Adult ADD

[kozmikyak]

I should avoid the local drug dealers who medicate me for schizophrenia and thereby allow me to live a normal, productive life as an IT professional, and should instead "man up, everyone has a problem" and be a slobbering fool incapable of holding down a job? I've tried taking that route.

Yes, ADD is different from schizophrenia. Yes, mind- and brain- related disorders are often overdiagnosed. But they're not entirely imaginary, either.

Both extremes are falsehoods. "Drug every eccentricity into oblivion" is a bad way of operating. "Just man up, everyone has problems" is also a bad way of operating.

Every case has its own treatment.


I know about 5 different people who were unable to function in society before getting their amphetamines. Now, using them wisely, they are able to hold down jobs and support themselves.

[garmenteros]

I've got epilepsy and have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and take a host of medications that mess with your head. They affect your concentration and ability to keep focused. Because of that I've got to work two or three times as hard as the next guy to learn and get stuff down. When I jam with new people or meet new people and develop more than a casual acquaintance relationship I have to explain things. Some walk away and others are eager to understand and help if they see me on a bad day. This is also good for knowing and judging who is worth my time anyway.

All drugs are to be taken cautiously. Sometimes they solve a problem and create a worse one. I'd pay attention to those drugs that make your thoughts revolve around suicide and violence while at the same time making you happy if that makes any sense. Its all about will power really not to let them get the best of you and being honest with yourself when to move on to the next set of drugs or treatment you can best cope with for your condition. Every single drug has its pros and its cons. You have to know yourself and determine how much really you can solve by yourself (for example anger management or paranoia) than without medication. The key is self awareness.

[JakeF]

Some good advice here. I did a test recording and strangely enough my playing is a bit better as well.

I'm keeping a diary for the first month of the daily effects so I can refer back if I have any suspicious behavior. So far my interactions with people have improved substantially, its weird, its like a gap being filled in my behavior overnight. Focus is better, everything feels fine but moving my focus from one object to another is much slower. Heavier.

Also it has made me a bit sleepy. I for the life of me can't understand why its called "speed."

Anyhow, don't read into the post too much, it is just for my hyper-detailed diary to monitor myself.

[Jazz Ad]

Originally Posted by JakeF

Also it has made me a bit sleepy. I for the life of me can't understand why its called "speed."

It speeds up normal brains.
For people with ADHD or ADD, it calms them down.
Based on this, it isn't very difficult to know if the diagnosis was right or not.

[OneMoreRobot]

Originally Posted by BogeyBass

Legal speed, pure garbage.

everybody has ADD and everybody has Anxiety
talk to the right doctor and just about everybody is bipolar.

dont be a sucker with legal drug dealers

THIS THIS THIS. ADHD/ADD along with many other mental disorders are not scientifically proven to even be real chemical disorders. Depression is not even chemically linked? How can you REALLY fix a problem with chemicals when the problem is not chemical in nature?

Doctors are PAID by you for their advice, and they are PAID by pharmaceutical companies to give you meds when you ask for their advice.

[OneMoreRobot]

Many of these problems that cannot be fixed by a chemical re a byproduct of society. Barrages of 15 sec ads, immediate access to any sort of info you desire, that's what causes a short attention span.

[Jazz Ad]

Indeed, it's nice to see advice from people who don't have knowledge about a disease, accuse doctors of not knowing what they're doing with prescriptions, yet can form a strong opinion with their ignorance as a sole basis.

[SR505bassman]

Originally Posted by OneMoreRobot

THIS THIS THIS. ADHD/ADD along with many other mental disorders are not scientifically proven to even be real chemical disorders. Depression is not even chemically linked? How can you REALLY fix a problem with chemicals when the problem is not chemical in nature?

Doctors are PAID by you for their advice, and they are PAID by pharmaceutical companies to give you meds when you ask for their advice.

Umm, I'm hoping that you are saying this tongue in cheek, but I dunno. If not, you are so uninformed as to be potentially dangerous as far as giving out information along these lines.

[OneMoreRobot]

http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-disorders/

Here's plenty of information from a source that's not just some dude on a forum.

[kozmikyak]

Doctors are indeed paid to give preferential treatment to various drugs. But, this does not mean that the drugs might not be a help to a specific person.

