[BuxomDiva]

I just tripped over this thread and I don’t buy Russell Barkley’s statement. I have heard Dr. J. say that it is becoming more and more common for people to be diagnosed with both ADHD AND bipolar disorder.

About 9 years ago the Effexor I had been taking to manage my ADHD symptoms triggered a hypomanic episode. In reading up on the difference between unipolar and bipolar depression the latter does seem to be a better fit for the depression that I have struggled with since childhood.

While it may be true that for SOME people bipolar is a misdiagnosis, for some of us there is comorbidity.

All kinds of info out there about the depressive side of the pendulum, not so much about the difference between being hyperactive and hypomanic. For me, the difference is that my hyperactivity takes the form of racing thoughts, talking a mile a minute (and nonstop!), that kind of thing. During my initial hypomanic episode (at least the first one that I acknowledged as such!) I was driven to clean my apartment at 2 AM! I had to be physically active, very atypical for me.

Anyway, just my two cents.

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[BuxomDiva]

I’ll have to look for the story but I did read years ago that the state of Florida was taking kids away from their parents if they refused to medicate children based on what the teachers were saying.

The two year old was in Texas I believe; it was the toddler killed by his aunt who weighed over half a ton at the ton at the time. Originally the aunt confessed to murdering the child by falling on him but it has since come out that the boy was killed by a blow from his mother. A terrible tragedy all around!

Long winded? Honey that would be the pot calling the kettle black! Thanks for your reply.

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[BuxomDiva]

You should be able to get a proper diagnosis WITHOUT paying a huge fee! That’s what publicly funded healthcare means. I didn’t pay anything for my testing and diagnosis, and my doctor is the best in the country.

I’m on ODSP, so if I were shopping for a diagnosis now I would be S.O.L if the only “expert” in my area was charging for the testing.

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[BuxomDiva]

oh zsazsa have you seen Dr. Levy? that’s on my to-do list – I really have to take control of my weight issues – I was lucky enough that all my testing was part of office visits and was covered by OHIP – a certain well-known ADHD specialist with a practice north of Toronto is famous for charging a ridiculous sum of money to do all the same tests – I saw Dr. J. post elsewhere in this forum that because so few doctors specialize in adult ADHD those who do can get away with charging a LOT for the paperwork which is not, strictly speaking, covered by our provincial health care plan – I think because of the way CAMH structures the testing/office visits it does get paid for by the province

and I had to bring in my mother to talk about my childhood – I was over 40 at the time

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[BuxomDiva]

Sandra I second what zsazsa posted. You can have BPD AND ADHD. Ask me how I know this! After being on Effexor for quite some time it eventually triggered a manic episode. At first my specialist thought I was suggesting I had BPD instead of ADHD but it had become clear to me that I actually had BOTH. When I started reading up on the difference between unipolar and bipolar depression I realized the latter was actually a better fit. What I have never found anywhere is an explanation of the difference between being hyperactive and hypomanic. In my OWN case, the hyperactivity comes out as racing thoughts and talking non-stop at about a mile a minute. The hypomania came out as kinetic energy; I just HAD to clean my apartment at 2 AM. (I wish I had manic episodes more often, let me tell you!)

Don’t forget, my doctors STILL don’t believe that adults can have ADHD so they may look for something else that can explain at least some of our symptoms.

Good luck to you and your family.

Zsazsa where are you located? Your doc sounds like a gem and I need to find a new one.

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[BuxomDiva]

aww shucks

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[BuxomDiva]

so you’ll be looking for work in the SF area then? I have a friend who used to live there – have you lived in CA before? do you have a support system there at all? I have been incredibly lucky to have a lot of support from my mom, who is a retired teacher – if not for her I’m sure I’d have been living in a bus shelter for the last 20 years!

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[BuxomDiva]

nope – just an ADD’er who has been reading everything I could get my hands on about this stuff for the last 14 years or so

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[BuxomDiva]

actually curlymoe I would disagree with you about MRI’s – on the NIMH website there’s an article about the decade of the brain and there are images of PET scans showing the difference between a “normal” brain and an ADD brain – as I recall it has to do with the metabolism of glucose or something? – but an MRI is just a snapshot and I have good days and bad days so I don’t believe that an MRI is a useful diagnostic tool – the 100+ pages of questions I answered as part of my assessment with Dr. J was much better and I believe those tests are conclusive

@Chelsea – the ubiquitous “they” used to believe that everybody outgrew ADHD – my dear friend and fellow ADD’er Beamer explains it as learning to act more “normal” to get dates once we hit those teenage years! we learn to adapt to survive

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[BuxomDiva]

to be clear, the DSM, which is the “bible” used by the medical profession for the diagnostic criteria for “mental illness” only defines “ADHD” but there are different subtypes

many of us call ourselves ADD’ers cause it’s just easier to drop the “h”, even if we do have some hyperactive symptoms

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[BuxomDiva]

this kind of thing has been around for a very long time – the kid doesn’t have ADHD it’s just his Captain Crunch making him hyper – nobody can deny that all the chemical additives in food are bad for us, and some people are especially sensitive to some of them – heck some folks can’t tolerate gluten, which is a natural substance – imho these are the same people who claim that vaccines cause autism and the like –

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[BuxomDiva]

not sure I like seeing ADHD lumped in with OCD, Tourette’s and schizophrenia, and I don’t know that this research is going to have any meaningful impact in our lives in the foreseeable future

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[BuxomDiva]

You don’t mention where you live, and I think that’s very relevant. Are there agencies in your community that can help you transition back in to the workforce?

I haven’t had a salaried job since 1996 so I understand your concerns. I’m inferring that you’re getting child support; maybe you can get the order revised to keep getting money as long as your child is in school? My son is 21 and I still get a little for him (about half what I should be getting under the federal guidelines but I don’t have the resources to take the bum back to court ).

Good luck!

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[BuxomDiva]

When Dr. J. completed my application for Ontario disability he sent in my IQ test as supporting documentation. When I asked why he said the fact that a woman with an IQ of 148 can’t hold a job proves there must be a disability involved!

I’ve never quit a job that I wasn’t about to get fired from. Although I might be really good at certain aspects of whatever the job was I have always sucked at office politics. Even now, when I’m just doing a volunteer gig, my b.s. meter is on overload and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to handle staying at this placement.

I know there’s a bit of a debate about whether ADD’ers are in fact smarter than the average bear – certainly my ADD friends are all very bright – so I don’t know if it’s an ADD thing or a MENSA thing when I get incredibly impatient with people higher up the corporate “food chain” who are, to be blunt, not as smart as I am. They’re making stupid amounts of money and don’t have the common sense god gave a stump. Anybody else run into that one?

My immediate supervisor is a mensch, who is not only an ADDer himself but is also a trained social worker so he’s a great resource for me when I have a bad day (which happens a lot lately). I’m thinking about getting back into training to be a programmer again as that was the work I enjoyed the most in the last 30 years.

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[BuxomDiva]

I realize this site is international so we aren’t all dealing with the same set of rules in the workplace. I’m in Toronto, Ontario and was fortunate to take part in a program called WESP (workplace essentials skills partnership) in December 2009 where all the participants have some kind of disability and are trying to get back into the workforce. We were educated about our rights in the workplace and given ideas about disclosing our disabilities, asking for accommodations etc.

So the poster who’s distracted working in a call center might be entitled to a more private space with less noise or something? (although I realize most employers would find it cheaper to fire somebody than make accommodations, expecting that most of us won’t bother going to the human rights commission

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