Reply To: Why isn't my life any better since diagnosis?

[shutterbug55]

@gforcewarp9

Great! You got your diagnosis… Now what? Here comes the hard part, bud.

You get to learn as much as you can about your self, ADD and how ADD affects you.

You get to ask your significant other(s) for help.

You get to learn about the treatments for ADD. Drug therapy, counseling, coaching, and something I recently discovered, Occupational Therapy.

Why?

You have been diagnosed with a brain disorder. It’s incurable. It’s inoperable.

That realization alone, would send most people to the shrink’s couch. It’s a lot to absorb, but because you sought out a diagnosis, you probably thought you had ADD.

I am married, and my wife is my best friend who has seen me at my best and worst. She and I both don’t want me to be at my worst ever again, so we work very hard to prevent that.  She is my advocate. She takes notes, organizes my questions and keeps me on track. It takes some work on both our parts.

I take Adderall. I have said many times, that it was tailor made for my brain. However, it took 6 months to find it, and find the correct dosage and timing. It took work and lots of experimentation with me as the guinea pig.

I see a counselor so I can deal with all the stuff that has happened in my past. I work with a life coach/ occupational therapist who teaches me how to employ tools and recognize when ADD is taking over situations. This means my wife does not have to work so hard to keep me focused and on track.

I constantly read books, studies, and articles about ADD, because for me understanding what it is, helps me work around it.

I don’t know what works for you, but if I were to offer any advice, I would second Blackdog’s suggestions. I would add this. Figure out what ADD symptoms bother you the most. Prioritizing them, will help you make changes that affect you the most significantly early on in the process.

Remember, there is no magical pill or exercise or treatment of any sort that will make your symptoms go away. Anyone claiming they have a “cure” or they can make all your symptoms vanish, is a liar. There are things you can do to make the symptoms have less of an affect on your life. drug therapy alone won’t help much, but with counseling an learning, you can make a huge difference in your own life. That is as good as it gets, but it takes work.

Also comparing yourself with a “normal”, is like comparing a blind chess player to a sighted chess player. While both types of players can become very good at the game, they have unique approaches to playing the game.

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