Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

Thought that occured to me via a conversation I had yesterday, and something I read today.

I know a ton of folks who, absent any clinical diagnosis, identify themselves as having ADD or "minor dyslexia".

Part 1- ADD:

ADD Wiki Page

I've got an (adopted) cousin who has been diagnosed with ADHD. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. Flying around the yard, talking a mile a minute, bizzare changes in topic of conversation without reason. Spend 5 minutes around him and it becomes clear that most folks you've met who self identify as having ADD have nothing close.

Part 2- Dsylexia

wiki page

This hit me while reading the really [censored] book "Heat" by Bill Buford this morning. He describes some chef with dsylexia and the full extent of his symptoms. It's pretty severe and a lot more than just mixing up a word or two.

I'm sure we've all heard this a lot, when somebody fumbles reading something "Oh, I've got minor dyslexia." This is just my guess, but I'm pretty sure you don't. You've read too fast, you're not paying attention, you do that thing where you see a word and make an assumption as to what it is without reading it (I do this a lot), but I'm pretty sure that's not called dyslexia. I think for the most part it's called "not paying attention.".

Discussion Time:

1- Why do people self-diagnose themselves with these disorders?

My supposition is that this is because most folks don't understand the full extent of these disorders. When they find some aspect of them in themselves, the find it makes a nice crutch that they can use to defend/reconcile some of their less than awesome attributes.

2- Have you done this? Do you think you have ADD or dyslexia but have never beeen diagnosed? If so why?

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

I definitely have dyslexia. Which hand did you want us to raise? I'll raise the opposite.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

Dids,
I've heard of plenty of people who diagnosed themselves as having ADD. Especially as the "mtv" generation became the "internet" generation where everything moves so fast. Said a different/better way:

Lisa: We're the MTV generation; we experience neither highs nor lows"
Homer: "What's that like?"
Lisa: "Meh"


but, I've never heard of anyone who diagnosed them as having minor dyslexia. mb I'm wrong, but I kind of figured this was usually diagnosed by a Dr. at a young age.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

It's sorta like people who claim they have depression, an excuse somebody gives themselves to excuse their idiotic behavior.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

Zod,

It may just be because of the environment in which I work, but it's something I tend to hear from students on the phone on occasion. Usually after they've done something silly like reversed a few numbers in their student ID or something.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

I was diagnosed with ADD during my childhood. I was put on medication(ritalin) when I was in the fifth grade. My personal opinion has always been that in all but rare cases its a bs disorder. It really is used as a crutch.

I think my experience really requires a seperate thread.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

Dids this leads to discussion that people who falsly self diagnose are people who often use ADD drugs either recreationally or for study, work.

But these people all speak of the wonders these drugs do for allowing them to study or work.

I can imagine that after trying some of these drugs and coming back to a normal cluttered reality that I imagine most people live in it would be easy to self diagnose.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
I've got an (adopted) cousin who has been diagnosed with ADHD. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. Flying around the yard, talking a mile a minute, bizzare changes in topic of conversation without reason. Spend 5 minutes around him and it becomes clear that most folks you've met who self identify as having ADD have nothing close.

[/ QUOTE ]

This opinion seems to dismiss the possibility that there may be varying degrees of ADD.

[ QUOTE ]
My supposition is that this is because most folks don't understand the full extent of these disorders. When they find some aspect of them in themselves, the find it makes a nice crutch that they can use to defend/reconcile some of their less than awesome attributes.

[/ QUOTE ]

While such self-diagnosis can become a convenient crutch, it can also be a convenient crutch for others to dismiss the notion that some people's brains work a bit differently and can't simply be labeled lazy or whatever.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

Imiatation raises something of a point:

I'm not talking about people who claims to have ADD to get Aderall. [censored], *I* want adderall, and I'd gleefully pretend to have ADD to get it.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

Dyslexia most of you on IRC know this already. For the longest time I would write lower B's and D's backward (except in my own name).

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
I was diagnosed with ADD during my childhood. I was put on medication(ritalin) when I was in the fifth grade. My personal opinion has always been that in all but rare cases its a bs disorder. It really is used as a crutch.

I think my experience really requires a seperate thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

This forum is about quality, not volume - why not tell your story here if you feel it will add to the discussion on ADD?

