Do You Really Know What It's Like to Live with Adult ADHD?

Actually, that's a trick question, because each person with adult ADHD is a different person, with different levels of the condition, different symptoms, varying levels of symptoms, different abilities which help or hinder coping, family support, or lack of....

Well, you get my point.

I am pretty classic.

I forget things, particularly if there's a list of instructions or a sequence involved.

I am easily distracted. What I call my "Look! There's a squirrel!" condition.

I cannot focus. Don't try to talk to me if the TV is on. If you want a serious discussion, or really want me to listen TO YOU, turn the TV or radio off. Don't talk important stuff to me in a crowded room or other busy place. I am probably going to lose track of what you are saying anyway, but, it will happen faster.

I am a genius, and that helps. I can figure out what you wanted, what I'm supposed to do, and....having adult ADHD, I just lost that train of thought.

It happens.

One other thing.....

I feel stupid, ashamed, and embarrassed every time it happens. Over the years, many people have drummed into me that I am lazy, stupid, disinterested...or...just plain no fun to be with.

Those are some of the things I feel. If you have adult ADHD, you may have different experiences. If you do NOT have adult ADHD, you may be trying to understand someone who does.

A recent article, What It's Like to Live With Adult ADHD offers another person's view of what life is like if you suffer from ADHD.

The author Jaime Lutz, a writer and comedian currently living in Brooklyn, sums up part of her point of view in this paragraph:

"Panic over starting a new job; depression and feelings of low self-worth from consistently failing at tasks that other people find easy; and, most of all, skepticism and condescension from other people who think it's not a "real" disability. I'm far more embarrassed telling people I have ADHD than telling them I take antidepressants."

As I read through Jaime's article, I noticed that while we have similarities, we also have differences, which I pointed out at the start of this post. As I said, we are not all alike and specific symptoms and difficulties may occur from person to person.

One difference between us, which may account for some of the other differences, is that she was diagnosed as a child AND as an adult, while I was not diagnosed until I was in my 60's, in the meantime, I was simply regularly informed that I was lazy, no good, and stupid. More than one person in my life informed me that, "You've got your head up your ass."

By the way, one additional point that both Jaime and I and most other people with adult ADHD share: additional mental disorders. Most people who have adult ADHD have at least one other mental disorder. I have mild OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Jaime says she suffers from depression and anxiety disorder in addition to ADHD. I personally used to have what I now recognize as panic attacks, but, I just did not have time to deal with them and learned to just tune them out.

It's a good article and worth the read if you are interested in knowing what it's like to live with adult ADHD, or just want to compare your experiences with someone else's.

Adult ADHD - Lists, Patterns, and Repetition

By Donovan Baldwin

Everybody with ADHD has a different set of experiences, problems, and solutions.

For me, one of the best things that ever happened to me was being diagnosed. Once I had that, I could forgive myself for some of the things I had done, as I realized that they were part of the condition.

However, it WAS KNOWING that gave me tools to work with...or, at least, set me on the path to finding those tools.

As I researched ADHD in general, and adult ADHD in particular, I became aware that I, like many others with the condition, had stumbled on some of the tools for coping with adult ADHD by accident.

One simple tool is the list.

Even "ordinary" people can benefit from a list, whether it's a "to do" list, a packing list, or a shopping list.

In one of my favorite books, The Art of Thinking, by Abbe Ernest Dimnet, which was published in 1928, I believe, the author recommends using lists to accomplish various tasks, as most humans cannot keep up with all the details involved in packing for a trip or a major shopping trip.

For the person with adult ADHD, a list is invaluable.

Not only does it allow you to use time BEFORE the event to cover all your bases, it allows you to effectively perform all the actions required, or acquire all the goods required, but, it also allows you to forgive yourself for what you didn't get, since it wasn't "on the list".

Patterns are another adult ADHD coping device.

Every morning, I make coffee for my wife and myself.

Making coffee sounds like a simple task, but, if you have ever taken, or taught, as I have, the course on how to talk someone through making a peanut butter sandwich, you realize that even such a simple activity has a lot of finite and discrete steps.

