till you get medicated. Been about 8 years since I was last on Ritalin and getting my life back to how it was like while on medication has not been working. The juice just isn’t there. My thought process is different; all my alarm clocks, notepads, whiteboards, and todo apps just don’t work like when I was medicated.
I already see the anti-med posts. Lost of old information still circulating out there about ADHD, along with agendas and bias. It can be difficult to navigate. All brain disorder topics are heated. It’s to be expected, I can’t “show” you my disorder. As someone who was diagnosed during alot of the ADD hysteria, and then again as an adult, and has been in denial of my ADHD and hated my medication, I figure I should say something. Knowing more about what ADHD is and isn’t, I’ve come to accept it. And in retrospect, as much as I hated my medication and denied it having any effect, it did have an effect and it did help my life. I’ve been lucky to have had some damn good doctors who wanted to actually help me rather than just pump me full of anti-depressants. But I’ve been having a hell of a time finding a new doctor. Wish you well in what ever it is you decide on doing.
My little brother took pills for his ADHD when he was about 10-14 and he got SUPER skinny, he wouldn’t eat anything. But as he aged he stopped being so energetic/crazy/hyper and is eating regularly, he’s fine now. But he still has problems concentrating in school, I don’t think there is an actual cure for it.
It’s 2-sided, either stop your ADHD and get a terrible side effect, or you kind of just have to deal with it.
op: i have it, i went on the drugs but didnt like how they affected me in highschool. I’ve considered goin back on them, the past few years have been pretty bad a.d.h.d wise…i’ve been pretty good with anything not related to school. But i’m thinking of studying up for some i.t tests and how my a.d.h.d will affect me kinda scares me.
I would take the time to learn about meditation and breathing exercises before taking pills. I think what they call AdHd is just the brain itself rebelling or adapting to being bombarded with types of stimuli that it hadn’t evolved to cope with. The cool thing about breathe and meditation exercises is that it kind of power cycles your body in a way that can help you deal with those types of situations. Kinda of like that old paper bag/anxiety trick.
I ask this to myself before. Is ADHD even real? Will prescription pills help me cope with it? I was only 13 when I was diagnosed with ADHD (well more ADD, not really extreme) too and took prescriptions for a period of time. They worked but it had bad side-effects that took a toll in my body. I became depressed, I couldn’t sleep, eat, think creatively (I draw), my hairs were lashing out. Then I made a decision to stop taking my meds.
Right now, I’m 21 and I’m doing great. But I ask the question ‘do I really have ADHD?’ Because I feel like I wasted money on prescriptions just on some psychiatric condition, which I doubt, exists.
