Could I have ADHD Inattentive?

[Anonymous]

natebott88, how much sleep do you get on average? It is very easy to fall into a pattern, if you are going to sleep in the early hours of the morning, and waking up during late afternoon time. It happens to me if I have no routine (I am a University student, so I do not have much structure in my life, due to a scatty timetable and long holidays), and I don’t really work well with it. I strive on long days, and early mornings. Even if I am tired. Anyway, I was just wondering why you’re not feeling tired enough to go to bed at an earlier time.

If it’s because you truly aren’t tired, even if you’ve not slept through much of the morning (if that’s the case, you’re full of energy!), it might be worth looking into help with sleeping (different strategies before you go to bed, medication, etc).

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[Anonymous]

@berry I usually get 10+ hours of sleep each night. I’m sure going to bed at a late time doesn’t help either, but I have been working on getting asleep before there is a noticeable light coming into my room, since that’s distracting and makes it harder to fall asleep.

I seem to be able to operate on low amounts of sleep, for some reason. I can 5 or less hours of sleep and still be able to function properly throughout the day, though I’ve rarely taken advantage of it. All in all I really doubt it has to do with sleep.

I have been noticing how often I forget things now and how often I get sidetracked, and it happens a lot. And since I’m fairly certain it’s not just me being stupid, convinced it’s something else “holding me back” if you will, I’ve been getting frustrated with it. I mean think about it- If, magically, some person was able to make you forget stuff all the time and always loose interest, would you be frustrated with him?

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[Rick Green – Founder of TotallyADD]

Natebot88 I read over your list, and yes, a whole bunch of them sounded familiar. If someone with ADHD or ADD says, “You sound pretty normal,” well, that’s because a lot of what you’re describing is normal for ADHD. Love how you describe the restlessness, the music playing. When I was your age, we didn’t have the internet. We were still using our voices to talk to each other. It was horrible. (Ha!) But when you said you are off in your own world you’ve created, I immediately thought about my gigantic model railroad. I focussed on it the way you are hooked into the internet. Just puttering along, creating my own little world, and now and then showing it off to other people. And of course wondering, if I could build and entire city why couldn’t I finish my English assignment? Why could I build this amazing world full of whimsical details, perfectly capturing the past, but not pay attention during history class?

I’m glad you are eager to find out if this is in fact what’s going on with you.

I wish I’d known. Imagine going another 33 years without knowing. That’s how it was for me.

If your mom has trouble booking the appointment, remember ADHD/ADD is about as ‘heritable’ as height. In other words, if you have two tall parents, the kids are likely to be tall. Apparently our height is about 80% inherited, and so is ADHD. So she may need your support in getting the booking done.

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[Anonymous]

@rick Oh, so that’s what normal means! I actually thought that meant that I was like everyone else normal. That reference to your railroad is a good one. I have wondered why can do such intricate projects (when I don’t get bored of it!) and not school things, you know- things that are actually important. I do, in fact, feel very lucky that I have the internet and that I’ve been able to do research about what I believe to have!

As for the booking, actually since the thread was created an appointment has been scheduled for August 1st, and I am excited for that.

Let’s see… Well my mom’s brother has hyperactive Adhd, and my great grandparents were like the inattentive subtype. So i guess I’m not exactly not the first in the line to inhibit such behaviors.

Unfortunately my dad isn’t supportive of it, my step-dad doesn’t believe I have it, and my mom seems to be beginning to doubt it as well. But it seems that in the beginning people simply aren’t supportive of such a confusing disorder, which is understandable. I mean, it has to do with how we think, and that sort of thing always makes for difficulties. I of course do believe I have it, and this whole discovery experience has been like fitting pieces into a jigsaw puzzle. Starting with just a thought, the middle piece, I’ve slowly been constructing it and now there looks to be only a few pieces left.

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[kc5jck]

natebot88 – it may have been mentioned above or you might have seen it somewhere else, but it’s a good idea to go to your appointment with notes and questions written down. Why you think you have ADHD, and symptoms and behaviors you exhibit. Your original posts are a good start.

Most people don’t have a clue about ADHD, so you need to discriminate who you listen to and what they are saying, there’s a lot of bad information handed out as “fact.”

Good luck.

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[Anonymous]

@kc5jck Absolutely, I will. I should have that list somewhere on paper, though the online one was a bit revised, and things were added, so I will show the doctor that.

Unfortunately yes, people think either A. the person doesn’t have it, or B. it’s fake in general. Frustrating isn’t it?

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