If they have a better way where i can go from failing classes in middle school to graduating with honors in HS with out drugs I'd like to see it. Went back on adderall when I went back to college to take prereqs for grad school and I went from failing calculus one semester to getting a A the next. Thanks to Adderall I start my first grad school class tonight.

Say what you want about it being over prescribed or what but when you're like me and you need it's a god send.

what?

MoronLessOff: A.D.D.

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mr lawson: MoronLessOff: A.D.D.

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WTF AM I WATCHING?!

RobotSpider: fta:

"But when given to children over long periods of time, they neither improve school achievement nor reduce behavior problems. The drugs can also have serious side effects, including stunting growth."

Ok, first, citation needed on the improvement piece.

The drugs don't stunt growth; they severely suppress appetite. So, if not monitored correctly, a child will start eating much less than they really need. Under-nourishment stunts growth. These drugs have been prescribed for decades without significant safety or tolerance issues.

If you think these drugs aren't necessary, and have never needed it or been prescribed, you don't get to weigh in on the issue. I don't care what it "seems" like or "feels" like or the upward trends are, etc. If you haven't lived with ADD, without treatment, your opinion doesn't matter.

And since when is "This drug is effective, we'd better stop using it" a valid argument?

In my case who knows maybe if they would have identified it early on maybe they could have "taught me a better way to learn" what ever that means but if you find out someone has the problem too late you don't have the luxury of time. Middle school grades dictate what classes you'll likely start off taking in HS, High school grades/classes influence admissions to college. If you get behind the curve you have to work harder just to catch up. You'd have to catch it in elementary school and even then if you can treat it easily with medication then why try to find a different solution.

the answer is no, we should not.

But if they stop taking the drugs, how will we ever uncover the Major League Baseball conspiracy?



I'd rather watch him hit some 'dingers'

I am still dealing with the effects by the idiot teachers "recommending" this for my daughter & my ex wife listening. On average, her scores dropped 27% being on all of the different A.D.D. cocktails the doctors came up with. It was only after she went off the meds, did she have behavioral problems but successfully started passing tests in school. It'll be a long road for my daughter as we dig out of this behavioral mess with my court guardianship.

Kids develop differently according to their environment. But having a teacher recommend drug treatment is like having a gas station attendant advise on Nuclear Fission.

Drugs are useful as a short term method to allow individuals with ADD to retrain their habit patterns. They are not a good long term solution by any means.

It's even more problematic in children and the uneducated because it's hard to explain to people the concept of 'retraining'. Of course if you catch it too late you run the risk of them developing bad -learning- habit patterns which can be lifelong and more difficult to shake, even on medication as a self-aware adult.


Once i realize how my problems worked I've been more successful than ever at changing things even without the medications. Of course it took four doctors to find one that really stressed the importance of habit patterns as opposed to something fundamentally being wrong with me for the rest of my life.

MoronLessOff: mr lawson: MoronLessOff: A.D.D.

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WTF AM I WATCHING?!

ROTFLMAO (new window)

mr lawson: MoronLessOff: mr lawson: MoronLessOff: A.D.D.

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WTF AM I WATCHING?!

ROTFLMAO (new window)

idontwanttoliveonthisplanet.jpg

ITT:

"MY ANECDOTE IS LOUD!"

"MY ANECDOTE IS LOUDER!"

I have undiagnosed (professionally) ADD. I cope with copious amounts of coffee and jumping back and forth between working and Fark.

maxximillian: If they have a better way where i can go from failing classes in middle school to graduating with honors in HS with out drugs I'd like to see it. Went back on adderall when I went back to college to take prereqs for grad school and I went from failing calculus one semester to getting a A the next. Thanks to Adderall I start my first grad school class tonight.

Say what you want about it being over prescribed or what but when you're like me and you need it's a god send.

As a person that went from being at the bottom of all his classes in his first semester of law school to one that's consistently in the top 25%, I agree with this statement wholeheartedly.

Not saying it's for everyone, but it worked for me.

so long as they reclassify 99% of the cases as Adult Discipline Deficiency, I'm okay with a reclassification.

"my 5 year acts out, he wont listen to me when i whisper "jimmy, please stop, you are embarrassing me."

/and no, i'm not saying a 2X4 to the head is necessary either
// there is a difference between discipline and abuse.

As someone who has been on adderall since 6 (now 22) I can honestly say I am physically and mentally addicted.

If my prescription lapse and I am without the medicine for roughly 2 days, it will take an outside force to steer me to getting my prescription problem fixed.

In16 years, I went 1 month without it in New Zealand, where I had no obligations (work, school, ect). During that time I slept ~ 12 hours a day, and found myself in awesome (but random situations). For instance, I would start out just trying to go to my hostel to a cyber cafe 2 blocks down the street to write an email. I would up 3 hours later in some park playing frisbee golf with complete strangers. It sounds like things worked out, but the train (or lack of) thought that got me there would like an insane rugulberg (sp) device.

I'm trying to retrain myself, and build good habbits but it's hard to do alone.

/at 60mg a day

Teachers are not doctors. They can't diagnose adhd. If one happens to say your snowflake has adhd ask where they got there Phd. If a doc diagnoses adhd after a 20 minute session find a new doctor.

Somethings up with my snowflake. So far 3 out of 3 doctors say it's adhd. Most of those sessions were 3 hours. I've got another doc lined up that's going to observer him and put him through test for 9 hours. Not all in one day though. They are also going to come to my house and observe him there too.

As an adult with ADD I highly recommend that others try Wellbutrin.

It has changed my quality of life, and allowed me to do things that I couldn't before.

Having said that, I wouldn't give up having ADD at any price.

