Do I Need Help With This?

LegacyUser · 23-04-2008 8:31pm #1

I've always been absent minded. Have the attention span of a 3 year old. I constantly start things and never finish them - my house is littered with half made furniture and unfinished books. I have serious trouble in terms of academic organisation - I have never had one organised folder of notes in almost four years of college, and my revision strategy for exams could not even be called a strategy. I have been known for having a mouth on me - often finish people's sentences for them, and have extreme bother sitting still and focusing my attention on a lecture in college.

I think I've been getting worse lately - I keep losing valuables (I've lost five important belongings since January already, one of which got me into bother at college), and I've missed two important project deadlines since February, one of which almost ended up in me failing a module.

So anyway, I always put all this stuff down to my scatty personality. I mean, I've been this way since I was little, and constantly got into trouble at school. I'm not a dosser by any means, but have serious difficulties with not only my mind wandering but getting **** done.
I'm not using this as an excuse for academic stupidity - I got 600 points in the LC, albeit after going to a grind school. I have no doubt that I wouldn't have gotten those points if a study mentor hadn't sat down and designed a plan for me.

My marks have slipped since I've been left to my own devices. I'm studying a tough course in a Dublin Uni (I won't say which one, lest I be identified!) but I've been averaging 55-62 for the last three years. Passable but I know I should and could be doing so much better. I know the stuff much better than some people who are pulling 1sts.

So anyway my friend is a medical student in her final year and she thinks I have an adult form of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. She showed me some books of hers and I the descriptions are scarily accurate. I'm coming into my final year now and my exam marks are so important to me. I'm debating whether to go to my GP and tell him about the problem. My friend (the student) tells me there's a medication called Concerta I could go on and it's supposedly very effective.

Thing is, I'm nervous about going on a potentially addictive medication. What if I find I can't survive without it? Also, I don't know if my GP would be happy to prescribe this for me, or would he need to refer me to a Psychiatrist. If that happened, I don't know how long I'd be waiting for an appointment.

I really don't know what to do but this is all I can think about since my friend said something to me. It explains so much, and is potentially fixable. It could make a big difference to my final year at college. But I would be medicating myself, maybe unnecessarily. I don't know what to do. Comments?

littlefriend · 23-04-2008 9:11pm

Can't give medical advice on here except you should speak to your GP [state the obvious I know].

One thing I suggest though is talking to your tutor about this - you should be able to come up with a plan to help you meet your deadlines at least [and maybe failing that module can be reviewed]. If you could stick to the plan your 'study mentor' devised for you for your leaving cert then maybe your tutor could help you with something similar for your assignments, revision etc.

Worrying about it will probably make it worse - how about tomorrow you speak to your tutor and arrange an apt to see your GP?

StandnDeliver · 23-04-2008 9:32pm

hmm maybe get a really good system for your course work, like a inbox,outbox, for your work,maybe a to do box, have a big board with deadlines, get organised.

no idea about medical side

AARRRGH · 23-04-2008 9:42pm

Do you drink alcohol or smoke hash?

Redpunto · 23-04-2008 9:57pm

Go to your GP but not your own GP then go to he college one or anyone, then any probs can be ruled out

geminilady · 24-04-2008 8:01am

well if you get a diagnosis with it, you could then speak to your tutors and arrange more time or something to get these assignments done, is there a GP on site around your college to speak to? even to put your mind at rest?

Semele · 24-04-2008 8:55am

"What if I find I can't survive without it?" "But I would be medicating myself, maybe unnecessarily."

Firstly,yes- ADHD sounds likely,especially since you say its always been like this. Your doctor should be equipped to diagnose it as its a very clear disorder and needs only confirmation of a lifecourse history of the sort of behaviour you describe. This is done through a checklist of items- the more you answer yes to, the more likely you are to have ADHD. The information in your friend's book probably was in this same list format. Go to your doctor, explain what you think and see what he/she recommends.

Now on to the issue of medication. While I agree that doctors are all too ready to hand out pills for mental problems, despite that fact that a psychiatrist really should be involved in any long-term medicating, I have difficulty understanding many people's fear of becoming addicted to their medication. You have a PHYSICALLY based disorder. Your brain, in terms of structure or function, is lacking in a certain area. A drug will overcome this. The disorder is negatively affecting your life. The drug will help this.

