Sum it up.

For my final post I thought it would be a great idea to sum up the inside look in to my life with ADD. Negative stigmas almost held me back from achieving what I was capable of achieving. But with this risk factor I learned to stand on my own two feet and stand up for myself and what I know to be true. This will end up being a major protective factor for me as I go through my life course. As many of y'all can tell with my screen name Yes I am a republican and this will make me a minority in this field. However, because I have already learned to cope and deal with being an outsider I will be able to stand up straight and move forward in this field. As for the distractions this is not something that I have not dealt with my whole life and will continue to struggle with for the rest of my life. The risk factor for this problem would be that most employers do not want to deal with having to make accommodations for me. This is hard to believe knowing what field I am working in but it is a fact of life that I hope this will change in the future. I know that the place where I am currently working does not want to give me my accommodations but then reprimands me for getting behind in my paperwork. But how can an individual who has ADD and is so easily distracted complete their work when there is no set schedule for seeing clients and doing paperwork. As far as the doctor problem I hope to find a psychiatrist who is willing to accept new patients. There are not enough doctors who are willing and able to treat adults with learning disorders are stretched to thin. This is a major risk fact for individuals who have a disability. The anxiety and depression that comes along with ADD has not been researched enough and how the medications for ADD affects these problems. I hope that those of you who bothered to read my blogs and leave a comment learned a little bit about the daily difficulties adults with ADD go through. Most adults take vacations to get away from their stress and frustrations but adults with disabilities even when on vacations still carry these stresses with them. By not being able to get away from themselves depression and suicide become major risk factors for adults with ADD. These adults often do not have anybody to vent to because unless you have this disorder you will never completely know what it is truly like. The majority of society has a negative view on this problem and think that adults with ADD use this as an excuse for not accomplishing things. Or they will think that they should just take some medication and get over it. Either way you are stuck in your own world wishing that you were just normal. It is hard to live as an outsider and even more difficult to learn who to talk to about the stresses from your illness. My hope for all who read my blogs is for all of the future social workers to have a better insight into some of the life course problems with this disorder. I hope that everybody has a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful Christmas. See y'all next year...

Medication vs. no Medications that is the question???

There are several different forms of medications for the treatment of ADD. After weighing the facts it really comes down do if you want to put up with the side affects. Yes taking the medications makes it allot easier to function at work and school but it does not come with out risk. The most common medication is Ritalin. This is the medication that I was on from the beginning until it was just to much so I stopped in high school. The main problem with trying to go it alone with out medication is your professors and your employers have to be extremely patient. It is sad to say that this is not always the case. Some side affects from most ADD medications are as follows Dizziness; headache; loss of appetite; nausea; nervousness; stomach pain; trouble sleeping. One more uncommon side affect is depression. This is a problem that I faced once I discontinued my medications. The loss of appetite is probably the most common side affect. The one thing that the drug company does not inform the users of the medications is the impending crash that comes at the end of the day. Most individuals take the medication by 8am and by 6 or 7pm there is a huge crash in you energy. This problem is similar to being stuck between a rock and a hard place. When making the decision you are faced with have large problems with focusing and other symptoms or take the medication and face the side affects from the medication. This is a difficult decision for an adult but an even more difficult decision for parents to decide for their children. Yes more children are being diagnosed then in previous years but there has been a direct link between ADD/ADHD and to much TV and video game use. With the majority of American children spending their days in front of a TV or playing video games there will be an increase in ADD/ADHD and childhood obesity.

Can I find a Doctor please...

My biggest frustration this week has been trying to find a doctor to treat my ADD. I was seeing a Neurologist but he is no longer treating this disorder. He gave me a number and a name for another doctor but when I called the doctor was no longer excepting new clients. When I was a child my pediatrician would give me my Rx for the medication that I needed to slow down enough to focus on the task at hand. Now my PCP or my Neurologist are willing to treat me for this disorder. I was able to find one doctor who is willing to right a Rx for me but after talking to his nurse he seems to be one of those Rx happy doctors who will write for anything. I have never had an addiction issue and have always taken my medication as prescribed. However, I work with addicts every day and refuse to see a doctor who does not care for his patients. I have all the documentation needed to prove that I have ADD but I can not seem to find a doctor willing to treat an adult with ADD. I wonder if other adults with ADD have this issue as well. I know that in a city as large as Mobile, AL I can not be the only one having trouble. If this was any other disorder it would be easy to find a doctor willing to treat you. So how come when you have the correct documentation for having ADD it is like you have some contagious disease that if the doctor treats you they will catch it. Yes it is possible for me to live with out having medication to help me focus but between school and work I need to be able to focus and pay attention to my reading assignments and all paper work. All of this is extremely frustrating to me and hope that I can find a solution before spring semester begins.

Losing my mind.

