Is ADHD a real disorder?

I know the feeling. This has always been a problem, but now that I'm studying for comprehensive exams it's getting annoying. For the last several weeks especially it's felt like I just go out with the direct intention of buckling down and doing my work, but then never get anywhere close to my goal.

Trying Strattera. Today was day one. Thought I noticed a mental calming effect already but too soon to tell.

omgosh i'm starting something new for this week also - adhd bros <fistbump>

Lol

Fwiw Strattera is the only non stimulant medication on the market ask your doctor about Strattera Strattera may cause nausea sleeplessness erectile dysfunction sweats chills drowsiness Strattera.

i need a new script every month

Fwiw I still think it's a situational disorder, like what I really have is a combination of anxiety, nonlinear thinking and the fact that my job requires sitting in front of a computer ten hours a day agitating rather than relieving the anxiety. But I finally decided that as long as that's my situation and as long as a family is depending on me to continue to function in that situation, I'll take meds if it helps.

like what I really have is a combination of anxiety, nonlinear thinking and the fact that my job requires sitting in front of a computer ten hours a day agitating rather than relieving the anxiety

ha, this is me too. tbf i could stand to stay off the parts of the internet that make me upset, but i do need to be online a lot for work.

I sort of agree with that, much in the same way that I wouldn't have to wear glasses had I been a cowboy in 1875 and not staring directly at a sheet of light for 12 hours a day.

i think the only real remnants of my childhood adhd are poor impulse control and a tendency toward procrastination. i wonder if those are things i can isolate and work on specifically instead of taking a bunch of speed.

what I really have is a combination of anxiety, nonlinear thinking and the fact that my job requires sitting in front of a computer ten hours a day agitating rather than relieving the anxiety. But I finally decided that as long as that's my situation and as long as a family is depending on me to continue to function in that situation, I'll take meds if it helps.

this describes my situation perfectly

Day 5 of 25mg of Strattera, I have to say I really like this stuff so far. Noticeable effects (some surprising):

1) I don't feel like I need a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, in fact caffeine cravings are way down
2) My appetite is actually down -- I forgot to eat breakfast and didn't really notice, yet felt fine at the office
3) Stuff that seemed hard to me (e.g. getting my toddler ready in the morning) is starting to seem less hard, like I instead of a constant mental grind/strain, I just feel like "ok, this is the next thing I do, this is how much time I need"
4) All day I feel greater mental clarity/less "fog"
5) It actually has not affected my internet use much, but when I do focus on my work I focus much better and finish things much faster. So I guess it's still up to me to decide to get off the internet when I need to, or it just doesn't help much with the addictive aspect so far.
6) I feel slightly less depressed and anxious
7) I have had moments of clarity on bigger-picture issues about my life that I haven't had in a long time, for example, thoughts about what kind of work I really want to do long-term, where I have mostly been nose-to-the-grindstone for the past couple years

i'm also on day 5 - not quite as noticeable the effects, but the first day i drank my normal large iced coffee and that plus the new medication was too much i was just vibrating for an hour. no coffee the rest of the week and no more problems like that.

Used to be a doctor would say your kid had a "bad case of the fidgets" and then hit them with a large stick.

This thread is epic ILX gold

Strattera gave me some super vivid dreams

My bff/ex housie is (or was) on that stuff. Worked for him but had some v unpleasant side effects (nausea I think?).

me, skot, trayce, nowell, adam, jess, jbr in the first twenty posts... ten years ago. goddamn.

Oh dear got, J. now I feel old.

well tbf

watch it you.

My dreams were fuuuuuucked up. In the first one, I beat up a woman I thought was a man for propositioning my wife in a coffee shop only to find out that my wife had actually propositioned her. Then I realized that a family with a toddler was looking on in horror the whole time.

In the second one, I realized we had a baby who was Chinese, and I asked my wife what happened, and I had apparently forgotten that we had adopted him, and then when I said "what happened to the baby you were pregnant with?" she told me she had had a miscarriage and how could I possibly not remember that.

They had a lot more vivid detail than that, but that can get boring. In the first one though, I visited several other coffee shops throughout the course of the dream, and in one of them I had a cashier who couldn't understand what a macchiato was and tried to charge me $12 for it. My wife and I also tried to steal a car but then chickened out.

From "is ADHD a real disorder" to "i'm on day five of strattera" LOL

I'm going off my new medication. It was causing havoc w/ my crohn's and my GI system is more important to me atm than getting a boost in attention.

