Typically, by the time an adult with ADHD has come to me for help, it's because he has hit rock bottom. His work performance is suffering and his job is in jeopardy. His ADHD symptoms have gotten him into too much hot water, whether it's from being chronically late for work, not finishing proje...
Hitting Rock Bottom
3/12/09 2:52pm
I found this to be a good post -- until the end. It left me with a maddening cliffhanger ending, and no solutions.
Cliffhangers are great for TV and for marketing, but they're really frustrating for someone with ADD who's looking for help. Please, Terry -- don't tell impulsive, highly present-moment-oriented, and distraught readers that you have solutions to share... but we'll have to wait until some other time to find out what they are.
Will I find my way back here again tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that, to see if you've finally posted Part 2? Unlikely, given my distractability.
Thanks for listening.
3/12/09 3:51pm
I was an undiagnosed adult suffering with ADD up until I turned about 45. I was a successful teacher of 25 years, mother of two, and a Navy wife. I was a survivor! I was also going through my third serious bout of depression & "self-medicating" regularly. I thought I knew all about ADD/ADHD. After all I had an extensive background in education & a child who was being treated for ADHD. Luckily I was blessed with a doctor who investigated my medical history & identified my ADD behaviors. I have been treated (& closely monitored) for my ADD for the last seven years. What a difference! The only thing lingering in the back of my mind is that I wonder what I might have done or become had I been treated from childhood. Your article should be required reading for those dealing with depression & self-esteem issues!
3/12/09 3:51pm
I was an undiagnosed adult suffering with ADD up until I turned about 45. I was a successful teacher of 25 years, mother of two, and a Navy wife. I was a survivor! I was also going through my third serious bout of depression & "self-medicating" regularly. I thought I knew all about ADD/ADHD. After all I had an extensive background in education & a child who was being treated for ADHD. Luckily I was blessed with a doctor who investigated my medical history & identified my ADD behaviors. I have been treated (& closely monitored) for my ADD for the last seven years. What a difference! The only thing lingering in the back of my mind is that I wonder what I might have done or become had I been treated from childhood. Your article should be required reading for those dealing with depression & self-esteem issues!
3/12/09 3:51pm
I was an undiagnosed adult suffering with ADD up until I turned about 45. I was a successful teacher of 25 years, mother of two, and a Navy wife. I was a survivor! I was also going through my third serious bout of depression & "self-medicating" regularly. I thought I knew all about ADD/ADHD. After all I had an extensive background in education & a child who was being treated for ADHD. Luckily I was blessed with a doctor who investigated my medical history & identified my ADD behaviors. I have been treated (& closely monitored) for my ADD for the last seven years. What a difference! The only thing lingering in the back of my mind is that I wonder what I might have done or become had I been treated from childhood. Your article should be required reading for those dealing with depression & self-esteem issues!
3/14/09 1:22pm
Hi,
I am fighting again to get Ritalin and have finally realized how much adults with ADHD truely experience harmful discrimination that somehow should be corrected. I was thrilled to learn 10 years ago that ADHD was the answer to a lifelong problem I had not been able to understand. It was like a miracle when I first used Ritalin.
My problem is that because drug abusers have caused Ritalin to be a highly restricted medicine, those of us who legitimately need it and do not abuse it have to fight for it unfairly. Because of my ADHD, I often lose jobs and then have to move to get a new one. This has put me in a cycle I can't seem to break.
After my diagnosis (with a thorough, several-day, multi-test evaluation at a clinic specializing in ADHD), I had only a couple months of using Ritalin before I had to move because I was admitted to a Ph.D. program. There the problem started. The clinic at the university did not believe I could be a Ph.D. student and an adult and have ADHD. It took almost a year to convince them and meanwhile, I failed my comprehensive exam because I could not complete it in the time allowed.
I paid for a lot of visits with the psychiatrist (that I didn't need at all -- after having completed 10 years of thorough psychoanalysis -- which really could have been managed much faster if anyone had noticed I had ADHD). Finally, I convinced her I had ADHD, but she was not willing to give me the quantity of Ritalin that had worked in the city where I had originally been treated. Finally, after being unable to recover from the incompletes I accumulated during the time I didn't have the Ritalin, I left for other work.
