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Adderal is seriously the best invention ever. The times I have taken it it hasn't changed my personality. I just became very productive, I was able to get things done, I felt focused.
Granted I have a job where it's totally acceptable to be myself in the way of not being able to focus on one thing and doing multiple things at work.
I have to be able to break away from a task to help a customer or another employee.
Go talk to them, tell them how you feel.
If you get a prescription it will make your world so much better. It works wonders for me when I take it.
Addt: If you had cancer you'd rely on chemo and radiation, a fever you rely on Advil, if you have an illness it's antibiotics.
Don't go into it thinking the medicine does all the work.
Think of it as helping you make it easier to work at making yourself more productive.
Again, like I said it's an awesome medicine.
When I was taking it I went into work, I started working, I knocked out all my required tasks and then was able to start on my individual work and sales.
A lot of people do amphetamines. Have you looked up the side effects?
txtqueen isn't "doing amphetamines." She is taking a controlled dosage of prescription medicine, as prescribed by her physician to appropriately address a specific medical need.
Adderall is prescribed to some patients with ADHD, and that's what this topic is about.
I find it odd that a research scientist was doubting the existence of a mental health issue recognized by pretty much every reputable medical professional.
Yes, ADD/ADHD exists. My family can trace it back 3 generations, well before it was ever recognized.
I have it and am unmedicated. I manage it with lots of notes and lists, meditation and the simple recognition that I need to do things my own way (as in leave for appointments earlier, leave myself more time to get stuff done, set goals in a different way, break processes down into very tiny steps, etc.).
Medication might work wonderfully for you, but there are entire bodies of literature devoted to this subject and "life hacks" for the ADD/ADHD person. So do what you do best and research it.
Incidentally, when I was first diagnosed, a close friend pooh-poohed the diagnosis. She insisted that was just "your personality" and "Just the way you are" and "Everyone is like that". I gave her a book on it (Driven to Distraction) and suggested she ask some people about how their brains worked.
She was shocked to learn that yes there are people who can focus on a single thought for more than a couple minutes and OMG, wow, there are people who don't get distracted by any noise, bump or twitch around them when they are working on something. Even more shocking was taking the self-assessment test and scoring pretty highly. LOL
I used to wonder if it was real until my youngest son developed some unusual behaviors in about fifth grade. Though it later turned out he is bipolar, for about a year I took him to an ADHD pediatrician who thought that was my son's problem. After observing the completely uncontrolled behaviors of some of the children in the waiting room when we'd be there for appointments I became a believer. I can't even adequately describe the energy level some of these children as young a four years old displayed.
I used to wonder if it was real until my youngest son developed some unusual behaviors in about fifth grade. Though it later turned out he is bipolar, for about a year I took him to an ADHD pediatrician who thought that was my son's problem. After observing the completely uncontrolled behaviors of some of the children in the waiting room when we'd be there for appointments I became a believer. I can't even adequately describe the energy level some of these children as young a four years old displayed.
It's good to distinguish though, between ADD and ADHD. The H, obviously, stands for Hyperactivity. Not everyone with ADD is hyperactive. ADHD is one type of ADD, and ADD is the "catch-phrase" for the overall combination of symptoms. I'm definitely not hyperactive, heh. I had to unlearn some pretty bad habits - like sleeping til noon, or sitting in front of the TV watching show after show after show, to the point where I had even memorized the commercials and the order in which I'd see them from day to day. I could sit cross-legged on the carpet and stare at the boob-tube without moving a muscle, as long as I had no distractions. EVERYTHING was distracting though. A truck driving by outside the window? My head would jerk up. Phone ringing? UGH - the worst. Absolute worst. I can't stand the phone ringing, which is why I have it right next to my computer monitor. So I can answer it the SECOND it rings for the first time. People marvel at how I can answer it before they hear it ring on their end. And it's true. The recipient of a phone call hears a ring before the sender hears one. So if the recipient picks it up fast enough, the sender will never hear it ring on their end.
