Comments like this don't help. We (my wife and I) are currently going through the process to in all likelihood diagnose my son as ADHD. It's tough, made more so by attitudes of people like you who'd probably chalk it up as "bad parenting" on my part.
So feel free to remove yourself from this discussion before you show yourself even more of an ass than you already have.
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ignore ignorant. (he, it almost rimed)
anyway, i do think Ritalin is not the answer. there are other options, read online, make your self an expert, and consider the doctors mean well, but they see lots of people a day...
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Doctors here aren't on commission. They're not sponsored by drug companies. It's taken 6 months so far and we're not at a diagnosis yet. I'd much rather not "alter" my son's mental state if there's a way to work with him, and we're trying everything else first.
But we're also preparing ourselves for the possibility that we'll need to medicate. At least it's an option. He's been driving us up the wall for years, and having that light at the end of the tunnel helps us get through it.
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Have you looked into essential oils? I have a friend who was able to take her daughter off Ritalin because of them. If you google it you will see like 4 different ones that have been shown to work. Worth a try before medication.
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i heard of some television treatment as well |(i'm serious)
something about teaching the child to control it somewhat
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Ritalin has been around so long that nobody is making huge profits from its sales. Also, treatment for mental disorders is never a "one size fits all" proposition. What works for one person does not necessarily work for another. Every person is different and treatment need to be specifically tailored to each individual's needs.
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I think the point of this comment was that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (let's write it down properly at least once in the thread...) tends to be widely over-diagnosed nowadays.
I did an internship in psychiatry a while back, many parents came to consult because "the teacher says" their kid has ADHD. And the psychiatrist had then to explain 1) "your kid's teacher is a teacher, not a doctor" and 2) "duh, it's a kid it's supposed to be a bit reckless". Can't put every kid on Ritalin just because the teachers want to catch a break.
Of course, some people do need medication... but probably quite fewer than we currently treat.
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it's even worse then that.
the spectrum is so wide now, that the number of people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has increased...
however, if you look at old documents, the number of people attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that were un-diagonsed is also very high.
makes epidemiological studies a pain in the ritalin
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To be honest, I wasn't trying to help. I was being facetious. I'm sorry that you, or anyone else, may have felt angered or disturbed at my (an Internet stranger's) words. I wish you and your family good health, and may each of you live long fulfilling lives. Now then, please allow me to correct your one mistake. There is not a single person in the existence of mankind that is like 'me'. Anyone, and most individuals, can and will simply try to put the blame on a single thing, when in fact, nothing is ever just black and white. So with this in mind, there is no way I could justify the cause of ADD to be from bad parenting. I do not know you; you could be a great parent.
So the next time you decide to respond to someone, feel free to ask them for clarification before you make assumptions.
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That is a very clever way to describe her then, good on you for your creativity. Personally, I've only ever been on Adderall and Wellbutrin to try and assist with my ADHD. My other friends who do use it for their ADHD/ADD say that it is helpful for them but they always feel really disconnected from the world and are more set on focusing on their task than interacting with others no matter how much they want to. It's the main reason I've never been interested in going on it.
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I thought it would be heavy to keep a serious talk about a medicine.
Anyway, what about you? You talked about your friends, but didn't quite tell what those ones did for (or against) you.
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I guess my only interaction with her was how she stole my friends from me. She hurt them and made them really closed off from the world. Kinda messed me up and made me decide I would never want anything to do with her. I guess if that isn't a fair scenario with her then I must be useless to the topic. I do hope things get better for you though.
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But what about Adderall/Wellbutrin? I don't know them. Could you talk about them?
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I guess I was neutral to Adderall until I finally had to go off of it recently. I had been taking it for the past 12-13 years and it was never all that fun. I always had a side effect of not being hungry while taking it and it made me extremely hyper to the point that I would get nauseated. Since I wasn't eating much and was always running around, I lost so much weight that I went from being kinda pudgy to the point that you could see a majority of my bones. It is supposed to leave your system after about ~12 hours so every time I went off of it for a few days, I'd be eating more food because I was so hungry from not eating much while I was taking it and that caused me to gain a bunch of weight over time.
I stopped taking it as frequently because every time I'd take it, my heart would race and I'd end up getting so fidgety that I'd be scratching my arms or picking my nails just because my hands needed something to do. My friends would try to stop me by hugging me or holding my arms down but it would just end in me closing myself off and running away from them while I continued to pick at myself. My body changed over the years to the point that I got just about every side effect there was to the medicine and just this year, I finally refused to take it any longer.