I always find it interesting when young children are diagnosed with ADD - what kid is able to stay completely focused for any period of time. ADD for kids should be called being a kid.

I guess some kids may be more kids than others, but it seems that many, if not most are able to grow out of it. Then again, I guess if there was not a term for it, or they were not identified as such, it would be much harder to help them out.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

I find it a lot harder to concentrate on things, especially reading, than I did when I was younger (I am 25 fwiw). Is this just part of getting older or a sign of adult ADD?

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

killa and wakko (and others who responded),

Can you clarify if you were diagnosed by a doctor, or is this just your own assumption.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

Neither of those for me, but I certainly have a touch of OCD, and I would suspect a good percentage of posters here do as well.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

I was never diagnosed with ADHD until I was 21 years old.

The thought that I had ADHD had never crossed my mind until I was about 14 or 15 when I was playing pool and someone suggested my lack of concentration after the first game could be related to ADHD. I then started realizing I had classic symptoms of being ADHD.

I was given a prescription for Adderall after going to a psychologist and having a myriad of tests to finally receive an official diagnosis.

I think what a lot of people don't realize is that people with above average intelligence can mask the effects (and outward appearances) of ADD and keep the symptoms in check but once pressures start building up. (Harder classes, more pressing schedules, etc.) these people eventually start to feel like they are falling into a well and have a hard time staying afloat.

My mind races all over the place and just sitting down, and doing one task for any period of time longer than 15 minutes can be a real challenge. (One weird exception to this is doing artwork, for some reason I completely lose track of time and can seemingly focus on drawing for hours without feeling like I need to be doing something else.)

I think having so many ideas floating around in my head at any given time is both a blessing and a curse, but more of a curse. For one thing it takes me forever to get to sleep. I also get really upset with myself when I don't get to, or attempt the myriad of ideas going on in my head.

Getting a prescription for Adderall has helped me a ton on class days, as it really helps me focus on just one task. The only problem I have with the drug is that the effects start to wear off and become less intense after just a couple days. For this reason I don't like taking it more than 2 or 3 days straight.

I agree with you in that lots of people who claim to have ADD or ADHD probably don't.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

http://www.mindpub.com/art169.htm

there are many types of dyslexia, and varying degrees of it, I dont think anyone is in a position to diagnose themselves though.


I think you are failing to realize that with a lot fo things, there are varying degrees of symptoms, and perhaps other aflictions that can by mistaken for them.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

This is something that I've wondered about myself recently, in terms of one of the attention disorders. Haven't gone much beyond that, but it is a subject that I am working on learning more about.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

I was diagnosed with ADHA in college, I think I was about 20. I am fairly certain that 90% of the people are diagnosed incorrectly. I fall into that category.

My problem is I have a hard time staying focused on things that don't interest me. Looking back, someone should have said tough [censored] welcome to the real world. However, my mother is a psychologist and had one of her partners perscribe me ritalin. I can safely say I would not have graduated college without it.

I was, however, diagnosed with Dysgraphia in the 6th grade. This I've really got. If anyone has ever heard of it, I'll be happy to discuss it or answer any questions.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
I find it a lot harder to concentrate on things, especially reading, than I did when I was younger (I am 25 fwiw). Is this just part of getting older or a sign of adult ADD?

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a bit of a similar problem. In my case, I think it's because I'm finally at a point where I'm not spending a couple of hours every day going to classes or doing calculations. As a consequence, I'm rusty as [censored]. I don't like it.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

my story sounds a lot like kipins, but i'll write out a synopsis of it anyway. I was a smart kid, i finished first and second grade in the same year after my first grade teacher told my parents she'd already taught me everything she had and half of the second grade halfway through the year. this was great, and i floated through the entire rest of my schooling paying zero attention to anything that was going on around me, never doing homework assignments, but managing to pull everything together enough at the end that i passed just fine. my organizational skills sucked, but no one really worried about it, my fifth grade teacher told my parents "by the time it matters, he'll have a secretary to take care of all these things for him".

i went to a year of college, and pretty much sunk. the classes still werent a problem, i was just bored out of my mind and had no discipline as a result of never really having to learn it in high school, so i basically let myself sink, to the point that my second semester i was pretty much paying some really expensive rent.