Rituals are also important for someone with ADD. This is all part and parcel of the "no distractions!" thing. We need our routines. I get up, get dressed, go to the bathroom, turn the computer on, feed the cat, make my coffee, and go into the office to check my e-mail and the CD forum and some other forums I read. If I can't do these things in THAT order - it disrupts my entire morning. I don't freak out, that would probably be more of an autism thing than an ADD thing - but our routines do help keep us on task and focused. Many people with ADD haven't yet discovered how important a routine is, which is part of why they're ALWAYS so unfocused.
(1)To this day it's difficult to hold a conversation with him as he is looking around, hears an airplane overhead, a dog bark, a car go by, etc.
So I did some reading about ADD/ADHD and on my own, I guess that he has ADHD. (2) The difference is that he CAN concentrate on things that he is truly interested in and can concentrate on those things longer and better than most people.
(3) He's a very smart man but he did not go to college and is self educated in the things HE was interested in because he would read and study them on his own.
So, yes ADD and ADHD are real. (4) I think there is an entire spectrum of intensity from mild to extreme.
1. I teach special ed and most of my students have AD/HD, along with other disorders. Our favorite joke is, "Oh look, a bird!" Of course I get teased as much as they do.
2. This is often true--many people assume that those with AD/HD are poor readers, but this is only true if they're completely uninterested in reading. I grew up a bookworm. My brother got interested in planes in college and has built an impressive career as a pilot and head of aircraft maintenance.
3. This is often true--at a sped teacher's conference once it got tossed about that AD/HD is associated with an average 10 pt higher IQ. Now if I could just use that brain I have.
4. I think of it as a sliding scale similar to Kinsey's sex scale--on one end you have extreme AD/HD and on the other you have extreme OCD. Best to be in the middle I think though I know one unfortunate soul who is at the extreme end of both. She teaches special ed also and is the absolute worst teacher I've ever seen.
Adderall is prescribed to some patients with ADHD, and that's what this topic is about.
You are right- that is what this topic is about. I guess you did not look at my link which shows what is in Adderall. Of course amphetamines make adults feel good and give them energy which is why it is a controlled substance. Amphetamines have the opposite effect in prepubescent children. I am trying to get people to educate themselves and read up on this subject rather than blindly accept their doctor's assertions since it has been extremely controversial since diagnoses starting to explode in the US. Read the history of this "disease". It is eye opening in terms of how it has morphed since the beginning definitions.
It's not a disease, no one is claiming it is a disease. I don't know what your agenda is Hollytree, but it appears to be more of an anti-pharma or anti-modern-medicine agenda than a genuine concern for the OP and the quoted text that you're arguing against. txtqueen is a young adult (I believe she's not yet 21 but I might be a year or so behind on that), who has made huge strides in her maturity over the time she's been participating in CD. If she says the prescribed medication is helping her be this remarkable woman that she is becoming, then I don't care if it's nothing more than Pepsi with extra caffeine in it. It's helping her.
I don't need to "educate myself" on the subject. I've been living with it for over 40 years, since before it was ever a diagnosis. I've helped my own doctors understand it better, because they had a live subject who has the observational skills of a hawk and can take a subjective look at her own life's history to see patterns and trends.
People with ADD can do that kind of stuff pretty darned well, if they can sit still long enough to figure out how.
Holly, I am under the care of a holistic physician (MD) for cancer and I asked him one day if I should continue to take adderall. He asked me if it makes me feel better or worse--I said better. He said to continue to take it then. I'd already started down a huge dark hole of anxiety and worrying about whether I'd even be able to keep my job w/o it, so that was a huge relief. Sometimes feeling good is one of the best things you can do for your health and my doc is a firm believer in this.
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- but our routines do help keep us on task and focused. Many people with ADD haven't yet discovered how important a routine is, which is part of why they're ALWAYS so unfocused.
