seriously guys/Gals. Who's on ADHD meds?

[PIMking]

That testing sucked big time.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by welshboy2008

I am trying to fins a place to get the test done as an adult in Calgary. Any ideas?

I'll read you "The Great Gatsby" and then give you a quick quiz afterward. If you fail the quiz, I'm sorry, you have ADD.

[Northendzone]

i sometimes wonder if i have it as I always feel I am thinking about lots of stuff and really can't fully concentrate on one thing (barb hggins, tyra banks, oprah etc...)...

my son has a variety of behavioral issues and we took him to see a pyschologist and she thinks he has adhd - and we are now working thru the evaluation process

[Blaster86]

I was diagnosed ADHD when I was younger and was put on ritalin.

Calmed me right now, let me sit in class and behave like a good boy...

The draw back was it made me incredibly violent. I would attack friends and classmates for next to no reason, but was completely calm while doing it. We tried it twice, when I was 7/8 and when I was 11. Same end result both times, better school work, neater writing and silent in class but a sociopath outside of that.

[BlackEleven]

Nope. I'm not easily distrac

[scotty2hotty]

Originally Posted by daaznfob

where can we go to get tested for these things??

Your family doc can order you a blood test that tests for certain antibodies which would indicate a true food allergy. This is a good starting point.

Getting tested for 'intolerances' and 'sensitivities' is a little more difficult as there is a lot of conflicting information and some questionable holistic practices out there. A friend recommended a naturopath but I feel like I simply wasted a couple hundred dollars. After doing a lot of research I finally chose a registered nutritionist in town who did all the testing ....but I live in Vancouver.

[Nuje]

I'm probably somebody that they would diagnose with such a thing. I've even taken the drugs, and done better on tests at school with them (although that was a while ago). For some reason, I've been able to have much more organized thoughts the last year though, so either it's subsided on its own (doubtful) or I've done something to better organize my thoughts.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by scotty2hotty

Just a quick aside here and my two cents ... I also think that every person/child should be thoroughly test for food allergies and intolerances.

This is something I've read up on extensively over the years and have tried first hand. It has proven to be a life changer for me.

Read up on some of the symptoms of gluten intolerance, intestinal candida overgrowth, sugar sensitivity, etc and you'll be amazed at the similarities to ADHD, anxiety, depression ....

I'm not pulling a Tom Cruise here and saying that this is a cure all for everyone. Medicine definitely has its place. I'm just saying that for me personally, a huge shift in diet and eating habits kept me off prescription medications and allowed me to feel fantastic.

Everyone would benefit from cooking from scratch, and using the most natural and wholesome ingredients possible.

Years ago, people were on high carb and high sugar diets and there was not the high incidence of ADD. They worked much harder though and never had as sedentary lives as people today.

I personally believe that preservatives, colorants, all those kinds of things, are much worse for you than sugar. My son was extremely active as a child, not ADD, but just very active. He could have a cookie or some kind of baked treat, never bothered him. BUT, give him smarties, actually for him, the combination of chocolate and colorants, and you could wipe him off the ceiling.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by redforever

Everyone would benefit from cooking from scratch, and using the most natural and wholesome ingredients possible.

Years ago, people were on high carb and high sugar diets and there was not the high incidence of ADD. They worked much harder though and never had as sedentary lives as people today.

I personally believe that preservatives, colorants, all those kinds of things, are much worse for you than sugar. My son was extremely active as a child, not ADD, but just very active. He could have a cookie or some kind of baked treat, never bothered him. BUT, give him smarties, actually for him, the combination of chocolate and colorants, and you could wipe him off the ceiling.

I have a rock in my pocket and have not been attacked by a lion. Clearly those things must have to be cause and effect. Sugar has been proven time and time again to have no effect on hyperactivity, good or bad. Fact is the higher incedence of ADHD is strictly due to higher diagnosis rates and better access to care as well as knowledge. Are you telling me years ago with this higher sugar diet you claim people had they had the same access to psychiatrists? Same goes for everyone's various conspiracy theories on autism. We search more for it, find more because of that, then it's diet related? Why can't people accept we don't all have some intrinsic ability to get to this perfect state of being and may need help to cope?

Sorry, don't mean to pick, but this "if you eat the right foods, herbs, etc it will make you better than you are now" theory irks me
/rant

[Berger_4_]

Dammit, I came in here to hey look a butterfly!
So what if it's a used joke. I'm rolling with it.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by Berger_4_

Dammit, I came in here to
So what if it's a used joke. I'm rolling with it.