I had a sister who was 3 years older than me, and studying education wanting to be a special ed teacher, and in my senior year in high school she mentioned that in one of her classes they'd gone over ADD and i basically had every symptom in the book, but we never really thought about it because i was still flying through life with no issues.

the first year in college was really the first time that i'd failed at anything, and i had no one to blame except myself. i went back to the family with my tail in between my legs and kind of felt sorry for myself for a bit. my parents finally snapped me out of it, and i started working again, and they asked if i had any interest in going to a doctor... i went, he said i also exhibited some classic signs but referred me to someone else who specialized in non medicinal treatments, but who he also sent all of his people to before writing prescriptions, just for a secondary opinion. some psychologist of some sort. this guy was great, and showed me a lot of organizational things and tips etc, taught me a lot about what doctors know of the disease. explained that there were a couple different types, one centering around inattentiveness, the other around hyperactivity, and told me that they often went hand in hand with depression.

i ended up with a prescription for wellbutrin and adderall. i took these for a while, and it helped me immensely. I really didnt care for how they affected me as a person. i felt like they evened me out, but they kind of robbed me of who i was. its kind of a lot more in depth than that but thats the basic point of things. ultimately i came to a point where i felt like i had to decide if i wanted to live the rest of my life dependent on taking 5 or 6 pills a day. i decided i didnt. i quit taking both of them, and it was really a struggle for a while. i kind of fell down a couple more times along the way, but the struggles were better than being part of the overmedicated mass. im myself now, and i like it better that way, even if things arent as easy as when i was on meds.

I won't say that no one should be medicated for ADD. I have witnessed people who probably would not have been able to function without it. But in my non professional opinion, there are thousands and probably millions of people who use it as a crutch to explain why they suck at life. It's just another thing to assign blame to, another thing to point the finger at, and another reason that you don't have to take personal responsibility for your actions, which seems to be the general mode of operation for just about everyone these days.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
My problem is I have a hard time staying focused on things that don't interest me. Looking back, someone should have said tough [censored] welcome to the real world. However, my mother is a psychologist and had one of her partners perscribe me ritalin. I can safely say I would not have graduated college without it.

[/ QUOTE ]

On one hand you say you should have been told to suck it up and just do it... on the other, you say the you needed pharmaceutical help to accomplish what many people are able to without such help.

If you really did need ritalin to be able to graduate from college, it seems to me it's an over-simplification (and incorrect) to suggest you should have just been told to deal with the real world. In the 'real world' most people don't have that much trouble focusing enough to graduate from college.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
i ended up with a prescription for wellbutrin and adderall. i took these for a while, and it helped me immensely. I really didnt care for how they affected me as a person. i felt like they evened me out, but they kind of robbed me of who i was. its kind of a lot more in depth than that but thats the basic point of things. ultimately i came to a point where i felt like i had to decide if i wanted to live the rest of my life dependent on taking 5 or 6 pills a day. i decided i didnt. i quit taking both of them, and it was really a struggle for a while. i kind of fell down a couple more times along the way, but the struggles were better than being part of the overmedicated mass. im myself now, and i like it better that way, even if things arent as easy as when i was on meds.

I won't say that no one should be medicated for ADD. I have witnessed people who probably would not have been able to function without it. But in my non professional opinion, there are thousands and probably millions of people who use it as a crutch to explain why they suck at life. It's just another thing to assign blame to, another thing to point the finger at, and another reason that you don't have to take personal responsibility for your actions, which seems to be the general mode of operation for just about everyone these days.

[/ QUOTE ]

on one hand you admit that things are a struggle without the meds and then you suggest that for most people that use meds those struggles are because they suck at life.

Do you think you suck at life? or do you think you have an extra obstacle or two that you have to overcome that most people don't?

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
my story sounds a lot like kipins, but i'll write out a synopsis of it anyway. I was a smart kid, i finished first and second grade in the same year after my first grade teacher told my parents she'd already taught me everything she had and half of the second grade halfway through the year. this was great, and i floated through the entire rest of my schooling paying zero attention to anything that was going on around me, never doing homework assignments, but managing to pull everything together enough at the end that i passed just fine. my organizational skills sucked, but no one really worried about it, my fifth grade teacher told my parents "by the time it matters, he'll have a secretary to take care of all these things for him".

i went to a year of college, and pretty much sunk. the classes still werent a problem, i was just bored out of my mind and had no discipline as a result of never really having to learn it in high school, so i basically let myself sink, to the point that my second semester i was pretty much paying some really expensive rent.

