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Just to update all you nice people who are helping me out here…
On Tuesday, the effect had gotten so bad that I physically could not stay awake. This after a wonderful night’s sleep. The hubby was really worried about me. That was after taking only the first dose in the morning. Guess it’s just not the right one. It’s back to the Adderall for me. I just can’t hang with this drug.
Is ritalin for ADDers with more of the hyperactivity component? I can totally see it working for that. I have some hyperactivity, but not like my brother did, and it worked for him, well until he became allergic to it.
Turns out I was taking the adderall wrong, anyway. I had resumed it after being off of it for a few weeks, at the full dose, and didn’t think to tell the doc, who is now (rightfully so) watching me like a hawk. DUH! I didn’t even think that I may have needed to slowly step up to the dose. At the lowest dose of adderall today, and I’m much better.
Thanks for all the help. This website is the best!!!
REPORT ABUSEI don’t do it when I’m sitting still, but if I pet the kitty with my hands, my foot will wiggle back and forth. Weird. LOL!
REPORT ABUSELOL!! Curlymoe! That’s what we did with my brother. He was way more hyperactive and was on ritalin, until he developed a reaction at age 11. We just spent a lot of time covering our ears, too.
I hate taking meds! What a pain in the rear!!! Right now I’m just taking what I was taking with the adderall. I take 2 10mg tablets a day. I’ve noticed that ritalin doesn’t last nearly as long as the regular adderall. I tried adderall xr, it had less of a great focus effect and still had the excessive chattiness effect. I was driving myself nuts! I’m wondering if my doc and I should have fiddled a little more with the xr and sr tablets of adderall together.
However, the ritalin just isn’t doing much for more for me than increase focus a little. I don’t want to increase it, of course, without the doc’s okay, and I’ll see him in a bit if this keeps up. It does keep me from getting irritable when too many things are going on around me. I’ll give this a couple of more weeks, but I’m not going a year and a half on this. I like being mellow, but not this mellow!
In any case, earmuffs for my family might be a great Christmas present. LOL!!!
REPORT ABUSEI don’t know, but I got the same bit from the pharmacist when I got my adderall (amphetamine salts). I’m still figuring out the ritalin, which I just started taking instead of adderall (made me a little more chatty cathy than I already was).
Sure, it is addictive, it says so on the prescribing information. If you have an addiction history, it’s not for you. However, So are many prescription drugs. My post-partum anti-depressants came with NO warning of addiction and were highly addictive. So now I wonder why that doesn’t come with a warning. Probably because people don’t sell lexapro as a street drug. Although, my percocet, given after recent surgery, also came with no warning, and that IS sold as a street drug. Who knows why one drug is labeled as addictive and another is not?
I’m thinking there must be a dosage amount or time amount that makes a difference. With the adderall, I had no side effects at all when I just stopped taking it. I was just my normal spacey self. I assume that maybe because I was only on it for a few months and I was only taking 20mg a day, NOT swallowing the whole bottle. Any drug can become addictive when abused, and ritalin is sold on the street, so has a reputation of abuse and addiction, like amphetamines do.
Still, you have to pay attention to these things, and carefully decide whether or not the risks are worth it. For me, since my ADD was horribly impacting my social life, and I really like having friends and family, it became necessary to do something about it. However, my doc and I have a plan so that medication is just one small part of therapy, and hopefully, I’ll be able to come off it eventually, without worrying about addiction.
REPORT ABUSEI posted this same weird feeling in response to another topic in this forum somebody labeled “Jolt,” but it was about something else, and I thought he meant this kind of “jolt.”
Instead of feeling it when I wore off my medication, I felt it when it kicked in. Yesterday, after 20 min. of taking my first ever ritalin pill, I was extremely sensitive to light sound and touch. I laid down for a few minutes and it wore off. I took it again today and did not feel it again, neither after I took it nor when it was wearing off.
Glad I found your post. Guess it wasn’t the kids working my last nerve. LOL!
REPORT ABUSEWhen you labeled your post “jolt,” I thought you were talking about something else. I switched to ritalin from adderall yesterday. 20 min after the first pill, I felt very sensitive to light, sound, touch, for about 10 minutes. Very strange and “jolt” like. However, I did not feel it again today. Maybe my kids were just getting on my last nerve, and I blamed the drug. LOL!
