The Forums › Forums › Medication › At a Loss › Re: At a Loss
Sounds like you’re sort of self-medicating, taking a pill here and there from your collection. And that’s never a good idea.
ADD often has comorbidities of anxiety, depression and bipolar. Maybe the solution is to treat your anxiety as well as treating your ADD. This must be discussed with your psychiatrist, and investigated further. If you already have anxiety, stimulant medication will make it worse. You may need to add a medication to control the anxiety. Perhaps just a very small dose of it, but that small dose may make all the difference.
I was diagnosed first with depression, later with bipolar 2 (a milder form of bipolar). Then I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. It would appear that the depression and bipolar 2 are symptoms of my trying to function with ADHD. I’m now on Ritalin, and weaning off Effexor XR (which I’d taken for 12 years to treat my depression), but still staying on a small dose of Seroquel (which I’ve been on for about 3 years, after a hypomanic episode of racing thoughts). The Seroquel helps slow down the racing thoughts at night, so I can drift off to sleep.
If you have a formal diagnosis of anxiety or depression or bipolar, then those are considered disabilities under the law, and your employer must make adjustments to your work situation to enable you to function. ADD and ADHD may or may not be considered disabilities under the law where you live. Although you have explained your situation verbally to your boss, you will require a formal letter from your psychiatrist, explaining the nature of your disability and stating that you will need certain adjustments. If your employer has been informed of your disability, then any punitive action such as pay cuts or probation, are in violation of the laws protecting those with disabilities.
Clearly, your boss regards your illness as similar to alcoholism. He thinks that you’re weak, and allowing “things to control you”, instead of just taking charge and overcoming your problem. This makes as much sense as telling someone in a wheelchair to just stop being weak, and stand up and walk. If your boss feels this way, you need to talk to Human Resources as soon as possible, and explain the situation. They should have more knowledge and experience with disabilities and the laws protecting people who have them, from such discrimination as your boss is showing you.
I had a boss like that. He treated me like a weak person instead of a person with a genuine medical condition. His persecution of me culminated in his writing a false quarterly review, which he used to justify immediately terminating my employment and frog-marching me out of the building. I filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission. It dragged out for three years, before finally being settled. I received ten times more money than the company had originally offered me. Unfortunately, it all went to pay off the bills I’d racked up for counselling and medications. Still, I’d fought for my rights, and I’d won.
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