Posted by jealibeanz on October 16, 2006, at 10:00:05
In reply to Re: Several disorders... need a better cocktail!, posted by jealibeanz on October 16, 2006, at 9:15:54
Inattentive ADHD:
I tend to ignore and deny this one. Sometimes my doc, my PA, and I write concentration problems off as anxiety. While this is partly true, it's not the whole story.
I have all the classic risks/symtoms of inattentive ADHD:
-I'm female... girls are most likely to be inattentive and undiagnosed because we're not hyperactive, loud, or impulsive.
-I'm verrry unorganized (despite being a perfectionist in my mind, I can't follow through in real life)
-I lose/misplace everything I own (keys,purse,car!,phone,books,assignments,notes,pens,pencils,clothes,shoes,lunch... haha, on and on), many times a day, every day.
-I daydream and CAN'T pay attention to oral instructions or lectures. I fidget, swirl around in my chair, and draw during class (I still don't consider this truely hyperactive, although it's a modest manifestation). I have no ability to just sit still, be calm, and listen and absorb material.
-I consider myself an academic underachiever. I still can make A's or B's for the most part, but I know I'm just not even close to doing my best or comprehending information.
-I more or less don't study, not because I'm lazy, but because it's almost painful. My brain turns off and makes me sleepy. I constantly try to multitask and wander around. When I do sit down with notes or a book, my methods are completely illogical.
I skip around from page to page. I would never read a book starting from the beginning to the end. I often start at the end, read paragraphs on a page in reverse order (very difficult to comprehend!), or just decide to read chapters that I'm not assigned instead of what I'm supposed to due because of boredom.
I don't have a learning disorder. I'm very very good at reading comprehension and language skills, if forced to sit in a chair a take a test. But on my own, I just have completely random styles.
-There's no documented history of ADHD in my family that I know of (my sister is probably inattentive and hyperactive though). I actually have trauma-induced brain dysfunction. My lungs collapsed at birth and I suffered from hypoxia for several minutes. My frontal cortex functioning was measured a few years ago- verrrrry little activity. I was able to partially correct this through new capillary growth from intense biofeedback therapy. I'm much improved, but still need help.
If nothing else, my disorder was solidified when my classmate (who has hyperactive ADHD, so only she would actually understand and pick up on my problems) turned to me after a psych lecture of ADHD, and said "So, you have ADHD." I just looked at her, laughed, and said, "Yeah, I really do."
It was very ironic that it happened that day. We were both slightly out of control during the lecture, playing with anything we could get our hands on and completely disregarding the rest of the class.
She later was trying to explain the different subtypes to classmates who were confused. She knows her stuff and has been diagnosed since 1st grade, so she *knew* she's right about me.
Anyway, I went off Straterra in August. It helped a little at first. Maybe I could try again, maybe even try to titrate past 60 mg. Or try a different med, but something needs to be done. I can't just let myself, my doc, and others just shrug off the problem and assume I'm doing OK because I still am fairly successful in school. I could be much better. And I could definitely benefit from wasting less time being unproductive.
poster:jealibeanz
thread:695246
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061011/msgs/695249.html