I had a sister who was 3 years older than me, and studying education wanting to be a special ed teacher, and in my senior year in high school she mentioned that in one of her classes they'd gone over ADD and i basically had every symptom in the book, but we never really thought about it because i was still flying through life with no issues.

the first year in college was really the first time that i'd failed at anything, and i had no one to blame except myself. i went back to the family with my tail in between my legs and kind of felt sorry for myself for a bit. my parents finally snapped me out of it, and i started working again, and they asked if i had any interest in going to a doctor... i went, he said i also exhibited some classic signs but referred me to someone else who specialized in non medicinal treatments, but who he also sent all of his people to before writing prescriptions, just for a secondary opinion. some psychologist of some sort. this guy was great, and showed me a lot of organizational things and tips etc, taught me a lot about what doctors know of the disease. explained that there were a couple different types, one centering around inattentiveness, the other around hyperactivity, and told me that they often went hand in hand with depression.

i ended up with a prescription for wellbutrin and adderall. i took these for a while, and it helped me immensely. I really didnt care for how they affected me as a person. i felt like they evened me out, but they kind of robbed me of who i was. its kind of a lot more in depth than that but thats the basic point of things. ultimately i came to a point where i felt like i had to decide if i wanted to live the rest of my life dependent on taking 5 or 6 pills a day. i decided i didnt. i quit taking both of them, and it was really a struggle for a while. i kind of fell down a couple more times along the way, but the struggles were better than being part of the overmedicated mass. im myself now, and i like it better that way, even if things arent as easy as when i was on meds.

I won't say that no one should be medicated for ADD. I have witnessed people who probably would not have been able to function without it. But in my non professional opinion, there are thousands and probably millions of people who use it as a crutch to explain why they suck at life. It's just another thing to assign blame to, another thing to point the finger at, and another reason that you don't have to take personal responsibility for your actions, which seems to be the general mode of operation for just about everyone these days.

[/ QUOTE ]
tl;dr. Pretty sure I have ADD though so don't take it personally.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

i was not very clear in my thoughts, and i apologize for that. I feel there are a few different categories of people in the whole "add" thing. there are those who have it very severely and need medication to function. i believe this to be the minority of people. There are those who may have a mild form of it but choose to medicate themselves instead of deal with one extra hurdle they have to jump over. then there are those who don't want to do things, decide they have add, or go to a doctor and confirm this, but do nothing about it, and use this as an excuse for not excelling.

i am not trying to say that this is the correct view point. it's simply my viewpoint,

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
[

[/ QUOTE ]
tl;dr. Pretty sure I have ADD though so don't take it personally.

[/ QUOTE ]


i declare you weak and sucky at life yo.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My problem is I have a hard time staying focused on things that don't interest me. Looking back, someone should have said tough [censored] welcome to the real world. However, my mother is a psychologist and had one of her partners perscribe me ritalin. I can safely say I would not have graduated college without it.

[/ QUOTE ]

On one hand you say you should have been told to suck it up and just do it... on the other, you say the you needed pharmaceutical help to accomplish what many people are able to without such help.

If you really did need ritalin to be able to graduate from college, it seems to me it's an over-simplification (and incorrect) to suggest you should have just been told to deal with the real world. In the 'real world' most people don't have that much trouble focusing enough to graduate from college.

[/ QUOTE ]

You make a valid point. My statement didn't come across quite the way I intended.

Let me put it this way, I think ADD/ADHD is way over diagnosed and the the drugs, however helpful they may be, are not a long term solution. I think that it's something that you have to learn to adapt to on your own. I felt, as Kipin noted earlier, that it's hard to take the drugs day in and day out. When working on a professional level, it's a little bit harder than college to plan ahead as to when you should be medicated and when you don't need to worry about it.

Looking back on it, I probably shouldn't have graduated college. While I don't want to start a huge debate, I think college is not the right thing for everyone. The structured evironment of school was more of a hinderance to me. I have had 2 corporate jobs and have always known I am not cut out for life in an office. I have been self employed for about 5 years and can't imagine ever going back to a typical 8-5.