It is easy for someone with adult ADHD to get lost in the process.

However, having a pattern helps.

I found that if I went in cold, especially just out of bed in the morning, I could really screw things up. I would up with hot steaming cups of water (no coffee), unsweetened coffee, or my wife's coffee in my cup and mine in hers, and neither of us likes our coffee the way the other does.

Now, I set up the cups left to right in the same order every day (and at the QuikTrip when we stop there for coffee), and set the sweetener packets behind them in the proper order. I then put in the sweetener, add the coffee, add the cream...etc. In fact, since I know exactly where the cups and the sweeteners should be, for example, I can even set everything up the night before (while I am still wide awake), and stumble through the process in the morning with my eyes closed...metaphorically speaking, since I AM dealing with boiling water.

Repetition is another adult ADHD coping tool.

Some actions, including the coffee ritual, are done regularly. If I repeat them often enough, they can become more natural and rely less on my "Look! There's a squirrel!" brain to complete the task without missing something.

As they say, practice makes perfect.

These are tools that I use almost daily...well, the coffee ritual IS not only daily, but multi-daily. I would really like you to leave a comment to let me know whether or not this has been of help to you, and to share YOUR tools and techniques for coping with adult ADHD.

Is Your ADHD Untreated?

While many adults with ADHD try to live with their problem, some experts believe that it is really in your best interest to seek treatment.

In the following article, Scott Shapiro, MD, an Assistant Professor at New York Medical College, who specializes in Adult ADHD gives us his thoughts on whether or not adult ADHD needs to be treated...or, just lived with.

What Can Happen When Adult ADHD Goes Untreated?
By Scott Shapiro

When someone tells me they are depressed but every type of treatment in the book, including medications and several trials of different therapies haven't worked, I start wondering if something else is going on. Many times, symptoms of ADHD can masquerade as other diagnoses. People with ADHD often have "mood swings" and difficulty with mood regulation. This isn't in the DSM V criteria, but if you have worked with hundreds of patients with ADHD, you know that ADHD causes mood swings. When someone with ADHD is sad or in a funk, they have a hard time shaking it. And when they are excited, they are really excited. This is one of the gifts and wonderful traits about people with ADHD. They are passionate people, passionate about life and passionate about letting other people know about it. If one doesn't spend the time getting to know the person, might think the person has bipolar disorder. Yes, bipolar disorder and ADHD do have a higher rate of occurring together; however, more often that not, people with ADHD who say they have mood swings really mean "ADHD swings" not manic swings.

Many clinicians were taught that if someone presents with depression and ADHD, first treat the depression and THEN treat the ADHD. In my opinion this is just backward thinking. Very often, the patient feels depressed, frustrated, and has lost interest in work and other activities, but this can be because he has experienced one failure after another or has gone from one job to the next. In our experience at the Hallowell Center, when you treat the ADHD, the person begins to acquire the ability to achieve their goals, improve relationships, meet deadlines, remember to pick up the children, avoid accidents on the road, remember their tickets before driving to the airport and feel a lot more competent, confident and happy.

Unfortunately, when patients are treated for depression with antidepressants, or worse, treated with atypical antipsychotics for bipolar disorder and kept on these medications for months or years, their symptoms often do not improve and might worsen. I have never seen this data in the literature, but during my training at Massachusetts General Hospital, I was taught a VERY IMPORTANT PEARL. Never, never, never take away someone's dopamine. Dopamine gives us zest for life, motivation, and enables us to pay attention. It is the piece of the puzzle people with ADHD may be missing that inhibits and blocks them from reaching their potential. Guess what antidepressants and antipsychotics do? Through a feedback loop, these medications can decrease the function of dopamine in the frontal lobes and limbic system.

Treatment:

Treatment for ADHD must be individualized, as each person is unique. But there are some general guidelines that are helpful to remember. People are complex and their lives are complex. Treatment isn't about writing a prescription and seeing the patient once a year. Treatment is about helping people develop a comprehensive strategy to move on with their lives and achieve full potential.