Just this March 29th, I was put on Wellbutrin and so far it has been nice. It is meant to primarily help with my depression and slightly mellow out my anxiety - The secondary use is to help make my ADHD less severe. Unlike Adderall, it isn't a stimulant so I don't have all the severe fidgety side effects as before so that has been good. It is a pill I have to take consistently to see the proper effects so I'm still trying to figure out how it will affect me in the long run. So far I've been pretty happy and it's getting a bit easier to read. Before this, it was impossible for me to read a text book because of how distracted I could get but lately, I can get through a page or two before I need to take a break. It has helped me more that any other medication I have been prescribed so far (I took many other meds for other mood disorders and my ADHD but these two are the most relevant ones). I haven't had any problems with it and I've felt more relaxed lately so +1 on the Wellbutrin.
//Also, sorry for the long ramble, I can talk about my medication for hours if someone asks it of me//
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It's alright. Butrin looks a nice guy, maybe I should try him, but I don't know if I can leave Rita. She was so helpful for me in different moments that I feel I could marry her
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I believe you are be able to have them both at the same time. The only reason I ended up with Wellbutrin was because I was more focused on having someone to help clear my mind of depressing and anxious thoughts. Considering the fact that it is primarily for mood disorders, it isn't guaranteed to entirely help with the problem of ADHD and my doctor told me that if it isn't improving my ability to focus, then later I'd be able to have a medication alongside it to keep my mood and concentration all leveled out. I recommend Wellbutrin because it has been very stable and assisted me in just about every category I have needed help in. If you are able to have it prescribed to you, then it is really something cool to at least try out. It is the only medication I have ever taken that has given me the ability to focus without the hyper "tunnel vision".
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I felt kind of the same, got an extreme tunnelvision on "Rita". It was useful for productivity, but the feeling is so different from my usual no real focus, but getting all the peripheral stimuli. It was genuinely scary, especially that I don't know if other, normal people worklike that or just the dose was too high.
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(I have no real clue but this is how I've summed up everything I've learned so far about ADHD and the people who dont have it)
I think that for others, they don't get extreme focus onto the task at hand. The best way I've heard it described is that ADHD is not getting distracted over and over, it is that you are trying to pay attention to everything at once. That makes me think that, since that is normal for people with ADHD, then it would be abnormal for someone who doesn't have it to live that way. I'm guessing that they don't take in as much information as we do. They are capable of getting distracted but can shift their attention between the two things that they are doing, giving one more priority over the other. When I was on Adderall, I had an amplified focus only specifically towards school work but if it were slowed down to how the average person sees the world, then it is just the flip of a switch.
Imagine you are sitting down to eat dinner and you have a burger and a glass of water. You can decide when you want to take a bite of the burger, or if you get thirsty, you can set the burger down and have a sip of water. Being on a stimulant like Adderall or Ritalin gives you extreme focus and priority to the main thing you focus on. Once you take the meds, all your attention goes to shoveling the burger in your mouth, bite after bite until the burger is gone. Even though you want to take a drink of the water, your mind is so set on quickly eating the burger that at that point, it would be disorienting to set the burger down at any time. Once you set it down, no matter how much you try to drink the water, you get a fighting feeling in your mind like "should I drink this water, or should I go to the fridge for soda?" Still being unable to make up your mind, you get up and just keep running back and forth from the fridge for hours. Eventually you either go back and finish the burger and are finally ready for the water when the meds wear off, or you run back and forth for so long that you are exhausted and just go to bed, leaving the burger only half eaten on the table for you to worry about the next morning.
That's just how I imagine the difference between having ADHD and only being able to have focus once on the meds, and being the average person. I could be wrong though... or this could just be a useless tangent I went on because it's 2:41 am and I'm tired and all I can think about is burgers. That's just the conclusion I came to to get myself to sleep at night instead of worrying for hours over how the average person sees the world.
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Being on a stimulant like Adderall or Ritalin gives you extreme focus and priority to the main thing you focus on.
I remember that feeling, I felt physically unwell for not doing what I should have... well one can get that drive to finish with stuff I guess :D
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did you change your nickname? - only this is strangely similar to other posts on the forum
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Being able to pay attention to make serious lonely tasks like reading or studying
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according to my search it helps to decrease hyperactivity. is this right?
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It should be right. She was made for it. However, she works differently with different people and, as said, even for the same person through time. I tend to be much more sociable and hyperactive when I use her, at least for some hours. She should work for 3 or 4 hours, but for me she lasts more time, maybe because of my weight.