Not all depression is chemically linked. But not all depression just goes away when people "man up" like you're asking them to. There is such a thing as crippling depression that is worse than the side effects of the drugs. There is such a thing as schizophrenia. There is such a thing as ADD which isn't just "I have a bit of a hard time concentrating" but rather makes a person unable to live an independent life.

Drugs are drugs. All drugs have desired effects and side effects. Using drugs should always be done cautiously, and only after trying other means, and only with the full informed consent of the patient, and complete education of the prescriber. However, that does not mean that no person could improve his/her life by using certain drugs.

I didn't plan on running into a horde of anti-psychiatry, mental-illness-is-just-imaginary fundamentalists when I opened this site today.

I have indeed experienced negative side-effects from the drugs that I take in order to control severe depression and schizophrenia. But in exchange I get to work a full-time professional job that lets me live an independent life. I guarantee that those side effects are better than me sitting at home all day suckling off the government teat for sustenance, which I assume those assembled here would be all up in arms about.

We can bitch all day about whether society creates the need for these drugs. For example, I'm certain that I would be happier, and require less of these drugs, if I could support myself as a musician instead of working in a cube farm. But the fact is, health care comes with employment in this country, and I'm priced out of the individual insurance market, yet I don't register as disabled enough to get assistance purchasing such insurance. So my choice is drugs and the job and the pride of supporting myself.

Society may create some of these problems, to a certain degree, but we can't will society away just because that's true.

I've done the self-help and the therapy required to "man up" and "just get over" depression and schizophrenia. Those helped a bit but were not sufficient. I owe my life to the drugs so maligned here.

They are tools, neither to be worshiped nor to be feared.

[kozmikyak]

Originally Posted by OneMoreRobot

http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-disorders/

Here's plenty of information from a source that's not just some dude on a forum.

You meant Citizen's Commission on Human Rights International?

Started as a front of the church of Scientology.

http://www.xenu.net/archive/infopack/12.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen...n_Human_Rights

While there is reason to be skeptical about the extent to which "abnormality" is diagnosed, I am even more skeptical about fronts of the Church of Scientology, which has a record of harrassing and torturing and tormenting defectors from its religion into the very insanity they claim doesn't exist.

[adivin]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

Indeed, it's nice to see advice from people who don't have knowledge about a disease, accuse doctors of not knowing what they're doing with prescriptions, yet can form a strong opinion with their ignorance as a sole basis.

+1 it cracks me up. I ignore these self professed experts. I have worked in an academic health science center for 20 yrs. I see the quality of training, passion , desire to heal that is present. Yea I'll ignore my Dr who spent half his life training and listen to some guy on the bass forum.

[jaywa]

All I know about Adderall is what I've heard about NFL players being suspended for having it in their system. The NFL considers it a performance enhancing drug and therefore it's on their "no-no" list.

Sounds like pretty potent stuff... for good or bad.

[capncal]

i've got ADD. i self medicate with THC.

[dmusic148]

Originally Posted by kozmikyak

You meant Citizen's Commission on Human Rights International?

Started as a front of the church of Scientology.

WHOOPS a daisy.

[CrewsControl]

Originally Posted by JakeF

Just got diagnosed at the ripe ole age of 33. Today I got my first round of Adderall and I've gotta say, my room has never been better organized. About to start practice. Its trippy.

Any other ADD folks? How does the Meds affect music performance long-term? Practice? Etc.

Any wisdom is appreciated.

I'm 50 years old and have also been diagnosed recently with ADHD, and given a prescription for Adderall. There's a lot of red tape involved in approving insurance payments for adults receiving Adderall. Anyway, I've no doubt lived with it all my life and self-medicated in one way or another. I used to smoke cigarettes, which is VERY common among people with ADHD. Nicotine has similar effects on the dopamine cycle as amphetamines but is far more addictive and has far more harmful side effects. When I quit smoking tobacco 10 or so years ago, my marijuana and caffeine consumption went way, way up afterwards.

Why did I get diagnosed so late, at age 50? Because in the past couple of years, my performance at work had been suffering. I initially blamed smoking too much pot, and quit that, too. Imagine my alarm when my performance at work declined even further, to the point where I was written up and put on notice. I was forgetting appointments and making highly visible mistakes of omission. There's a history of bi-polar disorder in my family, as well as schizophrenia. I told my doctor I was worried that I was in the early stages of developing bi-polar disorder myself, or that something else was going on, a brain tumor, early Alzheimer's, permanent damage from pot smoking, something - I didn't know what was wrong with me, but I was not able to perform at a level I knew I was capable of. A neurologist found nothing wrong physically or with my level of cognition. I performed at a high level on mental function tests.

