Tactile issues

[Anonymous]

I have add and I find it really hard to get to sleep at night, firstly because of my brain not shutting down but the other is because I have a really hard time getting comfortable. The blankets don’t feel right on my skin and if anything is touching me I can’t sleep! It’s horrible when my two young girls decide to sleep with me, makes for an endless, sleepless night of pushing away arms, legs, feet, anything, from touching me. Anyone else with Add ahve tactile issues?

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[Anonymous]

I’m the same. My limbs have to be evenly covered, I can’t sleep if I can feel my breath on my skin, the sheets need to be heavy enough, I can’t be too warm or too cold, limbs can’t have other limbs on them (sleeping on my side is nearly impossible)…

I have other tactile issues as well. I can’t deal with dry hands. If they’re dry, I can’t touch ANYTHING without freaking out. My whole body rebels agains the sensations. It’s horrible.

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[Anonymous]

Wow!

I had to laugh when I read this because my husband and I were having this exact conversation the other night.

He has his side of the bed made up in a certain way, mine in my way with the certain kind of blankets, etc etc.

Took a long time for me to get used to having anyone in the bed with me. I would lay there all night, hyper and irritated with my heart hammering away.

The other person was noisy, breathing too loud, (if they snored! yikes!) moving too much, touching me..the list is pretty much infinite. I sometimes was so noise sensitive that I felt like I was sleeping in a barn!

My husband is nice and quiet and doesn’t move when he sleeps. He is perfect!

I also have to be pretty much covered head to toe because the sheets and comforter feel too pokey, pointy, hot, cold, they make noise etc etc..can’t be too light (even in summer and this is a drag!) Any light in the room makes me wake up..forget ever sleeping in.

In winter it is a relief as we have flannel sheets and an electric bed warmer that we turn on about an hour before bed, then off when we get into it. Pre-warms everything and then we can have a nice cool room with lots of soft heavy blankets.

Lots of tactile issues too numerous to list but just thought I was ‘sensitive’.

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

In the documentary one of the experts said that ADHD kids are far more active, even in their sleep. Dr. Annick Vincent told us she could tell which two of her four boys were going to be ADHD before they we born because they were far more active in the womb.

I often end up sleeping in the spare room when I’m restless.

If your brain has trouble filtering input, it has trouble filtering out the stream of stuff bombarding it. So while most people’s brains can shut off the feel of the shirt on their back, or the slight bulge of the mattress under their leg, for an ADDer the signal is loud and clear.

Two common things are: “I have to cut all the tags off my shirts.” or “When I found a pair of socks I felt were comfy, I bought twenty pairs.”

Dr. J has two videos on the sleeping topic:

http://totallyadd.com/sleep-management

http://totallyadd.com/the-bedroom

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[Anonymous]

Thanks awesome, I am soo happy I found this site!!

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[Anonymous]

I think it should be renamed something more accurate…like

‘Heightened Awareness Syndrome’ or something of the sort.

I can smell stuff no one else can..

……not too nice when you live work and take the TTC in Toronto!

: /

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[Anonymous]

*MerryMac I too have the scent thing. Noticed it most when I was preg (duh! early side effect) but it stayed with me. I have a hoodie with a metal zipper that I can’t wear anymore because all I smell is the metal in the zipper. Weird right??? I have tons more examples like this of smelling stuff

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[Anonymous]

Circetay..Thank Goodness!

I thought it was just me! Metal smells make my teeth ache!

The worst is that I can smell people’s TEETH (yep..that’s right!) when they talk to me.

I can tell who hasn’t has them cleaned at the dentist, who has a cavity..it’s so bad sometimes that I have to turn my head slightly to get out of the line of fire.

Other times I just discreetly put my hand over my nose and pretend I’m about to sneeze or something.

Any new vinyl thing! YUCK! Especially the shower liners from the Dollar store! Gagging for days!

The smell of the crock pot on overnight…oh man! Too much smell to sleep!

Anyone else this bad???

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[Anonymous]

Hmm… well.. i have certain sameness… Well.. even before in childhood i went to eat to my granny… before even i was at the door i smelled what kind of food there was to be..

When my father started to use certain kind of glues… i had to go away… My head would be swaying and then came really bad head ache (which is similar to any normal person too). But it certainly felt overly much…

I have mastered my smell, taste, and so on… in childhood myself in my thoughts i decided to learn to walk in the darkness like i was one of those without eyesight.. And in this appartment which i no longer live but will move away… i’ve had to go to wc down level (here is plumming going in bigscale). ive learned i can do it in my 28years of age… Kind of neat.. when one is also kind sensitive to the affect of darkness..

