[Saffron]

Hey Peter, try to keep in touch with us if you can. I’m really sorry this is happening and you sound distraught. Take care of you, okay? Put a good helmet on and head into the storm knowing that you WILL eventually be on the other side of it. We care!

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

Peter, I’m sorry that this happened. Try to see the good side and make the best of it like everyone else.

Heck, everyone walks, and everyone encounters hippos at least some of the time. So, like ADHD, falling hippos aren’t the real problem here, are they?

Hey, but go ahead. Avoid taking any responsibility for where you walk, and for not looking out for hippos. Get on some drugs for it. Do you want to solve all your problems with medication?

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

Male or female?

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

@Born this way:

I have ADHD and Hashimoto’s, and only half a thyroid gland after surgery to remove a tumour. (I recognized myself in your description, too—especially the sensory issues.)

Adding Concerta to my antidepressant helped me work effectively, but affected my health badly. In the almost three years I took both, I had breakthrough depression, difficult cycles, headaches and hyperacusis, hot flushes, anemia and hormonal swings. I also had swings of what appeared to be thyroid disease symptoms, mainly hair loss and joint pain and stiffness. I thought at the time that I was in early menopause.

Since I couldn’t perform my job without the Concerta, I stopped the antidepressant after finally consulting with my doctor. Continued on only the ADHD med. Within a few months I experienced a shockingly severe depression; I was really ill. Finally I gave up my ADHD med, I gave up my job, and I started a new antidepressant. The thyroid-related symptoms, hot flushes and joint pains have disappeared, and I feel normal and good again. I still exercise and eat a fairly low-iodine diet (important with Hashi’s).

Can’t concentrate worth a damn and make less money, but it’s better than the alternative. I’m definitely happier and healthier.

If I remember correctly, ADHD and autoimmune thyroid disease share a gene defect, so there are many of us who have both. I don’t know why I cannot handle both the antidepressant and an ADHD med, or why there isn’t much info out there on this issue, but there must be more people out there like us.

Dr. J?

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

What they said. Hang in there, Stash.

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

I use my auditory memory to keep things in my head for a minute or two (e.g., I say out loud “I’m putting my keys on the counter.”) Works well.

I write down *everything* that needs to be recorded for longer than that.

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

That’s exactly what I said to my partner when we saw it! Yes yes yes.

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

Great answers, guys. Sending a (((hug))) to the OP.

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

Back in the day, someone who isn’t me used to find that, during days when she had to take her ADHD med, a much smaller dose of marijuana was needed to experience the benefits of the THC. Smoking the regular amount was definitely too much, as the effects were magnified by the residual pharmaceutical stimulant in her system. YMMV if you have a tolerance built up, but go slowly and be aware of that possibility. Hope this helps!

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

Sandra, you are newly diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which is a well known cause of depression and mood swings, weight gain and changes in appetite. I honestly don’t understand how a physician could possibly think you have been correctly assessed with any mood disorder as long as your thyroid function is out of whack (and until your TSH is shown to be back within normal range).

First, be *very* sure that you are not taking your thyroid medication at the same time of day as the Lamotrigine. The thyroxine needs to be absorbed on an empty stomach and 2 to 4 hours before you take anything else, including vitamins. It can take several weeks for thyroid meds to work, and then the dosage usually needs adjustment.

Second, consider doing some reading on TSH levels and thyroid treatment, as you may need to be your own advocate if you have a doctor that follows older guidelines that recommend undertreatment. (Too high TSH = low function or hypothyroid, while too low TSH = hyperthyroid.) Most lab ranges still list the upper limit of normal as being around 4.5, but most people feel better under 2.5 to as low as just under a 1.) Any perusal of forums for people with thyroid disease will show you a large number who were misdiagnosed with mood disorders before receiving adequate thyroid replacement therapy.

Third, when you go back for follow-up bloodwork, ask to have your ferritin tested. Your hemoglobin may have tested fine, but that isn’t the right test. In people with autoimmune thyroid disease, iron deficiency is almost universal and shows as low ferritin (which is an indication of the iron stores in your bone marrow). If you have low ferritin, you will continue to feel fatigued, depressed, foggy and achey.

It may take months, but once you get all three of these things where they should be—your thyroid, vitamin D and iron stores—AND get through the last of the effexor discontinuation symptoms, then it’s a good time to reassess whether you have other mood disorders besides ADD. You should be feeling WAY more functional at that point.

Hang in there.

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

You’re right to feel proud of all the logjams you’ve cleared since starting the Straterra.

Getting through that kind of stuff does kind of leave you feeling naked and alone with your regrets at first, though. It’s a good sign. Still, without all the insulation of your piles of undone stuff, it hurts just like a fresh wound that won’t stop bleeding.

When I’ve gone through periods of grief, the *only* thing that ever seems to finally lift me out of it and stop the bleeding is seeking out or stumbling on a new interest and immersing myself in it.

Engaging in whatever creativeness or activity goes along with the new interest gives me periods of “anesthetized” time in which to reflect and come to a new understanding. And learning to do (or learning about) whatever it is I’ve taken up acts as a therapeutic diversion. It’s as if the stimulation and freshness of a new pursuit serves to catch and reverse the downward spiral going on in my head.

My ability to sew and my skills as a gardener were both borne of times in which I was struggling to work through heavy grief. So were several of my reading pursuits, the two cool pets I have and at least one physical sport.

Take heart; it will get better again. And you’re being very courageous, so keep applauding yourself for that. So you sabotaged your progress before by stopping the Adderall. You know better now. Make a point of formally releasing yourself from that one as soon as you start to feel bigger than it once more, so it won’t be there waiting to suck you down again the next time you feel low. Write it down, put it in a drawer somewhere: you made a mistake, you’ve done the time, and you are not allowed to punish yourself anymore for it. (This is not the same as forgiving yourself, but it will eventually turn into that if you obey the new rule.)

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

Um… if you’re on short-acting methylphenidate, or ritalin, then this is normal and entirely to be expected—it’s designed to work for only a few hours. Were you not told that, or at least instructed to take more than one dose per day?

When you return to your prescribing doctor, you can ask specifically for the long-acting version of methylphenidate, or Concerta.

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

Now that MBrammer has brought up this angle, something I haven’t seen mentioned on here is reliance on secular humanism. I honestly don’t know where we’d be without it in my family.

My children (especially my son with ADHD) really seem to thrive on lively, open inquiry and critical reasoning. They’re both interested in science and evolution. They’re excited by the knowledge that learning itself is an ongoing and evolving pursuit by all of us together, and fascinated that some things (especially the biggest things they can ponder) just don’t have finite or pat answers.

They’re knowledgeable about the coexistence of a range of belief systems, and they speak and behave inclusively. And they’re right into the concept of basic ethics and ways in which they can apply it in their daily lives to help build a better world for a meaningful today.

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

@mrsm2003: You can do this. Get through this trial as prescribed even if you don’t see a difference, and maybe the next med/dosage will be the game-changer. Try not to let discouragement sabotage you.

REPORT ABUSE

[Saffron]

Well said. Don’t give up!! These are the big steps.

And yes, once you do get onto one or two of those things you “must” do—and you see yourself following through, and you enjoy the gratification of the visible results—you’ll know you’re on solid ground and this will all be so worth it. You’ll be more self-propelled, and you’ll be able to just concentrate on the road ahead instead of always wondering if you’ve taken the right turn or whether you should quit.

Here’s hoping Vyvanse is your med.

REPORT ABUSE

[Author]

Posts