Attention Deficit Disorders

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My therapist suspects ADD, although hasn't made a diagnosis yet. I never really had problems concentrating until I started working at my job - interruptions (the number has gone up lately), changes in priority, beeping phones, and the most annoying noisy office mate ever - and now, a lot of the time, I find myself too distracted and fried to focus on ANYTHING.

I'm diagnosed ADD, but suspect I have nothing at all sometimes. I chronically question the ADD diagnosis and the validity of the concept itself, even though my ADD/NVLD friend from college assured me that my speech patterns are classically ADD, and my little sister knew a kid at work diagnosed with ADD who talked like me.

I thought that maybe an autistic-spectrum condition would "trump" an ADD diagnosis the way that mental retardation "trumps" learning disabilities - i.e., symptoms of the latter can be included in the former. But, apparently not, even though my Aspie friend reported that the fidgeting of Aspies reminded him of me. This made me think of how both autism-spectrum conditions and ADD can give the appearance of reduced frontal-lobe-associated regulatory activities, and that fidgeting/stimming may be a consequence of that same end achieved by different means.

Here's me, the pseudo-PDDer:

Yeah, it does seem to be a hodge-podge. Barkley, I think, suggests that "pure" ADHD/IA with no history of hyperactive or impulsive symptoms (not me, because I have a history of impulsive symptoms) may be a separate beast from those with a history of hyperactive and/or impulsive symptoms; and he suggests that IA's who have partial hyperactive-impulsive symptoms or a history of them should be considered "subclinical combined types." When I read this, I thought this made some sense, because I could resonate with some descriptions of ADDers that did have hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. The subclinical combined type theory, though, would require a sort of continuity of ADD core features across temperaments, where I, the quiet nerd, would have some key aspect of my wiring in common with my hyperactive and sociable cousin. It would probably take precise brain mapping to confirm or deny such theories, which would be rather expensive.

Diagnosed AS+ADHD (UK),/combined type ADHD.

ADHD kid. AS adult.

Diagnosed ADD when I was 10....I don't know if it was a good diagnosis or not because I can focus intently on things I have a genuine interest in.

Put on ritalin..... Grades shot through the roof and everyone was happy.
Never ate anything, wasn't particularly social, (before the ritalin either) and I felt weird. The ritalin did allow me to notice I was different from most everyone else eventualy.

I didn't take it on the weekends and noticed I had more personality.
As time passed I could see others making friends and me getting left behind and this worried me.
So I stopped taking ritalin against the paretns wishes in late 9th grade.

What freinds I did make didn't alst long and then I got in with the wrong crowd and things just kept going down hill in retrospect.
Aspergers is filling in alot of the blanks for me now.


Edited cuz I kant spel

Last edited by Lurker_Extraordinaire on 28 Nov 2005, 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Most ADDers can, actually - the books call it hyperfocus. It's the "flip side" of ADD...you could say that the common feature of ADD is that it's hard to get an "in between" level of focus and rate of change of focus. There tends to be too much or too little.

Of course, the ability to pay strong attention to areas of interest is one of the things that makes ADD sound like a load of crap.

To some extent, everyone does that. I think maybe it's just harder for people with an attention-deficit disorder. But the problem is, where is the cut-off?

This is an inherent problem for me. I'm still undiagnosed (and honestly starting to doubt that I could have Aspergers - before I was quit confident that I did have it) but I do have quite a strong interest in 90s Hollywood Cinema. I know quite a few of the major Oscar winners in the time, and can usually name directors, actors, writers and cinematographers (sometimes producers). But I don't know if my interest would be considered obsessive or perhaps just a little more in-depth (and better retained) than most people can do.

I always wonder where I am in relation to that 'cut off'...

Yes, ADHD is defined one way in the USA and another way (slightly differently) in parts of Europe. That's my understanding.

Deficits in Attention, Motor Control, and Perception (DAMP)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deficits_i ... Perception

I was dx'd with ADHD after failing first grade and apparently because I didn't want to finish my drawings on my math assignment (it was just one!), that makes me attention deficit. Wasn't a deficit at all in attention, I just didn't feel like finishing it. Wasn't interested in drawing, I was interested in getting the work done!

I was then dx'd with OCD, ODD, deep depression after attempting suicide and was in the mental hospital for a week. I would have stayed longer, but I would be outwardly about the fact that I was in a new scary place and not home where my interests were.

Then I was dx'd with still these and then Bi-polar on top.

I was also told that the phobias I have are pretty bizarre and serious.

So in all, I have been put down to many diagnosis, but I think I have bipolar and suspect Aspergers is the trigger. And I had looked at Autism when I was 14 and saw how similiar I was even then. None of these other diagnosis seemed to add up like Aspergers does. My boyfriend was Dx'd with ADHD, and we're nothing like each other.

None of the above. I am diagnosed with AS. I have never been nor do I suspect ADD. I'm in the US.

I have been diagnosed OCD and GAD in the past.

I was diagnosed with ADHD before AS. I don't think they ever dropped the label because when I was looking though my records from the booby hatch it said AS and ADHD. Now everybody wants to diagnosis me bipolar.