Posted by mike21 on April 16, 2002, at 19:50:39
In reply to Re: ADD diagnosis... OCD? » mike21, posted by Ritch on April 14, 2002, at 11:16:11
> > Kate,
> >
> > I've read a couple of your posts regarding the stimulants helping to calm you. One of them in anther thread mentioned obsessive-type anxiety. Your description of thinking several thoughts at once sounds like me, too. Also, I have had relief of some symptoms from valium.
> >
> > I am curious if any of your now-diagnosed "ADD" symptoms could fall under OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder. I am starting to think there might be some similarities between these two disorders.
> >
> > Have obsessions or compulsions ever helped you to cope with anxiety? I am asking because I am considering stimulants in the treatment of my anxiety, which I believe is OCD-mediated. Or perhaps I should reconsider my own diagnosis to be ADD.
> >
> > Anyone else have any thoughts?
> >
> > Mike
> >
>
>
> Hi Mike,
>
> OCD is the most common comorbid psychiatric illness in families that have members with ADHD (from what I remember). OCD and ADHD are similar in some ways. If you think about it-both are "attentional dysfunctions" of different flavors. In OCD, people get "stuck" on a particular thought/ritual, whereas in ADHD your attention can't seem to stick to anything. Pschostimulants used for ADHD increase your ability to stay on a single task-whereas they can *diminish* your ability to rapidly "multi-task". SSRI meds that tend to help OCD, help to get your thoughts "unstuck" (in OCD), to relieve the anxiety. Psychostimulants (of the ones I have tried thus far anyhow) have mixed positive effects in relation to focus and single/multitasking. ADHD people have a tendency to "hyper-focus" on things they are interested in (without medication help), but can't stay on track with ordinary things. When I am involved in a task that I typically will "hyper-focus" on and I take a psychostimulant, sometimes it will make me *inefficient* with the task because I burn too much energy and time on it than the task requires. Stimulants improve efficiency with focus on tasks that come up that are everyday or routine (ordinarily quite boring) in nature (reading your mail-writing a check-filling out your taxes, listening and following directions, etc.) I have adapted to ADHD quite well. I looked at all of the "tips" and "tricks" on living with ADHD you can get from the NIMH, etc. and all of the things they suggest are methods I have already already adopted to keep myself on track (lists, notes to self, color-coding, etc.) Taking psychostimulants work quite well for my recurrent major depressions, but for everyday help with ADHD they actually impair my ability to rapidly multi-task on several things at once. Some things don't get done best all at one time.
>
> MitchI'm glad you pointed out that they were comorbid- it had never occured to me that they could be so closely related, just because they seem at opposite ends of the psychological spectrum. But after obsessing, I mean thinking, about it I've come up with some theories (see above post).
From what you say about burning up too much energy on a task, I'd have to say that I do that already. It is more due to perfectionism than anything. Sometimes with a boring task, getting it as perfect as possible gives me a feeling of accomplishment and reward.
I do have a hard time multi-tasking in terms of getting things done in the physical world- I tend to seek out things I am interested in, at the expense of other "boring" things that really *need* to get done.
When you say you burn up too much energy than the task requires, does that mean you become perfectionistic?
Mike
poster:mike21
thread:101846
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020416/msgs/103278.html