OT: A.D.D.

[minipol]

South Park, one of the best "cartoon" series. As was "Ren and Stimpy" and "Pinky and the brain".
What happened in that episode?

[Gryphin]

Background:
I am 49, was diagnosed 4.5 years ago.
I graduated 1973
I was not dianosed untill the end of my second marriage, (when I ended up in therapy)
They put me on 60mg of Ritalin, (an upper) and 3mg of Klonopin, (a downer and a narcotic). every day.
I lost 40 lbs in 3 weeks because I stopped eating. Ritalin kills your appitite.
The Klonopin "takes the edge off".
During the next year and a half I was nearly fired 3 times for behavior issues. Go figure.

Statistic (that I can't back up at the moment so it constitutes hear say)
ADD is responsible for or present in 50 percent of divorces.

[minipol]

Originally posted by Gryphin:
Background:
I am 49, was diagnosed 4.5 years ago.
I graduated 1973
I was not dianosed untill the end of my second marriage, (when I ended up in therapy)

How does the diagnosing work? I mean is it with tests or do fill out a questionnaire?
And diagnosed at the age of 44.5? Makes you wonder how many doctors know about ADD and what to look for in people

[Gryphin]

ADD, (note I don't include the "H" because I am not Hyper Active)
There are about 10 symptoms that are common to people with ADD. Most people who are diagnosed with this have 6 or more.

It was not diagnosed in me because it had not been identifyed when I was in school. The teachers all thought I was lazy. What they could not figure out was how did I excel in some classes and fail others.

I have not been in a shrinks chair till the start of the divorce.

[Atraikius]

I was diagnosed with ADD about 6 years ago (doc said I had the highest score on some standard ADD test he's seen), and take 100mg of Adderal, and 80mg of Wellbutrin a day for it. I have almost every symptom common with ADD, but wasn't diagnosed until an adult because acording to my doc I was good enough in school that ADD let me pick up what was being taught exceptionally fast; making the teachers look good.

Like Gryphon pointed out, reading through the Posts can often be trying; to the extent that while using a 56k modem I can't take going through the post more than about once a week recently. Of all the symptoms, the worst for me are the interuptions though.

From trying to explain what ADD is like to others, I thing the easiest, and best way to explain it I have found is to compare it to a slipping clutch in a car. Consider that your brain is like the engine of a car; in a person without ADD, everything is normal, when the brain is is gear the wheels turn. But with ADD, the clutch slips; the faster their brain goes, the more the clutch slips; the drugs help make the slipping less (but they don't stop it completely).

Well, that didn't come out exactly how I wanted, I got interrupted halfway through, and lost my train of thought.