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I don't know how exactly it supposed to affect that, but it worked for me. Mind you I don't have the child-type of hyperactivity docs so eager to prescribe Ritalin. (as far as I noticed, hyperactivity mostly happens with lack of focus/interests - some people's mind just wanders away, while others want to get a grasp on reality, and as the brain is bored it's mostly a physical thing, just to ~do something. For me this usually means picking my face, my beard.. not a huge one but definitely a habit like children's hyperactivity, just on the smaller, more conserved scale)
ADHD for me is both great and very, very bad. Imagine that every sound you hear gets registered in your consciousness. You actually pay attention to the steps behind you, the cars passing by, when I try to relax I still often follow cars on the street how they turn based on their sound. I use my peripheral vision way too much and things getting in it distract me. Seeing something moving makes me want to check it out otherwise I get tense, afterall it's something but I don't know what (it's a natural reaction but as people don't use their peripherals so often, it's on a smaller scale). I love to do 3-4 things at the same time because I can listen to music, talk to 5 people at the same time, browse forums, and I'll still remember everything - I don't know if this is ADHD releated, but point is it works.
Now imagine being in a classroom, listening to a teacher who can't properly teach and express the important points, repeat the simple and boring ones while every distracted student distracts me more and more. At a point I started listening to music in one earpiece during class because at least that gives a consistant input that I can grab into and don't let my mind wander away, so at least I'm not completely lost.
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Your second paragraph, where you describe your extreme awareness, describes exactly how Rita worked for me at the very beginning.
I also do a lot of things at the same time, I don't know if it is ADHD.
About the last paragraph, it's like I've ever felt most of time, before meeting Rita or when she is not with me.
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guys i have so much retarded questions right now... :D let me ask an under 18 one: when you are laughing, is it possible to just forget it and give a poker face? sorry, but its interesting :)
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Of course, I'm master on disguising my emotions or remembering there's no real reason to keep laughing since I was a child.
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just stay on the positive side ^^ i think you guys are special, and it gives you potential. you just have to figure out how to use it for good productivity :) have fun ^^
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40mg one felt like a kick in the head, after ~ half an hour extreme focus but at least I could direct it. So while it still need supervision, help, maybe even psychologist to get through all problems that could stem from ADHD, but at least it helps on the somatic problems.
Tried 10mg one as well that supposed to have more balanced effect, and because of better absorption it should be just as good if not better, and have a longer effect as well. It was shit, had barely any effect at any time, besides taking away my appetite almost completely. But I was a fool not giving this info back to the doc, it would have been an important info, instead i let my anxiety win and didn't ask for more appointments :\
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Oh. I take only 10 mg, and she lasts for hours. Not the way I want, though, but, still, she changes me for nearly 6 hours (or more, considering that I usually can't sleep after that time if I don't take any medicine to sleep).
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Was awhile ago it was a trend under students to use it as a drug.
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there are more girls in the world ... why are you so curious about Rita? do you love her?
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Different name, same controversial topics. Though I can't for the life of me grasp why you make so many of them. Are you collecting comments? Desperate for attention? Boredom? I'm genuinely curious and don't mean any insult even if you are just trolling.
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ADD makes me unfocused, so I keep making threads while I'm doing other stuff like studying. Collecting comments? No, but sometimes I find some good ones. Wanting attention? Maybe. Desperate? Definitely no... just a way to pass time while I'm busy, so much attention would be counterproductive. So yes, boredom should be the best definition, alongside attention and having some fun sometimes (what's related to boredom).
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sounds just like a nice mixture of boredom and curiosity. Nothing wrong with the attention either, it's always nice to discuss topics like this with others similar to ones self.
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Yeah, curiosity as well. World is a huge place, I can't help making some questions and having some fun reading some opinions and experiences.
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Nothing wrong with it, I just found it curious to see a person making nearly only controversial topics and what would be the drive behind it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I like shaking places a little. Sometimes I like seeing gamers' opinions about games, since I know nearly nothing about gaming. My library is full of traded games and games people give me. I don't even have time to play and when I have, I end up doing other stuff. My PC sucks, anyway.
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For what it's worth, you're not alone pondering these deep questions :P
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Well thanks for explaining it to me, had been wondering for a while.
I thought it'd be a funny thing to see how many comments you could gather and see what kind of topics were the most popular, but that's just my silly reasoning.
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Some of my threads end up generating a lot of subthreads inside them. I can't even read them all.
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I've been taking meds (concerta - a time released version of Ritalin) for about 5 or 6 years. I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until I was almost 30.
I'm currently at a bit of an impasse with medication and looking for other alternatives. To be honest my family doctor hasn't been that helpful, so I'm mostly using trial and error to figure it out.
Here's what I've found so far:
-reducing dosage to about 18mg has helped with some of the side effects.
-stopping medication completely often leads to increased irritability and anxiety.