Although ADHD can improve with age, its not something that you can cure. Therefore, if the drugs improve your life greatly, you may well decide to remain on them indefinitely. And what is wrong with this? They are not changing you in any fundamental way. Just because it is a medication for a mental disorder does not mean that it will interfere with other mental aspects of you, such as personality (if there are any side-effects of this sort the medication doesn’t suit you and should be changed). You wouldn’t expect a diabetic person not to seek medical help because they would most likely have to medicate themselves for the rest of their lives. It’s the same thing. If you need the medication, which your entire post says you do, it would not be unnecessary. Also, fear of physical addiction is unfounded. If prescribed and monitored properly you and the doctor will be able to control the dose and slowly wean yourself off them should you desire in future.

board om · 24-04-2008 12:12pm

Hey OP,

I have to advise you to be careful when it comes to diagnosing and medicating for ADHD. The above post is correct in saying that there is a checklist of maybe 15-20 symptoms, and if you check so many of them you are ADHD. I know I checked all but one box, the one about losing items. That is one thing I never do. All the rest though I tick 10 fold. Now I could never accomplish anything academically because I could never get organised enough, so even though I was considered off the scale as far intelligence go, I could only ever put it to practical use. So like you say you are getting low grades yet you know more about the subject you are studying than the guys getting top results. And I bet when it comes to an actual career you will learn more from doing the job than most people will, and you will pick it up a lot quicker too. That is what has saved me in my adult life. Working with management who know you wont do reports and things like that, and you definitely won’t get them in on time, but at the end of the day you will get the job done better than most people. So don’t worry about that end of things. Life isn’t always going to be studying and sitting behind a book. With ADHD you will most likely be better at the practical side of things and it just takes the right working environment and you will excel.

Now, going to your GP wont probably get you very far tbh as they are not very up to date on ADHD, plus the ones that are throw the term around very loosely. In other words they would diagnose 9 out of 10 people with it by ticking a few boxes on a list when realistically everyone would probably tick a high amount of those boxes. Sure in the US every second kid has ADHD and every parent whose child doesn’t do well at school all of a sudden decides their kid has ADHD, and then if a child turns to a life of crime it is because they were ADHD. It has gotten ridiculous. And it is going the same way here. So you have to stay out of that trap, because otherwise you will go to see a psychiatrist, he will diagnose you as ADHD in about 5 minutes, and then stick you on some expensive medication with a siht load of side effects and that they know fcuk all about. I can vouch for that.

It is a few years since I did any reading on the matter because tbh when I was trying to sort myself out it was a good few years ago and after spending a fortune on psychiatrist, getting expensive medication, and assisting Trinity College with studies on ADHD, I felt very disillusioned with the whole thing. Now I would be what would be considered a very bad case of ADHD as I did all the classic stuff like dropping out of school, substance abuse, getting in trouble just for the sake of getting in to trouble, I would be constantly anxious, talk a mile a minute going from one subject to another, and so and so forth. I went to see a Professor who has been specialising in ADHD in Ireland before anyone knew what it was. If you PM me I will send you his details. He is based on the north side of but he is easy enough to get to. I would recommend talking to him. When I met him many years ago he did several tests and diagnosed me as ADHD. He put me on a very expensive medication which I am wrecking my head trying to remember the name of. At the time it was only the second type of medication available for ADHD, the first being Ritalin which they tend to give to younger people, and then there was the one I was prescribed. I can get the name of it from the chemist when I am up that direction again. Anyways, I took the medication for quite a while and it had some serious side effects, but it did seem to work now and then. Like when you would be say on a certain dose it would work for a few weeks and then stop, so they would up the does and it would work again and then stop, and then up again, and so on. But the higher the dose the worse the side effects. The worst and most embarrassing is getting up to go to work and by the time you get to work you have sweated through an entire shirt, and I mean it looks like you fell in a river it was that bad, not just a few patches. A lot of dehydration and things like that. So you have to way up the odds, medication versus side effects. Probably the worst side effect for me was it killed every inhibition I had, so I just thought something and then did it. It was very strange; it was like I had no fear of anything and no fear of consequences. And funnily enough this was what leads me to my current predicament of the substance abuse problems I have now. I always took drugs from as long as I can remember, but there were certain drugs I would never take. You couldn’t have paid me to. But when I was on that medication it was no problem to me at all. So where it made me think straight in some areas, in other areas it made a mess of my life. Basically what I am saying is it isn’t just a case of getting diagnosed and taking the medication, there is a lot more to think about.

