[pinkdex]

Chip, I’m so glad my story helped encourage you. Best of luck on your journey. I hope to hear more soon about how your treatment is working.

A little update for me. It wasn’t that the Dexedrine that was failing. It was doing its job. I had Vitamin D toxicity. I decreased my supplements and drank boat loads of water and the Dexedrine is working sell now like it used to.

I was more nauseous (side effect of Vitamin D toxicity) on Dexedrine and it seems the Dexedrine was trying to help me by giving throw up signals. Stopping Dexedrine made my nausea go away but didn’t fix anything.

Thankfully my doctor ordered blood labs when she switched me to Desoxyn. I was on Desoxyn for about a week before learning about my toxicity. Verdict: Desoxyn does not work nearly as well for me as dextroamphetamine.

A word to the wise: if your doctor orders labs take them right away.

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[pinkdex]

Do you really think it’s a good idea to require other people to pay our housing bills? I don’t think any amount of “greater good” can justify my participation in legislation that makes others my slave by paying for my living situation.

There are many people without ADD who feel similarly about noise; simply find a housing community with a noise ordinance. Old people, young people, and everyone in between hate noise. But for those who hate it most, these communities do exist and they are not difficult to find. I recommend trying city-data.com and posting on the forums, or looking to see how often people are receiving citations for noise ordinances.

In general if you want to avoid these obnoxious noises your options are to live in the country, or find a quiet neighborhood in your city, or a neighborhood/town with a strictly enforced noise ordinance. You can always soundproof your own living space, but that would be far less economically feasible as simply moving away from the source of the noise.

The other benefit of moving to a quiet area is you don’t need to be inside your soundproofed dwelling to avoid the noise, as it’s also quiet outside.

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[pinkdex]

I’m a super focuser too, and I can honestly say that I get the most cognitively fatigued when I’m super focusing on super unnecessary things.

The cognitive fatigue I get from working really hard on projects seems to come and go at normal times. But the cognitive fatigue I get from just thinking too hard about stuff that doesn’t need to be thought about, is there more often than I would like!

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[pinkdex]

Thanks for sharing everyone!

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[pinkdex]

I’ve never liked the idea that you have to love your family simply by nature of them being related to you (I don’t mean direct family, your caretakers or your own spouse and kids) I more mean extended family. Personally I do love my extended family, but I’ve come to realize over the years that it’s because of the relationship that we have and not just because we are related. So I totally see where you are coming from. The bottom line is is that in order to survive with ADD in a world that runs directly opposite to how we work, you have to make some sacrifices.

 

Declining to be social at times is a privilege granted for you to deal with your disorder. It shouldn’t be seen as a self-destructive thing at all. It’s a necessary consequence, and not even a good consequence, but sometimes it has to happen. It’s not like all of us are happy and cheerful about being anti-social most ADD/ADHDers I know would love it if they could fit in better when they do choose to be social!

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[pinkdex]

onewithmany

I found an interesting thread in regards to memantine and tolerance here.

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102335

Thank you!

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[pinkdex]

Thanks for your input onewithmany!

When you stopped taking Ritalin did you taper down slowly while tapering back on to Dextroamphetamine, or did you stop and start all at once?

The reason why I ask is because once my doc tried to switch me from Ritalin to Adderal (same dosage of Adderal) and after 2 1/2 days on Adderal I started getting so unfocused that I couldn’t do anything. My performance at work went to crap as well as my mind. I could barely hold a conversation (I worked at a call center at the time) and I was bombing all my calls.

It felt like extreme withdrawal plus not being able to focus only 10 times worse than before I started taking the medication. I told my doc and he put me back on Ritalin straight away. Ever since then I’ve been afraid of switching off of Ritalin.

I told my doc that on the one day when I had taken Ritalin in the morning and Adderal in the afternoon (the day I was switching) was when I felt the best and I asked him if I could be on half Ritalin half Adderal (same amount of mg. as before) just both medications because that was the best I felt in my entire life was the day I took both. He said no way and that I can’t be on two stimulant medications at the same time.

Ever since then I’ve been really nervous about switching off Ritalin. I would do it if I could taper down on the Ritalin while tapering up on a new drug, but my last doc won’t let me taper he just wants me to go cold/warm turkey when I switch.