-meditation and physical activity (yoga and Chi Kung in particular) help reduce medication withdrawal symptoms.
Hope this is helpful. This is generally a tough topic to talk about socially, so I'm glad you were able to find an outlet to talk about it.
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Thanks for the advices.
I take only 10 mg, just when I need it. Never felt anything by stopping like that... maybe because I don't take it daily. Even so, its effects last for over 6 hours on me. I suppose it should last only 3~4 hours, even if its dosage is bigger. Maybe there's something to do with my weight, like most medicines.
About physical activity, I used to go to the gym and have dance classes some months ago. Now I'm into kung fu, though I've been sick lately.
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I was prescribed with Ritalin for my supposed ADD, and I took it for a while, but...it didn't help my problems, the main one being I didn't think I had ADD. In the end I...err...got rid of the remaining tablets and bought myself a treat.
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As I mentioned before, everyone is different and respond differently to the same treatment. It's best to find a physician who is aware of this and is willing to try different things until a treatment that both patient and doctor are comfortable with is found.
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You wouldn't refuse antibiotics if you had a serious injury, would you? The brain is susceptible to failures as well. If someone needs treatment for that, it should be a decision between them and their doctor. There should be no shame in seeking treatment, whatever the malady.
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I agree. However, not every doctor is competent nor every patient
I dare say half the persons on ritalin shouldn't be on it. Likewise, not everyone prescribed antibiotics really needs it. Some doctors are too quick to write a prescription, for whatever ails thee (or whatever thou claims to ail ye)
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I dare say that most doctors who have taken the training and passed the certification to prescribe medications are better informed about who should and who shouldn't be getting prescriptions than you are.
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and I dare say that just because they've taken the training and passed the certification, doesn't mean they're always right (not saying I am either). Some doctors are much quicker with the prescription pad than others, and not everyone who is prescribed something actually needs it. of course, if you do need it, absolutely, you should have access
See my point below "Ritalin was prescribed because I asked for it". I too was once able to get ADD/ADHD medication "because I asked for it", just like many people are able to get pain medication just by asking for it.
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And that is the heart of the matter. Neither you nor I are qualified to make these kinds of decisions for other people. Please do not shame someone away from seeking proper medical attention by convincing them that it is somehow unnecessary or that they are inferior for seeking it.
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that was absolutely not my intention. If someone needs it, they should absolutely get the appropriate medication. Nothing wrong with that.
But, as I pointed out, and as you can read below, psychiatry is not an exact science, and while any GP can prescribe Ritalin, that doesn't mean they have the appropriate training to understand what they're looking for and/or how to monitor whether or not it's the right solution.
Put differently, would you want a GP to perform surgery on your nose, or would you prefer to leave that up to an ENT surgeon? Would you want a GP to treat your cancer, or would you prefer an oncologist?
don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for GPs, but their main job is to (a) make sure you're in good health, (B) treat minor ailments, and (C) refer you to a specialist for anything more than a minor ailment
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Now you're talking about HMO's, which is something different altogether.
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no, not at all. I'm talking about specialization. HMO is merely the payment mechanism.
I'm specifically stating that a GP's main job is to check that their patients are healthy, and to fix minor ailments, but for anything that is not minor, that they should refer them to a specialist.
It's irrelevant as to whether it's an HMO, private care, or some other organization. That's a matter of payment/bureaucracy, not a matter of service. It works the same in other countries, where they don't even have HMOs.
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As said, there's no much way to escape from drugs. If you go to the dentist or needs an analgesic, you'll have to take them, unless you are a hardcore medicine disbeliever (yeah, I've known some people like that...).
By the way, many people don't even know alcohol is a drug. Even so, they drink it for fun. I don't drink alcohol; though, I know people who drink who are into that thing that "you shouldn't do drugs". Pretty funny, I think.
Ritalin was prescribed because I asked for it. I was too tired and desperate for being unable to read and study properly for nearly 10 years. You can deduce, of course, that through that time, I tried a lot of "solutions" which didn't work.
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I know alcohol is a drug - so is caffeine. So is tylenol/paracetemol. Hell, chocolate has over 300 psychotropic chemicals in it. Just about anything you eat or drink can contain some kind of drug (see e.g. Tryptophan)
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Fuck that shit. I was addicted to those back in the day.
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I feel like Ritalin, Concerta, Addheral, etc. are the easy solution to kids with energy nowadays. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was a little kid but my parents didn't want to give some Ritalin to me and I am so happy they didn't.
