Monday, February 13, 2012

Thursday, September 25, 2008 Susan asks

Q: 32 year old daughter diagnosed at age 23. She is disorganized, spends foolishly & just lost her job

Help me help her please.  She has always worked hourly jobs.  Has two degrees.  Was fired from a very good job for harrassment.  True or not she loved her job and was good at it. It was fun workplace w/ lots of rules and a job where she could move around and was out in her car a lot.  Her type of job.  She may well have overstepped her bounds.   She is a born leader but tends to over extend herself and has a sort of "do it my way" attitude.  She is a mess to live with.  Disorganized and extremely messy and less than truthful a lot of the time.  She was sure this time it would be "different" but when she received her first paycheck she blew it on fast food, restaurants, etc.  No bills paid from it at all.  Her dad and I had been carrying her for 6 months till she found this new job and then lost it after 4 months.  I am at my wits end.  She is on Adderall.  Needs to lose weight.  Of course joined a gym which she cannot afford now.  How can I help her help herself.  She still lives with us because she can not afford her own place. Now with her health ins. gone she can not go to counseling.  We cannot afford to carry her again.  Help!

 

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9/25/08 9:40am

Susan,

 

As a 39 yr old female who has been in treatment for ADD for over 13 years now, I understand both sides here. I have been exactly where your daughter is. It took a combination of the right therapy, the right meds and a consistant program of the two to help me lessen the innapropriate behaviors that you are now seeing in your daughter.

 

How long has she been on adderall? Sometimes medications like adderall in some people (not all) can have an effect on one's weight. A good friend of mine (with ADHD) tried both adderall and wellbutrin and was shocked at how fast she gained weight and this had a huge effect on her self esteem. She eventually found a med that did not cause her to gain weight.

 

Is she in behavior modification therapy? This was a huge help to me, at first I did resist it, (hey as ADD/ADHDers we don't like to admit we are broken and are quite happy to believe it is everyone else around us who has the problem) I highly recomend a program of behavior modification. I have been combining therapy with meds for over 13 years now and my advice is it is never to late to start.

 

When I did stop the therapy and meds (7 years ago), well, I lost my business, my house etc. It was a real eye opener for me, I had to finally admit that I needed to be on a consistant program of the two if I wanted to be a functioning member of society. Today I am back consulting, own my home and know that if I stop either the therapy or the meds that I will end up back where I was 7 years ago.

 

Finding the right therapist and meds can take some time, but please be patient, the payoff for her will be worth it, she sounds like an extremely intelligent person who just needs the right program.  If you have specific questions about anything I have written here, just ask.

 

Melissa

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