Do you ever Question ADHD???

[sweetnsilly]

I sit and wonder sometimes is ADHD real or is it something else with my child that is an undiagnosed condition. I read alot on ADHD and think it sounds a hole heck of alot like me but I'm not ADHD, so then I wonder is it real, does anyone ever feel this way?

[misty]

I think we've all had those doubts. I often wonder if a behavior my daughter is showing is ADD related or just plain pre-teen naughtiness. I mean, I know she has ADD, I don't doubt that...I just have trouble sometimes deciding whether certain behaviors are really attributed to that or just general misbehavior.

[lillian]

As most of you probably know from posts I have made, I have had serious doubts about ADHD over the years. The fact that my son also is LD makes it even more troublesome. I mean, where does ADHD begin and the LD stop and vice versa? However, we recently took my son off his ADHD med (Tenex) because he was sleeping waaaaaay too much, and we wanted to see if the sleep might be med related. After a week off the meds, his sleep habits began to normalize, but his behavior . Wow! He's been properly medicated for so long that I forgot what life was like before meds. We started a new med today (Daytrana). For all of our sakes, I hope it works!

[Charlie Girl]

Remember, everyone has memory lapses and everyone has problems focusing BUT a "normal" person has these problems sometimes but an ADHDer has these problems most of the time to some degree, and are clear headed only sometimes.

Lillian posted a link to a place where you can actually have a very short experience similar to what we go through all the time. Its very accurate. Check out the disability simulator thread.

Something else you can do is to have someone flick the lights on and off in a dark room quickly while you try to read a chapter of a book. Every once in a while let them stop for about 3 seconds. Imagine having to read and remember something, then take a test on it when you are living with that.

I did that for a friend of mine who is a retired teacher and she was amazed. She said after all those years of working with remedial classes full of ADHDers, she never realized how hard they had it.

I hope this helps you understand what your little one is living with. Its amazing that kids can ever seem normal when they live with that. Your little guy works much harder than most people realize.

[unicorn-tiff'smom]

CG that was so well said.

I think all of wondered if our child was just labeled and left at that. It was put back into perspective for me this past weekend. I let Tiff go without meds when school was closed (wed to sun). We went shopping several times over that weekend. I do not have ADHD and there were times of not being able to cncentrate and just sensory overload, after all that is what the stores want. But to watch Tiff, not having her medicine, trying to stay with me and not watch all those people pushing and shoving. And for her to even try to make an attempt to help me pick out gifts for folks. It was the hardest thing I have seen her try to manage her way through. She finally asked me to take her home because it was too much for her.

[lostmyshoe]

Hi Sweet,

You aren't the only one who has had questions. I think everyone does sometimes. Some days I ask myself if I really have ADD or if I'm just a plain goofus. I do know I have it though. My daughter and I have been to the proper psychologists and doctors and have also been to an audiologist. My daughter is the one that has had all the testing done and it has been positively diagnosed. She displays almost all the same characteristics as I do with some differences. Seems I have it worse then she does. I guess that's a good thing because I know it won't be as hard for her as it was me. There is so much more offered now in school and with modern science and technology. Also there are so many places to learn about it. The more knowledge about it the better and it never hurts to get more testing done if you think there may be something else. I'm no expert or anything, but hope something I say may help.

[sweetnsilly]

The bad thing is i think I have it what barb said made so much sence to me. But everytime I go to the doc they label me as bipolar or a nervos problem and want to give me antidepressants and xanaxes.

[Charlie Girl]

Sweet, you should find a psychologist or even a neuropsychiatrist to have diagnose you. You need to be sure its one who specializes in diagnosing and who has diagnosed both bipolar and ADHD.

If you are bipolar, then you don't want stims until they have gotten your mood swings stabilized. I don't know of any other way to find out. If you are bad enough that you feel you need treatment, you need to find the right person to diagnose. A dr just isn't qualified.

[sweetnsilly]

admin said:

Sweet, you should find a psychologist or even a neuropsychiatrist to have diagnose you. You need to be sure its one who specializes in diagnosing and who has diagnosed both bipolar and ADHD.

If you are bipolar, then you don't want stims until they have gotten your mood swings stabilized. I don't know of any other way to find out. If you are bad enough that you feel you need treatment, you need to find the right person to diagnose. A dr just isn't qualified.

The bad thing is antidepressants I can't take they make my head feel weird. I can't explain it. I said something about it on the wellbuturin thread.

[Charlie Girl]

A mood stabilizer isn't an antidepressant Sweet. I don't know what they are but a good dr should be able to find something that will work.

I would try for a correct diagnosis and then discuss that with the dr so you can determine treatment at that time.

I hate to think of you being miserable because you aren't diagnosed correctly and I just don't know any other way other than trial and error with meds, which really isn't a good idea for you.