ADD and addictions

[wallygirl]

So I am in the process of getting diagnosed. I have an appointment for my assesment in a month. Watching my daughter being diagnosed and learning to live with ADHD I now see that I have been dealing with the fall-out of ADHD all my life. I also have anxiety/panic and seem to have an “addictive personality” – food issues and spending issues. Can anyone comment on their experiences with addictions and perhaps what has worked for them I would also be interested in any expert feedback on how to tackle a potential diagnosis and addiction. Thanks for your input.

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[Anonymous]

hi wally girl,

i have been diagnosed with ADHD few months ago and am on non stimulant meds as i abused drink drugs and food in the past so its aparent i have addictive nature!!! .. i am having trouble with the meds i am on but i will see how it goes and make dciesion soon on that one..

i too have suffered anxiety and panick attacks trhoughout my life and at times to extreme levels but never got help at the time for it..

the only way i could deal with my addictions was rehabilitation.

i went to rehab for all my addictions as i tried so many different ways to control them all myself to no avial and it brought years of torment into my life ontoop of everythin else..i was in rehab for five weeks and then a half way house for three months.

i also attend AA meetings but i do forget to attend alot! i havent used drink or drugs for six years and it took longer to get my head around the food issue though i am verry much in control of that now.

being diagnosed with adhd recently has expalind alot of my life experiences from school times to present day and i would even say it explained alot of my drug use and addictive nature etc..i think though if i had been diagnosed alot sooner it may have preventede alot of my distructive addictive behavour, i was into doing risky things too when driving and also doing things like runnin along high walls or verry rocky areas to see if anythin would happpen ( im guessing this is thrill seeking). i was just seen as a rebel because apaarently girls arent supposed to behave like this anyway???!..

i used to buy impulsively too, and being obsesssed with certain interests and buy everythin related to that ,then in no time when i realised i couldnt actually follow through the project and what ever interest i had at the time i would then on impulse either sell all the items or give them away for nothing. i gave away a car! hundreds of pounds worht of musical equipment etc ! all on impulse.. the not being able to follow through with any of the projects i got obsessed about i now know and understand to be down to my ADHD..

i honestly believe an early diagnoses may have prevented alot of this sort of bahavour .

but for me at the time the only way to deal with my addictions was to go to rehab and get understaind of my behavour and see the consequences it left in my life (plenty of bad ones) and to attend meetings to help me learn how to deal with life without physically acting out on my addictions.. or atleast try to..

i am probably in debate quite alot about addiction actually just being the impulsive part of ADHD but i guess i cant afford to mess with those thoughts and ideas as the reality is my addictive behavour took me to verry grim places and i just use the meetings to offload anythin i need to get out of my system! which i guess is a good thing to do for anyone , addict or no addict?! i take what i need from them and leave what i dont need..

hope this may be of some help!! chips

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[Anonymous]

ps, i am on non stimulant meds at the moment but not having much succes with them at the moment, well see what happens!!

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[Anonymous]

So I was Diagnosed as ADHD when I was a child. I was taking Ritalin for a short period of time when my parent took me off of it as they said it turned me into a Zombie. They were told that I would learn to compensate on my own. You know learn coping mechanisms. Later in life I discovered Cocaine and became a full on hardcore addict. All of the things of not being able to keep a job, lack of focus, vehicle accidents and stuff have been with me all of my adult life. Even before coke. I hate it. Lately broken and almost destitute I went to my family doctor (using a book of a note as I can’t remember all that I need to say long enough to tell someone…never have) and told him my issues. I have to go back to him to talk about it more and what he is going to do is unknown at this point but I found out about your site from his waiting room wall. There was nothing on the wall where this was posted the previous time I was in there so my guess is that he looking in terms of treatment for ADHD. As my life has been so destructed I think that a visit to a psychiatrist at least is in order and I have to agree that something has to be done about my abysmal existence. I have a positive streak in me so I have never actually seriously tried suicide however you need to know that I was very reckless with cocaine and was much of that time hoping to get dead through that. I have a few fears when it comes to treatment. 1. I work in the entertainment industry and have finally gotten to where I am a known tour manager (major artists). It is a good thing the current act isn’t super busy as that is when I start making “mistakes” (oops forgot that). As you say at times I have really great ideas that are totally outside the box. I love that aspect. Will meds take that ability to think outside away? 2. As Ritalin is allegedly modeled after cocaine is that addiction (once an addict always an addict) potentially going to come back? I have been clean for 3 years now and got free by the skin of my teeth. Everyone who knows me said I turned into a monster on the stuff. It was all I wanted to do and I did it by myself as I didn’t want to share due to the price of the stuff. Please advise.

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[wolfshades]

I’m so used to people saying there’s no such thing as addictive personalities, that I stopped talking about it. But yes – I’m keenly aware of my own tendency to latch on to things in an addictive manner. This includes prescriptions drugs, pot, wine, spending and of course food. I’ve had to force myself to give up a few things on occasion, for as long as a month, just to make sure that I could. This is long before I was aware that I might have ADD (and I’m going in for an assessment as well, in July).

What a relief it was to find this place and compare notes with others, to find out I wasn’t alone!!

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[wolfshades]

@Roberacer: from everything I’ve learned about Ritalin, there are no side effects or worries about addiction. And you can stop taking it at any time without going through anything like withdrawal. However, someone who’s gone through it can probably verify this.

Also – there’s an ADHD conference coming up in June. I went to the last one, and questions like yours was asked there, and it was just AWESOME. Highly recommend it. You can find details about it on this board. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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[BuxomDiva]

@Roberacer – it’s too bad your parents weren’t given better information. It sounds like you were just given too high of a dose! A lot of ADD’ers self-medicate with cocaine. I’d be really interested to see a study to determine how many coke addicts have ADHD.

(as an aside, I have many friends who are accomplished jazz musicians and at least one of them is looking for somebody to help book a tour – not sure how to contact you directly to network??? you could reach me at buxom.diva@gmail.com)

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[Anonymous]

What about weed? Are there lots of ADDERS who are addicted to weed? Just curious? As far as ritilan goes it is not addictive but certainly takes away that ” lust for life ” so many ADDERS have. Acutally in one of the videos on this website one of the doctors comments on Ritilan and how it has been used since 1937…..till now….without any changes….so it has to be doing the job right?

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[BuxomDiva]

actually Marion weed tends to act differently on ADD’ers than on “normal” folks – some years back when that snowboarder got caught using it Dr. J. did a radio interview about how for an ADD’er it can be a performance enhancing drug as for some ADD’ers they get MORE focused, which is counter-intuitive

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