Here are five ways that we can help our patients:

Many patients are often not diagnosed as children. Thus, by using a simple 5 minute screening tool in the office or waiting room, we can help our patients that may have been misdiagnosed as borderline, chronically depressed, anxious or bipolar disorder.

Here is a site that you can give your patients: http://counsellingresource.com/lib/quizzes/adhd-testing/adhd-asrs/


1. Many patients feel that ADHD is not a "real diagnosis" and thus don't get evaluated or treated. However, by explaining to the patients that SPECT and PET scans show differential blood flow in the prefrontal cortex in ADHD patients versus non-ADHD patients can help reinforce to the patient that this is a "real" issue.

2. Patients with ADHD have difficulty with planning and time management. Thus, they often forget their appointments or are late.

This can be extremely annoying for a busy clinician, in addition, to the patient not getting the necessary care.

Thus, a way of improving the show rate for these patients includes encouraging them to write the appointment in their calendars immediately when the appointment is made, requesting that they show up 30 minutes before their appointments, calling them the morning of their appointments (not the night before) and by charging them for missed appointments.

3. Encouraging your patients to purchase a weekly calendar and to use it on a regular basis instead of relying on post-it notes or on smart phone. Many ADHD patients do better when they see things visually.

4. Help the ADHD patient to see that they have many strengths and that ADHD is just one aspect of who they are. In addition, even though they have compensated for it most of their lives, validate that it may have been a difficult struggle and that it can get better.

5. Help the patient to understand that many of their behaviors such as underperforming at work, engaging in high risk sexual activity, or challenges in their relationships are very common in patients with ADHD and that this can get better over time with treatment, either medications or behavioral treatments.

6. people with ADHD often have difficulty maintaining and focusing on relationships. Social connection is one of the primary pillars of helping someone improve. This MUST be a part of the treatment.

7. Too often, the treatment focus is on deficits or problems. This is how we are all trained-what is the problem and how are we, the treatment provider, going to fix the person?. People come to us with so many gifts, talents and strengths. It is essential to help the person realize their strengths and show them what extraordinary challenges they have already overcome. The best gift we can give our patients is showing them their own power, potential and the possibilities of what CAN be.

Working with patients who have ADHD can be frustrating at times, but can be extremely rewarding. Just like cigarette cessation, it can have a significant impact on a patient's life, but with appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and intervention, a patient's health and well-being can greatly improve.

Scott Shapiro, MD, an Assistant Professor at New York Medical College, specializes in Adult ADHD. He provides assessment, med management, psychotherapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy all in one place. If you would like a consultation with Dr. Shapiro, call 212-631-8010 or visit his website at http://www.scottshapiromd.com.

Dr. Shapiro's approach is warm, collaborative, and effective.

Article Source: What Can Happen When Adult ADHD Goes Untreated?

Article Link: Your Friends Don't Know What It's Like to Have Adult ADHD

I recently came across an article which very accurately describes for me, at least, a lot of what it is like to live with adult ADHD. I say "for me", since each case of adult ADHD is different...and, in fact, one person's experience can vary from day to day, or even from hour to hour.

Someone with adult ADHD may be solving all the problems of the universe one moment...or even one hour, and, as I like to put it, "...see a squirrel". In the article, the author used a doorknob to explain what happens, but, for me, the way my dog used to act when she saw a squirrel was a perfect example. Everything gets dumped "overboard", and the squirrel becomes the whole focus of the universe...until another "squirrel" runs by going the other way.

Anyway, it's a great article, especially the whiteboard and big red letters analogy. Everything is "NOW", with no filter.

I drive my wife crazy because she will ask me to do something, intending for me to do it later, and, I will stop whatever I am doing and start to work on whatever it was she asked me to do.

It's a double whammy.

Ask someone with adult ADHD to do something and they have to do it NOW. Also, since people with ADHD are well aware of all the times they screw up by NOT doing what they are supposed to do WHEN they are supposed to do it, they know that if they don't do it now, it won't get done.

