[Tamoneko]

I will try to describe how I generally feel and I would really appreciate if some of you could give me your opinion on whether you think I have some sort of Attention Deficit Disorder or not. I understand that the best way to diagnose myself is to visit a professional, but I really can't do that currently for 2 temporary reasons, I hope you can understand me.

This is my story:
Several years ago I definitely started thinking that there is something wrong with me, regarding intensity of my consciousness/vision. Then I looked back and tried to remember the last time I didn't feel like this, and I realized it was around my age of 15 (near the time I had my surgery, due to an injured arm).

I just can't easily explain to people what it exactly feels like so I usually describe it to my friends as "feeling less awake" all the time. Kind of like halfway asleep, feeling surreal, being unable to visually and mentally focus on anything. (don't get me wrong, it's not way too intensive, I function normally most of the time, but it is drastically different from how I felt when I was a child).
My friends, although good people, always thought that I'm just being picky as usual.

Then I started thinking that I have problems with vision, I visited ophthalmologist, and they said I have a perfect vision.

Then I started thinking that I simply have a low blood pressure or a bad blood circulation in my head/neck region, which at that time made so much sense that I was delighted and almost convinced that that was the problem but nope I realized that even when I workout and have a high blood pressure/heart rate my consciousness is still at that rusty, foggy state.

There were days where I was so annoyed by my inability to visually/mentally focus on things, that I took a darn pencil, put it closely in front of my eyes and said to myself - HAAA! A PEN! A FREAKING PEN! CONCENTRATE!! CONCENTRATE!!! THIS......WHAT STANDS IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES....IS...A PAN!!! FOCUS ON IT! NOW!!!
But my mind always seemed halfway asleep and responded like - "So freaking what!? That's just a darn pen, put it down, don't act like an idiot and let me sleep!".

Now an interesting point (and the reason I used to think it is related to vision) is that it is significantly affected by the light.
At cloudy and gloomy days it seems to get worse, and at bright sunny summer days it seems to be almost gone, or at least I feel so much better that I forget about it

Am I misdiagnosing myself? Could it be some hormone thing triggered by nice/ugly weather? Could Seasonal Affective Disorder be that severe?

When I study, even when I study something that I like, and for example when I read a page of text, I literally read the whole darn page and at the end of the page I find myself thinking: "what the heck did I just read?" I read the entire page, but my mind was thinking of something else so I end up not remembering a single word from the entire page
And I do that few times in a row sometimes! (slapping myself hard, usually helps a bit but then I get annoyed of slapping myself )

That was my story, and I would reaaaly love to hear your stories on how your ADD feels like, and can you relate to any of symptoms that I mentioned, if so, which ones? And last but not least, does this text of mine indicate that I indeed might have ADD? Or maybe SAD? Or maybe some kind of yeast infection (candida) that causes my foggy mind and inability to think clearly?

Thank you so much for reading this and I look forward to your replies!

[Melmo]

The part about reading is definitely me!

[2_b_free]

Those symptoms can be associated with a number of disorders. Without getting a diagnoses first, you won't be able to get the proper treatment. ADD usually requires medication, so you would have to see a pdoc to get a prescription.

[LucidCrunch]

Originally Posted by Tamoneko

I will try to describe how I generally feel and I would really appreciate if some of you could give me your opinion on whether you think I have some sort of Attention Deficit Disorder or not. I understand that the best way to diagnose myself is to visit a professional, but I really can't do that currently for 2 temporary reasons, I hope you can understand me.

This is my story:
Several years ago I definitely started thinking that there is something wrong with me, regarding intensity of my consciousness/vision. Then I looked back and tried to remember the last time I didn't feel like this, and I realized it was around my age of 15 (near the time I had my surgery, due to an injured arm).

I just can't easily explain to people what it exactly feels like so I usually describe it to my friends as "feeling less awake" all the time. Kind of like halfway asleep, feeling surreal, being unable to visually and mentally focus on anything. (don't get me wrong, it's not way too intensive, I function normally most of the time, but it is drastically different from how I felt when I was a child).
My friends, although good people, always thought that I'm just being picky as usual.

Then I started thinking that I have problems with vision, I visited ophthalmologist, and they said I have a perfect vision.

Then I started thinking that I simply have a low blood pressure or a bad blood circulation in my head/neck region, which at that time made so much sense that I was delighted and almost convinced that that was the problem but nope I realized that even when I workout and have a high blood pressure/heart rate my consciousness is still at that rusty, foggy state.

There were days where I was so annoyed by my inability to visually/mentally focus on things, that I took a darn pencil, put it closely in front of my eyes and said to myself - HAAA! A PEN! A FREAKING PEN! CONCENTRATE!! CONCENTRATE!!! THIS......WHAT STANDS IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES....IS...A PAN!!! FOCUS ON IT! NOW!!!
But my mind always seemed halfway asleep and responded like - "So freaking what!? That's just a darn pen, put it down, don't act like an idiot and let me sleep!".

Now an interesting point (and the reason I used to think it is related to vision) is that it is significantly affected by the light.
At cloudy and gloomy days it seems to get worse, and at bright sunny summer days it seems to be almost gone, or at least I feel so much better that I forget about it

Am I misdiagnosing myself? Could it be some hormone thing triggered by nice/ugly weather? Could Seasonal Affective Disorder be that severe?

When I study, even when I study something that I like, and for example when I read a page of text, I literally read the whole darn page and at the end of the page I find myself thinking: "what the heck did I just read?" I read the entire page, but my mind was thinking of something else so I end up not remembering a single word from the entire page
And I do that few times in a row sometimes! (slapping myself hard, usually helps a bit but then I get annoyed of slapping myself )

That was my story, and I would reaaaly love to hear your stories on how your ADD feels like, and can you relate to any of symptoms that I mentioned, if so, which ones? And last but not least, does this text of mine indicate that I indeed might have ADD? Or maybe SAD? Or maybe some kind of yeast infection (candida) that causes my foggy mind and inability to think clearly?

Thank you so much for reading this and I look forward to your replies!

Sounds like you should absolutely look for a Neurologist in your area who also has background in psychology or psychiatry and discuss your situation. ADD can be mistaken for lots of different disorders as well as actual health issues. Only a medical doctor can perform appropriate tests and make a reasonable diagnosis, and remember that ADD is not something that can be 100.00% confirmed like HIV or cancer ... still a lot of assumption and faith in checklists, family history, rating scales, neuropsychological tests (like the TOVA test I took) and all of this is subjective to varying extents.

[Tamoneko]

Thank you people for the replies.

Believe it or not, my suspecting of candida turned out to be right, they found candida in my stool (even though stool test is considered pretty unreliable).
I'll see if things change during/after the diet, and then if I still have the same issues I'll definitely have to go to the neurologist