Be the third person to make a this joke!



is what is should have said =|.

[jd456]

I've never been diagnosed because I hate taking meds. I had to take meds for something else most of my childhood, but luckily I don't need them anymore. However, people close to me tell me I show a lot of signs of both ADD and OCD. In fact, I met a girl a few years ago who thought about things the same way I did, such as being distracted by little things, especially patterns, and it turns out she was diagnosed with OCD. I've just been nervous about getting tested because, as evidenced in this thread, the medicine has different effects on people. It's not crippling to me or anything, just more annoying that I can't clear my mind w/o working out a ton. So if I have it, I guess I can live with it, unless it becomes a problem and affects my daily life.

[myst]

Originally Posted by scotty2hotty

Just a quick aside here and my two cents ... I also think that every person/child should be thoroughly test for food allergies and intolerances.

This is something I've read up on extensively over the years and have tried first hand. It has proven to be a life changer for me.

Read up on some of the symptoms of gluten intolerance, intestinal candida overgrowth, sugar sensitivity, etc and you'll be amazed at the similarities to ADHD, anxiety, depression ....

I'm not pulling a Tom Cruise here and saying that this is a cure all for everyone. Medicine definitely has its place. I'm just saying that for me personally, a huge shift in diet and eating habits kept me off prescription medications and allowed me to feel fantastic.

as a 3rd year medical student, i can say this is just plain wrong. read up on ADHD instead and clinical trials instead. you have no idea what kind of clinical trials and rigorous testing that is done to prove that a drug is effective in treating a condition. the beauty and essence of science is to link cause and effect, not simply correlate two things. in clinical trials, patients ages, diets, race, gender, etc etc are all accounted for and "controlled" using very sophisticated statistical methods so that we are able to accurately say that "drug x does this"; taking care of the interference of other variables

adhd is a condition where parts of the brain are overactive (stimulatory neurons) and others are underactive (inhibitory neurons). a simple way of knowing whether someone has adhd is if you treat them with the medications that have been listed here. all medications that were listed are actually stimulants (derivatives of amphetamine basically). those with adhd have a paradoxical effect of actually decreasing the hyperactivity of the brain and it is thought that is due to an increase in the firing of inhibitory neurons; or it is due to a "densitization" process the cells undergo when exposed to so much stimulation

on the other hand, if you give these stimulatory medications to someone who does not have adhd, the result will be the opposite - patients will be going off the wall, hyperexcitable, flight of ideas, etc etc etc.

1) gluten intolerance is due to a gene polymorphism in some patients that causes hypersensitivity to gluten containing foods. it has absolutely nothing to do with adhd. it has to do with an inflammatory reaction that happens in your bowels because your body thinks that the gluten is "foreign" and tries to "attack" it - causing gastrointestinal problems
2) intestinal candida overgrowth is almost unheard of except in the context of aids patients, those with severely depressed immune systems (like uncontrolled diabetes) or those with rare defects in white blood cells that cannot recognize candida as "foreign"

[Flash Walken]

To the parents of kids with ADHD, some thoughts to consider.

Find out what your child enjoys that is mentally draining. Jenga, math, reading, lego, drawing, looking at baseball cards...

If there is something that they do (besides television and computer) that they enjoy but you can also tell fatigues them, push it hard, and it doesn't have to be a sport.

Don't look to pidgeon hole them in an activity that you think they'd be good at, or should try or would like to see them do. It can be something mindblowingly simple at a young age, like tying different knots or comparing different leaves. Whatever it is, push that hard. You don't have to incorporate it into another activity or expand upon it right away. Just the basic activity is enough to keep them focused, any more and you've lost it.

An example:

One kid I work with likes seeing how high he can count. Sometimes I don't correct him when he misses numbers. He likes doing it, it takes focus for him to stick to it, and by the time he is ready to stop, I can tell he is in a different head space than before. When I watch him do it with his father, a good amount of the time he doesn't get the same benefit because his father still misses the point. Not on purpose, but he doesn't get it.

If your kid is silent for 15 minutes and you're worried about what they're up to, as long as anything isn't being ruined, try not to interrupt them.

I wish my parents had given me/let me play with more tools as a kid, especially given the aptitude I displayed.

