This is a tiny snippet of a much longer presentation Dr. Barkley made for parents of kids with ADD/ADHD. It's incredibly comprehensive compared to what is normally available to the public.
I was diagnosed with ADHD in the early 2000's in my mid-twenties and randomly prescribed a new-ish drug called Strattera and shoved out the door after a couple of counseling sessions. The drug made substantial changes to my ability to function, but I had no frame of reference, so I thought that would be it.
Saw this video sometime in the last year and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Contacted Dr. Barkley directly via email and asked him for a recommendation in my area for treatment. Got hooked up with the NYU ADHD program and have been working with the program there for 6+ months and have been on new meds (Concerta) which is like emerging from underground for the last 16-17 years.
If you know someone with ADHD or family with ADHD, watch this whole thing. It's long, but phenomenal. A potential life changer for folks who haven't received help or may be getting the wrong help.
For folks who are poking fun and saying, "I guess have ADHD too!"
That would be like saying you have an eating disorder because you have trouble not eating a box of chips when someone with an actual eating disorder clears out the refrigerator. Or saying you have multiple personality disorder because you occasionally talk to yourself. Or saying you have epilepsy because you get shaky when you are hungry.
Everyone struggles from time to time to pay attention to things and focus on long term goals and lessons learned in the past. That's the human condition.
ADHD/ADD makes it literally impossible to integrate long term thinking into action, both in the future and remembering the successes and failures in your past. Trying to engage structure surrounding things that I am not directly threatened or rewarded by sends me wandering around the room, physically and mentally. Unless I am constantly getting rewarded or punished or don't have some massive impending reward or punishment on the horizon, I can't stay focused on the task at hand.
TLDR: The original video is almost three hours long and changed my life. Don't mock people who have ADHD or pretend to for attention. Attention deficit is crippling. My current treatment is helping a LOT and has changed my life for the better.
I am diagnosed with, as my psychiatrist says, "one of the worst cases of ADHD-C I've ever seen." My life is basically one crisis after another, but after 30 years of dealing with it, I'm at a sort of peace.
I will never tell anyone aside from close friends and family that I have ADHD, though. There are simply too many people who claim to have it and it's become a joke. Nobody in the work place would take me seriously. I just take my lumps, I apologize when I mess up, and when I get fired I keep going to the next job.
I don't ever anticipate that I'll be viewed with anything other than general disdain by more normal-minded people, but I'm okay with that. I wish in the future this disorder (which can actually be measured by mapping frontal lobe activity) will be taken seriously so that others aren't resigned to a 'second best' life.
Why resign yourself? Strattera has made an enormous impact on my life. I went from jobless and single to employed, working on finishing up my higher education, and in the happiest relationship of my life so far.
I've been on medication twice, and both times have ended in disaster, even after trying all the available ones. It always works for the first few months but it ends in complete brain fog during waking hours. I'm married and make a decent amount of money so life isn't so bad. I've learned how to cope. I'm just always falling short of where I want to be.
I'm in the inattentive category myself, and Wellbutrin has done wonders in terms of overall concentration as well as reigning in the more irrational, combustive reactions I used to have when faced with adversity.
It actually does! My self-loathing has lowered to manageable levels. It's not a cure all. I still need to practice discipline, but a lot of the negative feelings have been lifted. I had taken Straterra previously, but it made me too sick to function. The wellbutrin, (or whatever the generic version I'm taking) is working well in conjunction with a small dose of Adderall . I also do talk therapy to work out the rest.
Huh. I tried Ritalin as a kid but it only helped a little bit. It did nothing for my energy/hyperactivity but I could at least focus more and my impulsivity wasn't quite so bad.
Strattera ended up working for me, but ONLY after we bumped it up to 100mg/daily.
I wouldn't describe my state of mind as "brain fog" (though I have had days like that, both on and off meds, and they're the worst) - I do notice that my emotions seem a little more muted, whether positive or negative.
I can't tell whether that's a direct effect of the medication, or just the fact that I'm not constantly a whirlwind of disaster that's finally allowing me to stabilize emotionally. Off the Strattera my emotions become much more severe - I can feel a lot happier, but it's more likely that I'll simply feel much worse since I tend to (irrationally) blame myself for not being able to focus and get shit done.
Strattera's been really helpful for me, a real life-changer and no exaggeration. Sorry to hear it didn't work for you.
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u/supercali5 May 30 '17
This is a tiny snippet of a much longer presentation Dr. Barkley made for parents of kids with ADD/ADHD. It's incredibly comprehensive compared to what is normally available to the public.
I was diagnosed with ADHD in the early 2000's in my mid-twenties and randomly prescribed a new-ish drug called Strattera and shoved out the door after a couple of counseling sessions. The drug made substantial changes to my ability to function, but I had no frame of reference, so I thought that would be it.
Saw this video sometime in the last year and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Contacted Dr. Barkley directly via email and asked him for a recommendation in my area for treatment. Got hooked up with the NYU ADHD program and have been working with the program there for 6+ months and have been on new meds (Concerta) which is like emerging from underground for the last 16-17 years.
If you know someone with ADHD or family with ADHD, watch this whole thing. It's long, but phenomenal. A potential life changer for folks who haven't received help or may be getting the wrong help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCAGc-rkIfo&t=2428s
For folks who are poking fun and saying, "I guess have ADHD too!"
That would be like saying you have an eating disorder because you have trouble not eating a box of chips when someone with an actual eating disorder clears out the refrigerator. Or saying you have multiple personality disorder because you occasionally talk to yourself. Or saying you have epilepsy because you get shaky when you are hungry.
Everyone struggles from time to time to pay attention to things and focus on long term goals and lessons learned in the past. That's the human condition.
ADHD/ADD makes it literally impossible to integrate long term thinking into action, both in the future and remembering the successes and failures in your past. Trying to engage structure surrounding things that I am not directly threatened or rewarded by sends me wandering around the room, physically and mentally. Unless I am constantly getting rewarded or punished or don't have some massive impending reward or punishment on the horizon, I can't stay focused on the task at hand.
TLDR: The original video is almost three hours long and changed my life. Don't mock people who have ADHD or pretend to for attention. Attention deficit is crippling. My current treatment is helping a LOT and has changed my life for the better.