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Oh my gosh, I amazed by this thread because there is so much that relates to me and my experiences. I also was diagnosed with ADD later in life, AnnaHanna, and when you said, "I coulda been somebody" I know exactly what you mean. I also have a child with ADD, Abby'sdad, and you describe so well some of the agony I have had as a parent, watching my child struggle with it.
There is one main difference. The drugs youall have taken with success have not worked for me. Ritalin and adderal have not worked for me or my daughter. In fact, my daughter had a semi-severe reaction to adderal, so it seems scary to me. She had some success with an old-fashioned drug, nortriptyline (probably misspelled), which in essence sometimes is effective for focusing even though it is technically an anti-depressant. I have had good success with Paxil for depression and anxiety. My daughter was hospitalized for major depression over winter break from college where she is a junior. Part of the cause of that episode was that she had decided to go off her medication, and after a few weeks, found she could not focus at all. This caused her to panic, but she kept trying and trying to push herself, and just could not do it. Eventually she ended up in the hospital, and is now back on medication, back in college, and recovering fairly well. The entire episode was very frightening and upsetting, for both her and her family.
In the hospital they put her on a new medication. It's straterra, which was mentioned earlier. It seems to work very well for her. She also has a new antidepressent, the name of which is not coming to me at this moment. The combination of these two seems good for her. In fact, having observed her, I am considering giving Straterra a try.
It is so wonderful to communicate with other AD/HD people. We are such a unique group, and non-AD/HDers have a really, really hard time understanding what we go through. We have a hard time understanding WHY we are going through it, or why we do things so differently from the majority of the world, but we do know that all of us with AD/HD have similarities, so we may be different from the non-AD/HDers, but we are like each other in many ways. That was a very long sentence.....oh well. Anyway, this understanding is what makes me feel so good communicating with you all. It makes me not feel so alone and so "different" (read: defective).
That's all for now. I'll be interested in whatever anyone has to say in this thread or other ADD-related threads. Thanks, guys! LizzyB
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"Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness"
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