ADHD in adults

[Crankin]

Azurah, psychologists cannot prescribe medication in any state in the US. You must have been seeing a psychiatrist, or your therapist was working with a doctor who prescribed for him/her.
You need to find a different therapist. One who really knows his/her stuff, both about ADHD and anxiety. Therapy for a year, with no abatement of severe anxiety symptoms isn't right. This is interfering with your work.

[WindingRoad]

So I keep reading about some of the typical issues involved with ADHD. I continue to run across articles saying CYCLING is a sport highly recommended to help alleviate the symptoms. Some even say it fills that Impulsivity void we have. I just can't believe how much things are starting to make sense now. From the explosive anger moments to reading 5 books at a time, good lord I wish I had know this about 15 years ago. I'm not complaining though.

I do realize I'm going to have to rid myself of a lot of my preconceived notions about my rocky elementary and high school years. It was a horrible experience really; I was so frustrated with everything that I literally made bubble pictures on my SAT back in high school There is a point when you just can't fight it anymore and you just give in the to "bad student" label. All I can say is by all means if you suspect your kids of having ADHD, please have them evaluated and don't put them through the emotional roller coaster I had to go through. I think its worse for girls too, bc we already have issues with image and self esteem. Throwing a learning issue into the mix really screws with your confidence.

[Crankin]

I once read the teacher comments on my DH's report cards from early elementary school. I was astonished. One said "Something is wrong here..I don't know what, but something is very wrong. Steve is very smart, but cannot focus..."
Some of the comments were just plain mean. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I had written that stuff when I was teaching. But, people just didn't know in the early sixties. My DH got almost a perfect score when he took the SATs and he was accused of having someone take the test for him, because, well, how could someone like him do that?
So, yes, the self esteem issues that are part of ADHD are not small things at all.

[zoom-zoom]

One of my son's preschool teachers told us that Dane couldn't be ADHD, since he could hyper-focus on things he enjoyed to the exclusion of everything else.

Duh, that is one of the hallmarks of ADHD! We went another 2 years without pursuing any sort of diagnosis because of that woman's "assessment."

Then kindergarten screeners recommended we hold him back...because he had no focus during the session (put a little car/truck-obsessed boy in a room full of his favorite toys and what do you expect, people?).

This is the same boy who now scores advanced on state standardized tests. Holding him back would have been a disaster. Instead of being just ADHD he would have been bored to tears and ADHD. Bucking their recommendation and enrolling him in an Montessori kindergarten (and subsequently a Montessori Elem. school) was the best thing we ever did for our kid. It was at that kindergarten that the school director recognized instantly that our kid was perfectly ready for kindergarten. She also worked with us and our son's pediatrician through the diagnosis process. Rather than writing him off as a "problem child," as previous educators had.

[WindingRoad]

So I've seen my psychologist now a couple of times. I am told I have moderately severe ADHD symptoms. I asked where I rank to others who have ADHD and he said I was in the "upper echelon". Apparently this has been a much bigger problem than I ever realized for a very long time. I'm in the process of getting on some type of drug therapy. I'm a little worried about side effects and all. I hear that each drug reacts differently in each person so there's no way to know exactly what will happen.

[indysteel]

Wow; that's pretty heavy stuff, WR. I'm just glad that you finally pieced it together and sought professional help. Hopefully your doc will keep a close eye on your meds and help you deal with any side effects. Is conventional talk therapy also recommended. Good luck with dealing with this.

[myjas]

My son was diagnosed with severe ADHD by a pyschologist years back. As he was diagnosing him I seen similarities in the symptoms in me. I mentioned it to him and he said that women cope with it better because we can multi task. He also explained how the meds work if you do have this disorder compared to if you don't. And it can be seen on a special scan of the brain.