Posted by Hattree on August 1, 2001, at 10:18:31
In reply to ADD without Hyperactivity, posted by Roo on August 1, 2001, at 8:53:41
I take stimulants for ADD w/o hyperactivity with mixed results--I'm not even sure I believe in the syndrome, but I sure have a distracted personality.
I have mixed success--I get a lot of work done when I take stimulants, but I don't find I lose my keys any less. I find them helpful with dysthymia, but I do get kind of strung out and anxious after awhile and need to get off them for a few days. (Anyone have a suggestion about what to do for that nasty feeling?)
You can get a hint of whether stimulants would be helpful to you by how you respond to the non-prescription ones. Does coffee help you stay focused? Sudafed, the cold medicine, I find is not so different from some prescription stimulants (when I get a cold I drop my phentermine and just take sudafed).
I also wondered if your meds are causing your concentration problem, since it is relatively recent. I've been out to lunch all my life.
> I'm curious about this and have been for awhile. I
> have cyclothymic depression, for sure, but I'm also
> starting to wonder if I might have ADD without hyperactivity
> as well, and might benefit from something like adderall.
> I already take meds for depression, and don't so much
> feel depressed (when on meds), but I do have a lot of
> trouble concentrating and focusing. About 10 years
> ago, I remember being able to get lost in a task--focus
> on painting and paint for hours at a time. Same with
> reading--I'd read for hours. Now it seems I can't do that
> anymore. I can only paint for 30 minutes, tops, and I start
> feeling distracted and unable to stick with it. I can
> only read a chapter at a time. I'll see a movie and won't
> be able to remember the plot to tell someone about it. Have
> a hard time following conversations. Concentrating on a
> person who is trying to train me at work. Those sorts of
> things. I'm also not trusting myself on this--I don't want
> to be jumping on some sort of ADD bandwagon...but at the same
> time, the symptoms seem to fit and it really bothers me
> that I can't seem to accomplish much b/c of my inability
> to focus. Can anyone relate? Is this just normal human
> stuff, or could it be ADD? I'm almost afraid to bring it
> up to the p-doc b/c I think she feels I'm always trying
> to change things, meds, and that it's a way of trying to
> be "in control". But I really just want to be the best
> I can be. I'm not hyper. I can lay around and space out
> on the couch for hours, but I'd rather be doing stuff, getting
> involved in projects, I just don't feel like I have the
> focus.
poster:Hattree
thread:72871
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010731/msgs/72886.html