Posted by metric on March 23, 2009, at 17:08:41
In reply to Re: ADD meds/motivation/concentration » metric, posted by garnet71 on March 21, 2009, at 18:51:20
> Thanks for the tips. I checked up on dextroamphetamine. If I understand it correctly, Adderall contains about 3/4 of dextro plus about 1/4 of levo (the stuff you said has adverse effects)--so why do physicians prefer Adderall over Dextroamphetamine? I'm sort of confused.
>For political reasons mostly... "ADDerall" is a new medicine; Dexedrine is that evil drug of abuse from the '60s and '70s. I don't really think either drug (or Ritalin) is a good idea for long-term use in most people, though the alternatives leave much to be desired.
> Anyway, I checked my little Dr. Preskorn neurotransmitter chart, keeping DesolationRower's corrections in mind, which indicated Wellbutrin affects both NE and Dopamine receptors, much like Dextro. I wonder if that would be a bit too much for my brain.
>
> So I do have severe anxiety, but have/had no symptoms, though I take Buspirone, with Wellbutrin or the Ritalin. I wonder if dextro would add anxiety--I know try and see....but wondering--since Zoloft affects the 5H2/seratonin receptors, and Zoloft eliminates my anxiety (like all the SSRIs), does that mean my anxiety is likely a seratonin issue? I noticed dextro works on seratonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.
>Buspirone (Buspar) was originally developed as an antipsychotic but marketed as an anxiolytic. It has no effect on anxiety. Your response or lack thereof to any of these drugs doesn't indicate a relative dominance or inferiority of any neurotransmitter in your CNS. You can't infer that you e.g., need more or less serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine. It's way more complicated than that. All "antidepressants", for
example, are thought to work by effecting changes downstream. And you have different areas of the brain and different receptor subtypes that you don't want to activate or block indiscriminately, which is what would result from a global increase or decrease in neurotransmitter level. That's the problem with SSRIs: they nonselectively increase the amount of available serotonin at all 5-HT subtypes. Mirtazapine (Remeron) is more interesting in that respect; alas, its H1 (histamine) receptor antagonism ensures you'll be too tired to care.> Oh, about the label/disorder of ADD/ADHD--I don't mind it because it really helps me understand all my frustrations I've lived with for many years, along with my son. I don't really think it's a disorder though; to me, it's just a different cognitive 'type'. Different cognitive styles come with good and bad affects--consider autism for an example, though extreme. The reason it becomes a disorder is because if you don't think like everyone else, if you don't act like everyone else, you know... society can't change for small percentage of us who look at things differently; apparently, we must change for society.
>
> It reminds me of an article I read about computer geeks (not making fun-I happen to like computer geeks) and autism. The article said it's possible that computer geeks are in the autism spectrum; some people who were once considered autistic before computers were mainstream, are now computer programmers. No joke, but just an opinion written. I tend to agree, at least partially, since it takes a really special person to do programming-its tough. I took a class and watched 1/4 of the class drop out in the first 2 weeks, and another 1/2 of the class fail. Well, it was a summer class so it was tougher..I watched 2 people being brought to tears during the test. The ONLY reason I passed with a low B is because I sought tutoring at least 8 hours a week to get As on the homework assignments to compensate my anticipated trouble with the final exam and tests, and every free minute I had to spend doing nothing but homework for that class. Then, since I made it that far, the teacher gave me hints while I was doing the final exam--but it turned out to be one test-long hint. lol It was the most frustrating thing I've ever done in my life. Now that I know how it all works, though, I have no desire to ever try to do it again. Every time I see Java code now, I get traumatic flashbacks..lolJava? No wonder you were traumatized by the experience! It's obvious from reading your posts that you're an intelligent person. You would laugh at how easy computer programming is if you had received proper instruction; in fact, I doubt you'd need any instruction at all. Read "The C Programming Language" (2nd ed., Kernighan & Ritchie), and if you want to have some fun, "Programming Perl" (affectionately known as the "Camel Book"). There's an "Introduction to Perl" as well if you want a gentler introduction. Perl is incredibly useful to know. If you're less interested in the immediately pragmatic there's the excellent 3-volume set by Donald Knuth "The Art of Programming".
Are you familiar with Tom Apostol's classic 2-volume Calculus text? It requires very little background, and is an excellent introduction (IMO) to rigorous proof-oriented mathematics. MIT's OpenCourseWare project has lecture notes freely available.
poster:metric
thread:885656
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090322/msgs/886696.html