[Reggie Dunlop]

http://dumpalink.com/videos/SNL-Phil...Hypo-1196.html

[RougeUnderoos]

So the guy finishes off with this:

Originally Posted by scotty2hotty

I'm just saying that for me personally, a huge shift in diet and eating habits kept me off prescription medications and allowed me to feel fantastic.

And your first sentence is this:

Originally Posted by myst

as a 3rd year medical student, i can say this is just plain wrong.

What do you mean by that?

It works for him. Are you saying it doesn't work for him?

Probably (hopefully) not, but it sure comes across that way.

[Itse]

I was diagnosed with ADD years ago, but once I tried the meds I immediately noticed how good they make me feel. Uncomfortably good, more like being high I guess. I'm not sure if the effect would have worn out over time, but I was frankly too scared to take another pill.

Later on I got a new diagnosis (this time while trying to get rid of sleeping problems) and now I'm on medication for bipolar personality. Much better, and propably a better diagnosis. Althouh I have noticed that when I need to produce creatively, I need to cut down on meds.

I still get very ADD-like symptoms if I don't sleep properly, and when I'm on a prolonged manic stage I also tend to cut down on meds just because life is so much more fun that way, and sleeping less just lets me have more fun :P

My life is certainly better with medication, but I still go without them occasionally, just to remind myself of... myself I guess. I've noticed that over time (years) I've gotten much better at understanding the effect of the medication and thus understanding myself and what "this bipolarity thing" means for me. I've gotten pretty good at controlling my own dosage (although my doctor grumbles at me) and more importantly as I've learned to recognize some behaviour issues better, I've learned to get rid of them and just be more like the person I want to be, with or without meds.

Hmm, that was longer and more personal than I originally expected. Oh well.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

I have a rock in my pocket and have not been attacked by a lion. Clearly those things must have to be cause and effect. Sugar has been proven time and time again to have no effect on hyperactivity, good or bad. Fact is the higher incedence of ADHD is strictly due to higher diagnosis rates and better access to care as well as knowledge. Are you telling me years ago with this higher sugar diet you claim people had they had the same access to psychiatrists? Same goes for everyone's various conspiracy theories on autism. We search more for it, find more because of that, then it's diet related? Why can't people accept we don't all have some intrinsic ability to get to this perfect state of being and may need help to cope?

Sorry, don't mean to pick, but this "if you eat the right foods, herbs, etc it will make you better than you are now" theory irks me
/rant

Is that piano on your back pretty heavy?

Where did I say that people should not take medications for ADD or anything else for that matter?

Where did I say that if you eat a certain way, your symptoms will go away?

I merely said that everyone would benefit from having a diet that is as natural and wholesome as possible.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Yeah that is a good point. At the same time I was "diagnosed" I also started eating and exercising better (just a coincidence, not planned or anything) and that really helps. I have the equivalent of 3 cans of soda a year. No sugar in coffee. No fast food . I actually log 26 hours of sports a week. It doesn't take a lot of work and no complicated medicines, and I feel a lot more mentally alert and focussed than ever.

I read an article in one of my cycling magazines recently. One of the USA Cycling team members had severe ADHD, so he did what most people were doing at the time and medicated. Turned him into a zombie, he couldn't stand it. Then he discovered cycling. One hour of hard physcial activity calmed his brain down for the entire day.

I'd love to see more studies about that with kids and ADHD, but you probably won't because pharmaceutical companies can't make any money off them.

[photon]

The thing with adults is some people can come up with different mechanisms to cope and thrive, but those don't work for everyone, and for every one person who can do that there seems to be ten that that doesn't work for and their condition seriously impacts their life in a negative way.

And with kids, engaging in a half hour or hour of physical activity every day isn't really realistic, because it would have to happen in the morning before school, and no matter how fun you make it there's no way you'll get a kid to do it every single day. And every day is what's required for many kids, not just for education, but for social interaction too and even safety issues... while many parents don't care if their kid gets straight A's or straight D's, most parents should care if their kid can't make any friends and can't engage in social activities with their peers, and should care if their kid rides their bike into traffic a lot because their attention is being pulled by the dog and the butterfly and the other kids and everything else.

The thing with medication is there are so many different kinds now, I've talked with some people that try one and don't like it and quit, while others have had to try 5 or 6 and at different doses but eventually find the one that'll help but not zone them out.