ADD / ADHD - How to manage it and survive?

[SandyB]

Hi PP'ers,
Saw a post from [MENTION=26195]DW44[/MENTION] that mentioned him as having ADHD.

I personally suspect that I have Inattentive - ADD, which I've been suffering for the past 15 years the least.

Due to the poor status of Mental health care in my home state (India in general) and educational system and the general stigma associated with mental health issues (again common throughout India) , I've never dared to get any sort of professional diagnosis.

None of my close family or (graduate level educated) close friends, many of whom are from medical/doctor families are not receptive to the idea that ADHD is such a thing .. But my years of searching on the Internet has helped me identify that I have majority of the symptoms that we associate with this condition ..

1) How important is getting a proper diagnosis for this condition ?

2) Who/What kind of professional must I seek to get a proper diagnosis.

3) How do you survive ? Medication/Homeopathy or Pure will power ? Are there side effects ?

Please enlighten me ..

 

[Robert]

My godson suffered from this for a while, I think. He was badly behaved, hyperactive and destructive.

His parents changed his diet and fed him at more regular intervals, and now he is good as gold. A thoroughly nice wee chap to be with.

 

[DW44]

1 - Very. It can disrupt your day to day life hard, especially your school/professional work.
2 - See a good psychiatrist(not a psychologist).
3 - Homeopathy is absolute nonsense. Medication depends on your particular situation. My biggest issue is inability to sleep which was causing a lot of trouble so I got a prescription for benzos. I think it was Clonazepam but it's been a long time (6-7 years) so I don't remember too well.

 

[SandyB]

1 - Very. It can disrupt your day to day life hard, especially your school/professional work.

That's already pretty rough with me. Went from a 9.5 GPA kid in school to barely scraping 7 by the time I finished college. Now working at an entry level IT position, always late for work, late to sleep, late to wake, missing gym days, forgetting simple stuff, procrastinating even basic chores . I planned to quit my IT job within 1 year and migrate to Canada/US , but 1 year later I'm still here not even knowing what country to go to .

2 - See a good psychiatrist(not a psychologist).

Can I go directly to a psychiatrist without being referred to by a psychologisc/physician ? Will they offer only medcal treatment ? I've heard of side effects .

3 - Homeopathy is absolute nonsense. Medication depends on your particular situation. My biggest issue is inability to sleep which was causing a lot of trouble so I got a prescription for benzos. I think it was Clonazepam but it's been a long time (6-7 years) so I don't remember too well.

I almost went to a homeopathic centre today, further online results showed mixed results, so I pulled out. Will a psychiatrist do a proper diagnostic before giving meds ?

 

[DW44]

That's already pretty rough with me. Went from a 9.5 GPA kid in school to barely scraping 7 by the time I finished college. Now working at an entry level IT position, always late for work, late to sleep, late to wake, missing gym days, forgetting simple stuff, procrastinating even basic chores . I planned to quit my IT job within 1 year and migrate to Canada/US , but 1 year later I'm still here not even knowing what country to go to .

I know what you mean. Best way to deal with it is to find something you actually enjoy. For me, it's programming so I've been teaching myself how to code, using some of the stuff I learned in school and college as a foundation to kick off from.

Can I go directly to a psychiatrist without being referred to by a psychologisc/physician ? Will they offer only medcal treatment ? I've heard of side effects .

Don't know how it works in India. In my university, we had a mental health counselor who recognized the symptoms when I was having my insomnia issues.

I almost went to a homeopathic centre today, further online results showed mixed results, so I pulled out. Will a psychiatrist do a proper diagnostic before giving meds ?

Homeopathy/online diagnosis is nonsense. Anyone can diagnose themselves with anything using WebMD. See a professional. A good shrink will know what to do and what to prescribe.

 

[kaayal]

Can I go directly to a psychiatrist without being referred to by a psychologisc/physician ? Will they offer only medcal treatment ? I've heard of side effects .

I almost went to a homeopathic centre today, further online results showed mixed results, so I pulled out. Will a psychiatrist do a proper diagnostic before giving meds ?

Go to a Psychiatrist if you feel so. There is no need of referance from a physician or anybody for that matter.

 

[SandyB]

Go to a Psychiatrist if you feel so. There is no need of referance from a physician or anybody for that matter.

I tried putting this across back home , even to doctor acquaintances. They all say Go to a physician first then to a psychologist and the the shrink .. But I've been to a Psychologist once when I was 17, but he kept denying I even had any DIFFICULTY to focus. The way he presented it to my parents , it seemed he said I was just faking everything out of dislike for studies..

That put me off from going to a psych since the.

 

[DW44]

Oh my.. In the subcontinent, where it's nigh enough impossible to get a positive diagnosis, not to mention the stigma attached to mental health issues, you should take highly addictive benzos, without a prescription since you need a positive diagnosis to get a prescription (that's my weekly quota of catch-22s), but what you absolutely shouldn't do is go for a safer, more effective, alternative that doctors prefer to prescribe in countries that spend more on mental health care and research than our entire healthcare budgets because that's the real evil, not the poor quality of mental healthcare here, centuries old social attitudes towards mental health, or prescribing benzodiazepines willy nilly to patients with low impulse control and a predisposition towards addictive behavior. No sir.

 

[CricketCartoons]

I tried putting this across back home , even to doctor acquaintances. They all say Go to a physician first then to a psychologist and the the shrink .. But I've been to a Psychologist once when I was 17, but he kept denying I even had any DIFFICULTY to focus. The way he presented it to my parents , it seemed he said I was just faking everything out of dislike for studies..

