Anyone here have Add/Adhd aswell?

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I have ADHD but I don't take medication, mostly out of concern due to the side effects - though they sound like a god send. Maybe one day I'll work up the nerve. I did cognitive behavioral therapy and that helped a great deal. my improvement at work was measured statistically and I improved my production by 300%. I also worked through an excellent book on organizing and for two years my finances and papers have been in perfect order.

I think dealing with ADD/ADHD is always a work in progress. Sometimes I'm good at applying the techniques for managing things but other times it's just not on my mind and I get a little messy.

I have found that meditation really helps, too.

I just found out I was diagnosed with ADD as a child, which is weird because I've never felt I have ADD, not even after I learned about the diagnosis.

I don't have ADHD but I certainly have the traits that are common with aspies that are similar to ADHD. Like the executive dysfunction and bad short term memory and short attention span and that, oh and being hyper.
A few years ago I took fish oils because my mum said they improve concentration but they didn't do anything.

I am only "officially" diagnosed with ADHD though I know I have AS as well. I take Vyvanse 30 mg (low dose for an adult) daily and it is like lifting a fog. It's a stimulant but it makes me calmer (not uncommon in ppl with ADHD to have the opposite effect). Without it I cannot multi-task to save my life, but with it I can try and sometimes succeed. I didn't take any medications as a child, because I did well in school and nobody thought anything of the major obsessive effort it took. I wish ppl had known more about ADHD and AS then (I'm in my 40s) because I can't help but think my life would've been easier.

I have no "issues" with taking medication, any more than I do with taking my seizure medications (I also have epilepsy). My brain doesn't work the way it should, and it's no worse to take medication to be able to function better than it is to take it not to have seizures. In both cases I am increasing my ability to function in daily life, and I make no apologies for either.

~Kate

I'm pretty sure I would have been diagnosed ADD if not for being born a few years too early. I've not tried a drug for it. Meditation really helps.

I'm somewhat skeptical as to whether one can actually have BOTH, since all the symptoms of ADHD already fall under the Asperger 'Syndrome' umbrella anyway. If you have diagnosed AS, the the attention deficit problems pretty much go without saying - they're to be expected.

What surprises me is that if you're having trouble focusing, at least partially due to the fact that your mind jumps hyperactively from one thought to the other so rapidly you can't stay on point long enough to accomplish anything - AND you suffer from near constant hyperanxiety and the occasional panic attack - why in the name of all that's holy would you want to take a stimulant drug to compensate for that? I think I'd be a twitching mass of paranoid psychosis in no time at all.

I take fish oil because I hate eating fish, but it's one of nature's most effective antioxidants. The occasional fish burp is nasty , but I haven't noticed any gastrointestinal upset because of it.

I have adhd too and the side effects of ritalin normally resides after a month or two. i saw a video on adhd that i found extremely helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3d1SwUXMc0

I'm not sure exactly how it works, but taking a stimulant with ADD/ADHD actually calms the mind. Thats why caffeine can work in low doses.

In HS a friend gave me some of her Ritalin. Best day EVER. Could think clearly, understand directions the first time they were given to me, it was wonderful. A few years after that I was diagnosed as ADHD. I wish I could get a script for those again, it would be nice to loose a lot of the issues I have with focusi and such.

Willard, this is what stimulants do. If you truly do have Add they calm you down, they don't make you hyper at all. On meds I can do everything, multitask, concentrate, everything. Off meds I'm a total mess who leaves a long trail of destruction everywhere i go. I've gone and stayed at hotels and within like 30 minutes of arriving my room will look like a tornando had hit.

As a kid I once remember looking for something in my room and then unknowingly had managed to turn everything upside down. My mother walked in and started crying because she thought I had trashed the room on purpose.

I'm so sick of struggling with everything in life esp when you put in twice the effort with half the results. I've avoided meds for long enough.

Yes, I think how much ritalin can change your life is a pretty good indication of how much you struggle with ADHD/ADD

I know that there are overlapping traits with AS, but I don't think they're the same thing. People with AS only don't have the attention deficit we do. When I speak of attention deficit, I don't just mean not paying attention to topics that don't interest us, I mean not being able to focus fullstop, *even* on our special interests.

The most frustrating and upsetting part about the AS/ADHD combination for me is when I'm obsessed with composing music for piano, I want more than anything in the world at that moment to sit at the piano and compose some music for a few hours, but I sit there can't focus for longer than five minutes before my attention just *shifts* and I become agitated. Often when this sort of thing happens I can get so upset I start crying.

A person with AS alone would be able to absorb them self in their interest for hours if there was nothing in their way, and no distractions to speak of.

My biggest problems are the ones that feel like ADHD/ADD and depression. But it generally all comes from AS. Bit of a ball of twine to unravel, a huge one in fact. What's a good career for ADHD/ADD people? I haven't found much I'm too productive at yet (DIY, some IT stuff, languages).

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was very young. I had had all of the signs. I took a couple of different meds but I don't really remember how well they worked. I have not taken meds for awhile because I just cant afford them. I think that if I was on meds I would probably have an easier time living life.

Well I am really so depressed. I have to go off them for now and my DR wants me to go see a specialist and have these tests done to find out why I'm getting these stomach pains.

I've only had these pains before when i was taking St Johns Wort, Black Cohosh and Gingko Bilobo (not altogether thoug) I took the St Johns Wort and The Black Cohosh together which i found out later on was a no no. Then a couple of months later I took fish oil with the Gingko and got the same pains and now 2 months later with Ritalin the same pains again, I mean, how can all these things be connected? I dont get any bad stomach pains from any food i eat just these particular herbs and Ritalin.

I have ADD, not the hyperactive form though.

I am not currently on meds, part of the problem being the somewhat backward state of awareness of adult ADD in my country. The choice of meds is rather limited.

In fact, it was on my regular add forum where i am also an assistant mod that I found a reference to wrongplanet.net

The tiredness that comes with ADD is in my opinion mostly attributable to the effort needed to function in daily life. Its a continuous struggle to achieve a minimum of productivity and you need a wide repertoire of coping strategies.

I was diagnosed with ADHD before AS so I guess so.

I agree. I always force myself to do things I have little energy for. Then I hear about others with ADHD who have problems with doing things on time or staying organised. I just know if I were to stop being so ordered and organised I'd fall into that habit again.