So I was referred to a psychiatrist and received a diagnosis of ADHD, which was completely unexpected. My prescription is for a very small dose, but what a difference it made. My manager and co-workers noticed the change right away. I don't talk as loud. Most people tell me I seem much more "even" to them. I don't display a dismissive attitude. I tolerate interruptions much more easily. And the quality and quantity of my work has gone way up (even though I still spend some time at work browsing TB and other sites ). I've received much praise from the manager for the rapid turnaround. "If this is the new you, can I have more of this?" he told me.

What a relief. But it's not a magic pill. I still have to motivate myself to begin tasks, at work and outside work, but my ability to stick with it and pay attention to what I am doing, even with context switches here and there, has improved greatly.

And yes, my musical ability has improved, too. It's easier to sing and play at the same time, which the others in my adult rock band class have noticed as well. I'm also better able to stick with the boring exercises we must do to improve playing skills.

If I was the only one to notice benefits, I'd have to be skeptical of the whole thing. But that others around me noticed an immediate improvement tells me all I need to know. It works.

Now if I only my sinuses can get used to it. I've had a constant runny nose since I began the medication.

[Winterpegbass]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

It speeds up normal brains.
For people with ADHD or ADD, it calms them down.
Based on this, it isn't very difficult to know if the diagnosis was right or not.

This is the most accurate post on this thread.

I'm a mental health educator with a daughter who has ADD and I can verify from working psychiatric units for 17 years that mental illnesses are quite real.

ADD is primarily treated with stimulant medication. Stimulants from weak to strong include caffeine, nicotine, prescription stimulants like adderall, cocaine and crystal meth/XTC.

People with ADD will respond to adderall by experiencing increased concentration, increased ability to focus, more organized behavior and calmer, stable mood.

This is because the physiology of their brain differs from the average person.

If someone who doesn't have ADD takes a prescription stimulant, they will experience the opposite effect including decreased concentration, decreased attention span, disorganized behavior and unstable/labile mood.

Crystal meth/cocaine/XTC is another matter. I have seen friends, musicians and patients lives utterly destroyed by crystal meth.

Although cigarettes, coffee, adderall and meth are all stimulants, they are not all harmful.

Interestingly enough, despite the terrible toll that meth takes on people, cigarettes are the most harmful stimulant.

The same scientific method that has proven the benefits of prescription stimulants for ADD also has found that more deaths and harmful outcomes (mortality and morbidity rates) are associated with cigarette smoking than all other drugs.

If you add up all of the deaths from heroin, cocaine, meth, XTC, alcohol (including drunk driving deaths) etc, that total is a fraction of the deaths caused by cigarette smoking.

Who knew?!?

[JakeF]

Some days my mind explode.

I'm posting on a MUSICIANS forum that has members SCARED OF DRUGS.

Yeah.

[Nev375]

Originally Posted by OneMoreRobot

THIS THIS THIS. ADHD/ADD along with many other mental disorders are not scientifically proven to even be real chemical disorders. Depression is not even chemically linked? How can you REALLY fix a problem with chemicals when the problem is not chemical in nature?

Doctors are PAID by you for their advice, and they are PAID by pharmaceutical companies to give you meds when you ask for their advice.

As a person who has suffered from depression for over 30 years and only recently been diagnosed with Adult ADD (without hyperactivity) these kind of ignorant comments just piss me off.

Unlike most sciences, the field of psychology is one where it is difficult to completely PROVE anything. But it is not because the disorders don't exist. It's because you cannot observe the feelings and emotions of another human being when sometimes the person you are trying to observe may have difficulty communicating them, feeling them, interpreting them or perhaps they are motivated to lie about them for just or unjust reasons.

But let me assure you, the conditions we are talking about are quite real. If I could swap brains with you for a while so you could experience it yourself, I would. I'd gladly trade simple ignorance for the hell of being unable to experience a pleasant emotion or maintain a thought through a complete sentence as I've been typing this for well over the last half hour.

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by capncal

i've got ADD. i self medicate with THC.

I do too.

Well, coffee in the morning, tea in the evening.