Brazilian, medical, adult tdah

[Lucbragbr]

I am 47 years old. I was diagnosed about 10 years ago, but have always felt something "wrong" with me (I thought all very difficult, although it does not go wrong at school. Desmotivadamente wept. I felt sadness but any positive stimulus i drew this). I have always tried my diagnosis (anxiety? Dysthymia? Bipolarity?) . I took several remedios and did therapy (suggested that it was just emotional immaturity). My first improvement in mood and disposition was with fluoxetine. But she left me more impulsive.

A psychiatrist who worked with me suggested that i had ADHD and i went to doctor...since then I took Ritalin, Concerta, Venvanse and bupropion (alternating due effects such as anxiety. For this, the times, rivitril). Have already used lamotigina concomitantly once. There was improvement of impulsivity with those med, but am feeling a "dumbness" and progressive memory loss. And I find it difficult to sleep. This causes me anxiety, low self-esteem and ... resignation, because I do not feel that you can improve.

Even when i feel "great", i know that i have cognitive limitations... wanted an effective treatment, which let me well prepared, without anxiety, able to learn and motivated to accomplish things.

[happy_kitty]

I would suggest doing some of your own research. If you are looking for a specific result you should look into possible treatments and, when you find one that you think might work or that you want to try, bring it up with your doctor. If you have a good doctor he/she should be willing to honor your request or at least give respectable reasons against it.

Also, I just think it is a good idea to be knowledgeable about your condition so that on those days when you feel like poop, you can remind yourself that it isn't your fault. You can also look up a list of very successful people with ADHD. A few I found include Justin Timberlake, Michael Phelps, and Lisa Ling. I don't know any in Brazil but I'm sure if you look you can find some.

Lastly a quick reminder: You are NOT a failure. You are NOT stupid. You are NOT alone. You are simply different, and that is Not a bad thing.

[Lucbragbr in reply to happy_kitty]

Thank you for your answer, happy_kitty. You seem to understand a lot about the subject and be very attention with the group.

My biggest problem, in fact, is the uncertainty of having ADHD, and if it is just ADHD (as it's commum to have comorbities like distimic, bipolarity and others humor deficities). As it doesn't have a cure, I woul like to fix it with the right drug.

As I said, whom suggested that I would have ADHD was a co-worker who is a psychiatrist. At this time I was talkative Fluoxetine but complained that I was even more exalted (talkative, impulsive, ...) and he suggested at least switching to Bupropion, which is also an antidepressant but has action on ADHD, until going on a regular visit.

I started attending the psychiatrist about 10 years ago. And he believed that I really had ADHD and we introduced Ritalin. But it alone does not seem to contemplate all my symptoms. And the management of medications has a lot to do with the social harm we feel. So, according to what most bothered me at the time and the side effects, we tried several other medications: Concerta, Wellbutrim (bupropion), Venvanse, Desvenlafaxine and, at some point, we tested concomitantly, or lithium (no effect) or lamotrigine (it improved my "cries" and cyclical sadness: I have been very crying since I was a child).

I've always been very cheerful and sociable. Talkative and curious. I liked school, my friends, my schoolwork (I always did) and learning new things. I always attended classes a lot. But at the time of the evaluations, what used to work for me was studying the day before. From adolescence I began to feel a greater difficulty to maintain the rhythm. With the increased volume of information in high school, it was becoming difficult to keep the same grades and I was exhausted and feeling incompetent at not being able to organize myself to study everything effectively. If I studied "a little a day," I could not keep the information until the test date. My grades were not low. But people who liked to study like me were able to manage their time better, and got better grades than me. That did not seem normal to me.

Today I feel default in memory and the ability to learn and store knowledge: everything I read satisfies my momentary curiosity, but in a few days I no longer remember what I read. I am very curious and I want to learn about different things, but this way of being discourages me from starting, because I know I will not keep the knowledge ...

In addition, I find it difficult to take on commitment, feel like I am emotional immature (easy crying, difficulty accepting frustration), and I am often labeled as "spoiled." Adult life seems to me very difficult and without great purposes (perhaps because I do not feel stimulated to produce anything new, since I find it difficult to apprehend information).

As any learning is very hard work for me and those already acquired sometimes bored me, I look for easy forms of pleasure: going to bars with friends and drinking beer is the most usual of them. And it's frequency is higher than it should be ...

When we accept that physicians are not beings of supernatural intelligence and that the diagnosis of ADHD and other mood disorders are not accurate (they are not detectable in laboratory or imaging tests), and yet, it is not uncommon for ADHD to concomitantly other mood disorders such as dysthymia, bipolarity, oppositional personality disorder, among others, we begin to have doubts about what we actually have and what would be the medicine (though not curative) treatment.

I have periods of sadness and discouragement (some days every 2 months, maybe). In this period I am extremely sensitive to the horrors of the world (war, hunger, violence), I find life silly, uninteresting, a burden! I feel powerless, incapable, incompetent even in the things I do routinely.

In adolescence I thought it was hormonal alteration of the time. But, then I came to think of mood disorder: Do I have some bipolar spectrum and this is the cyclical phase of a small depression OR do I have ADHD and sometimes my low self esteem exacerbates and I feel so powerless that I become unhappy / depressive?

If everyone can feel improve in memory and cognition with ADHD drugs (dopamine), how can we be sure our improvement with it is because we are "dopamineless"?

Does anyone here takes the same drug for a long time with consistent improvement?

Thanks folks.

[happy_kitty in reply to Lucbragbr]

First of all, just a disclaimer, I am not a doctor or a professional on the subject in any way. (I am a college student studying elementary education.) Nearly everything I know I learned through personal research or school projects from fairly reputable sources on the internet. Do with this information what you will.

I would like to put it out there that there is no magic pill that can cure ADHD, however, there are plenty that can make the symptoms more bearable. It often takes a good deal of trial and error to find a medication that works for you. Most people will settle on a particular treatment that works for them but some like to switch it up every so often. Medication is also typically accompanied by some lifestyle changes, and sometimes supplements.

As for what you said about crying: people with ADHD often have a symptom called emotional dysregulation. This means that we have a hard time regulating our emotions. Mindfulness and meditation I have found are helping me get a handle on my emotions.

I find it funny that you actually liked school when you were younger. I and many other ADHDers I've spoken to have hated it from a fairly young age. My hatred began with a horrible second-grade teacher and slowly grew from there.

You also mentioned a bad memory. Many people with ADHD suffer from a poor working memory. As cliche as this may sound, leaving notes for yourself really does help. I like to have a notebook with me a write stuff down on it when I think of it. If you have numbered pages and an index in the front that makes it easier to find what you need later on. I am currently using my bullet journal for this. If you haven't heard of bullet journals you should check them out it's really a great system.

I also noticed where you said "we are "dopamineless"?" This is not quite accurate. People with ADHD are not completely void of dopamine, it just takes more to get it. This can be caused by a dopamine deficiency or a lack of dopamine receptors.

Lastly, your concern about other disorders is justified. It is common for people with ADHD to also be diagnosed with other disorders as well. Mood disorders such as depression and bipolar are common as well as OCD. The mood disorders are particularly common among girls with ADHD but are not exclusive. If you think that ADHD is not your only issue then you should discuss it with your healthcare provider.

Hope this is helpful! Feel free to look into these things on your own, I am not perfect, so I may not have all of my facts straight. Hope you have a great day!

[Lucbragbr in reply to happy_kitty]

You did just great!!

Thank you for responding. 😘😘

Have a nice day😉😎