Do stimulants also help people without ADHD?

If the scans were diagnostic of risk of seizure activity when taking stimulants yes, then that would be a reason to get a scan.

I'm not at all sure that scans are diagnostic of epileptic seizure activity PRIOR to behavioral evidence of seizure activity, however...

ADHD stimulants and psychosis = bad mix. Stimulants work by increasing dopamine, whereas psychosis is believed to be from increased dopamine. Put the two together and what a trip. Turns out that my lack of focus was due to having schizoaffective disorder and not ADHD.

The people closest to me have no idea when I am on or off the stimulant that I take (Dexedrine).

like you, I can tell the difference, and that is all that matters to me. I do not think ADHD is a purely behavioral disorder like they advertise it as for kids.

I'm not sure that stimulants work by increasing dopamine...I know they involve several chemicals in the brain and they probably facilitate dopamine, but they aren't sure.

Secondly, there aren't two things farther in likeness than ADHD and psychosis/schizoaffective disorder. I'd be worried about who your seeing for a doctor on that one if it were me in your shoes.

Anyway, you are right about stimulants and psychosis being a not so great mix.

Cybermember would you be willing to explain how your lack of focus played out so it could be distinquishable from someone with ADHD?

I do not know anything about schizoaffective dissorder or the symptoms.

If this is asking you to disclose more than your comfortable with Ill understand.

Patricia

A few years ago while I was in college a professor pointed out that I should be checked out for ADHD because I was hyper and lacked focus/attention. I met with a psychologist of which she felt I had ADHD and recommended that I be put on Ritalin. Five years later I had an upheaval in my life which precipitated extreme psychosis. My then psychiatrist suggested that I discontinue the Ritalin as she felt that it only exasperated my symptoms. She didn't feel Ritalin created my psychosis, but felt that it didn't help my psychosis by having a stimulant added to the mix.

I have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder; subtype bipolar: mixed episode. Basically it's psychosis (hallucinations and delusions) with a mood disorder (bipolar). When I'm not on meds my thoughts race at the speed of light. Everything is important with no differentiation in priority. I am hyperfocused. My speech is pressured and I go from one topic to the next because details are like tributaries to other details of other topics although others may not understand the correlation. When I'm on meds, my speech is less pressured and I am able to maintain the focus of a particular topic without being sidetracked with details of that topic. I still have some intermittent psychosis, but nothing nearly what I experienced off of meds.

I hope my explanation sheds some light to understanding my lack of focus and how I was initially diagnosed with ADHD. As a side note, I wasn't initially diagnosed with schizoafffective but with ADHD because I didn't reveal I was seeing, smelling or thinking odd things as I didn't think they were odd since they were an everyday occurrence for me. I honestly thought everyone had music playing in their head all the time and never thought to mention it until it started to get louder. I now know differently.

Thanks for sharing what you experience cybermember. what I copied above describes some of what people with ADHD experience . At least from the reading I have done.

The word "context" came to mind . The linking of details because they all paint a larger picture . My art instructor was always frustrated with me because I could not priortize , or delinate what I placed on the paper. everything had the same line weight and value as well. I thought everything was important and it had to be expressed . It was only untill I chose only a few things as the primary focus that I was able to make a drawing that had any meaning or was visually pleasing. Same for writting papers. Everything comes rushing in vying for attention. I find it frustrating and difficult to work when that happens.

Looks like you found a med that would help you with both.

Patricia

It's commonly known in the medical community that stimulants have the potential to exacerbate psychotic symptoms in patients who have have known psychotic disturbances. I don't know if that was the case with you, but simply being prescribed Ritalin does not predispose one to psychosis.

I guess I'm not sure what your saying here, but it's a good thing you got out of that one eh?

Your experience is an example of why it is important to take the time to REALLY know the patient before they start slapping labels on. Diagnostic accuracy is really important in almost all cases.

For some illogical reason I haven't yet grasped, a lot of psychiatrists (usually PSYCHIATRISTS, but sometimes PSYCHOLOGISTS and other T's) practice a shake-n-bake form of diagnosis. As you would expect, this doesn't really work well.

I should clarify that I am not accusing your doctor of being one of these, but rather I mention this as it is sooooo important that people make sure that they are seeing highly trained and highly skilled pro's with experience in dealing with adult ADHD. One appointment is almost never enough. It often takes several and other conditions MUST be ruled out.

I hope you have your med situation squared away now!

(((((((((((((SOLIAREE)))))))))))))

OCD has some overlap with ADHD symptoms.
I do not have OCD, but when I initially started seeing a psychologist and he recommended that I do a diagnostic process to rule in/out ADHD and possible comorbidities, he gave me a written test to assess OCD symptomatology, and then a structured interview to further assess.

I have major OCD traits. I found this interesting because I have no overt or recognizable OCD behaviors. The reasons behind the obsessive/compulsive behaviors in OCD are pretty important. I might check if I left the door unlocked compulsively; however, that's because I wouldn't remember to lock it. ADHD interferes with memory and focus. I might forget to lock the door; I'm aware enough now that I double check it afterwards, as I can't always remember if I locked it or not. Make sense?

Due to the extensive overlap with ADHD traits, if OCD is all one is looking for (as an example; replace OCD with any other disorder), and if ADHD wasn't properly assessed, then I would have appeared on the surface to have OCD, not ADHD. The ADHD would have probably not even been considered.

Like Chaotic said---ADHD exists on a spectrum; I suspect most things do. Twenty years from now we will look back at the DSM IV-TR and think about how archaic it was.