When one smells too clearly.. there isnt much to do.. just to put the clothespin to the nose and hope it wont be less than you need to do…

ASs they say… which you hate the most.. try to overcome it to lessen it’s strenght towards you.. before it will be over you…

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[Anonymous]

Ah yes, the sleep issues! I can spend a good half hour getting the bedding to lay ‘just right’ and then I become aware of the noises from outside the house. Keeping the air conditioning on all summer helps with that but it does nothing for the finances! Do you know how many animals are out prowling at night making a racket? I can’t believe that I’m not even living out in the country!!

For the past year (even in the winter- the cold frozen air seems to make the air carry the sound even more. Yes, even with the windows closed.) I hear the coyotes out howling, or fighting (or perhaps murdering their dinner??!!). Then I have to get up to close the window and have to start rearranging the bedding all over again.

After dealing with all the fidgeting to get the bed just right, I ‘think’ I can settle down to sleep but my mind is still going a hundred miles an hour. How does one turn off their brain? I’ve tried the melatonin with marginal success and have even been given a drug to help with sleep (mirtrazapine??). Not sure of the name or spelling since I rarely use it. It does seem to help even in the tiny dose I take but I rather just NOT take a drug.

Besides, even as a small kid I was awake until past midnight doing the lie abed and fidget routine. Why would I want to change now??

On a funnier note, as a twin (fraternal) I had to share a double bed with her for a few years in my teens. Since she is not ADD she was not very understanding of my non-stop fidgeting to get the sheets and blankets just right. She used to eat crackers and cheese in bed and you can just imagine how it felt feeling those seemingly gigantic cracker crumbs. I couldn’t never understand how they didn’t bother her! She blow up pretty quickly with my constant moving around in the bed but she had no mercy if I spent more than a second or two sweeping out her cracker crumbs. I’m surprised I’m still alive to even tell this tale. It should have been me complaining!!

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[Anonymous]

Ah yes, the sleep issues! I can spend a good half hour getting the bedding to lay ‘just right’ and then I become aware of the noises from outside the house. Keeping the air conditioning on all summer helps with that but it does nothing for the finances! Do you know how many animals are out prowling at night making a racket? I can’t believe that I’m not even living out in the country!!

For the past year (even in the winter- the cold frozen air seems to make the air carry the sound even more. Yes, even with the windows closed.) I hear the coyotes out howling, or fighting (or perhaps murdering their dinner??!!). Then I have to get up to close the window and have to start rearranging the bedding all over again.

After dealing with all the fidgeting to get the bed just right, I ‘think’ I can settle down to sleep but my mind is still going a hundred miles an hour. How does one turn off their brain? I’ve tried the melatonin with marginal success and have even been given a drug to help with sleep (mirtrazapine??). Not sure of the name or spelling since I rarely use it. It does seem to help even in the tiny dose I take but I rather just NOT take a drug.

Besides, even as a small kid I was awake until past midnight doing the lie abed and fidget routine. Why would I want to change now??

On a funnier note, as a twin (fraternal) I had to share a double bed with her for a few years in my teens. Since she is not ADD she was not very understanding of my non-stop fidgeting to get the sheets and blankets just right. She used to eat crackers and cheese in bed and you can just imagine how it felt feeling those seemingly gigantic cracker crumbs. I couldn’t never understand how they didn’t bother her! She blow up pretty quickly with my constant moving around in the bed but she had no mercy if I spent more than a second or two sweeping out her cracker crumbs. I’m surprised I’m still alive to even tell this tale. It should have been me complaining!!

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[Anonymous]

Well.. about this sleep thingie… I’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea (didin’t find the correct worda..)..

Before I surely was a zombie.. i couldn’t stay awake.. in certain mathematics class i slept class straight through.. Teacher was certain his teachings and mathematics surely can’t be that boring…

Even though i after diagnose explained why was it it surely made me stand from the pack…

About how to control one’s thoughts… well there is this five year method (which i did myself and sometimes with my father as a discussion help) when i had to stop my psych meetings that person didn’t have her studies done so well (she got her psych papers from a class which was to make certain therapist to get better upstanding… kind of)..

I had to go through these thoughts and racings with myself…

There was this cycle:

– Something big or less was coming stresslevel up, exciment, couldn’t wait it coming (couldn’t at same time do something for it like for example do homework)..

– When it was over either there came the relief one can expect get some sleep again or then it came worse when those kind of meetings (whatever it was: person, animal and its owner…) because those gave my thoughts some more fuel to accelöerate and my worst of worst period was over two weeks of time… from which i don’t even remember when i stopped it but i forced myself to get even rest (by laying down and keeping my eyes shut) then i woke up and i had my sleep.. even for two hours..