REPORT ABUSEI got an answer on the shortage, well, at least this month’s shortage, as I live in a college town. Finals week. Turns out, ADDers who are in college tend to start remembering to take their meds, or refill them in the weeks leading up to finals, as papers are due and intense studying sessions begin. Makes sense.
The pharmacist said that there’s a limited amount they can prescribe during a certain period, because it’s a controlled drug in the US. She also said more would be in later in the month. Luckily she had enough on hand for me
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@toofat “Linear world” LOVE IT! I’m going to steal that, if you don’t mind. Love the duct-tape comment, too.
I went through a stressful autumn, this past year, and the mouth thing is what finally forced me to look into actually dealing head-on with my ADD. I was losing friends thick and fast.
Unfortunately, the adderall I was on, while making my mind clearer, was making me more chatty. I just couldn’t shut up! Maybe duct tape is the only solution, but I’m going ahead and switching to ritalin to see if that helps better.
REPORT ABUSEOkay, so I’m ADD and haven’t read through all the posts. You guys understand, right? LOL!!!
Here’s why I like my smartphone: I have an app that syncs with outlook, that can organize all my lists. Instead of having a pile of lists, I can add whatever it is I want onto the phone, even if I’m away from my computer. Then when it syncs with outlook, my computer and phone are both updated to match. I also can set alerts for the lists, so that helps keep me on task. I use the snot out of my calendar and alarm, as well. I could use it more, but you gotta remember to program things. Well, you gotta remember to write things down without a phone, so that’s not much different. Until there’s a smartphone implanted in my skull, it’s just the way it is.
Here’s what I don’t do, so I can keep myself from getting too distracted: I don’t set the phone to push for emails automatically. It only checks emails when I actually go and enter the app itself. This way it’s not beeping at me. It also extends the battery life, this way. I also don’t set alarms but for absolutely necessary things like the cat’s medicine, which he’ll die without, or places I’m supposed to be. If it’s a task that can be done over the next few months, I won’t set the date, so it doesn’t bark at me.
I’ve found a trillion apps, and of course being ADD, don’t probably use half of them. There are some fun games that my kids use (handy for doc office waiting rooms, btw, until they learn to knit), but I don’t find that I spend my life on the smartphone. One reason is that the battery life is significantly less than a traditional cell phone, so you really can’t spend your life on it. I also went with the smallest data plan, so I can’t spend all day surfing on it. ATT texts me when I get close to the limit, so that helps me from blindly going overboard. Limiting, I suppose, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Smartphones are just like any other tool. Use it wisely and it can be very helpful.
REPORT ABUSEYup. Found this out the hard way when those hyland’s homeopathic sleeping pills did nothing. Well, I didn’t learn, because I just thought they didn’t work on me. Some things are just like that. Years later, I tried some homeopathic teething drops that didn’t work on my kid, though. Figured out the whole homeopathy thing, and that it is not the same as naturopathy. Ah, no wonder the kid kept screaming. Thank God for Tylenol. That worked.
There are analgesic benefits to sugar, according to my doc, so there’s a shot a homeopathic remedy might work on some mild pain, but it’s not because of the non-existent medicine. It’s the sugar they use to make up the stuff.
REPORT ABUSEYour mom being sensitive doesn’t seem ironic, it seems appropriate. If ADD is highly genetic, it has to come from somewhere, and guess what a symptom of ADD is? Hyper-sensitivity. Sounds like a possible link to ADD in your genetic family tree. Of course, this could be part of her anxiety, as I’m discovering some overlap between the two, while looking into anxiety with my daughter.
Also, if there is something wrong with you, she might feel she is to blame, as she raised you. This might account for the sensitivity, too. By laying the guilt on God and whatever you did to piss God off, she’s trying to deflect off her and back to you (and God).
I hate when people ascribe pain to God, as in “God is punishing you,” or it is “God’s will,” or “God is weaving pain so you can experience life to the fullest” (what nonsense!). But I don’t think you are writing to be convinced of this. If you were, you would have posed the question differently, but it sounds like you know what is true, so I’m not gonna go into it anymore.
What was I gonna say….
Oh yeah. Do you think this might be generational?