I may have been hard to manage, was a noisy, excited and never concentrated but this is normal for a kid. The thing that really calmed me down was doing sports. I could put my excess of energy somewhere to be calm and concentrate at school. I had to go and play soccer and bicycle every night in order to be ok under the age of 12. After 12 I started weightlifting every and I don't know how but it totally calmed me.
Ritalin is just temporary and your body will create a dependance. We shoudn't stop people to be themself with drugs, we should encourage them to do things they are good at and I thing that right now the school system isn't ready for that, ADHD kids can't sit and listen all day to a teacher.
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I have ADHD and that crap didn't even calm me. It actually gave me even more energy. It did help me focus though..
Not worth it for all the downsides though. I almost died on that shit because of my addiction.
I think Marijuana is a better option for ADHD but that's just me.
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Ritalin is a stimulant. If it was making you even more agitated, then it's possible that you have been misdiagnosed.
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I remember actually going to facility that does testing for it when I was a kid. I did some puzzles and other mental tasks and they said I had it. It's possible I was misdiagnosed but I think if nothing else I have the attention part of it.
Keep in mind I wasn't taking it as prescribed. I was abusing em to get high because It did give a powerful euphoric feeling.. Now I don't take any ADHD medicine. My cousin takes a new one that doesn't get you high or anything so I might give it a try sometime and see if it does anything for me but I don't like taking any pills if I can help it.
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Most of psychiatric medicines are like that. They can generate dependance, your body can develop some kind of immunity, so you will need more and some of them should be discontinued after some time, in order to make you be able to regain your psychological abilities by yourself.
Let me just be aware of something: is Ritalin a children's medicine?
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Ritalin just is. There was a time when it was believed that ADHD was something that kids grow out of, hence the misconception that only kids get it and the diagnosis was seldom given to adults. We now know that it is a failure of the executive functions of the brain, affecting not only attention, but one's ability to prioritize and keep impulsive behavior in check. Ritalin (or any medication) can only do so much. Therapy should be a part of effective treatment.
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A well respected doctor diagnosted me as ADHD.
After taking drugs for 2 years and going worse she sent me to doctor which I later learned he is a ADHD expert.
He formed a file, gave it to me so I can give it to her.
She told me I am not ADHD, and I shouldn't come again. :)
Years later I went to doctor who says medicine doesn't really help.
You need to change yourself.
Now I am much better and I haven't been taking drugs for 8 years.
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Good for you. However, what was successful for you may not work for someone else. There is such a stigma attached to mental health today that it prevents people from seeking help. You ultimately got help from seeing the right doctor. Everyone should feel free to do so and not feel ashamed about it.
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I've been changing myself for over 10 years. My focus, though, was getting worse and worse. That's why I asked for Ritalin, couldn't wait to fail again in my studies
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Any therapy, be it behavioural, occupational, or pharmaceutical, are all tools. And each problem needs a tool, or in the case of AD/H/D, a suite of tools. The stigma against pharmaceuticals has always confused me - yes it is a crutch, but an effective one when used correctly.
I was diagnosed with ADD after I had started the process of dropping out of school, almost 20 years ago. At the time, the area I lived in had no affordable options for non-pharmaceutical therapies, so I was put on to Ritalin. The difference between being on and off it is vast, and each has it's pros and cons. Unfortunately, for me, the negatives far outweigh the benefits.
Being off Ritalin makes it difficult for me to follow a set course of action. Steps are skipped, details ignored, and errors creep in. On the flip side, the same issues that make following steps difficult does allow me to make tremendous intuitive leaps. Often time I'll look at a problem and instantly have a few possible solutions. Those solutions may have bugs, but that's why we have QA people. The major downside is that I get really pissy if I don't get my coffee.
Being on Ritalin does make things far easier in terms of following through step by step. The quality of the work improves substantially, really difficult problems can be solved methodically. The major downside occurs when the Ritalin wears off. Imagine the fuzzyness you have when you just wake up, but ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times worse. My "no-coffee pissyness" becomes a "what the hell is wrong with that bastard?" level of grouchiness.
I have since learned that simply prescribing Ritalin isn't sufficient, dosages need to be tested, changed, and retested, over the course of weeks and months. My younger brother was diagnosed (with AS) and treated several years after me - at a time when these issues became widely recognized. The doctors worked with him to find the best balance of treatments. He was able to stay in school, and managed to gain entrance into one of the best high schools in the country.
While I have learned to effectively use the quirks of my brain, my brother went through various therapies to minimize and mitigate the worst of the disorders. I admit to some jealousy towards him, but only in passing.
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i have that thing that people call ADHD these days...^^
for me it's not a sickness - it's a gift... maybe it's harder for me to focus on single things but im much better in realizing several things at once - something my friends can't do... so i don't take any meds... :)
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