Sorry If I am rambling [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] but I the point I am trying to make is that I don't think that drugging people to help them achieve in a certain "acceptable" manner is always the right path to take.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure we've all heard this a lot, when somebody fumbles reading something "Oh, I've got minor dyslexia." This is just my guess, but I'm pretty sure you don't. You've read too fast, you're not paying attention, you do that thing where you see a word and make an assumption as to what it is without reading it (I do this a lot), but I'm pretty sure that's not called dyslexia. I think for the most part it's called "not paying attention.".

[/ QUOTE ]

This is me to a T. In general, I am a very slow reader and my verbal skills don't match my math/analytical. So whenever I am on AIM or 2p2, I will consistently end up reading a few words and then make a guess at what the others are. I'll joke and say I*'m dyslexic, but I know it's not real.

Just like my spurts of OCD. I'm not gonna be crippled if something is out of place, but I do like certain things a certain way.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
i was not very clear in my thoughts, and i apologize for that. I feel there are a few different categories of people in the whole "add" thing. there are those who have it very severely and need medication to function. i believe this to be the minority of people. There are those who may have a mild form of it but choose to medicate themselves instead of deal with one extra hurdle they have to jump over. then there are those who don't want to do things, decide they have add, or go to a doctor and confirm this, but do nothing about it, and use this as an excuse for not excelling.

i am not trying to say that this is the correct view point. it's simply my viewpoint,

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
killa and wakko (and others who responded),

Can you clarify if you were diagnosed by a doctor, or is this just your own assumption.

[/ QUOTE ]

diagnosed by a doctor they didn't catch it until middle school though (NYC Public Schools FTW) because I was able to read and write above my grade level.

They took me out of class for "training" or what have you but since I wasn't really falling behind on my work they just let it go. Like the simulations they would give me in class I would insta correct.

When I type very fast I mix up letters (like "teh" even though it's common) my mind will see it correctly. Also my grammar with words like their/there than/then etc. I will also commonly mix up a 2nd/3rd digit of a phone number with the 5th/6th digits . So a phone # like 876 4938 I would dial 894 4738 or similar.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

when i was in first grade i had ADD and i had to do these one on one sessions with this cool old lady. after that i guess they decided i was okay? i probably still actually have it to some degree though.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
i was not very clear in my thoughts, and i apologize for that. I feel there are a few different categories of people in the whole "add" thing. there are those who have it very severely and need medication to function. i believe this to be the minority of people. There are those who may have a mild form of it but choose to medicate themselves instead of deal with one extra hurdle they have to jump over. then there are those who don't want to do things, decide they have add, or go to a doctor and confirm this, but do nothing about it, and use this as an excuse for not excelling.

[/ QUOTE ]

While there is no doubt plenty of truth to this, I think that this line of thinking can be too dismissive of people that fall between these the extremes, where it seems likely most people with some level of ADD would fit. I think it's difficult to really come to terms with how significant this 'extra hurdle' can be for people. We tend to have difficulty viewing thing from a perspective other than are own. This is why people that don't struggle with ADD type symptoms can be quick to label people as lazy and unmotivated.

What the general discussion in this thread has done is suggest there are a few people with serious ADD issues and that the rest with minor ADD type symptoms should just suck it up. I think that trivializes the problem.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
I the point I am trying to make is that I don't think that drugging people to help them achieve in a certain "acceptable" manner is always the right path to take.

[/ QUOTE ]

With this I agree.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
Part 1- ADD:

ADD Wiki Page

I've got an (adopted) cousin who has been diagnosed with ADHD. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. Flying around the yard, talking a mile a minute, bizzare changes in topic of conversation without reason. Spend 5 minutes around him and it becomes clear that most folks you've met who self identify as having ADD have nothing close.

[/ QUOTE ]

My mom does a lot of work in the "gifted children" field, and I've met tons of kids, many of whom have been diagnosed with ADD. I've been diagnosed with it myself. Once you meet enough people who've been diagnosed with ADD, it becomes really clear which ones have it and which are just bored. Most people don't, and they use it as an excuse for bad behavior because it's convenient. It's especially convenient for parents who didn't raise their kids to have discipline to pay attention anything for longer than 15 seconds, mostly from feeding them too much sugar.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i was not very clear in my thoughts, and i apologize for that. I feel there are a few different categories of people in the whole "add" thing. there are those who have it very severely and need medication to function. i believe this to be the minority of people. There are those who may have a mild form of it but choose to medicate themselves instead of deal with one extra hurdle they have to jump over. then there are those who don't want to do things, decide they have add, or go to a doctor and confirm this, but do nothing about it, and use this as an excuse for not excelling.

[/ QUOTE ]

While there is no doubt plenty of truth to this, I think that this line of thinking can be too dismissive of people that fall between these the extremes, where it seems likely most people with some level of ADD would fit. I think it's difficult to really come to terms with how significant this 'extra hurdle' can be for people. We tend to have difficulty viewing thing from a perspective other than are own. This is why people that don't struggle with ADD type symptoms can be quick to label people as lazy and unmotivated.

What the general discussion in this thread has done is suggest there are a few people with serious ADD issues and that the rest with minor ADD type symptoms should just suck it up. I think that trivializes the problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Razor-

I agree that it is difficult to see other perspectives other than my own. But my perspective is that of one person who was diagnosed by 2 doctors as being one of those people in the middle you are talking about, so i do believe that i have a good grasp on exactly how significant this hurdle is. Like i said before, i am not saying that i am right, or that everyone who falls in the middle has had the exact same difficulties i have. It's just something that i have worked hard to overcome without medication, and i am happier with who i am today as a result of that.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i was not very clear in my thoughts, and i apologize for that. I feel there are a few different categories of people in the whole "add" thing. there are those who have it very severely and need medication to function. i believe this to be the minority of people. There are those who may have a mild form of it but choose to medicate themselves instead of deal with one extra hurdle they have to jump over. then there are those who don't want to do things, decide they have add, or go to a doctor and confirm this, but do nothing about it, and use this as an excuse for not excelling.

[/ QUOTE ]

While there is no doubt plenty of truth to this, I think that this line of thinking can be too dismissive of people that fall between these the extremes, where it seems likely most people with some level of ADD would fit. I think it's difficult to really come to terms with how significant this 'extra hurdle' can be for people. We tend to have difficulty viewing thing from a perspective other than are own. This is why people that don't struggle with ADD type symptoms can be quick to label people as lazy and unmotivated.

What the general discussion in this thread has done is suggest there are a few people with serious ADD issues and that the rest with minor ADD type symptoms should just suck it up. I think that trivializes the problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Razor-

I agree that it is difficult to see other perspectives other than my own. But my perspective is that of one person who was diagnosed by 2 doctors as being one of those people in the middle you are talking about, so i do believe that i have a good grasp on exactly how significant this hurdle is. Like i said before, i am not saying that i am right, or that everyone who falls in the middle has had the exact same difficulties i have. It's just something that i have worked hard to overcome without medication, and i am happier with who i am today as a result of that.

[/ QUOTE ]

if you can "work hard" to "overcome" ADD without medication, then it's most likely you probably weren't raised in such a way to learn how to focus yourself. it's almost impossible to "work hard" to "overcome" anything if you have real ADD.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

My sister has self-diagnozed "minor" dyslexia. I've always thought she was completely insane to blame her shortcomings on something like that, when she shows no symptoms of dyslexia at all and refuses to go to a doctor. I didn't know this was a relatively common thing to do though, interesting.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i was not very clear in my thoughts, and i apologize for that. I feel there are a few different categories of people in the whole "add" thing. there are those who have it very severely and need medication to function. i believe this to be the minority of people. There are those who may have a mild form of it but choose to medicate themselves instead of deal with one extra hurdle they have to jump over. then there are those who don't want to do things, decide they have add, or go to a doctor and confirm this, but do nothing about it, and use this as an excuse for not excelling.

[/ QUOTE ]

While there is no doubt plenty of truth to this, I think that this line of thinking can be too dismissive of people that fall between these the extremes, where it seems likely most people with some level of ADD would fit. I think it's difficult to really come to terms with how significant this 'extra hurdle' can be for people. We tend to have difficulty viewing thing from a perspective other than are own. This is why people that don't struggle with ADD type symptoms can be quick to label people as lazy and unmotivated.

What the general discussion in this thread has done is suggest there are a few people with serious ADD issues and that the rest with minor ADD type symptoms should just suck it up. I think that trivializes the problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Razor-

I agree that it is difficult to see other perspectives other than my own. But my perspective is that of one person who was diagnosed by 2 doctors as being one of those people in the middle you are talking about, so i do believe that i have a good grasp on exactly how significant this hurdle is. Like i said before, i am not saying that i am right, or that everyone who falls in the middle has had the exact same difficulties i have. It's just something that i have worked hard to overcome without medication, and i am happier with who i am today as a result of that.

[/ QUOTE ]

if you can "work hard" to "overcome" ADD without medication, then it's most likely you probably weren't raised in such a way to learn how to focus yourself. it's almost impossible to "work hard" to "overcome" anything if you have real ADD.

[/ QUOTE ]

ok. if i use lots of " " does that make me know lots and lots also?

i shared my story. two doctors believed that i had "real add". and perhaps "overcome" was the wrong word. i deal with it and am managing to successfuly managed to make my way through life. neither of my sisters who were undoubtedly raised in a very similar way to me had any problem learning how to focus.

but i don't think we're really disagreeing at all. maybe i don't have "real add". but i DO have what doctors today are diagnosing as "real add". so apply what i said originally. "there are those who have it very severely and need medication to function. i believe this to be the minority of people. There are those who may have a mild form of it but choose to medicate themselves instead of deal with one extra hurdle they have to jump over. then there are those who don't want to do things, decide they have add, or go to a doctor and confirm this, but do nothing about it, and use this as an excuse for not excelling", except edit the last two groups of people to people who do not have "real add" but have been diagnosed by a doctor as having such, or have seen friends similar to them diagnosed by a doctor as having such, and diagnosed themselves as such.

then we're all happy and such.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
if you can "work hard" to "overcome" ADD without medication, then it's most likely you probably weren't raised in such a way to learn how to focus yourself. it's almost impossible to "work hard" to "overcome" anything if you have real ADD.

[/ QUOTE ]

A couple issues I have with this line of thinking.

One, it tends to dismiss the notion of the possibility of varying degrees of ADD. Kinda like either you have the flu or you don't, or you have a broken leg or you don't. I don't think it's quite that simple.

Two, I find it hard to believe that NorCalJosh or anyone else's apparent inability to focus can attributed to how they were or weren't raised.

Now, maybe we can say that what these people have isn't ADD but I believe there is something they experience that is different than what the majority of the population experiences. And while some of it may be attributable to mtv culture and/or diet, it does seem that some people experience these hurdles to a greater degree than most.

Of course it is a whole lot easier to blame laziness or willpower rather than accept the notion that maybe some people's brains work a little differently which may make it difficult to cope with the 'real world' to varying degrees.

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

I have a very mild case of ADD. I've never taken medication from it, but it's certainly held me back in the past. Recently I've managed to become more focused just by willpower, but it's still tough.

I think it also manifests itself a bit in the form of OCD. In the past few years, I've started to do OCD stuff, like read something more than once even though I know what it means until I read it the "right" way. Very bizarre, I know, but I always thought it was just a bad habit until I saw an episode of Scrubs where a character had OCD. I found myself doing similar stuff on a smaller scale.

-nation

Re: Self Diagnosis Talk: Raise your had if you\'ve got ADD or Dyslexia
 

[ QUOTE ]
My mom does a lot of work in the "gifted children" field, and I've met tons of kids, many of whom have been diagnosed with ADD. I've been diagnosed with it myself. Once you meet enough people who've been diagnosed with ADD, it becomes really clear which ones have it and which are just bored. Most people don't, and they use it as an excuse for bad behavior because it's convenient. It's especially convenient for parents who didn't raise their kids to have discipline to pay attention anything for longer than 15 seconds, mostly from feeding them too much sugar.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was always my sense of the ADHD diagnosis in the past 10 years in this country. It seems the medical community is split on the issue of whether or not it's overdiagnosed, but what you're saying seems like common sense to me.

This reminds me of the Prozac Nation phenomenon - my father, who's a psychiatrist, has often told me that he feels anti-depressants are way over-prescribed in US (which makes sense if you consider the psychiatric community's goals as both doctors and businessman, and their ties to big pharma).

Slightly off-topic, but bearing the above in mind (and believing it to be true on some level) I'd be very leery of putting my children (if I had any) on medication for ADHD.

-Al