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ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

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Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#101

Post by ashildr »

mmanfrin wrote: post #73
matheusmoreira wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless it happens to magically coincide with their hyper-focus topic of the moment! It's funny. People with ADHD suffer from attention deficit but at the same time they display hyperattention when they encounter a subject they like. I've experienced it as well: once I start programming I have no problem doing it for 12 hours straight. I've found this trait in many ADHD patients. There's usually something that reall…

The way I've come to describe it with my therapist is that it feels like, internally, I have 12 different brains. All of them are constantly scanning around, interested in different things, making it very hard to focus on one thing, but conversely making me very good at understanding a thing as a whole. The other part of this analogy is that when there is something that grabs my interest, it grabs it with all 12 brai…

You have no idea how much sense that last sense made to me :)

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#102

Post by kalium-xyz »

remote_phone wrote: post #86

ADHD is not a disease. It’s a collection of symptoms that have been arbitrarily grouped together. My son’s psychiatrist who was diagnosing my son for ADHD said that it’s psychiatry’s dirty little secret. Back in the 60s or 70s ( I can’t remember what he said) people were starting to notice that kids were having behavioral problems, trouble focusing etc. So what they did was collect a group of symptoms, and then arbit…

You diagnose a disease by the symptoms, this goes for any disease or disorder. Problem is that there are not actual diseases here but rather groupings of symptoms (as you say, its not just for ADHD though) and that its a checklist which is filled out often based solely on verbal questions answered by a child.

Another interesting thing to consider is that a lot of psychological disorders are culture bound (and therefor in my humble opinion irrelevant as groupings even for psychiatric purposes).

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#103

Post by SirSavary »

mdthrowaway wrote: post #64
omgwtfbyobbq wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're misinterpreting my post based on some of the other responses. I will update it to unambiguously state that people taking stimulants for ADHD should continue to take them, just like I have continued to.

I'm not misinterpreting your post. You diagnosed the author with Segawa's based on your experiences by pointing out you wouldn't be surprised if he "had something similar". He does not, with certainty. You're also warning folks that the only consistently successful treatments we have for this (much, much more common) hyperactivity disorder are associated with unlikely neurological outcomes. Sure, an 8x increase sound…

Hate to break it to you, but the OP's edited comment is far less harmful than yours.

I've been suffering from a myriad of symptoms that happen to match up with Segawa's... a disease I learned about less than ten minutes ago.

> please don't write them

Please don't make statements requesting that other's don't share their experiences with misdiagnosis and rare conditions. It's rude and furthers the stigma that some conditions are too rare for their sufferers to discuss.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#104

Post by monadgonad »

remote_phone wrote: post #86

ADHD is not a disease. It’s a collection of symptoms that have been arbitrarily grouped together. My son’s psychiatrist who was diagnosing my son for ADHD said that it’s psychiatry’s dirty little secret. Back in the 60s or 70s ( I can’t remember what he said) people were starting to notice that kids were having behavioral problems, trouble focusing etc. So what they did was collect a group of symptoms, and then arbit…

> It’s not a real disease like other diseases, it’s a collection of symptoms.

Any disease with "syndrome" in its name is just a collection of symptoms. That's literally what syndrome means. Your information about ADHD is offensively wrong, and its underdiagnosis and undertreatment due to misinformation ruins far more lives than than there are people with anxiety being mistakenly prescribed stimulants.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#105

Post by kalium-xyz »

sys32768 wrote: post #99

I was diagnosed in my 30s in part by the T.O.V.A. test, which gave me surprising insights. The hardest part of the test for me was to stop pushing the button when it told me to. It's hard to describe how difficult that was for me. By the end I distinctly recall the familiar sense I had in school of feeling dumb, inadequate, and frustrated. In the T.O.V.A. results I was normal range for Inattention and Reaction Time.…

Check out this read: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/12/28/adderall-risks-much-mo...

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#106

Post by mdthrowaway »

SirSavary wrote: post #103
mdthrowaway wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not misinterpreting your post. You diagnosed the author with Segawa's based on your experiences by pointing out you wouldn't be surprised if he "had something similar". He does not, with certainty. You're also warning folks that the only consistently successful treatments we have for this (much, much more common) hyperactivity disorder are associated with unlikely neurological outcomes. Sure, an 8x increase sound…

Hate to break it to you, but the OP's edited comment is far less harmful than yours. I've been suffering from a myriad of symptoms that happen to match up with Segawa's... a disease I learned about less than ten minutes ago. > please don't write them Please don't make statements requesting that other's don't share their experiences with misdiagnosis and rare conditions. It's rude and furthers the stigma that some con…

> Hate to break it to you, but the OP's edited comment is far less harmful than yours.

