[wanderquest]

These kind of discussions are what make Totallyadd.com so great. The assessment tests are kinda vague. Reading personal experiences of others is what helps you see specific examples of the kinds of things ADHD can lend itself to.

I’ve always thought I had a short attention span, but it really never donned on me that it could actually be ADHD until I started reading forums on websites like this and read personal accounts of others. That’s what turned on the light bulb for me.

I TOO leave coffee cups around the house only to find them ice cold hours later. I TOO stop in mid-sentence and have no clue what I was fixing to say. I TOO often go to the store and forget the one thing I actually went for. And I don’t just do these things sometimes. It’s a lot. A whole lot.

It really gives you some perspective and a sense of community. You’re not alone, you’re not crazy, and there are ways to deal with it once you figure out the root.

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[wanderquest]

It is a documented possible side effect. I’ve been on 40mg for about 5 months now and I lost about 7 lbs the first month (I’m overweight so that’s really not much). Then no further affect on appetite. Anecdotal- take with a grain of salt. It may have been that I was in a really good place and was eating less just because I was happy.

If you’re on the correct dosage it shouldn’t make you speedy. If you start losing rapidly you definitely need to discuss with a doctor.

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[wanderquest]

My nearly dead plant is sitting on a shelf, off camera. 🙂 Lol.

There is actually another desk, with my computer on it, that’s where all my drink cups/coffee mug/pop cans sit.

I’m 95% sure that my mess is what got me my own office though. I was out in an open area but I think our CEO got sick of seeing it, so I got shuffled into what used to be a storage area. I’m walled in on one side by filing cabinets, but I’m cool with it.

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[wanderquest]

Even before I had a diagnosis, I’ve always been fascinated with the way my brain thinks of things in such a tangential manner. I would stop suddenly, realizing I was thinking of something completely random and wonder, “Now why am I thinking about this?”, and try to trace it back the beginning thought. Sort of like a solitaire memory game with myself.

Last night I had a conversation with someone and it was brought up  (in a round about way) that people don’t watch TV on a set schedule anymore due to DVR’s and online streaming. That lead me to decide to buy a watch. Here’s how:

Was lying in bed thinking about the TV schedule. Remembered that as a kid I used to always know what time my shows were on because if I missed them-I missed them, that was it. So how was I better at knowing the time (at least for TV) back then? It may have been that I didn’t have the crutch of DVR.

Which made me think about what other things that I’ve adapted/turned into a crutch. Lots of electronics/computer related helpers. I rely heavily on e-mail and my phone. If I need to do something or remember something I email it to myself immediately. I constantly tell people that they have to email me or I am NOT going to remember it. And I use my phone as a clock. But I only actually look at when I’m curious what the time is. Which reminded me I used to wear a watch as a kid and was constantly looking at it.

So I wondered if maybe I would be more time aware if I had one now. So I immediately took my phone and sent myself an email to buy a watch.

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[wanderquest]

@munchkin “disaster area”

Does this look familiar then?

http://totallyaddconnect.com/members/wanderquest/album/picture/199/

http://totallyaddconnect.com/members/wanderquest/album/picture/198/

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[wanderquest]

When I leave for the day, I place whatever I was working on, or whatever is the next thing I need to get done  in my chair so I know the top priority.  My office is also pretty much wallpapered with post-it’s.

The post-it segment of “ADD and loving it”  had me rolling.

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[wanderquest]

@kc5jck “waiting for a planetary alignment” I swear I have used those exact words. That sums up how I feel a lot.  I’ll start something, then run out of steam, then put it off  waiting for the right mood to strike again.

I’m sure my work habits infuriate my boss. I’ll kick butt one day and do next to nothing the next. She’s the “slow and steady wins the race” type and I don’t fit that model. I’m more “pedal to the metal and slide to a stop”…if I can get the engine started anyway.

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[wanderquest]

I have trouble with things that don’t have a due date. If it’s something that just needs to be done “eventually” I often ignore it.

And if I’ve mastered the process of a task, I have a hard time doing it over and over again. Once I’ve learned the process I just don’t care anymore and those things are very difficult for me to start, even if the task itself is relatively easy.

