[pkf4281]

Hello Everyone,

I am 56, married 3 times, widow now. I have 5 children-3 with ADHD, 4 grandchildren- 2 with ADHD. Dropped out of high school, got my GED, went to college, dropped out. Told I'd be a failure all my life as I was lazy and scatter brained to amount to anything. Looking back I've had ADHD all my life, I just didn't realize it, actually I don't think it was known when I was younger and was told only children have ADHD.

As most of us, they described me to a T when they put together the ADHD test quiz. I was officially diagnosed 4-5 yrs ago after my kid's ADHD doctor made a comment about me understand what they were going through since I had it too. Dah, he was absolutely right, I was exactly like them, off medication, it explained everything in my life. i.e changes I had to make to "fit in" and function, ect.

I had been seeing shrink, but unfortunately was dropped after I forgot an appt and hadn't gotten my meds for 3 months. I had been seeing her every month, but somehow must have phased her out, "misunderstood" that I could call for meds during that time. She said I didn't follow doctor's directions. (she sure is understands ADHD) After that I couldn't find another doctor who treated adults so, being the procrastinator I am, I put it off until it started effecting my career.

I'm the typical ADHD individual, but have been able to maintain continual employment for 30 years/24 in current position. I fell into a career I excelled at, I found ways to hide my reading and writing disabilities, etc, and it required multi-tasking, so my jumping around seemed normal. I took off and become sought after and respected as an expert in my field. Who would have thought that from someone who was suppose to amount to nothing.

Unfortunately, a year and a half/two years ago, my world exploded, dealing with my late husband cancer and death finally caught up with me, older kids had moved away, younger ones acting up, problems with new co-workers who discovered my disabilities and used them against me, alienating me from the one constant and success in my life. (excluding my children). I felt alone, self concision, feeling of being a failure returned, and my work started going down hill. I was told I needed to improve or would loose my job. I found a shrink and got on Vyanse, I thought I was doing great, motivated, got things done around the house, took on extra work at the office, I was on top the world feoling great, and best of all I was no longer having work returned for errors. Then suddenly I started getting reports back from 6 plus months ago, which my boss just got to. I am now on a short time line to improve or receive a significant pay cut or probably, the worse, lose my job and pension. I told my boss I thought the meds had been working but would get on something else.

My questions: Someone told me ADHD gets worse when we get older, or that we loose our ability to use our previous coping skills. Has anyone heard anything like this and is it true? My shrink says ADHD usually gets better in adulthood, and although i definitely suffer from it, I'm the oldest person he knows of with it.

I am desperate to get back on track, is there anything additional I can do to get myself back on track in addition to meds? Doc wants to see how the new meds work first but I'm running out of time and have to wait a week for insurance to approve the new meds. All these years of hard work to be taken down, my job, pension, self esteem and to become the failure others call me, all because of my failure to control my ADHD. The pressure and fear of loosing everything only makes it worse. I don't think I'm depressed, I'm very happy other then worrying about my job, pension and future. (I know nothing other then what I'm doing.) I actually have a wonderful life.

Has this type of thing happened to anyone else? Am I doomed? Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally found this site, as at least I got to vent to others who might be able to relate or (hopefully) relate a little.

Thanks for listening and for any advise or information anyone can provide. Have a wonderful week-end

[Travelinglady]

I haven't heard anything about ADHD getting worse or people losing their coping skills with age.

Hang in here!