Re: anyone else??

[Anonymous]

“I want to know if i have it but I don’t want to take medication. and I dont want a diagnosis saying that im limited to do stuff”.

Right now I would say you have limitations – that prevent you from moving forward in recognizing and possibly treating a bonafide disorder. Get a diagnosis and learn some more about ADHD, and you’ll have more knowlege and options. That’s a lot more powerful than reacting from a fearful place.

How do you know you wouldn’t benefit from medication or other treatment options? Maybe you have friends that have taken meds for ADHD and didn’t like them, stopped using them? My nephew was diagnosed years ago, tried meds, didn’t like them, stopped taking them. But he had one eye on his ADHD friends who stayed on their meds and who finished school and went on to college, etc. Personally, I never studied in school (was always distracted), dropped out of university to do more “fun” stuff, have had 26 jobs in my lifetime – most less than 2 years in length. Out of this messy life and a difficult relationship, I finally figured out (after being told) that I might have ADHD, and more importantly, that there was something I could do about it.

A good specialist will thoroughly investigate you and work with you to find what works best. There is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan since the disorder itself can be quite different for each individual. After 56 years, I was relieved, in a way, to find out that I had ADHD, and to try meds. Nobody forced them on me, but after reading enough about how dangerous ADHD is in some areas of life if you are not medicated, I was willing to try. Big change, now I am making progress in areas of my life I had always struggled with.

My therapist says that the good thing about having a formal diagnosis is that it lets you know what your limitations are. For example, I am a dangerous driver unmedicated. I have ADHD and a sleep disorder, so either I drive fast and recklessly to stay alert, or I am very drowsy, can hardly keep my eyes open, am slow to react, and shouldn’t be driving. If I’m not on medication, I shouldn’t drive if I’m at all sleepy, and I should drive very cautiously, since my impulse is to do the opposite. Meds are quite effective for me in this respect. So knowing the limitations can help you to understand yourself, and possibly modify aspects of your symptoms without medication. Meds, if they work (and they don’t work for everyone), just support and make change possible.

Driving and ADHD is apparently one of the most studied aspects of ADHD. Studies show that a person with ADHD that drives unmedicated is the equivalent of a person who’s had several alcoholic drinks. Add alcohol to the mix, and they are even more dangerous on the road. That alone should be a good enough reason to look more closely at your situation.

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