The Forums › Forums › I Just Found Out! › I Suspect I Am › Worried that stimulants will exacerbate my anxiety, but desperate for relief › Re: Worried that stimulants will exacerbate my anxiety, but desperate for relief
Anonymous
SG – No worries. I know where you were coming from. I was one of those people who thought ADHD was a wishy washy thing at best, and that it was an excuse for poor parenting. I saw a study that showed ADHD diagnosis was more prevalent in the low socioeconomic classes and I wondered why….and came to a rather naive conclusion at the time. Looking back, that group would probably be diagnosed more frequently because (a) that’s where ADHD tends to lead a person because of poor learning and job retention, (b) they have fewer resources to help them cope and therefore are more likely to seek help, and (c) poorer parenting and teaching skills (due to less ongoing learning, more substance abuse issues, higher stress, fewer resources etc), and the stresses of being in a low socioeconomic group would cause more overt symptoms that would lead to a diagnosis. We cannot all be instant experts, and it’s not until we become acquainted with a disorder more closely that we start to look at our beliefs about that disorder. I slowly began to believe in ADHD when I was re-reading one of my nursing texts looking for answers to explain why my son was so obviously bright but not able to live up to his potential. But even then, I did not understand the disorder more fully until it was raised as a strong possibility for my son and I raced off to research it. I certainly don’t hold anything against you. You cannot be an expert in everything, and you have plenty on your own plate without having to understand all of my self-diagnosed disorders on top of it all I said what I did mostly to vent, rather than make you feel awful. And writing things down here has helped me clarify some of my issues also. I would never have thought to seek treatment for RLS prior to seeing a psych if I hadn’t began posting about the RLS in the first place!