Ideas on handling ADD

Does anyone have ideas on how to handle the hell that are the symptoms of ADD, which result in humiliation in public, a hard time at work and getting things done at home? I am so irritated seeing how I could have had a happier, more active life and gotten closer to my friends years ago but ending up with clinical depression, anxiety disorder and now ADD. It's not fun watching your friends move ahead when your stuck in "prison." I'm now 27 and just over the last few years I've been checking up more on these kinds of things. I cant help but feel like God just dropped me and said "I'm gonna mess you up and humiliate you."

I remember listening in Sunday school, bible clubs, learning verses and paying heed to the lessons and try not to be mean but no, I end up with this junk and my friends end up getting ahead and even doing what they want. I feel like I was had. I don't have in mind to do all I want but I could have been normal and been able to be of use for Christ. What happened?

With that aside, is there any advice on how to handle symptoms of ADD and to better control any depression and anxiety issues? Thankfully I dont have clinical depression anymore but lately I've been discussing things with my doctor. I always thought this was just how I wa but am getting better at understanding mental disorders. Now I've got the long arduous task of fixing my life and get what's left. How can I hope in Christ with this? Its hard after what He has let happen.

I have ADD, I don't think it is a disfunctional learning behavior as many claim, I really think it is just a different way the mind works. I am an artists and as a visual artists to be sucessful I need to look at things from many different perspectives at once. I need to look from different angles, up close, far away and everything in between, I need to look at colors, lines, values, emphesis, balance and a host of other things all at once...

I need to think in a detailed manner and in an abstract manner at the same time and if I wasn't ADD I couldn't do it!

You may just need to figure out a way to break up your study or work whatever you are doing to look at it or understand it from different angles, or to try more multi-tasking. Sadly my teachers in school thought I had to learn to focus and removed other things for me to think about and tried to simplify it, for the most part that only made it worse.. i left highscool getting pretty much straight c's and d's... i went to art school got straight a's I was even valedictiorian, then I went back to a regular college to get an education degree... too only a handful of art classes mostly general ed... and I still graduated Magna Cume Laude... I just needed to 1. believe in myself and 2. teach myself how I needed to learn, not how they tried to teach me

i hope this response was helpful in someway... goodluck

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You know, I'm still in mourning for a lot of what you've described; the frustration of being trapped inside a mind where you have to make a concerted effort to focus through a labyrinth of distracting thoughts from moment to moment just to get basic things done. That feeling of despair and humiliation at watching a friend move forward steadily in his life stages while being stuck way behind, it's very lonely.

I mentioned to another person on this board that it may help to set aside feelings, and God's role in the situation, until things have unfolded in a certain direction. Believe me, I understand the burning frustration, turning my attention to the sky, and say, "What the heck!? What is this for?!"

It might help to try and get in the practice of setting that aside, and approach things dispassionately. Once, long ago, I had the hardest time re-drafting any writing I ever did, 'cause I hated to read what I had written. I felt so self conscious about myself, and my writing was like an image in a mirror of myself that I couldn't bear to look at. I eventually had to learn to revise writing assignment, particularly long ones for college, and I did it by forcing my mind into the pretending that I was reviewing an editing someone else's writing. Only by pretending that I was revising another person's work could I acclimatize to eventually being ok with reading my own writing as my own work.

And at this very moment as I am writing this, I am realizing that in some ways, this approach can possibly help me again, in any pragmatic efforts to fight through my own difficulties; maybe, hopefully, it's something that might be of interest and help to you as well.

I think we have to start by helping ourselves. It may be useful to ask God to help guide your effort to sort out your difficulties, and give the solutions you find a boost in effectiveness; but take the initiative for yourself and ask help from other humans that you think you can rely on and trust. God will do what he's going to do during the course of this process; beyond asking Him for help there's not much more we can do or expect.

The most pragmatic advice I constantly receive is to make lists, daily, and try to follow through with them as much as possible.

I hope this is all hopeful and/or helpful.

If Your Mind Was Raised Up On This World And You Struggle Rejoice. Man Did This Not God. God Allowed You To See For This Day That The World Is The Lie And Your Mind Is Of This World And Your Heart Is Not. Do Not Cover Your Heart With Chemicals. Mood Stabilizers. Better To Admit Love Is Beyond Words And Much Desired, This In All Aspects Of Life. The Harder To Cope With The Better. Rejoice You Are Well On Your Way To Overcoming This Insane World. I Count You Among The Sane For Sight.