I really think ADHD can be contained by doing normal day to day things rather than taking medication. As you said yourself you did excellent in your Leaving Cert because you got a tutor who made you a study plan, and it is the same in life. If you make plans and lists, you can then follow those through. Personally if I could rewind back a few years I would have gone down that route instead of the medication route, because I think the mediation route did me a lot more damage than I will ever know. And I think I would be living a very different life than I am now. I would go to see the psychiatrist alright but then when it comes to doing something about it I would look at a few options if I were you. We are all a bit too quick to take tablets for everything these days. I have a brother who was diagnosed with MS a few years back and he had a choice of medication or going the natural route. He went the natural route and has never looked back. He eats healthy, exercises regularly, and changed his whole lifestyle, and he hasn’t a bother on him now. Obviously he still has MS but he rarely shows symptoms of it. So likewise with ADHD I believe you could control it through good planning and maybe a bit of help from outside sources. You already proved you can follow a plan when it is laid out for you, so personally I would try that first.

So that’s my (very long) 2 cents worth. PM me if you want the Professor’s name. He is the most knowledgeable in the field of ADHD in Ireland so I would recommend him. Where you go from there is up to you, but I wish you all the best with it.

Oh, and for Littlefriend (hi), I know you think I should be writing all this anyway, so maybe these ramblings are little insights into how I ended up in the mess I am in now. You can probably piece them together and work out the mess for me

LegacyUser · 24-04-2008 2:46pm

Thanks for the comments. The comparison with insulin is interesting, never really thought of it that way before but you're right of course!

Kelly O'Malley · 26-04-2008 6:26pm

Have to admit I thought of ADHD as soon as I started reading your post notreggy.I think there's some kind of training you can get that improves the symptoms you're describing?I'm anti medicating when it can possibly be avoided and the fact that you are fine when someone else organises you suggests that if you are ADHD you may benefit from being taught how to organise yourself.Be worth looking at diet too.It could be a food sensitivity that's making your concentration erratic.

Semele · 26-04-2008 9:21pm

Hi again...

Forgot to say in last post that, as other have mentioned, there are some non-drug interventions that might make some difference (either on their own or used with medication).

Cognitive behavioural or cognitive analytic therapies are both really good for identifying and dealing with problematic thought processes (eg the ease with which you get distracted) and the behaviour that results from this (eg you don't study as much as you should). The therapist would help you come up with structured plans and timetables that might make it easier for you to meet your goals.

Diet- obviously eat as healthily as possible, drink lots of water, avoid very processed foods or anything with lots of additives or sugar (there's lots of evidence linking food additives and sugar to hyperactivity/inattention in children).

Exercise can actually focus the mind very well. If you're a very active, on-the-go person who flits from one thing to another, a moderatly strenuous run or whatever you like can have a calming effect- physical tiredness essentially forces you to slow down and you may find it easier to settle into sitting down and reading for a couple of hours afterwards.

Any lastly, try fish oil capsules! They show a good effect on brain function in studies and I know that when I've been taking them for a couple of weeks I find myself more mentally alert and able to concentrate for longer periods. You should apparently start by taking double the recommended dose for at least a week, as the fatty acids take a while to build up in our brains and have a noticable effect.

Best of luck, whatever you do

board om · 26-04-2008 11:12pm

when looking at natural treatments for ADHD, things that traditionally make other people hyper or anxious, like coffee or other stimulants, might have the opposite effect on someone who suffers from ADHD. in fact, most of the medication that is used to treat ADHD are actually stimulants, specifically Ritalan. that is pretty much pure speed which is why it is misused so often by drug users. the ADHD medication i was presribed could be misused as a stimulant like speed, hence the side effects of dehydration and sweating. when any of my mates tried them or if I took more than i was supposed to i would be buzzing around the place. bascially taking certain amount of stimulants instead of making you hyper or anxious can actually level you out and will kind of pacify you and lets you think straight. i know myself when i take stimulants like coke, the first few lines put me completely at ease and makes my thought process quite clear. strong coffee is the same for me, it clears my head and slows my thoughts down. basically anything which has a speedy effect normally has the oposite effect when taken in the correct dose. but once you go over the correct amount it can then make you overly anxious and uncomfortable.

it is strange to think that to treat a hyperactive disorder that they would presribe a stmulant, but there you go. so have a look and see what is recomended for natuarl remedies. it might not be the normal rleaxing things that you might think. i know for instance people might recommend yoga to relax, but for someone with ADHD it would be near impossible to concentrate enough for yoga to work. there are a few other things like that i can think of that might relax the avreage person, but would drive someone with ADHD absolutley nuts.

thieveslikeus · 27-04-2008 12:56am

Sounds like you're having a hard time at the minute.

