ADD, adult diagnosis

[Aeress]

Can I ask a few questions?
My dh was recently diagnosed with ADD. I wonder if you could give me some resources concerning meds and diagnosis? I looked online but it was overwhelming.

I want to be supportive of dh but the pyschologist only saw him for about 10minutes, wrote him a script for a med and set a follow up appt for a month.

Is that typical?

My dh is not one to question doctors but I am. So, rather than harrassing dh for answers he doesn't have, I thought I would collect info.

Hope this is ok to talk about here- I thought about health and healing but figured this forum might have good resources.

[heatherdeg]

My dh was flagged for ADD about 8 years ago during marriage counseling. He was sent to a really good doc for it, but yeah--I think that guy really only spent about 20 minutes with him. And it was a psychiatrist, not a psychologist (psychologists can't write prescriptions).

By and large, most psychiatrists only spend as much time as needed to hear your symptoms and determine the appropriate med & dosing. Before my insulin disorder was dx'd, I saw LOTS of them. Only one was the type you think they should be.

My husband is truly bad enough that I know when he hasn't taken his meds. He has taken Adderall, Vyvanse, another one I can't remember and then a patch. All of them are like legal versions of cocaine pretty much. They're all stimulants.

With Adderall he had to have a regular echocardiogram. That didn't really sit well with us. The patch made him aggressive. The other one that I can't remember--well, I can't remember what the issue was. Possibly nothing. He's been on Vyvanse a while now.

They also started giving him an antidepressant to "enhance" the affect of the Vyvanse. Not loving that. He is finally ready to try non-med things.

Because we have a very restricted diet due to ds' food allergies and we're looking into another form of it for ds, dh is going to try it, too. It's Feingold diet and it gets an awful lot of press over it's ADD/ADHD success (although we're looking at it for behavioral issues as well with ds).

There are people (I think in the H&H forum actually) who have talked about high doses of fish oil managing it, but I honestly don't know the dosing.

Beyond that, we haven't delved too far into it. We figure if the diet doesn't work, we'll figure it out then.

There was a commercial on TV where a person was in a room and all the papers were flying around them. Dh said "THAT'S what ADD is like". He's also really bad at procrastinating. I think part of this is just that it's hard for him to concentrate so he'd rather be doing something else and has this "escapism" thing going. It's not nearly as bad NOW, but it was REALLY bad. I almost wondered if he had an addiction to the internet/computer.

Not sure this helps at all.

[mrsfru]

Both my sil and her dh were dx'd as having ADD as adults (over 30 yrs old!), and their dd, age 8, was dx'd at @ 5 or 6. My dh (sil's half brother) has symptoms, but he manages very, very well.

As for computer addiction, many w/ADD or ADHD get very attached to their computer or tv or video games--to someone w/ADD or ADHD, those screens work much like the stimulant medications. So, they are very much drawn into them.

I would not be okay w/a dx being given after only *one* 10 minute eval and no real follow up. ADD can also be helped w/some therapy to teach a person some techniques to manage their deficits. Obviously, I have seen that the meds have helped my niece a lot, but they haven't tried anything else, either. I know from experience that, as a family, they do not eat well (lots of sugar, food dyes, additives, artificial sweeteners, etc), and I have seen my niece change from perfectly capable to nervous, inattentive, and out of control w/a bowl of Fruit Loops! In addition, ADD symptoms can mimic those of a mild manic phase in someone w/bipolar disorder (and they can be comorbid dx's as well).

hope that bit of info is helpful--gl!

mrsfru

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by mrsfru

As for computer addiction, many w/ADD or ADHD get very attached to their computer or tv or video games--to someone, those screens work much like the stimulant medications. So, they are very much drawn into them.

THANK you for this. My now 6yo was flagged as potentially having it, too (apparently one of the qualifiers is that it shows up before they're 6 or 7, but they're not supposed to dx until 7 or 8?) and he is ADDICTED to electronics such that even a small amount is a problem. Now I may understand why.

I should also note that in the process of looking into solutions for ds, we are finding things to try with dh. In addition to Feingold (which we'd had on our radar to try for behavior issues) is an audiogram hearing test with Central Auditory Processing subtests and something else we learned about from the Feingold newsletter: an eyesight problem that regularly presents like ADD called "convergence insufficiency" that is apparently easy to diagnose and may be the only problem.

[mrsfru]

In addition to Feingold (which we'd had on our radar to try for behavior issues) is an audiogram hearing test with Central Auditory Processing subtests and something else we learned about from the Feingold newsletter: an eyesight problem that regularly presents like ADD called "convergence insufficiency" that is apparently easy to diagnose and may be the only problem.

Hmmm...Auditory Processing is something my 4 yr old is struggling w/but we were told they don't test for it until age 6 or so....I'd love to know more about the "subtests". Interesting. Surely, they can do something about it even w/o testing.

On a different topic--I lived in Cherry Hill until I was 11 (outside of Philly, in case you don't know where exactly). I'm surprised that you aren't finding docs that are knowledgeable--I live in the south now, near a huge teaching hospital, so we've had a lot of services closely available that others really have to travel for. It's not always the approach I want to go with, but it has definitely come in handy!

mrsfru

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by mrsfru

Hmmm...Auditory Processing is something my 4 yr old is struggling w/but we were told they don't test for it until age 6 or so....I'd love to know more about the "subtests". Interesting. Surely, they can do something about it even w/o testing.

On a different topic--I lived in Cherry Hill until I was 11 (outside of Philly, in case you don't know where exactly). I'm surprised that you aren't finding docs that are knowledgeable--I live in the south now, near a huge teaching hospital, so we've had a lot of services closely available that others really have to travel for. It's not always the approach I want to go with, but it has definitely come in handy!

mrsfru

They can't do the CAP audiogram until they're 7 or 8 but they're going to try it on my ds because he's flagged for giftedness and therefore may be able to do it. Not sure how that's related because I have no idea what's involved.

I know exactly where Cherry Hill is. I think my bigger issue is that we have SO MANY doctors available to us that finding the ones that know anything is hard amongst the countless that don't... kwim? I'm in North Plainfield (within 45-60mins of NYC) so we're EXTREMELY dense here. I don't lack for docs by ANY stretch... kwim? As a result, the trial-and-error of finding good ones means going through 20-30 rather than the 2-5 in less dense areas.

[Polliwog]

I was diagnosed wiht ADHD four years ago when I participated in a Concerta drug study (I was on a placebo.) My initial evaluation was about two hours long. The psychiatrist is the developer of a computer-based diagnostic program that was used as part of the evaluation.

I need to go back on my meds but I'm looking into dietary interventions now a psychologist has told me that my son (adopted) likely has ADHD too.

I AM internet addicted. It's bad.

[Kuba'sMama]

My husband has ADD. He was diagnosed in college. When he was in school and doing papers and stuff, he took the meds when he needed to focus. Now that he's off school and working as a furniture maker he doesn't need them anymore. He is definately scatter-brained but i'd take that over him being on meds all the time. BTW, he's already on regular meds due to bipolar disorder. ADD he can cope with. "Attention span of a goldfish" we joke sometimes, but not maliciously.