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lawrocket

ADD/ADHD

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have they tested him for reading/spatial problems like dyslexia? sometimes that explains why a kid scores high on IQ tests but has trouble reading.



Yes, they've tested him for most everything. Our school system where I live has been very helpful and supportive.

The biggest reason he has reading issues is that because in Kindergarten, which is normally when you learn all of your reading skills, like phonics, he spent all of his time in the principal's office.

He would act up, interrupt the class, climb under his desk or just come out with some outburst of some sort. The teacher refused to try and deal with it and would immediately send him to the office for the remainder of the day.

I told them that they didn't realize it, but he won every time she did that. He's a smart kid. He realized that all he had to do was act up a little and "POOF!" Off to the principal's office he went. While there, he could pop his thumb into his mouth (he used to be a thumbsucker until very recently) and take a nap. TAA-DAA!!! No boring teacher, classwork or having to do anything. I mean, come on, how many of us wouldn't like to be on THAT program and get to take a nap in the middle of every afternoon? :S

His 1'st grade teacher was great, though. She refused to send him out of the room, and made him learn. After his first month, she and I talked. As much as I hated drugging him, I could figure no alternative. But we could tell the difference after just the first day of his being on it.

He's getting better every day. He brought home a note from his teacher yesterday that says he has gotten ten 100's on his spelling tests. He and I had a deal, and he has now earned a trip to "Chuckie Cheese's."

I still don't like him on the drug and don't give it to him on weekends/holidays/summer vacation. I figure his body can use the break and hopefully he won't build up an immunity to that low of a dose and will never have to increase it.
Nina

Are we called "DAWGs" because we stick our noses up people's butts? (RIP Buzz)
Yep, you're a postwhore-billyvance

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It really messed up my wife's sleep. She eventually decided the ADD was easier to deal with than being sleepy all of the time.


"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening."
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

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The reverse of this coin, is that ADD sufferers are capable of feats of hyper focus that "normal" people can only dream of. If we actually attach our attention to something, we can find ways to accomplish tasks that normal people have problems with.



mix this with adrenaline, and then you would really be amazed at what you can do,

ive been on adhd meds since kindergarten. im now 30. ive tried all sorts of stuff and rittalin works the best. im now on stratterra, just because the doc's wont prescribe rittalin for me. stratterra works, but the side affects are preatty bad untill you get used to it. it can make you really feel sick. ive been on stratterra for a couple years, i started on it the same month it came out. it doesnt solve the problem of me getting bored in a class and falling asleep though, so iguess im still ot paying attention. and one side effect that has really gotten to me is the sleepyness, it is totally random like narcelepsy. it gets me really bad when im driving and get bored i cant keep my eyes open.

i really need to look for another doc so i can get on adderall, or at least a mixture of the two.

my multitasking skills are incredible, my boss has learned just to leave me alone and stay out of my way, because i get REALLY irritated when someone starts questioning me or getting in my way of my HYPER focus.

it has its good sides and its bad sides


p.s. and speaking of blurting out shit that runs through your mind at random, im constantly sticking my foot in my mouth. esspecially when i get nervous, or even slightly nervous, like when you chatting with a hottie you just met. im always ruining things[:/]

people who know me see this all the time;)

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"Whoa - that kid is different from the others. He thinks his schoolwork is a boring, silly, pointless waste of his time. BETTER DOPE HIM UP!"
------------------------
"Hackers are often monumentally disorganized and sloppy about dealing with the physical world. Bills don't get paid on time, clutter piles up to incredible heights in homes and offices, and minor maintenance tasks get deferred indefinitely.