In my parents generation (mid-70’s now), people do not discuss these problems openly. They were expected to “suck it up” and move on. Anything like ADD was seen as a character flaw, and certainly wasn’t addressed in adults, while it was just beginning to be medicated in children. My father won’t address his ADD at all, and even my brother, diagnosed as a child, thinks he’s outgrown it, and he’s only 40. Anxiety is one of these things, too. It was just seen as something you need to work on yourself, which is why I suspect your mom feels she’s fixed it.
As an another example, when I had a miscarriage, my midwives warned me not to expect sympathy from the older generation, as they just do not allow themselves to publicly discuss such things and were expected to immediately just get over it and try again (a sentiment I found repeated in that stupid “what to expect” book, that I promptly tossed into the garbage). I thought this was weird when I heard it, but they turned out to be dead on, regarding the older women in my life. There was a certain shame surrounding the subject, as if it were the woman’s fault she couldn’t carry a child. I think this attitude also includes any psychiatric problems. Basically, reproductive problems and psychiatric problems are shameful, private, and not up for discussion.
Yes, it was a stupid thing to say, but it sounds like you’ve come a long way with her, and she with you. I’m glad you’ve been able to find some good ground with her.
REPORT ABUSEOh, shopping one…
I put all those cool re-usable grocery bags in the back of the car, so I won’t forget them. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the bags until I’m in the check-out line. D’oh!
REPORT ABUSEMay 29, 2011 at 3:33 am in reply to: Mild ADD? Or Midlife Crisis? Wondering/Obsessing, and in Need of a Pep Talk #103865I have to disagree about primary care docs. Mine spent over and hour with me talking about my ADD (in addition to me chatting about it, but not wanting help, in every unrelated appt. for over a two years), had access to legitimate DCM tests, the same that are on this site, and did something a psychiatrist I saw for ADD did not…he BELIEVED me!
By contrast, the psychiatrist, whom I first saw for ADD a few years back, blew it off and misdiagnosed me with depression, beginning a round of meds that were way more addictive and definitely did nothing for my situation. In fact, they made it much worse. However, I’m sure there are many legitimate professionals in the psychiatric field, and would not lump them all together because of my bad experience with one (actually, two, and a string of therapists, but that’s another long story).
My cool guy is not rare, either. When I lived in another state, I saw a guy for primary care that was wonderful (although I never discussed ADD with him), and he was the first guy I saw in that state. Really, there are bad people in any profession. I do find that I’ve had better luck with Family Practitioners, but even these I’ve had to sift through. If I find someone who listens and is willing to learn, then I stick with them.
I saw an ENT recently who said the biggest part of diagnosing a patient is listening to their description of symptoms. This just can’t be done in 15 minutes for something like ADD. A good doctor, of any specialty, knows this. If you have a good primary doc that knows you, you are comfortable with him or her, and is a great listener who doesn’t rush you out of the office, why shop around?
This was the mistake I made with the psychiatrist and with some other docs I saw, before I learned how to look for the right person. They didn’t listen, were willing to dose me with the wrong meds for the wrong thing, or ran me out of their office after 15 minutes (except the psychiatrist, who wanted to convince me of my then non-existent depression for the whole hour). I should have not returned.
While I try to be respectful of not wasting the doc’s time (emphasis on try, I do have ADD, you know), I definitely don’t want them to rush me out the door, especially considering how much money they will be making in that 15 minutes. Just because one is a doctor, does not mean their time is more precious. If yours has that attitude, keep looking.
REPORT ABUSEMy dad does!!! He says it’s because of all the “war stuff” like shells, etc. he was exposed to. But my mom noticed this type of thing in him well before he went to Vietnam. The VA tested his hearing and said it was fine. He was in the Marine Corps for 36 years. Talk about making your ADD work for you. But of course, he would rather have hearing loss, than admit to having ADD. Trust me, if you met him, in five seconds flat, you’d peg him for an ADDer. He really should be our poster guy.
He can hear stuff at very low decibels far away, but if it’s in front of him, like the TV, he turns it up to drown everything else out. He may have some hearing issues and at age 75, I’m sure he does, but really, he’s always done this. My brother does it too. With the TV, I think that other noises distract him from listening, so he turns it up to drown the other sounds out.
I do get confused pretty easily if there’s a lot of noise around me. What really bothers me though, is several people talking at once. This happens a lot with my kids. It just grates a nerve because I can’t figure out who to listen to first. I’m sure that non-ADDers have this issue, but it really seems to get to me more than it should.
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