One common problem that adults have when struggling with ADD is forgetting items such as your keys and books. This is a major problem for me and has always been a problem stemming from my childhood. I would often receive something like money and then hide this item from my sisters. It was common that I would lose this item and be unable to find it sometimes for years. After a deep cleaning I would find money hidden in several locations. This forgetfulness can be stressful at times. There has been times where I have also allowed people to borrow items from me and then would forget that I have loaned out these items and later would look for them but not remembering that I had loaned them out. Have you ever lost your keys or an important document? Most of you will say yes, this happens to me on a daily basis. It is not uncommon that an adult with ADD will lose something at home or at work at any given time. The stress with losing stuff at work especially when you are working with clients. At times I feel like I am losing my mind. Putting items up in places where I feel that they belong but later not being able to locate these items. Organization is a must for adults with ADD. For example, at my office I have a place to put items needing to be dealt with that day, a to be filed pile, a system for organizing my charts, and a pile for discharged charts. By having this organization system in place I often find myself being able to find items at any given time. This is a major coping skill for people living with ADD. By straying away from my system it can only take one day for it all to fall apart. Living with ADD is difficult at times but it can be manageable if the individual has learned the correct coping techniques. Some of the common coping techniques can be organization of documents and items, list, goal planning, and finding a quite and peaceful location to do your work. With not having these coping techniques high stress levels will be common place. In closing this is off subject but it is related to stress. I found out Tuesday night the my uncle has stage two cancer and will be having surgery with in the next month. He does not live here any more but he is the only uncle that I have ever had that has been a positive role model in my life. This issue has caused a great deal of stress for me mainly because I will not have the time with work and school to go and see him before the surgery. The accumulating stress can cause a problem with anxiety witch is another symptom of ADD and was discussed in a previous blog.

Anxiety and ADD

Anxiety and ADD are often linked. Unfortunately I have both. As discussed in my other blogs because ADD often causes a person to forget and lose track of basic task when coupled with an anxiety disorder it amplifies the number of attacks. During an attack it can often feel like a hearth attack and can lead to having a black out. The stress of dealing with side affects with ADD is often the cause of anxiety attacks. Other stressors can include but not exclude the following school, work, and family affairs. These things are often not a problem when dealing with them one on one. However, since adults with ADD often forget about details things often get place on the back burner. When these things build up it creates a large increase in anxiety. While trying to find a balance between work and school it is often over whelming when dealing with my family obligations. In my case I am no longer on medication for my ADD due to the only medication that my doctor is willing to prescribe for his patients does not work for me. This means that I have to continue to attempt to balance my school work, job, and my husbands failing health. At times I find myself experiencing shortness of breath, chest pain, and the occasional black outs. Because to the addictive nature of benzo’s I choose not to receive treatment. On the upside if a person has learned the correct coping techniques a person can be able to deal with the anxiety problem with out medication. Learning how to allot your time and spread your task out over an extended time allows you to take on one task at a time. By not overwhelming yourself you run a lower risk of having an anxiety attack.

Oops maybe I should have thought about that....

Being implosive can be frustrating at times. Take for instant what my undergraduate degree was in. That is not what I starting out majoring but I started hanging out with allot of guys in the DEA so with out thinking about it I went from early education to criminal justice. I do not regret my major but I should have but more thought and effort into it. May people with ADD suffer from being implosive. This causes them to make rash decisions while putting little to no thought into the decision. This can affect them at home, work, and even in their love lives. At home they will often think about doing something like starting a burn pile outside but then not consider the fact that the wind is blowing to hard. In the personal life it can affect many things such as relationships, finances, and other issue. Many people find it hard enough to be in a relationship but when your divisions in that relationship are not thought out clearly then it can have serious consequences. As far as finances the impulsivety affects your life greatly. You go shopping and finding something that is nice but that you do not need. I can not tell you how many times I have gone shopping for one thing but will come home with everything but what I went for. Over half the stuff I do not need or will use. It just sounded good while I was there. Yes while in school I learned coping techniques but they do not all ways work. Medication helps the brain slow down enough to begin thinking clearly but if the person does not like the side affects or in my case the doctor treating you does not believe in giving medication for ADD then you face the decisions of whether to go to a doctor who over prescribes medication or just try and cope with the affects of being unmediated.

Am I forgetting something?

One of the most frustrating things about living with ADD is constantly forgetting things. I have to make several list just to keep up with what all is needed. For an example I have three list just at work so that I get all of my paperwork done on time. Or I will go to do something and get there and completely forget what I went there to do. Lack of concentration and losing focus on task is common with Adults with ADD. Yes we have learned to cope and deal with these problems but that does not make them less frustrating. I get tired of making list and will often try to do with out even though I know that I will end up forgetting something. If you can imagine having to make a list for everything that you do in your life household choirs (cleaning, laundry), grocery list, errands that need to be ran, and anything that is needed at work. It takes an extra hour a day to make the list and it gets tiring. Once you get fed up with so many list you attempt to go with out them and you end up spending more time trying to remember what you forgot or trying to play catch up then it would have been just making the stupid list. With work related stuff it is hard to find an employer that is willing to work with you to accomplish the task at hand. Most people need their task written down and explained so that they do not forget what to do and how to do it. If it is only verbalized then they will forget the details of the task at hand. Even when you work in a field that should understand this simple accommodation they often do not want to be bothered with it. For example, I work as a counselor at a drug rehab. clinic and all my coworkers have a B.S. or M.S. in a social science related field but my supervisor told me something last week that he needed me to do. On a normal day this would have been fine but he told me while I was in the middle of doing another task and he failed to write it down even though I have told him that I need stuff in writing. Well I forgot that he had even asked me to do this task and was reprimanded for it today. Once again you would expect a therapist who had to study ADD to understand the accommodations needed for an employee but it often does not happen. This is the primary reason why many children with this disorder do not accomplish much in the employment market. You find them working on cars, working fast food, waiting tables, and other jobs like this. For me I choose to rise against my issues and force myself to accomplish what I have been told is impossible. I advocate for myself and will tell my employer, my professors, and friends/family about my disability and what accommodations that I will need to succeed. I really hope that in the future that more employer's will understand and be willing to make the correct accommodations.