That put me off from going to a psych since the.

Not sure about you, but some people really want to be diagnosed with some kind of illness so that they can escape from their responsibilities or find an excuse for their failures.

 

[SandyB]

Not sure about you, but some people really want to be diagnosed with some kind of illness so that they can escape from their responsibilities or find an excuse for their failures.

Pretty low blow that

That is how most people see ADHD in India.

But when things reach a point where you find it difficult to complete almost mundane /routine tasks properly , what would you feel ?

That is why I need a diagnosis. It may not be as bad as I think , MAYBE, but this feeds into a vicious cycle of self doubt and depression. That hurts more than the actual thing .

 

[www787]

That's already pretty rough with me. Went from a 9.5 GPA kid in school to barely scraping 7 by the time I finished college. Now working at an entry level IT position, always late for work, late to sleep, late to wake, missing gym days, forgetting simple stuff, procrastinating even basic chores . I planned to quit my IT job within 1 year and migrate to Canada/US , but 1 year later I'm still here not even knowing what country to go to .



Can I go directly to a psychiatrist without being referred to by a psychologisc/physician ? Will they offer only medcal treatment ? I've heard of side effects .



I almost went to a homeopathic centre today, further online results showed mixed results, so I pulled out. Will a psychiatrist do a proper diagnostic before giving meds ?

You just haven't found a profession that you enjoy.

 

[SandyB]

You just haven't found a profession that you enjoy.

True. I never felt overtly attached to anything in school or college.So when it came to my job , I was clueless.

I'm an electrical Engineer by education (which I barely scraped through, zero passion), I got my first job as a Banker, quit it after 2 years because I found it drab wanted to move to IT as had an interest in C++ in school.. I got a position in a big IT firm , but was assigned to Maiframes.. Now hating this job too ..

 

[Mamoon]

There is no doubt that ADHD is a taboo in our culture. However, a lot of people think that they have ADHD when in truth, they do not. Their suspicion is often triggered when they find out about ADHD and its symptoms and feel that they can relate to them. Hence, the only intelligent option is to see a specialist.

 

[kaayal]

I tried putting this across back home , even to doctor acquaintances. They all say Go to a physician first then to a psychologist and the the shrink .. But I've been to a Psychologist once when I was 17, but he kept denying I even had any DIFFICULTY to focus. The way he presented it to my parents , it seemed he said I was just faking everything out of dislike for studies..

That put me off from going to a psych since the.

A psychologist is just a counselling specialist and if there is a medical disorder like ADHD, it will be easily detected by a experienced qualified doctor like a Psychiatrist. Just visit him and explain your problems. There is nothing wrong in taking medication if the benefit outweighs the risk.

Tbh, when i learn more and more about these mental health issues like depression, OCD, ADHD etc i always feel that i too have the same disorder but my professor always reassured me that it's a normal thing that one feels during this process of learning. I trust them completely lol.

 

[Specialisttailender]

Pretty low blow that

That is how most people see ADHD in India.

But when things reach a point where you find it difficult to complete almost mundane /routine tasks properly , what would you feel ?

That is why I need a diagnosis. It may not be as bad as I think , MAYBE, but this feeds into a vicious cycle of self doubt and depression. That hurts more than the actual thing .

Too much technology. Our attention span is very low now a days. Meditation increases your concentration power. Do that.

 

[JaDed]

Got diagnosed with it last year and started mild medication this year, there is definitely some improvement overall.
I think many people have some form of it but I think last 3-4 years it had been getting worse for me and I didn’t even know it was a thing.

 

[JaDed]

My godson suffered from this for a while, I think. He was badly behaved, hyperactive and destructive.

His parents changed his diet and fed him at more regular intervals, and now he is good as gold. A thoroughly nice wee chap to be with.

Has he improved overall, with focus etc? I did notice difference with meditation but it was still mild..and finally gave into medication a month ago inspite of being diagnosed an year ago.

 

[Technics 1210]

Another label to blame.

Kids behaving badly, being hyper active, is nothing new. Kids are full of vitality anyway, plus their behaviour is very much influenced by parenting and their surroundings, in particular what they watch and experience at school.

Again, down to parenting mostly, but hey, lets point the finger at some medical term/disorder that was invented to avoid pointing the blame at parents.

The same lot came out with Video Game disorder!

https://www.who.int/standards/class...er is defined in,the extent that gaming takes

But hey, pump kids with drugs while big pharma rake it in!

 

[KingKhanWC]

Eating too much rubbish, sweets, chocolates or other snacks with high sugar. Sitting around playing games, watching rubbish tv. Poor upbringing , not taking children out to exercise to use their energy and mentally annoying them leads to bad compulsive behaviour.

There may be some with genuine medical issues but mostly its an excuse to justify the weak family society we have now and to sell more 'medicines', treatments etc.

 

[Technics 1210]

Eating too much rubbish, sweets, chocolates or other snacks with high sugar. Sitting around playing games, watching rubbish tv. Poor upbringing , not taking children out to exercise to use their energy and mentally annoying them leads to bad compulsive behaviour.

There may be some with genuine medical issues but mostly its an excuse to justify the weak family society we have now and to sell more 'medicines', treatments etc.

Exactly. Sugar is energy and when kids have enough it, they will be hyper, it is simple science, but no, lets not blame the parents, instead relinquish parents of all responsibility by blaming a disorder invented by the same organisation that hopelessly informed the world on Covid!

 

[Abel Reames]

Sugar rush is a myth. The science has been done, look up the research. It is a myth but delude yourselves and keep on believing it.