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neongrl
Veteran
Veteran

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Joined: 5 Oct 2005
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 704
Location: Delhi, Ontario, Canada

01 Jul 2006, 12:27 pm

I'm self-diagnosed with adhd and I always thought I had ocd too - classic adhd stuff like problems with distractability, short-term memory, executive function, restlessness, etc. Stimulants help a lot with that stuff, but I also have really obsessive thinking patterns (and stimulants tend to make that part of it worse). About a week ago I was reading about adhd subtypes and discovered Overfocused ADHD - almost a perfect fit, it explains everything.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because in my reading it looked like St John's Wort is pretty widely recommended for this subtype as well as regular ocd. After trying it for a week I'm really impressed with the results so far (it's probably too early to predict long-term effects though) - for the first time in a really long time (my whole life?) I can easily focus my attention where *I* want it, without it locking itself on other things that I don't want to be thinking about at the moment. This freedom of thought is awesome, I didn't know what I was missing. It makes it so much easier to get through daily tasks and I'm not so irritable with other people (because they're not interrupting my narrow train of thought anymore). It's made a noticible difference in the adhd physical restlessness too - it's a lot easier to just relax.

If anyone's interested in the chemical side of it St John's Wort is known for making more serotonin available, but from what I've read it ALSO makes more dopamine and norepinephrine available too. It sounds weird because serotonin and dopamine usually counter-balance each other, but somehow this stuff is supposed to raise both. I wouldn't say that it's helping with the adhd issues (dopamine-related) that usually require stimulants, but it's not making it any worse either like I thought it would.

St John's Wort is usually used for things like depression - has anyone else used it for this other stuff?

http://www.second-hand-news.com/index.html

http://www.newideas.net/add_types.htm