My mom was a big fan of the drugs back when I was in high school. Conversation went like this:

Me: I haven't slept or eaten in 3 days and I feel fantastic. I'm going to beat Halo on legendary again with my eyes closed.
Her: Shut up and take the drugs.

Took a good 6 months before she finally accepted she was essentially buying me crank.

I remember taking adderol once and I couldn't sleep for two days but I beat San Andreas that weekend. That's all I got.

/csb

ADHD here, and focalin makes a MAJOR difference.

/to the point that my BPD symptoms from the last decade are GONE.

My daughter is seven. She's been on ritalin since she was five.
In the morning before her pill kicks in she cannot remember what task she's on, like getting her shoes, more than the ten seconds it talkes to walk out of the room.

Before the ritalin, she was sitting out of class two days a week because she would not stop getting up during class.
After the ritalin, she's gone from far below average performance and a near inability to read anything longer than a single page to being at the top of her class and exhibiting great social skills.

There may be a lot of kids who don't need the drugs and are mis-diagnosed. My daughter isn't one of them. For my family it's been a miracle.

we prescribe those drugs where i work

there's more success than failure
but in my youth there was no such thing as ADD;

i could never study, never retain anything by trying.
i wonder if it would have been different if i'd had meds.

I have ADHD and Aspergers and so does my son. I gave him the meds and all I saw were behavioral problems getting worse. I had taken them but I felt like a zombie. What did I do? I removed him from school and brought him home and let him grow up a year or two. He is now 10 med free and homeschooled. I no longer have a concentration problem and neither does he.

See I said problem. Its still there, but if you can harness ADHD is a freaking multitasking superpower. I love being able to do five things at once.

The article says that they gave it to radar guys with no issues in WWII and it helped them study the screens because they were bored. Id rather just study something that doesn't bore me.

JustSeanV67: I am still dealing with the effects by the idiot teachers "recommending" this for my daughter & my ex wife listening. On average, her scores dropped 27% being on all of the different A.D.D. cocktails the doctors came up with. It was only after she went off the meds, did she have behavioral problems but successfully started passing tests in school. It'll be a long road for my daughter as we dig out of this behavioral mess with my court guardianship.

Kids develop differently according to their environment. But having a teacher recommend drug treatment is like having a gas station attendant advise on Nuclear Fission.

Having been through a number of divorces as a kid, I'll venture that the behavior problems will improve dramatically once the family situation stabilizes.

\Prozac was the drug of choice for kids back then, though.

Was diagnosed with ADD in 1973. Doctors wanted to put me on Ritalin, parents were afraid of the side effects and opted not to put me on it. I was a holy terror as a kid, constantly breaking things, but never on purpose. My parents told me, you never were malicous, things just seem to happen to you. I can say that yes it's entirely possible to go through a glass window and come out without a scratch on you. While I excelled academically my life was a disorganized mess. Finally while I was going to nursing school at age 40, found it difficult to keep focused, missing way to many days to the point of being nearly failing. Bit the bullet and started taking Ritalin. Happy ending graduated and doing well as a nurse. For those of you who don't have ADD just try to imagine having someone shouting in your ear while you are trying to read, watch tv or carry on a normal conversation.

Interesting side note, well to me anyways, some pre-school teacher thought my daughter had ADD. I told her, umm...no, no she doesn't. She insisted we take her to a child psychiatris, wife insisted. Told my wife our daughter doesn't have ADD, I should know. Turns out she didn't have it, or wasn't diagnosed with it. When I told the pre-school teacher I took my daughter to the psych doctor she actually held out her hand fully expecting me to give her the pills for the ADD. Me: Ya' she doesn't have it, like I told you. I was entirely too pissed off at this woman who quickly put her hand down and meekly turned away.

RobotSpider: fta:

"But when given to children over long periods of time, they neither improve school achievement nor reduce behavior problems. The drugs can also have serious side effects, including stunting growth."

Ok, first, citation needed on the improvement piece.

The drugs don't stunt growth; they severely suppress appetite. So, if not monitored correctly, a child will start eating much less than they really need. Under-nourishment stunts growth. These drugs have been prescribed for decades without significant safety or tolerance issues.

If you think these drugs aren't necessary, and have never needed it or been prescribed, you don't get to weigh in on the issue. I don't care what it "seems" like or "feels" like or the upward trends are, etc. If you haven't lived with ADD, without treatment, your opinion doesn't matter.

And since when is "This drug is effective, we'd better stop using it" a valid argument?

I know that medication is a part of the therapy and is a wonderful tool for sufferers of ADD. But it doesn't solve the whole picture.

My fiancee suffers from ADD (his whole family does) and while Adderall and Concerta were a great help to him (he went from failing to Cs), it didn't solve everything.

He still suffered from disorganization, was too impulsive, financial troubles, etc. He finally got ADD cognitive behavioral therapy books to learn coping mechanisms for this and is much better.

Delivered from Distraction is a great book on the subject, written by a doctor who has ADD. He uses a 3 pronged method to treat ADD: medication, cognitive behavioral therapy, and diet/exercise. I highly recommend it to anyone with ADD or a partner/realitive of an ADD sufferer.

/I really hate the lack of appetite and sleep issues the meds cause

As far as Ritalin goes... I, for one, think that it should be as common as Caffeine. If it works on everyone, so be it, everyone can choose if they want it or not. I've heard more horror stories about Adderal, but I have no personal experience with it.

I struggled with ADHD most of childhood, and the medication was a godsend for me. The problem was that it basically erased my personality. I wouldn't have made it through the first two years of college without it, so I guess there's a trade off.

99.9% of ADD can be cured with severe beatings, administered daily.

DrPainMD: 99.9% of ADD can be cured with severe beatings, administered daily.

Until morale improves.