Well I didn't start the thread, xp.

maybe i'll ask my doc about the strattera

FWIW the guy who prescribed me this does not prescribe Adderall/Ritalin etc. because he doesn't like prescribing stimulants.

u could use yr newfound focus to write short stories based on those dreams (would read)

The Strattera Nocturnes

post them on ask dr. freud and he will analyze them, it's a graveyard right now

Went back on the stuff. First script had me clenching my jaw at an increased amount, second script has me occaisionally resting/pushing my tongue against my bottom row of teeth. Also, I get chatty and hyper productive for about two hours in the late morning.

This is me on Adderall ^^^

damn i'm kind of jealous of hurting's crazy ass dreams, last night i dreamed i took a bus to the suburbs and discovered an abandoned indoor baseball court under a cliff and shot hoops with my friend

Another bizarre Strattera dream:

I went to see what was supposed to be Lena Dunham's new comedy film, which also had Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in it. One of the first scenes was a very long "comic montage" of young female commercial airliner pilots (including Dunham, Fey, and Poehler) looking frazzled immediately after having landed their planes and shouting "Open the cockpit door!"

like just a really, really long succession of female pilots anxiously shouting "Open the cockpit door!" one after another

Adderall made my dream so boring and literal i cant even

adderall suuuucks.

i think it makes ADD-inclined people dumber, because it forces their non-linear, creative mind into an analytical straightjacket. i just wanted to make to-do lists and then do the things on the to-do lists.

hey, i never posted on this

i've been kicking it w/ concerta for many years and it really helped me sort out my life. never tried adderall because it never seemed necessary -- first thing tried was ritalin and it was basically just what i needed. switched to concerta because it's one pill in the am (vs a couple over the course of the day, and all of the ups and downs that go w/ that)

i don't think it made me less creative per se, but i guess i view creativity as "ability to create things" if that makes sense? and even if i had ~ideas~ back in the day i was never executing anything. what it did is help me relate to other human beings more effectively because i can finish sentences and listen to sentences and actually absorb what people are saying in a more meaningful way. i'm more engaged with the people around me, able to actually hold down a job and produce work i'm proud of and excited to do, and the only drawback (which at this point, i can't even be sure is the drugs or just me growing up) is that i'm a bit overfocused on my career, maybe at the expense of a romantic life or whatever (but i am also 30 and got on my ideal career path a year ago).

Probably gonna wind up back on this train soon. I only derailed in the first place because my life was collapsing around me a few years back and visits to the shrink/medication were sadly ineffecacious at that point. Here's to hoping a return to Ritalin will give me the focus to get out of my dead-end job already.

Probably should note that I found the effects of Ritalin to be almost completely nullified by extreme and unrelenting stress. For those curious.

what sort of drugs are prescribed if you have high anxiety/ocd/depression as well as ADD/ADHD?

i've found that wellbutrin knocked out my depression (p much) and that helped with my anxiety. it also helps alleviate adhd symptoms, not as completely as adderall did, but it makes them more manageable and is indicated for treating some cases of add

ok that's interesting; i was curious since adderall et al seem like they could really exacerbate anxiety.

yeah... adderall is amazing for what it does, but i think it ultimately is playing with fire when it comes to anxiety/depression. doctors seem suspicious when i tell them that; they seem to think it's a good thing. i did have to go back to it for a while to finish my masters degree. there's nothing else really like it when it comes to reducing adhd symptoms ime

but like, i never want to go near it again, if at all possible

(other people do really well on it though. everyone's brains are different)

I've generally experienced a lot of ADD/anxiety/depression comorbidity, and when the ADD symptoms are alleviated, the other two tend to fade (which makes sense to me, as most of the anxiety or depression I've experienced is as a result of being overwhelmed by focus-related stumbling blocks). Although I acknowledge, as Treeship says, that that obviously isn't going to be the case for everyone

everyone's brain is different but mine is the same as Treeship's apparently. (with the masters degree too.) also sleep is more important than anything else.

i've managed to beat so much of my ADHD. i don't think it's anything lifestyle-related like sugar intake. i just became a more organized thinker. i still chase stimulation/dopamine like crazy, but i concentrate better. i think i had to force myself into doing it. it was one of those things where i became resentful of my neurotypical peers for retaining information really well while multitasking or otherwise paying the absolute minimum amount of attention, while i struggled with concentration and retention even as i was listening intently and taking good notes. me not taking that stuff for granted helped me become kind of a rock star of paying attention.

adderall has been the one thing to help me with my chronic depression and social anxiety.