Anyway, read the article If Your Friends Ever Say They Have ADHD, Just Show Them This.

Working Memory - The Gift I Forgot I Gave

I mentioned "working memory" in a previous blog post, so I'll just expand a little bit with an example from my own life.

So, I'm standing at work and my cell phone goes off. I've got a text message from my wife.

"Thank you! I love it! How thoughtful!"

Now, any husband will tell you this is great...if you can remember what you did.

Eventually, through judicious questioning, I find out what it is (this happened a couple of years ago, so I've forgotten again what it was).

Anyway, simply forgetting was not necessarily the adult ADHD thing.

The fact that I forgot a couple of minutes after I did it was. I was doing some things on the computer one night, ordered something as a surprise for my wife, gloated for a second, and started doing something else...which essentially erased the immediate memory of "the wonderful deed I had done".

That's the way it is sometimes. I am doing something, for a perfectly good reason, and a minute later don't know that I did it, or, if I remember doing it, I don't remember why I did it.

My brain moves on to the next thing, and each action and event erases, at least in working memory. Working memory is what you use to get things done, particularly in a sequence or group.

It's a bit like putting several things in a basket until you need them. For most people, working memory can hold at least a small pile of "stuff"...directions, lists, sequences, groups...etc. However, person with adult ADHD, or a child as well, working memory is more like a conveyor belt than a basket.

We usually get either the first item or the last, or the most important (and people with ADHD are often very poor at assigning priorities). Sometimes, I'm not even sure why I remembered one thing and not another.

Here's an example of adult ADHD at work. I actually started another sentence, thought of a comment which needed to be added above. Added the comment, and "Poof" the sentence I was going to add, along with the idea behind it, is completely gone. Well, there's still tomorrow. I can add it then...if I remember what it was.

The Pagagraph About ADHD That Caught My Attention

I was reading an article in Time magazine back in 2009 and read a paragraph that really hit home to me, a 68 year old man with ADHD.

The article, "Better Learning Through Fidgeting", by John Cloud, covered a study on how fidgeting affected, or might be involved in the learning processes of ADHD kids.

The idea seemed to be that ADHD kids SHOULD be allowed to fidget as this helped them focus on their work. In some way, it stimulates their ability to absorb and retain data.

However, it was a description given by one of the researchers which got to me as the reporter was passing on information from Mark Rappaport, a professor at the University of Central Florida:

"...many teachers don't understand how ADHD kids process information. 'If you go into a typical classroom', he [Mark Rappaport] tells me, 'You might hear, "Take out the book. Turn to page 23. Do items 1 through 8, but don't do 5." And you've just given them four or five directions. The child with working memory problems has dropped three of them, and so he's like, "Page 23 - what am I supposed to do?"'

As I read that paragraph, at age 64, I was almost overwhelmed with a flood of memories which came out of my days as a student, as an accountant and fiscal consultant, my years in the U.S. Army, my time as a truck driver, and my days as an optician...days in which I lived in fear of "dropping the ball" as I was given string after string of instructions and information...most of which I could not remember.

I faked my way through everything, and, as often happened, I seemed to spend as much time covering up my mistakes as I did doing the work I was supposed to do.

Just one little paragraph, but it encapsulated a portion of my life over a 60-year period.

10 Mythis About Adult ADHD

While it is hard to deal with life when you are an adult with ADHD, one hardship is having to function in a world full of myths about adult ADHD. The following article outlines some of the more common of these misunderstandings about Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder in Adults:

Adult ADD & ADHD - Top 10 Myths
By Jean Meriam

Adult ADD/ADHD is gaining recognition amongst professionals and society at large. It is perceived by many to be a new disorder, discovered or made up by psychiatrists in the last decade. Like most things we perceive of as being new, adult ADD and ADHD are subject to skepticism and myths. There is suspicion on many fronts that adult ADD/ADHD and even childhood ADD/ADHD is a made up disorder created by psychiatrists in association with pharmaceutical companies to sell a new type of drug. While skepticism and awareness are healthy ideals, in the case of adult ADD/ADHD this skepticism does not seem warranted. The symptoms are very real and wreak havoc in the lives of those with the disorder.