As has already been said, try using fish oils. I have been taking these for a couple of months now and have noticed, among other benefits, a remarkable improvement in my concentration levels. Cant recommend these enough.

Monkey61 · 27-04-2008 10:44am

"when any of my mates tried them or if I took more than i was supposed to i would be buzzing around the place. bascially taking certain amount of stimulants instead of making you hyper or anxious can actually level you out and will kind of pacify you and lets you think straight. i know myself when i take stimulants like coke, the first few lines put me completely at ease and makes my thought process quite clear. "

For one thing, anybody who takes recreational drugs while on a prescribed medication is not only asking for trouble but quite frankly deserves it. It would also be unwise for anybody to listen to the advice of someone who openly admits to happily exceeding their dose and sharing medication with their friends. If you were already a heavy drug user then I imagine that that was hardly helping your mental problems. What you do with your life is up to you, but I really don't think it is your place to be encouraging people not to seek medical help. For one thing, the Op may not be an irresponsible long term drug user and may actually be capable of taking his recommended dose and abiding by correct medical advice.

To the OP - good luck, definitely go to the doctor and don't be afraid of getting help with medications that as people have said, you really seem to need. I'm sure that you will have the sense to use them properly!

board om · 27-04-2008 3:16pm

Monkey61 wrote: »

"when any of my mates tried them or if I took more than i was supposed to i would be buzzing around the place. bascially taking certain amount of stimulants instead of making you hyper or anxious can actually level you out and will kind of pacify you and lets you think straight. i know myself when i take stimulants like coke, the first few lines put me completely at ease and makes my thought process quite clear. "

For one thing, anybody who takes recreational drugs while on a prescribed medication is not only asking for trouble but quite frankly deserves it. It would also be unwise for anybody to listen to the advice of someone who openly admits to happily exceeding their dose and sharing medication with their friends. If you were already a heavy drug user then I imagine that that was hardly helping your mental problems. What you do with your life is up to you, but I really don't think it is your place to be encouraging people not to seek medical help. For one thing, the Op may not be an irresponsible long term drug user and may actually be capable of taking his recommended dose and abiding by correct medical advice.

To the OP - good luck, definitely go to the doctor and don't be afraid of getting help with medications that as people have said, you really seem to need. I'm sure that you will have the sense to use them properly!

if you actually read my posts CORRECTLY you will see that i advised the OP to seek assistance from a pyciatrist, and i even offered to give him the contact details of the best and most knowledable pyciatrist for ADHD in Ireland, someone who has been dealing with ADHD patients long before most people even knew what it was.

what i also said was that it might be worth enquiring about natural treatments before going down the road of medication. the medication is still quite experimental and it differs from patient to patient, so what could work for one patient may not work for another. when given the medication you are instructed to increase and decrease your dosage at regular intervals until you find the dosage that works for you. that is how i know that when you take more than required that you end up buzzing, not from taking them recreationally. and i never said anything about taking recreational drugs while on ADHD medication. what i said was i know from taking stimulants like coke that they have a differnt effect on people with ADHD than on your standard person.

so try reading the posts correctly before making stupid remarks. i am basing my post on experince of having ADHD and being treated for it the right way and the wrong way. you just seem to posting for the sake of posting.

Monkey61 · 27-04-2008 6:11pm

I do apologise if i misunderstood any of your postings. I am replying because mental health is a subject about which I am very passionate.

"when any of my mates tried them or if I took more than i was supposed to i would be buzzing around the place." I took this to mean that you were playing with your own dose outside of medical limits - fair enough if that is not the impression you were meaning to give. I found it hard to believe thatyou would be recommended to play with your own dose.

So you have to stay out of that trap, because otherwise you will go to see a psychiatrist, he will diagnose you as ADHD in about 5 minutes, and then stick you on some expensive medication with a siht load of side effects and that they know fcuk all about. I can vouch for that. - i took that as your suggesting that psychiatrists were bad and that the Op would be unwise to seek medical attention - granted in a later post you did seem to change your mind.

I always took drugs from as long as I can remember, but there were certain drugs I would never take. You couldn’t have paid me to. But when I was on that medication it was no problem to me at all. - you do actually say that you were taking drugs on your medication so you can see where I got that idea from.

All I was trying to suggest to the OP was that you are a far from standard case and that his own experiences will probably be entirely different from yours as there is no mention in the posts of your lifestyles being similar.