[Saffron]

Wow. Great pursuit — never thought of it (and I love public speaking too, as do many of us around here). Could be the key to getting the occasional adrenaline rush that I miss so much since calming down as a person and learning all the ways to hide my ADD. Thanks for posting this.

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[Saffron]

Try looking up either Richard Glatt (who is actually in Stittsville) or Dr. Joel Kanigsberg. Both are good assessors serving the Ottawa area. The cost of a full assessment runs somewhere around $1500 to $2000. If you have an extended insurance plan, it may be covered in part or in full.

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[Saffron]

jireland, great points. I would also add that most conditions targeted by alt-med practitioners are either self-limiting or prone to irregular periods of abatement or remission.

Ear infections in children, for example, last on average two to three days and resolve on their own. Homeopaths love to “treat” this condition. They tell clients it may take two to three days to work, then take credit for its resolution.

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[Saffron]

I’m in the Ottawa region, eimat.

Anyone else?

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[Saffron]

Hi Woz. I experienced something similar after my first year taking Concerta. When I had bloodwork done as part of my annual physical, it was found that I had developed an iron deficiency that year. Although my hemoglobin level was in the low end of the normal range (probably owing to a multivitamin I take), my iron stores (ferritin) were way down.

Before the bloodwork, I had requested and been given an increase in my Concerta dosage, thinking that it just needed to be titered. In reality, the higher dosage only put more stress on my system.

It’s known that a subset of people who take Concerta do develop iron deficiency, although it’s not clear to what extent that might be due to changes in people’s appetite (and thus eating habits). I also had latent/stable thyroid disease that became active in that year. Concerta may be contraindicated in some cases of thyroid disease, but the exact nature of that relationship isn’t clear. Thyroid disease is also associated with anemia in many people. The body’s internal balance is a complicated thing, and Concerta can play dominoes with your system if you’re at all predisposed to endocrinological imbalance or to burning the candle at both ends when you have extra personal energy.

Hopefully this isn’t the case for you. But do have your hemoglobin, ferritin and TSH levels checked to be on the safe side.

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[Saffron]

Hey there, Stella. How’s that reading going? Here’s some material to help you argue convincingly for your point of view while more successfully refuting others. Look forward to hearing back from you after you’ve given these a look. The examples in these lists are actually pretty fun to peruse:

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Fine_Art_of_Baloney_Detection

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Logical_fallacy

OR: http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html

Enjoy.

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[Saffron]

@ADDled, I hear you.

Personally, I get concerned when I see more and more examples of people believing everything they read (see Stella’s remarks: “I also read that…” and “I just pass on what I read.”) while schools still fail to teach even the very basics on cognitive biases and logical fallacies.

People seem to have a growing resistance to complex reasoning. And they have a growing hostility to science. I recently read that what most irritates scientists is the way fluff-believers continually say “Science doesn’t have all the answers.”

Funny, because science is the one area where answers are *never* taken to be static or written in stone. Rather, they are continually reexamined from every angle. Every claim based on science must be backed up by controlled research, be logically sound AND be continually subject to replication or refutation and then to update. Researchers must publish their studies, and they must subject them to peer-review. They must openly declare all financial/competing interests.

Even when a claim by a pharmaceutical firm is distorted or fails to report all of the information, the distortion is eventually outed by this self-correcting system. (I work in medical publishing, and am constantly seeing studies published that correct or update pharmaceutic studies. We published one of the first studies that found statins can cause muscle atrophy, for example.)

None of the above checks and balances is true for claims made by Big Placebo or by writers of fluffy woo. They get to say anything they want, while taking hypocritical potshots at career scientists who have come by their learning through years of education. Frankly, this annoys me to no end.

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[Saffron]

“The whole point of this? For some folks (especially ADD folks), it just takes longer and later in life to “get it”. Some people have to wait until a little more emotional and mental maturity sets in.”

Bobcat, I think you’re onto something here. Even though I dutifully (fearfully) went through the motions at 16 years old and managed to get my driver’s licence then, I didn’t drive until my early 30’s. Another friend of mine with ADHD is in her late 40’s and still doesn’t drive, much to the surprise of everyone who knows her when they find out.

I’m now quite a fearless driver and have grown really dependent on the greater geographic expanse it gives me. However, I use defensive driving techniques (e.g., maintaining large space cushions between myself and other vehicles) and must have music playing on the radio to stay alert and focus properly. Talk radio or conversation with passengers is too distracting.

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[Saffron]

Right on! I hear you on the “missing puzzle piece” sentiment, and the difference with Concerta. Congratulations.

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[Saffron]

A quick note to say congratulations on making it this far. And if you don’t mind my saying so, you write very well. (I’ve been noticing what a gifted literate bunch we are around here, despite how many of us clawed our way through academia.)

Welcome.

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[Saffron]

FYI, to underline what Larynxa has written:

My daughter was NOT vaccinated, because her father was befriended by an anti-vaxer before her birth and became caught up in the latest brand of scientific illiteracy (conspiracy flavour) sweeping the west. He still cannot bring himself to properly self-educate, so invested is he in the fears (and now the money-guzzling products) put forth by Big Placebo.

And you know what? Our daughter turned out to HAVE AUTISM.

I was a vegetarian in great physical shape and ate an organic-food diet during my pregnancy with her. I also had a completely unmedicated birth and she was exclusively breastfed for a year, then breastfed part-time for two more years. (And make no mistake, she is, to us, a magical child. Though not in the sense Stella uses the word.)

Our daughter has an uncle with autism. Two other relatives are suspected to be on the spectrum.

Things that make you go “hmm.”

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[Saffron]

@Stella, any chance you could read the material at this site

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org

and then come back and discuss these topics?

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[Saffron]

It CAN be done. But you need to be doing what you do best, and you need to have a commitment from your employer for specific areas of flexibility before accepting a job.

Personally speaking, I struggled for years with the world of 9 to 5, and found that breaking from it to start up a business was invigorating for its flexibility, variation and nonstop stimulation, despite all of the late nights and dog-hard work it entailed.

But now I have kids, and I absolutely must have a reliable income and medical/dental benefits. Thankfully, I sought out and landed an employee-type job where my greatest areas of expertise are used to the hilt and very much valued. I made it a condition of accepting the job that I be allowed a flexible arrival time in the morning (as long as I put in the hours and never miss a deadline), and the employer has honoured that.

I never thought I would feel successful or fulfilled working on someone else’s schedule and framework, but I do. Really. Good luck. If you can make a go of it, the security can be worth it, I assure you.

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[Saffron]

Ha! A Ukrainian! *fist bump* Larynxa, I knew there must be some stray reason I identify with the way you write. Can’t speak it myself, but grew up listening to my mom and extended family speaking Old Country.

Now—back to our scheduled topic…

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[Saffron]

@jireland, I hear you. Would that we could still indulge the quiet passion of the all-nighter past our 30’s without feeling like a car wreck afterward!

@Larynxa, just read your version of “The Last Night of the World.” Loved it!

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