Originally Posted by ratchet30

Does anyone have ideas on how to handle the hell that are the symptoms of ADD, which result in humiliation in public, a hard time at work and getting things done at home? I am so irritated seeing how I could have had a happier, more active life and gotten closer to my friends years ago but ending up with clinical depression, anxiety disorder and now ADD. It's not fun watching your friends move ahead when your stuck in "prison." I'm now 27 and just over the last few years I've been checking up more on these kinds of things. I cant help but feel like God just dropped me and said "I'm gonna mess you up and humiliate you."

I remember listening in Sunday school, bible clubs, learning verses and paying heed to the lessons and try not to be mean but no, I end up with this junk and my friends end up getting ahead and even doing what they want. I feel like I was had. I don't have in mind to do all I want but I could have been normal and been able to be of use for Christ. What happened?

With that aside, is there any advice on how to handle symptoms of ADD and to better control any depression and anxiety issues? Thankfully I dont have clinical depression anymore but lately I've been discussing things with my doctor. I always thought this was just how I wa but am getting better at understanding mental disorders. Now I've got the long arduous task of fixing my life and get what's left. How can I hope in Christ with this? Its hard after what He has let happen.

How to fix it? Usually medication will do it.
Here's a good couple of tests that you can use to check on your improvement on handling your AD/HD symptoms:

• Stroop Test
• Forward Digit Span Test

Those two tests are often times used to determine if a medication has made any significant improvements on a person's AD/HD symptoms. If you're actually reading this, then I hope that you'll check these tests out. You can take these tests at cogntivefun.net and see how you're improving.

Here are the links to the specific tests that I mentioned above:

Visual Forward Digit Span
Auditory Forward Digit Span
Stroop Test

For your information, the average score for the Forward Digit Span test is 7 items, plus or minus two. If you don't see the connection, that's the number of numbers that there are in a typical American phone number - excluding the area and country codes.

If you have AD/HD, then you'll likely score below average. However, if you keep playing the test, you'll eventually score higher and this will help you pay attention better as well.

There's theories as to how the short-term memory in our brains work. Located in the lateral sulcus (Sylvian Fissure) of our brain the short-term memory (aka "working memory") works much like the RAM in our computers. Just like how you have a CPU that actively manages what's stored in the RAM, and has to constantly switch between tasks, your attention (located in the pre-frontal cortex) works much the same way.

But, what's uncertain, is whether or not you have a specific number of items that you can actually hold in your "RAM" or if it's an issue of how well you pay attention. It seems that if you can actually increase the number of items that you can store in your "RAM" then it seems that a person's short-term memory capacity is limited to the abilities of their pre-frontal cortex.

But, I hope that you're actually reading this. These test can help you work with your psychiatrist in finding a solution to your AD/HD condition. At the very least, these tests could be a means to help improve your condition without medication. But, I wouldn't suggest that you actually do that.

You probably should use these tests to see how your AD/HD symptoms are improving. If at the initial dosages that your psychiatrist prescribes you on appear not to be doing anything, you can use these tests to see if you're getting any improvement at all.

Because, I'm dealing with the physical health problems that I am right now, I would suggest that you try to get on the lowest effective dosage as possible. Most of the times, you'll be prescribed a stimulant which will likely shorten your life span if it raises your resting heart rate high enough.

I wished that my psychiatrists and psychologists told me about tests like these, so that I might be able to better gauge how my medication is affecting my concentration. I only learned about these tests in college, so that's how I know about them and how they work. But, my current dosage has risen my heart rate above 100 and I'm genuinely concerned for my health. Of course, since I'm used to the dosage that I'm on anyways, the dropping my dosage makes it harder for me to focus at work.

This situation is both frustrating and scary to me. I suggest that you speak with a psychiatrist about your conditions and use these tests on your own to see how your meds are affecting you. Some people might suggest you speak with a psychologist about techniques you can use to improve your condition, but my experience is that these guys are pretty worthless. A total waste of time and money.

There are other tests on the website that I mentioned above. You can look at them and use scholar.google.com to look up the research papers on them. Most of what you find will likely only let you look at the abstract without joining their professional organization, but you can still get alot of information from these abstracts. And, they're probably good for someone with AD/HD anyways.

Anyways, I hope that what I said helps. Just be careful with the medication, because even if it does end up killing you, it's not likely that anyone will be able to prove that in court.

__________________

Originally Posted by Ecclesiastes 9:5-6

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For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate, and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

Someone has to say it:

If you're dealing with issues of depression and anxiety, make sure you visit your doctor if you have not already! :-) A good doctor is your greatest asset and can help you with dealing with your ADD and other conditions. Depression is very serious and there are ways to treat it out there.

__________________

I'll beat this to the ground until I die:

1) Neurofeedback: look for a practitioner at www (dot) eeginfo (dog) org (they won't let me put links up yet.

2) Search for a book on Amazon called "open focus."

__________________
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Peace,

MCab

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