1994-95's fad behavioral disease was a syndrome called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), supposedly characterized by (among other things) a combination of short attention span with an ability to
`hyperfocus' imaginatively on interesting tasks. In 1998-1999 another syndrome that is said to overlap with many hacker traits entered popular awareness: Asperger's syndrome (AS). This disorder is also
sometimes called `high-function autism', though researchers are divided on whether AS is in fact a mild form of autism or a distinct syndrome with a different etiology. AS patients exhibit mild to severe
deficits in interpreting facial and body-language cues and in modeling or empathizing with others' emotions. Though some AS patients exhibit mild retardation, others compensate for their deficits with high intelligence and analytical ability, and frequently seek out technical fields where problem-solving abilities are at a premium and people
skills are relatively unimportant. Both syndromes are thought to relate to abnormalities in neurotransmitter chemistry, especially the brain's processing of serotonin.

Many hackers have noticed that mainstream culture has shown a tendency to pathologize and medicalize normal variations in personality, especially those variations that make life more complicated for authority figures and conformists. Thus, hackers aware of the issue tend to be among those questioning whether ADD and AS actually exist; and if so whether they are really `diseases' rather than extremes of a normal genetic variation like having freckles or being able to taste DPT. In either case, they have a sneaking tendency to wonder if these syndromes are over-diagnosed and over-treated. After all, people in authority will always be inconvenienced by schoolchildren or workers
or citizens who are prickly, intelligent individualists - thus, any social system that depends on authority relationships will tend to helpfully ostracize and therapize and drug such `abnormal' people until they are properly docile and stupid and `well-socialized'.


So hackers tend to believe they have good reason for skepticism about clinical explanations of the hacker personality. That being said, most would also concede that some hacker traits coincide with indicators for ADD and AS - the status of caffeeine as a hacker beverage of choice may be connected to the fact that it bonds to the same neural receptors as Ritalin, the drug most commonly prescribed for ADD. It is probably true that boosters of both would find a rather higher rate of clinical ADD among hackers than the supposedly mainstream-normal 3-5% (AS is rarer and there are not yet good estimates of incidence as of 2000).

Source: The New Hacker's Dictionary, edited by Eric S. Raymond, et al

mh

.
"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

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"Whoa - that kid is different from the others. He thinks his schoolwork is a boring, silly, pointless waste of his time. BETTER DOPE HIM UP!"
------------------------
"Hackers are often monumentally disorganized and sloppy about dealing with the physical world. Bills don't get paid on time, clutter piles up to incredible heights in homes and offices, and minor maintenance tasks get deferred indefinitely.

.



Try not to confuse the current trend for over-diagnosis of this condition with trivializing the condition for people that genuinely suffer from it.

I know when I'm being lazy, and when I'm having problems with it. Mental training will only take you so far. After a while, it helps to medicate.

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Try not to confuse the current trend for over-diagnosis of this condition with trivializing the condition for people that genuinely suffer from it.



Thank you for saying that. The trivialization is why I never use it as a crutch. But, I've had ADHD explained this way: People with ADHD are playing baseball without a glove. Sure, they can play, but it's a lot more difficult to make what would be easy catches. Meds give the ADHD afflicted a glove.

This doesn't mean that the meds will turn the ADHD person into Jim Edmonds, but will make the easy catches easy.


My wife is hotter than your wife.

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Try not to confuse the current trend for over-diagnosis of this condition with trivializing the condition for people that genuinely suffer from it.



Thank you for saying that. The trivialization is why I never use it as a crutch. But, I've had ADHD explained this way: People with ADHD are playing baseball without a glove. Sure, they can play, but it's a lot more difficult to make what would be easy catches. Meds give the ADHD afflicted a glove.

This doesn't mean that the meds will turn the ADHD person into Jim Edmonds, but will make the easy catches easy.



I like the description of your thought process being the TV, and someone else has the remote. Somedays. the channel surfing in my head stops me from doing anything at all. It can be quite entertaining though, and actually helps me to inutuitively grasp solutions to problems that people can't solve in a linear logic fashion. That's pretty valuable for a code monkey like myself.

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Ho. Ly. Crap.


I am so excited I can't stand it. I just realized something that's been staring me in the face ALL MY LIFE.

All this time, feeling like I'm fighting my very nature, feeling like I'm too smart to have achieved so little, feeling like a loser because I just can't seem to get my shit together.

All over something that is specifically identifiable and treatable. Eureka, indeed.

