Attention Deficit Disorder

It's Not Just For Kids!

(C) focalfusion.org 2014

Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, like all aspects of mental illness, is sorely misunderstood, even by those that struggle along every day with their scattered and lost thoughts. For those of you that escaped the scourge of mental illness, trying to comprehend the world in which we live is like a pre-schooler trying to capture the concept of string theory.

Kids have been diagnosed for ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - since 1902. Benzedrine was given to children as early as 1937, and Dr. Charles Bradley observed that the children that were given the medication were more attentive. Ritalin was introduced in 1955, and in 1968 Hyperkinetic Impulse Disorder was finally recognized as a mental illness. The name was changed in 1980 to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

The human brain is an intricately complex network of interconnected parts, run by electrical currents that can readily be redirected for myriad reasons. Even with our current advanced technology, we still are befuddled by why certain people end up with certain mental illnesses. Is it genetics, environment, both, neither? Why is it that some of us can co-exist alongside our ADD, and others have a most difficult time coping with life as we suppose it should be? As Kramer said to Jerry when he was redesigning his apartment: "It's all about levels!"

ADD in adults takes on a bit of a different dynamic. Children are fairly closely monitored - at home, in school, etc. - and any seeming abnormality can be detected and addressed, and with ADD/ADHD, catching it in children will help make them better adults, for they'll know how to best control their impulses and attention spans. With grown-ups it's different. I wasn't diagnosed with ADD until I was 57 years old. My entire life was me trying to understand why I couldn't remember facts and figures, why I wasn't able to step on the proverbial gas and place my life and career into overdrive, why I couldn't begin what I wanted or continue what I began. The frustrations of the disease shadowed me and tainted my existence.

For 16 years I was being treated for clinical depression. Actually, it's Dysthymia, what has actually just recently been renamed to Persistent Depressive Disorder. Essentially it's a low-grade, chronic and pervasive form of depression. I went through psychiatrists, psychologists, treatment and a tremendous amount of different medications before I found a psycho-cocktail that seemed to work for me, but I still didn't feel as if things were quite right. I chalked it up to my Dysthymic disorder and resigned myself to the probability of living with it forever. Then one day - the story is just way too long to include here! - I ended up in the ER, my mind and body just about ready to burst at the seams. 

A very nice woman - an on-duty psychologist - finally came to speak with me in the examination room and began asking me such on-point questions that I finally asked her: "How do you know all this about me?! (Jokingly . . . ) Have you been following me?" As soon as the words left my mouth it dawned on me that I was in the hospital emergency room speaking about my issues with a psychologist, and maybe asking her if she'd been following me wasn't the best question I could have posed to her!

Ultimately, she  asked if anyone had ever spoken with me regarding ADD, which nobody ever had. Her recommendation was to get tested, which I did. Turns out, i was told by my psychiatrist that I have ADD, without the 'H'. She prescribed medication, I started taking it, and an amazing thing happened! My head cleared, I felt like a normal person, probably for the first time in my life. The problem, though, has been trying to let go of a lifetime of bad habits and behavior patterns. It's been tough, granted, but I can see not only the present, and a more clear image of what the future can be, but I can see back through my time on this planet, and understand why I'd done the things I did, and why I couldn't do the things I desired.

There are countless books and websites dedicated to Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder. If you think you may have a good number of the symptoms, please have yourself tested. You'll thank yourself for it.

ADHD in Adults

If you have exhibited at least twelve of the following behaviors since childhood and if these symptoms are not associated with any other medical or psychiatric condition, consider an evaluation by a team of ADHD professionals:

• A sense of underachievement, of not meeting one’s goals (regardless of how much one has actually accomplished).
• Difficulty getting organized.
• Chronic procrastination or trouble getting started.
• Many projects going simultaneously; trouble with follow through.
• A tendency to say what comes to mind without necessarily considering the timing or appropriateness of the remark.
• A frequent search for high stimulation.
• An intolerance of boredom.
• Easy distractibility; trouble focusing attention, tendency to tune out or drift away in the middle of a page or conversation, often coupled with an inability to focus at times.
• Often creative, intuitive, highly intelligent
• Trouble in going through established channels and following “proper” procedure.
• Impatient; low tolerance of frustration.
• Impulsive, either verbally or in action, as an impulsive spending of money.
• Changing plans, enacting new schemes or career plans and the like; hot-tempered.
• A tendency to worry needlessly, endlessly; a tendency to scan the horizon looking for something to worry about, alternating with attention to or disregard for actual dangers.
• A sense of insecurity.
• Mood swings, especially when disengaged from a person or a project.
• Physical or cognitive restlessness.
• A tendency toward addictive behavior.
• Chronic problems with self-esteem.
• Inaccurate self-observation.
• Family history of AD/HD or manic depressive illness or depression or substance abuse or other disorders of impulse control or mood.

 www.drhallowell.com

Myths and Facts about ADD / ADHD in Adults

MYTH: ADD/ADHD is just a lack of willpower. Persons with ADD/ADHD focus well on things that interest them; they could focus on any other tasks if they really wanted to.
 
FACT: ADD/ADHD looks very much like a willpower problem, but it isn’t. It’s essentially a chemical problem in the management systems of the brain.

MYTH: Everybody has the symptoms of ADD/ADHD, and anyone with adequate intelligence can overcome these difficulties.
FACT: ADD/ADHD affects persons of all levels of intelligence. And although everyone sometimes has symptoms of ADD/ADHD, only those with chronic impairments from these symptoms warrant an ADD/ADHD diagnosis.

MYTH: Someone can’t have ADD/ADHD and also have depression, anxiety, or other psychiatric problems.
FACT: A person with ADD/ADHD is six times more likely to have another psychiatric or learning disorder than most other people. ADD/ADHD usually overlaps with other disorders.

MYTH: Unless you have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD as a child, you can’t have it as an adult.
FACT: Many adults struggle all their lives with unrecognized ADD/ADHD impairments. They haven’t received help because they assumed that their chronic difficulties, like depression or anxiety, were caused by other impairments that did not respond to usual treatment.

Source: Dr. Thomas E. Brown, Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults