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

[durron597]

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I do think that it is most often used as a crutch and the diagnosis is abused but I most certainly believe that it is real.

I don't have it but my father was actually diagnosed with ADD at the age of 40. He is an extremely successful businessman, driven, and from the outside looking in you can't see anything but focus, order, and attention to detail. He is his own accountant, secretary, etc. and runs one of the most successful building corporations in Dallas in which he started from the ground level.

When you walk into his office you will see that he has a formula that he never steers away from. He does this b/c when he was in his twenties he was struggling to make it b/c he was disorganized, and his mind would wander so easily to the things that interested him instead of doing work. Most people keep things organized but he does it to where it is almost creepy but he has to or he will fail.

Some of his friends told him a few years back that he may be ADD and to take some tests to check it out. Turns out he was. He believes that he hasn't needed medicine b/c of how healthy he is, he is a fitness freak and with the combination of his diet and figuring out methods to combat his bad habits (which really was his ADD all his life) are what made him successful...no crutches or excuses.

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i'm quoting tdarko here even though i'm replying to NorCalJosh because I think tdarko is answering my own confusion. Those people I know who have ADD have never managed to organize their lives in a way such that they can function healthily without medication. I suppose that comes from dealing mostly with children with ADD and only in a very small number of cases dealing with adult ADD - and even then I'm talking at the oldest middle twenties.

I stand corrected. Maybe it is possible to organize your life to such a point where you can deal with this stuff without medication, but I haven't seen it personally yet.

[divides_by_zero]

This is a reply in general:

A lot of people have mentioned the difference between massively ADHD people and people with short attention spans. Or used the phrase "a touch of" in regards to ADHD, OCD, etc.

The thing is - yes, everyone DOES have a little bit. They are spectrum disorders. The trick with diagnosing is where on the spectrum are you. So for the people who read the various attributes of ADHD and think "I have that, but I do just fine, those people can't be too bad" they don't understand that it's a matter of extent.

And this is why drugs are not the only treatment option out there, and why there are different drug options, and different dosing, etc. You tailor a treatment plan around what's necessary for the specific individual.

Also - there is a lot of misinformation out there about what ADHD really is and what the drugs do. In one way, taking the drugs is a very easy way to diagnose the disorder - if you respond one way, you have it, if you respond the other way, you don't. I was extremely misinformed about all of this prior to seeking a diagnosis.

Same with SSRI's and how they work and the misnomer of "happy pills."


As a result, it's interesting that due to the "overdiagnosed" state of ADHD, it's actually being shied away from to some extent. And, while young boys may be overdiagnosed, girls are largely underdiagnosed. So - the problem of ADHD is incredibly nuanced and largely misreported.

In summary: Ooh, butterflies!

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Flynn I think your point and correct me if i'm wrong is that it's a disease of a generation caused by many contributing factors in our differing life styles.

But I disagree that it has to do with the intense expectations placed on children from a young age. In Asian countries students go to school for atleast 10hrs a day from a young age and sit still in usually very boring classes of rote learning, ADD is not rarely even considered here. For the most part these young learners suck it up and sit there writing out sentence after sentence or repeating phrases from the board.

I think if anything it could be the artsy, free spirited new teaching methods that some teachers try to use that create some of the problem.


Also I just did an online self evaluation for ADD I scored mild ADD. FWIW I think i'm just lazy.

[goofyballer]

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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.

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Hrm, this describes me really well. :/

[Dids]

Amusingly I just noticed that I had a typo in the topic of this.

How many of you noticed that on first glance and how many of you just assumed it said "hand"?

(or how many of you thought I was just being REALLY clever)

[NorCalJosh]

1 vote for just assuming.

[imitation]

I noticed it and laughed, I thought you were being funny yes.

[lippy]

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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.

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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.

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This happened to me in 3st grade. My brother had a legitimate cases of both dyslexia and ADD, so my mother was afraid I had ADD (I was always asking questions and annoying her). She talked to my 3rd grade teacher who said I would never spend enough time focusing on what we were doing in class, when I was just finishing everything far faster than the other students.

They had me evaluated by some counselor who wanted to send me to a specialist. Around the same time, we got my Iowa tests back and I subsequently spent time in Gifted & Talented classes instead of LD classes. I really see how my intelligence caused problems to teachers, as they didn't realize that it was boredom. I was unwilling to write a cursive Q three-hundred times as I perfected it my third time.

Also, because of my brother's severe dyslexia I am almost angered by people who seem to have no problem but claim they're dyslexic. My brother is a smart student, he understands concepts in school easier than any of his peers... but he can't write a cogent essay. God forbid he is asked to read aloud as it is a painful struggle.

However, when he tells people he is dyslexic the comment is practically ignored. They don't expect him to perform at a lower level. I suspect they think he is using it as a crutch, when it is a legitimate disability.

[Golden_Rhino]

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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.

[/ QUOTE ]

This happened to me in 3st grade. My brother had a legitimate cases of both dyslexia and ADD, so my mother was afraid I had ADD (I was always asking questions and annoying her). She talked to my 3rd grade teacher who said I would never spend enough time focusing on what we were doing in class, when I was just finishing everything far faster than the other students.

They had me evaluated by some counselor who wanted to send me to a specialist. Around the same time, we got my Iowa tests back and I subsequently spent time in Gifted & Talented classes instead of LD classes. I really see how my intelligence caused problems to teachers, as they didn't realize that it was boredom. I was unwilling to write a cursive Q three-hundred times as I perfected it my third time.

Also, because of my brother's severe dyslexia I am almost angered by people who seem to have no problem but claim they're dyslexic. My brother is a smart student, he understands concepts in school easier than any of his peers... but he can't write a cogent essay. God forbid he is asked to read aloud as it is a painful struggle.

However, when he tells people he is dyslexic the comment is practically ignored. They don't expect him to perform at a lower level. I suspect they think he is using it as a crutch, when it is a legitimate disability.

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I have a good friend who is like your brother, and I know why it makes you mad. I get mad when people say they are dyslexic, when the truth of the matter is that they were too lazy in school to learn how to write a proper sentence. Same for ADD. The people who have it, and struggle with it daily, have their credibility stolen from them by people who would really just rather watch TV than do their work.

[Dyenimator]

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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.

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That's pretty much equal to my life story. My IQ is around 130-135 and my ACT score was 27 which wasn't too bad. However, my GPA in high school gradually slipped from a 3.1 to a 2.3.

Off I went to college and I went to class for about a month. By November, I made it to a maximum of one class a week. I failed out and came back home.

Went to the doc and he said I had ADD. I took Ritalin for awhile and it helped my performance at work. I was too lazy to fill my prescription again, but I continued my Ritalin like performances at work. Now 2 years later I'm going back to school, and I have no clue how this will go.