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[pinkdex]

I don’t disclose it to my employer for the same reason I don’t disclose my favorite sports team to them. Maybe they hate my team. Why give them another reason to doubt my performance.

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[pinkdex]

Your amount of self-awareness is pretty phenomenal for your age. I would continue to keep track of your symptoms. Don’t rush straight to medication, but keep track of when you space out in conversations, how you’re doing on school work, etc. and see if you notice any patterns of decreasing performance. It might be a phase that goes away after a bit, if it doesn’t go away after 6 months to a year you might want to consider getting on medication.I look at medication as a last resort when everything else has failed. The thing is if you really do have ADD, usually every other treatment people suggest will fail (exercise, diet etc.)You don’t seem lazy. Genuinely lazy people don’t care enough about themselves to get on a forum and ask advice to solve their problems.

But people with ADD will often care even more deeply about their problems than other people do about their own, since we have this inwardly turned sense of shame from the world telling us we’re failures, and feel that much more powerless to do anything about it.

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[pinkdex]

I don’t know, you have a great challenge ahead of you! I wish I had better advice for you, but I don’t :-/

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[pinkdex]

I’m not a parent yet, but I have been a teenager, so I think I might have something to add.

All of the advice on this thread is in depth, detailed, and clearly well thought-out. You’ve got a lot of great advisers here, so I’ll give you just my two cents of the whole dollar.

As a teenager in High School, your son is preparing to become independent from his parents and live his own life. Naturally, then, there’s going to be a lot of defiance to all forms of authority, whether to you or his teachers. Tell the teachers that instead of harassing you, they need to take it up with him like adults. Not only does it assume for him the dignity he desperately wants, to be treated as an adult instead of having people go through an authority structure to access him, but also it puts the battle where it really needs to be, at his feet, not at yours.

Let’s not forget that the government forces us to send our kids to school. Him being there is not his choice, or yours, or the teachers. The decision was made by someone who has no incentive to take care of the special needs of your kids because they are far removed from the situation, sitting on a poofy chair in D.C.

I say that not to trail off into politics, but to point out that it’s not really your fault that he’s in this situation. It isn’t the teacher’s fault, or his fault either. All three of you are being forced into a non-negotiable situation and so confusion, misunderstanding, and poor judgments abound. It’s like three fleas arguing on the back of an elephant. None of the fleas are in control of the elephant, but they can still argue about where he should take them.

So that’s my perspective 🙂 not really an answer or advice, as much as just a different take on it.

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[pinkdex]

That is great! I love being on this forum because I feel like I can relate to everyone. Good for you! Keep us posted on how the psych visit goes 🙂

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[pinkdex]

Also I feel like Ritalin/Adderall treat different symptoms of the ADD. Adderall feels like it helps me to relate to myself better internally, whereas Ritalin feels like it helps me to relate better to the external world around me.

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[pinkdex]

Hats off to you for having the courage to pursue your personal suspicion about your ADD.

If you have the self-honesty to admit you might have it, you will probably benefit greatly from treatment.

I really like the honesty displayed in your journal. I can relate a lot to the instant feelings of guilt you have for your anger. I get instant feelings of guilt for everything, good–bad-ugly– enjoyed it–didn’t enjoy it–angry–sad, it doesn’t matter the emotion there’s always a reason to feel that somehow I’ve failed.

Your journal is a pearl, and some of the people who drop by on tumblr will be pigs and won’t understand the value of what you are sharing with the world. Don’t let those people discourage you!

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[pinkdex]

sdwa – the Welbutrin only tipped me off that I had ADD, I still use it mostly for depression, but my doc gave me 10mg Ritalin 3x/day and just this week he switched it to to 10mg Adderall 3x/day.

I’m having horrible withdrawal without the Ritalin, had to call in to work today and the Adderall seems to be doing very little by comparison. Honestly I would like to take both, but if I ask for an increased dose, or God forbid two controlled substances which happen to treat my disorder, I obviously just want to get high.

That’s too bad that the medications didn’t work very well for you besides Concerta. I can’t imagine going back to life before Ritalin. It’s so horrifying to think about not being on these medications anymore. All my progress, all of my ambition, all of my dreams and hopes which I am building towards could instantly downsize, or disappear entirely if I was off medication for even just a few months or a year. I really hope you can get some meds that work for you.

blackdog – good for you to try to get on Ritalin. I think you will like how it helps you.

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