Adult ADD/ADHD has been present with us for much longer than many people aware. It is not a new disorder, but one that has only recently gained recognition amongst and been labeled by professionals. Most adults who have been diagnosed with the disorder are those who should have been diagnosed in childhood but were not. And while the symptoms and signs of adult ADD/ADHD are real to its sufferers and treatment has been proven to alleviate these symptoms the myths continue. So what are some of the most common myths surrounding the diagnosis do adult ADD and ADHD?

1. ADD/ADHD is a disorder of children. Adults can not have ADD/ADHD.

While it is more likely to be diagnosed with ADD/ADHD as a child, adults can and do suffer from the symptoms of adult ADD/ADHD. Most people who are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD as adults already had the disorder as children, but were either not diagnosed or misdiagnosed.

2. Adults with ADD/ADHD simply need to lead more disciplined organized lives.

Adults with ADD/ADHD have tried to lead more disciplined and organized lives, but have failed. The medical disorder makes it difficult to impossible for adult sufferers to maintain the focus required to stay organized and on track.

3. ADHD symptoms can be overcome without intervention.

Some adults with ADD/ADHD find enough self help treatments to live an organized disciplined life. They create to do lists, take advantage of calendars and timers,and find other ways to organize their live. For many adults with ADD/ADHD these methods do not help and they need to seek help from physicians, personal organizers and counsellors.

4. ADHD is a made up disorder.

With the large number of children currently diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, parents and others are beginning to question whether ADD is even a real disorder. The symptoms that those diagnosed with the disorder endure and the effect these symptoms have on the lives of those with the disorder are very real.

5. People who seek medication for ADHD are really just drug seekers.

Ritalin has been and continues to be abused by adults who use the drug for a quick high. Some have compared its effect as almost cocaine like in adults who do not need the stimulant medication. Ritalin, though, is not usually prescribed to adults with ADD/ADHD. Longer lasting medications with a slower build up such as Concerta and Adderall are prescribed to adults. The effect of these medications are less intense than those of Ritalin so are not attractive to abusers.

6. Medication can cure ADHD.

Medications can help with the symptoms of adult ADD/ADHD but are not a cure for the disorder.

7. You're not hyperactive so you don't have ADD.

Only adults diagnosed with ADHD deal with the hyperactivity component of the disorder. This symptom shows itself in signs such as restlessness and risk taking. Adults without hyperactivity are diagnosed with ADD rather than ADHD. These adults share almost all the same symptoms as those with ADHD, but are not as likely to be hyperactive and restless.

8. Children with ADD/ADHD always outgrow the disorder.

While many children do outgrow their ADD/ADHD symptoms a large number carry the disorder with them into adulthood. SOme who seem to have outgrown the disorder may simply have found useful coping methods that help them live their lives without professional intervention.

9. You can not lead a normal life with ADD

Most adults with ADD/ADHD function very well. Medical and other professional interventions have helped some, while many work with their ADD/ADHD personalities to create lives that are very compatible with the disorder.

10. Medications help all cases of adult ADHD

Medication is helpful in approximately 58% of cases. Some adults find a combination of medication along with ongoing support from a counsellor or other professional to be more helpful. Others find the side effects of medications to be intolerable and function better with the with the help of professional cognitive treatment, or self help methods.

For further information about the signs and symptoms of ADD/ADHD in adults, the full list of symptoms is shown in this article [http://hubpages.com/hub/Adult-ADHD-and-ADD-Symptoms-and-Signs]

Jean Meriam is a freelance writer from Canada, with a background in psychology and health. To read more adult ADD/ADHD article by this author, please view her profile at [http://hubpages.com/profile/JeanMeriam]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jean_Meriam
http://EzineArticles.com/?Adult-ADD-and-ADHD---Top-10-Myths&id=3931783