I worked in Eastern Europe, but there, because of weak control, the pharmaceutical firms will not sell them Ritalin. So I had to travel to see a doctor in Switzerland to get my Ritalin. Obviously, I could not make that trip often, so I had to save the Ritalin for important meetings, etc., and thus was not able to complete some of my duties.
When I returned to USA, I had little money so I went to a public clinic. They did not believe it was possible for an adult to have ADHD so I had to submit to an ancient psychiatrist who decided I am bipolar. Never mind that I had a complete report about my ADHD diagnosis and I had therapy for more than 10 years and a psychiatrist for a best friend for 25 years and nobody EVER thought I was bipolar. I am NOT. But the doctor did not understand adult ADHD.
Finally, after 5 months, I convinced someone to give me half the amount of Ritalin that I need. Meanwhile, I had gotten a new job and lost it because I was in an office with a noisy person and could not manage to focus ot complete my work.
Now I am in Ecuador because it was possible to have a job here while I look for another one. They just passed a law saying only psychiatrists can prescribe Ritalin, probably urged to do so by pressures from USA to control drugs. I had to wait 2 months to get an appointment, and now he is doing blood tests, EEG, and all kinds of things costing me $300 just for the first step. He wants to change my medicine even though I know the Ritalin works perfectly. And I will have to have an $80 appointment every month to get my next month's dose. And again I went through the doubt. How can I have an MBA, an M.Ed., and be a professor with ADHD? The point is I work all my waking hours and have no life only to achieve something normal for others. But again, I have to explain over and over.
So I just realized the discrimination inherent in the system that for adult ADHD, which is not going to change, we still have to pay every month for a doctor's visit, usually with a professional who has no idea about our disease, only because the medicine is so strongly controlled. I can understand that a child who is growing, changing, and might outgrow the ADD or the hyperactivity or need a different dose needs to be monitored. I can understand going regularly to an ADHD specialist to help manage the behavioral problems ADHD creates. But being forced to pay and waste time monthly with a doctor who is not sympathetic, let alone helpful, just to get a medicine the person will need probably forever, is discrimination inflicted upon us as punishment for the drug abusers that we are not.
A person with any one of many other chronic diseases gets medicine with refills and checks with the doctor a couple times a year -- less time, less humiliation, less money. An adult with ADHD already has strikes against her/him. Why must we suffer further expense, time, and stress for a drug abuse problem that people we don't even know created? This is clearly discrimination. I lost my last job for sure because it took 5 months to convince the clinic to believe my thoroughly researched diagnosis. And I now have hundreds of dollars of expenses -- as I will have again when I return to USA -- because I have to be checked every month for something that is never going to change for me.
I am writing this in hopes that others will begin to see our situation as discriminatory and try to find a way that we can begin to get fair treatment rather than having to constantly pay, and often fight, just for something that should be available to help us, not to create more trouble that we certainly do not need.
Good luck to all of you,
LN
3/14/09 11:07pm
Wow! This really hit home with me. I have experienced just about everything you described before I was diagnosed, including losing my job in July and feeling paralyzed because I have so much to do I don't know where to start.
I guess I was able to manage my symptoms until my stressors really started piling up. I'm a mom of 3 kids with mental health and behavioral issues. My husband has been working in another state since Christmas because he wasn't able to find enough work close to home.
I'm at the point where I'm really trying to figure out how to start making progress. I'm really looking forward to your next installment.
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Excellent synapsis. I cope with ADHD. After my 3rd child was diagnosed in 3rd grade, I started the research reading what I could. A book titled "You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!" had my name on it. Education, Employment and 2 Marriages all have ended/ suffered. While I was married, with health insurance, I was able to obtain treatment for my ADHD. Howevver, that is no longer the case, therefore the word "cope". I'm grateful to have psychological processing tools that one can obtain in 12 step recovery...as well as some experience at self care. Financially, I am mired. But not hopelessly. At 46 yrs of age, I've gained humility, insight and humor in dealing with life and my abilities as well as my lack of abilities. I love the success stories others have. I know someday I will grow beyond cope into thrive.