ADD – a topic I tend to avoid
As a reader of this blog you know I have ADD and I’ve occasionally referenced how it impacts my current abilities but for the most part I reference how my experiences with it and my dyslexia give me a perspective on raising my daughter with special needs. Unfortunately lately my ADD has really kicked in. I’ve noticed over the years that during some periods in life my ADD tendencies are much stronger than others. The last time I had trouble was about 10 years ago and I went on Aderal for about 6 months. The problem is after six months or so I could no longer sleep at night and I just didn’t feel comfortable in my skin. So I stopped the medicine.
That was the third time I’ve taken medicine for my ADD. The first was when I repeated 4th grade at 11 years old. I took medicine then for about a year and then again in College. when I took it in college it wasn’t prescribed but a friend had some and offered it to me. I know this was technically wrong but I was having a hard time and wasn’t going to pay hundreds of dollars to go through testing to prove I had ADD again after having been through it so many times and hating the process. I actually did go to the school clinic first and all they could recommend was testing. BTW it is not uncommon for undiagnosed ADDers to self medicate with various drugs. At any rate I only took meds that time for about 3 months. I also notice that after getting off the meds I have always been able to sustain my newly established thinking patterns for about eight years without the meds.
I have never had good long term experiences on the medicine yet I’m troubled right now. My ADD thinking patterns are disrupting my ability to sit down and complete simple tasks let alone complicated work tasks. I don’t really want to go back on meds but I also have to deal with the disruptive thinking patterns now or I fear they will start to disrupt my ability to earn income. If anyone has any ideas to alternative means like diet, I’d be interested to hear about it but if you haven’t had success with diet please don’t tell me its the answer. I’ve heard natural supplements might work too. Please let me know what you know. I’ll post the results of anything I try.