B|B|


Did anyone else take until after age 30 to realize you have ADD? Were you as elated as I am to realize there's a solution to the frustration?

Was anyone else called a spaz growing up?

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

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I can occasionally get distracted and have a lack of ability to focus... but on the other hand... sometimes I am able to sit down and focus intently on things...

I do wonder sometimes if I'm borderline Bipolar but I've never been diagnosed with anything specifically... (and I have seen doctors...)
Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

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I failed out of college, and I was using the ADHD as a crutch. Once I stopped using it as a crutch for bad performance and for shirking responsibilities, I did quite well.



That says wonders.... good for you!

~ Lisa
~ Do you Rigminder?

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I self-diagnosed this weekend with lists of questions and symptoms. Now I have an appt. with a doc to get officially diagnosed and treated.

I would defy her or any other doc to tell me I'm not ADD (inattentive, not hyperactive or impulsive).

All this reading explains SO much. That appointment can't happen soon enough for me...

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

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Try not to confuse the current trend for over-diagnosis of this condition with trivializing the condition for people that genuinely suffer from it.



Thank you for saying that. The trivialization is why I never use it as a crutch. But, I've had ADHD explained this way: People with ADHD are playing baseball without a glove. Sure, they can play, but it's a lot more difficult to make what would be easy catches. Meds give the ADHD afflicted a glove.

This doesn't mean that the meds will turn the ADHD person into Jim Edmonds, but will make the easy catches easy.





***

Double edge sword in a way...

My two boys have both been diagnosed ADHD, the older one was called by the Dr. a 'poster child' for the affliction.

We tried everything in the book NOT to put them on the meds.

Diet, mental training, counseling...a 2X4...EVERYTHING!

There was some minor improvement, but limited at best.

We finally agreed to 'try' adderall two years ago and the change was amazing.

Both their school work and social interaction skills did a complete 180.

It was like they were completely different kids.
Question is...is that a GOOD thing or not?

We continued with helping 'develop' the mind discipline traits as before the meds, but of course it's difficult to measure what to attribute any progress to.

At their request and the Dr.'s guidance last summer, we stopped the adderall to see how things were.

Again...not very scientific because summer is a different 'time' and behavioural expectations are adjusted accordingly.

There WAS a negative change, but not 'drastic' enough to readminister.

Well....this year first semester in school, the boys are flunking out, getting constant write ups, the list goes on...

Second semester, we all discussed it and decided to again go back on the meds...


They both currently have nearly straight A averages.

However...the meds do just what they claim to do, focus the attention.

In a school setting that's okay, maybe even a positive thing...but away from the books it's a little weird.

I need to keep an eye on just WHAT task they are involved with as they get SO focused, other things tend to suffer.










~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

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Stop sniffing me!



But you smell good.



Makes you want to nibble doesn't it????

g

Raddest ho this side of Jersey #1 - rest in peace brother
Beth lost her cherry and I missed it
.... you want access to it, but you don't want to break it.

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Stop sniffing me!



But you smell good.



Makes you want to nibble doesn't it????

g



Little bit - and you?
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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NOPE!

Neither of us can have her anyway.... [:/] Bob sure is a lucky guy!!! B|

g



True - but - you know - we could "Pretend"
:ph34r::ph34r:
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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NOPE!

Neither of us can have her anyway.... [:/] Bob sure is a lucky guy!!! B|

g



True - but - you know - we could "Pretend"
:ph34r::ph34r:




Ooooh, like roleplay??? :ph34r:

g

Raddest ho this side of Jersey #1 - rest in peace brother
Beth lost her cherry and I missed it
.... you want access to it, but you don't want to break it.

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NOPE!

Neither of us can have her anyway.... [:/] Bob sure is a lucky guy!!! B|

g



True - but - you know - we could "Pretend"
:ph34r::ph34r:




Ooooh, like roleplay??? :ph34r:

g



Yeah - you could be GFD and I'll be Bob.:o

:P:P:P:P:P
I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

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