It has been significantly, damned near whole cloth, edited in several ways since I said something, so I'd ask a little consideration that I'm coming from a good place. I'm not asking for anyone to avoid discussing Segawa's; I'm specifically responding to the speculation, across multiple comments, that the common element of dopamine as a neurotransmitter makes them related diseases. Given that people attack doctors when they try to arrest harmful discussion like this, I'm taking great pains to not be rude, so I apologize for coming across that way.

If you diagnosed yourself with Segawa's based on Wikipedia, please bear in mind that my single diagnosis across my entire career involved four months of differential diagnosis and observation, and led to a publication. It's simply that rare. There are several much more common possibilities, and I'd ask you to talk with your neurologist with an open mind rather than assuming the Internet has steered you correctly. That's also part of the reason I've responded as I have, exactly due to what you're saying.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#107

Post by CathedralBorrow »

ctruzzi wrote: post #70
rustybelt wrote: post #51

Thousands of words and no mention of diet. I was diagnosed ADHD in 5th grade, tried just about every medication out there, and never landed on a workable long-term solution until I modified my diet. Medication always had mixed results. Many allowed me to focus and better control impulses, but the emotional crash at the end of the day was too much. Others caused insomnia or palpitations. Cutting sugar and limiting car…

I was diagnosed with ADHD around the 3rd grade (2 separate psychiatrists diagnosed me) and have never heard about diets as working above all others. Are there any studies or information about this route or is it perhaps changing your eating behavior allowed you to do those same things with other parts of your life?

I don't know about studies but here's an anecdote. I've experimented with many potential factors for my ADHD over many years, and the strongest and cleanest correlation I've found is: More carbs and sugar => More brain fog.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#108

Post by saaaaaam »

ashildr wrote: post #92
remote_phone wrote: post #86

ADHD is not a disease. It’s a collection of symptoms that have been arbitrarily grouped together. My son’s psychiatrist who was diagnosing my son for ADHD said that it’s psychiatry’s dirty little secret. Back in the 60s or 70s ( I can’t remember what he said) people were starting to notice that kids were having behavioral problems, trouble focusing etc. So what they did was collect a group of symptoms, and then arbit…

Now could you explain away major depression using the same logic?

You can yes - in fact, I was listening to “D for Diagnosis” on BBC Radio 4 last night. The show title was “Ever Changing Labels” and a psychiatrist made the point (3’20” into the programme) that what we call “depression” in DSM-V has 9 symptoms and if you have 5 out of those 9 symptoms you are diagnosed as having “depression”. But in reality 5 out of 9 gives a huge number - 15,000+ - variations. So there is no one form of “depression” and yet people are diagnosed with depression all the time.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#109

Post by monadgonad »

rustybelt wrote: post #51

Thousands of words and no mention of diet. I was diagnosed ADHD in 5th grade, tried just about every medication out there, and never landed on a workable long-term solution until I modified my diet. Medication always had mixed results. Many allowed me to focus and better control impulses, but the emotional crash at the end of the day was too much. Others caused insomnia or palpitations. Cutting sugar and limiting car…

> but everyone with ADHD should at least try cleaning up their diet. It's a no lose option.

It is extremely difficult for someone with ADHD to change their diet. It's difficult even for neurotypical people. I know that it and exercise are obviously beneficial, but from experience there's a "loss" in that trying and failing consistently to improve my lifestyle really takes its toll on my motivation and self-esteem. Not to say that I'm not still trying... but it's hard.

Re: ADHD, a Lifelong Struggle (2018)

#110

Post by grahamburger »

Any advice for parents of kids who seem to exhibit some of these traits? My oldest son is in 3rd grade and is probably not exactly neurotypical. He really excels at some things (reading) and really struggles with others (handwriting, behavior/following directions.) I've heard horror stories from folks who feel like they were diagnosed and treated too early as well as too late. For folks here with those experiences - anything you wish your parents would have considered that they didn't? Questions they should have asked?

Overall he seems pretty happy in life and has some friends and things he likes to do, so I'm not feeling like it's really urgent to get him help, but also don't want it to escalate to the point where it's harder for him to get help later or starts self medicating as a teen.

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