– I learned to just go through with those thoughts.. express myself in the net (in the chatrooms), to write in the my way of thinking letters to a good good penpal (which whom is in my messenger nowadays).. by getting acceptance and by writing my thoughts to a giving to my thoughts a black letters to the paper and they came away which results to i got the chaos away…

Doers it work for everyone… well some will need those psychs to overcome one’s innerself from the chaos… It is just to come in terms with oneself… If you always try to barke the connection to your thoughts they will never let you sleep…

Either way.. one just has to be true to oneself.. it aint easy.. im in the journey myself.. i’ve not been diagnosed with adhd/add but i surely seem to be one.. but by knowing it i certainly know where to go if i need to

By letting thoughts come and go and take some from there to the paper.. or like “Oh this was the thought which has been bugging me i will at the morning put it first to the paper (or comp.) so i will not forget it…” or if one is person who forgets even when that thought cmae and pheuw away then it suerly should be at that moment to put it to the paper or comp…

Why.. umm well.. it surely could make oneself remember that in certain day there is something which should be gone to (like going to doctor to that day and not the late day… next day… *feels ashamed*

oh my.. kind of lecture this can be… hopefully it shall enlighten to see more ways…. to not race everynight..

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[Anonymous]

So I just saw the documentary and joined the site this morning…please forgive my following verbosity.

So many things resonate, and I had no idea they could be associated with ADD. The sleep issues: 1) if I didn’t fall asleep before my ex-husband did, I would be awake for hours from the noise of his breathing, 2) Two of my sisters (one who was diagnosed more than 20 years ago with ADHD) say that can’t sleep under a sheet or blanket that’s too busy with colors or patterns, 3) I spent years learning how to quiet my racing brain through meditation & various tricks in order to be able to fall asleep at night.

Regarding the smell thing, my mother claims she can smell insects, which I’ve never heard of before.

Regarding self-medication: I have had a love-hate relationship with caffeine since I was about 11. I also come from a long line of alcoholics and addicts (but have thankfully not gone off the edge with drugs or alcohol myself).

I was never diagnosed because, unlike my hyperactive brother and sister, I was a calm, quiet child. However, I realize now at age 40 that my inattention and daydreaming, distraction, and lifetime of underachievement, despite moments of brilliance and acknowledged potential throughout, are classic ADD!

Despite working hard and achieving certain things that I consider successful (I sing and play, write, make folk art & jewelry, I graduated with a 3.99 GPA at the top of my class in college, etc.), I am unemployed, broke and divorced. I even had a recent interview with the HR director for one of my previous employers who said that I was a great pinch-hitter and could do several different things well, but that she was afraid I would get bored and move on quickly.

I feel like I’ve worked hard to be the kind of person I wanted to be, and that I have achieved a certain level of skill and competency (that is even acknowledged by others), but that I just can’t get the hang of the whole money thing, like I’m missing some important piece of information that everybody else got. I feel like a failure and an idiot even though I know I’m smart, talented and capable. I have no idea how to be successful professionally or financially. And when I look at my family, I see a lot of smart, talented people who have spent their lives getting by and not living up to their potential either.

I have racked my brain for years, read innumerable self-help books, studied every kind of spirituality, talked to people, seen therapists in the past who diagnosed me with depression but never ADD, and now that I think I’ve figured out what’s really wrong, I want to know how to change this detrimental pattern and start enjoying some actualized success.

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[Anonymous]

bed must be made before I get into it, all bedding uncrinkled, sheets must be soft – duvet weight can not be too heavy – room must be cold & silent & BLACK (I clip the drapes to the window sill so they dont blow in the breeze) my feet must be free – shoulders covered but neck bare (really sometimes I just thought I was a freak). 1 of the dogs sleeps on the bed, she has to jump on in the midle of the night – otherwise I cant get to sleep ,,,, And bedding changed at least once a week. & no cotton on cotton (makes my teeth feel funny)

Did anyone elses mum put them in those super long flannel nighties that would try to strangle you in the night?? Seriously they would end up wrapped around your neck by morning! It was like they were trying to kill you in your sleep..

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[Anonymous]

I have to be covered head to toe (including sexy socks..*smirk*) so that I can’t feel the bedding…

Don’t like duvet or blankets touching my feet..have to have them sticking out and unencumbered.

Don’t sleep with sheets..too pointy and cold

Light is the worst enemy especially in the summer. At the first hint of sunrise my body is up and running.

I have blinds AND drapes in the bedroom.

Man, I hope none of us get together for a sleep-over!

: )

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