I like setting up new things and developing easier/smarter ways to do things. I’ve been accused of working really hard to be lazy, but it’s just that I can find inefficiencies and implement ways to not do stupid repetitive crap if there’s a way to avoid it.

For example, one of the things I have to do every month is update budget spreadsheets. It used to take about two hours once a month to go in and change all the formulas. I got so sick of it one day I went to the web and self-taught myself how to do macros in excel. I spent two whole days creating the macros I needed. Now that same update only takes 2 minutes.

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[wanderquest]

Maybe

 

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[wanderquest]

I might be interested. I’m currently reading that same book. And I’m in your time zone.

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[wanderquest]

Oh socks! That cracks me up! My solution? Buy literally dozens of the same exact kind so I don’t have to match them.

But even after doing that, which helps, I still find myself wearing mismatched socks if I can’t find a pair. At least they’re usually the same color.

The other day my husband got onto my daughter for having one sock with pink toes and one with purple. She came up to me and asked if it was okay that she did that. I asked her why she did it. She said because she couldn’t find a match. I then asked if they were clean, she said yes. I said nope, no problem.

Then I looked at my own socks and realized they were mismatched as well. We laughed and took a picture of our feet together. She’s definitely my little mini-me.

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[wanderquest]

Something else to consider. I understand your thesis is about dopaminergic drugs as they relate to a dompamine deficiency. Dopamine is only a component of ADHD, it also involves issues with norepinephrine  and choline. The brain is a stew of hard to spell chemicals.

Which would possibly explain why some people get “lit up” by some drugs but not others. Most drugs work on more than one receptor as well. Depending on what your brain is deficient in, could affect your drug of choice.

And out of curiosity I looked into the nicotine addiction. Smoking does release dopamine but the main thing it does in creating addiction is actually increasing the number of nicotinic receptors. Your brain gets to where it’s more interested in the nicotine than the dopamine. So if a neruotypical starts smoking occasionally because it feels good (dopamine) they may continue to smoke infrequently but eventually become addicted solely for the nicotine.

I imagine that could be the case in several other drugs as well, even if their primary effect is dopaminergic. Dopamine deficiency would certainly be the place to start looking, and it could lead to other research about the other transmitters.

Are you involved in some type of university community? I definitely think your idea is worth pursuing. As you stated, not only for what it could mean from a prevention standpoint, but for treatment as well.

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[wanderquest]

How would this apply in the case of cigarettes? At one point nearly half the population smoked. Surely not that many people have a dopamine deficit.

 

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[wanderquest]

Do you think this is true even for super-fastly addictive drugs like heroin and meth? I could see this as a real possibility for most drugs like alcohol and cocaine but those two seem particularly scary and able to affect anybody who tries them.

I  agree about the drug-campaigns losing almost all credibility once you get to a certain age and see “normal” people using them freely with no issues.

When I was growing up our schools participated in the D.A.R.E. programs. I bought in fully and was completely anti-drug. Then when I got into highschool and college and realized that they don’t make people lose their minds, I started trying all kinds of stuff.

Never heroin and never meth though, because I knew of how fast you could get addicted and that scared me. Seeing pictures of those addicts is what drove home that message for me as something I didn’t want to chance.

My own personal experience told me I didn’t have a problem with marijuana, I need to be careful with alcohol, and that after only one experience I knew I needed to never ever do cocaine again. The one time I did it I could feel myself immediately wanting more right away. I had a friend (thank God) stop me and I knew it was something I could never do again or I would probably keep going until it killed me.

I have a family history of alcoholism, so I kinda knew I needed to be careful of that even after I had decided to ignore any anti-drug crap I heard from the government or school authorities. But I honestly believed this hereditary inclination only applied to alcohol.

It is pretty well established that drug use is higher amongst those with ADHD, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the postulation that it’s a pre-requisite in the other direction though.

Dopamine deficit sounds more accurate and something less likely to be a stigmatic “label” for those that have it,  but by calling it Attention Deficit, more people are likely to realize they may have it in the first place.

And as another anecdotal bit from my own experience, I have barely had any interest in drinking since I’ve been taking Vyvanse. Not that I was drinking heavily beforehand, but I can just tell I have less desire to have a beer after work.

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[wanderquest]

So are you suggesting that in order to develop an addiction you probably have a dopamine receptor problem to start with?

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