validity of ADHD

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I have started natural remedies threads before. I no longer take ADD meds.
I take lots of herbs and lots of fish oil.
Sometimes I really wish i had my meds again though.

I'm offended people who get 'offended' by the idea of a particular condition. It is especially annoying when you do have specific cognitive dysfunctions and do actually want treatment, and might actually benefit from it. I don't think that anyone should be made to take drugs they don't want to or to change the way they are, when it is not harming anyone. It is personal thing. I think you are right that too often there is not enough effort going into finding the appropriate treatment. I'm not here to champion stimulants. I don't think they are a wonder drug by any stretch. But for some people they do actually provide a stop gap, to which you can then develop coping strategies. Long term it is not proven it is a short/middle term thing. It won’t work for all stimulants actually make me drowsy. Non stimulant drugs might be a better option although their onset and immediate effect is less marked.

As somebody pointed ADHD is no more defined than ASD. I’m sort of in a grey area between the two with cognitive dysfunctions, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want some sort of pointers, at least there is some idea as to what ball park were in.. There is no biological test for either ADHD or ASD, neither are there for most neurodevelopmental conditions. It is all done on the basis of behaviour and symptoms, with general trends. That is how they diagnose. Interestingly Brunel University (where I used to go) thought they came up with a biological test for ADHD to do with eye tracking. It turns out it was a lot of hot air. The fact is there is no simple test. A diagnosis always requires clinical judgment.

As a side note there is no such thing as natural 'treatments' everything is part of the system nature. Naturally occurring things can be inorganic, 'man made' things can be organic. Penicillin came from animals before it was synthesized, it is naturally occurring in your tummy because of a particular fungus in you forna. It keeps the ‘good’ bacteria in your stomach under check. However if you have too much penicillin it is a bad as having too much bacteria. Paracetamol was derived from the Cinchona plant in south America There are plenty of things in nature that will kill you Cyanide for starters. But even that is an over simplification. What is kind of pointless is taking trace amounts of things when you already encounter these substances anyway and can't actually avoid consuming them, sometimes in much, much greater amounts. It may interest you to know that one of the most pinioning cognitive drugs at the moment is Huperzine A. Chinese scientists isolated it from Chinese club moss around 60 years ago, but never really had much of a use for it until recently. It is supposed to be one of only things that is truly neuroprotective, it can improve cognitive function where other drug may fail. Man made drug like Memantine have been shown to improve cognitive function in ASD such as language function.

I miss ritalin....I wish I had gotten a higher dosage instead of switching to Adderall...the nightmare drug that caused me to have a mental breakdown for various reasons.

I think it is a real condition, BUT.

I also see every day parents that say their child has ADHD, hell I was at the CAMHS outpatients department and I was talking to a mum whose boy was literally bouncing off the walls. Our conversation got round to diet (as it does) and she told me that all she could get into him that morning was a can of coca cola and a pack of smarties. I mean COME ON!! !

In short- I see a lot of bad parents use ADHD to excuse their childs awful behaviour and their awful parenting- and this is an injustice to true ADHD

Poo, I like your avatars of late, especially the new one, for some reason I cannot explain.
What do you like to be called if I find it too much to type out poopylungstuffing?

Anyway, I went through Ritalin, Adderall, and Strattera, in that order.
I just couldn't tell if they were reall working for me.
In the end of the medication period I was taking Lexapro.

I can see the possibility of someday trying the stimulants again... but for now I'm still working on behavioral changes along with drinking coffee somedays.

Alot of people call me Poopy...

My avatar is a picture of me from last night's New Years eve party...I figured new year..new avatar...

um...the reason i'd want meds again is because simple behavioral changes are close to impossible..because of the way my brain seems to be wired...bad habits are really hard to break

as I have said..I take alot...ALOT...of herbal stuff.....Omegas out the wazoo...l-theanine, chamomile....rhodiola rosea...holy basil...my parents...aware of my lifelong problems...which they kinda lump under the term "Depression".......as they don't believe in ADD or acknowledge AS...and seriously distrust conventional medicine...have kept me well stocked in all kinds of herbs and I am always trying different ones to see what works.....I also don't drink sodas or eat very much sugar at all.

I often feel the need to take a combination of stimulants and relaxants because i feel so stinking mentally fatigued all the time...so I need something to stimulate me...but that will often not work...it might immobilise me...and relaxants make me sleepy too.....sometimes....(they might also give me insomnia..like melatonin)...(xanax makes me sleepy)

I was on such a low dosage of Ritalin that it hardly did anything.
So I went back to the doctor who placed me on AdderallXR, which made me very angry all the time and then I had a sort of nervous breakdown....stopped taking meds about a year and a half ago....

The behavioral things I'm doing are sometimes working... sometimes not.
I do think things are getting better for me, but then... since my divorce was finalized I feel less stress/pressure anyway.

I've been able to keep a pretty close eye on my behaviors enough to start understanding what I do that does not work and what I do that does work.
I still have a lot of exploring to do about this, but at least I feel like I am gaining a little bit of ground.

The best successes have come at school. I hope these will translate into my whole life as well.
I am learning when and where I do my homework best, and under what circumstances.
Mostly, I find I need to be in a place like school, and set things up just right for me to concentrate on my work.
Now if only I could transfer this to my home life and work place as well!

I wish I could remember how each of the drugs affected me.
I just remember that after we got to a very high Ritalin dose, I did feel a bit 'jittery'?, and just plain didn't like the way I felt overall.
I can't remember about the Adderall or the Straterra, although I do know that with one or both of them I did start out getting upset stomachs.

I really need a routine established for things I need to get done.
I'm realizing that more and more and this helps.
It's just hard to get those routines established in my mind.

Sorry to hear your mom and dad feel the way they do.
I know my mother fixates on depression as the cause for everything

Well, braveheartlion, you're first problem is that you're using a DSM that was written in 2000. Things have changed.

I have been AS with ADD and ADHD all my life. It's real, lady. Lemmie tell you, it's real. (and I'm a lot older than you are). Notwithstanding, none of that has ever stopped me, the medicines have just made my life a little easier. It's not a matter of offending me. I just put down most of what you said to uninformed stupidity.

To some of us, the above disorders make our lives unspeakably difficult. It's not voluntary, believe me. Also, all of the stimulant drugs (except in specific cases) are falling out of favor, not because they don't work, but because they've found other more effective things.

Unless, however, you're a psychiatrist (and then you wouldn't make a statement like that anyway) these are not unproven. So go to one of the other boards, but try to enlighten yourself about some of what you think are un proven. Because in all three cases, you will find volumes of scientific proof as to what they are, and how to treat them.

Don't use the DSM either. It's a coding manual for experienced psychiatrists. Go to some of the study literature (I'll leave you to do your own research, but it's out there for anyone with half a brain to find). In most cases, medical science knows what these afflictions are, and why (at a biochemical level) the meds work, and what they do.

I am amazed at the depth of stupidity some people possess.

Nice post Beentheredongthat!

But this line...

For some reason, I thought of myself when I read it!

I think it's real, but it's very over-diagnosed, though...