The Forums › Forums › What is it? › Do I Have it? › could Anxiety disorder cause ADD like symptoms? › Re: could Anxiety disorder cause ADD like symptoms?
Hi Distracted!
My mom fessed up about having me tested for ADD as a child. She took me to a specialist who was studying Dyslexia. And lo! and Behold! the man diagnosed me with dyslexia! I have a lot of techniques to deal with my dyslexia, but my life is still a complete mess, because as it turns out I really do have ADD as well. My right hip has been bothering me, not surprising for a 58yr old, so I went to the doc and he told me I needed hip replacement surgery. I talked to my neighbor the Chiropractor, who said sit here, hunched me over, and twisted my shoulders. CRACK! my hips feel great, and no surgery.
The moral of the story?
In my experience, specialists see the world through what ever tinted sun-glasses their training and experience tell them. Finding one that recognizes that, and can give you an honest answer of what you have, in their specialty, is hard to do. Keep looking for someone who specializes in ADULT ADD.
What worked for me?
I looked for, and found a specialist who understands ADD. He spent more time talking to my wife, looking at questionnaires filled out by my brother and sisters, and my mom, than he did talking to me. I think it was Too Fat that said ADD is a disorder that makes it difficult for people to deal with the person. This specialist, understood that, so he spent a lot of time diagnosing me, by studying my affect on other people. He also tested my cognitive ability, character and pattern recognition tests, a kind of mental reaction time test, and this computer based test that exercised working memory (I failed miserably at that one).
The difference between ADULT ADD and ADD in a child?
NONE. We as adults have some learned behaviors that mask the outward signs of the monkey chatter in our heads and behavior traits of an ADD brain. I know leg bouncing annoys the hell out of people, so I stop myself, when ever it happens. I know fidgeting distracts people, so I hide it very well. I know day-dreaming or constantly looking around the room for something to focus on, tells everyone I could care less about what is happening in the here and now. Where I do care about what is happening in the meeting, it’s just that I am so many steps ahead of them and they are going so SLOW, it takes them for ever to catch up. The tests he administered to me, ignored learned behaviors and got to the ADD.
Where to go from here?
If a doctor told you, your stiff knee was because it was damaged beyond all repair and you needed surgery, you would get a second opinion, right? So, here you have a disorder that affects your life, affects the lives of those around you, and because it is largely untreated, the affect isn’t in a good thing. A doctor tells you what he thinks it is, according to his experience. Are you going to seek a second opinion?
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