Adult attention deficit disorder

[fairl1ght]

Has anyone come to the understanding that their anxiety at least in part stems from Attention deficit disorder, ADD or ADHD?

[Duke of Prunes]

Yep. They're one and the same for me, especially avoidance. I didn't get diagnosed until I was 19 (years after SA diagnosis), so all the bad habits that come from it were already drilled into my brain by then including the SA ones.

ADHD meds are hit or miss for me. They do make me less anxious, but they also make me lazy and ‘tunnel-visioned’ (i.e. I want to do loads of different things, but can't be bothered to put in the effort to do the important ones, so I pick the easiest one and work on it for hours no matter how boring it is – either I get a ****load of work done in one go, or I accomplish nothing, depending on what the thing is).

[ArkoN]

Originally Posted by fairl1ght

Has anyone come to the understanding that their anxiety at least in part stems from Attention deficit disorder, ADD or ADHD?

yes 100% my adhd took a bad turn when the medication made me anxious which developed into social anxiety.

[Phantomy]

I think I might possibly have ADHD and pretty sure I have AvPD and I am currently mentally telling myself to get to the doctors, which means many days/weeks thinking about it without picking up the phone to the point of frustration and eventual depression, yay me! I have set myself a deadline of before Friday to make an appointment, hopefully I can do it.

So, do I walk in and say;

Doc: Hello, take a seat, how can I help?
Me: Hi Doc, I think I have avoidant personality disorder, social anxiety and ADHD!
Doc: *gulp* well.. hmm... ok

Seems weird to me! WTF can he do? I have been assuming thus far I will get an SSRI which tbh would do me good to start with I guess.

[ArkoN]

i woudnt mention the adhd tbh. any medication you take for it is a huge gamble.
give this a read
http://www.add.org/page/ADHDandAnxiety

[Phantomy]

Originally Posted by Antony

I think I might possibly have ADHD and pretty sure I have AvPD and I am currently mentally telling myself to get to the doctors, which means many days/weeks thinking about it without picking up the phone to the point of frustration and eventual depression, yay me! I have set myself a deadline of before Friday to make an appointment, hopefully I can do it.

So, do I walk in and say;

Doc: Hello, take a seat, how can I help?
Me: Hi Doc, I think I have avoidant personality disorder, social anxiety and ADHD!
Doc: *gulp* well.. hmm... ok

Seems weird to me! WTF can he do? I have been assuming thus far I will get an SSRI which tbh would do me good to start with I guess.

Just wanted to follow this up, I did get to the doctors today. I stated I believed I had avoidant personality disorder so after a questionnaire and discussion I left with a referral to the mental health team and a prescription for sertraline.

As for adult ADHD which is the subject of this thread I did not mention that to the doctor. I have decided to see what effect the sertraline has on it before bringing that up at some future point. It is possible to be diagnosed with ADHD and yet have no hyperactive & impulsive symptoms, this is ADHD-PI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenti...ly_inattentive

I would never have thought ADHD was a problem with me, I thought the problem I had was that I was/am simply lazy, apathetic, chronic procrastinator or unable to make any effort... well apparently thats ADHD-PI. I don't think I will have much luck in the NHS to get treatment or get a diagnosis for it but I suppose if I am indeed 'suffering' from it I could find other ways to get the meds if neccessary.

[fairl1ght]

Hi Antony.

Well done for getting to the doc's I think I'm very much of an avoidant personality too.
I'll avoid things to my detriment!
I see where you're coming from with the ADHD in believing you were just a lazy person.
I've been the focus of many people's frustration over the years.
You can get so used to being other peoples punch bag you don't realise their just taking their frustrations out on an easy target - at least in my case.
Many Adhd types report getting picked on for their differences which others see as unacceptable because they measure your capabilities by their own standards and can't understand why you don't just 'pull' yourself together.
As I'm sure you well know, perhaps you've done much more research than me - It's not that we're deliberately lazy, irresponsible, disorganised, not paying attention etc It's the frontal lobes that are not functioning correctly or the administrative part of the brain which is effectively asleep.
It's the adhd drugs that are supposed to awaken this part of the brain.
Problem we have is finding specialists who know enough about adult adhd to understand it as a genuine and serious disorder.
I find it interesting how many medics have less problem accepting it in children and yet somehow expect it to magically disappear or become non existent when you become an adult.
In my case it's become more of a serious problem now with greater responsibilities in life.
What does the PI stand for by the way?

[Phantomy]

Check the wikipedia link I posted above, PI = predominantly inattentive.

Stimulants are the way to go. As you know they affect dopamine rather than serotonin which is what SSRI meds target. I think as my sertraline kicks in I will get myself some stimulants (legal and not-so-legal ones) and see how I go on with them.

[fairl1ght]

Anthony: Ah of course! PI, predominantly inattentive. I should know It's the same with me! (been a while since I did any reading up on this)
Stimulants; yeah I have to have a huge cup of strong coffee every morning to get me going and I'll often have 2 or more caffeine tablets with more coffee later on during the day.
It's the distraction that I can't seem to get on top of. I'll start off on one thing, then jump onto something else when I should be doing something far more important.
At the end of the day I'll often have done lots of things except the thing I set out to do!
Have you started on the sertraline already?
I started back on Seroxat yesterday, it sounds like your current situation is very similar to my own.

[Marco]

Yeah I think I have a touch of attention deficit disorder. When I was at primary school I was labelled the dreamer of the class. I could never focus on anything as a kid and iInvariably I would switch off during lessons. I remember one nice teacher would read stories to us, but I***8217;d never follow them from start to finish no matter how much I tried to make the effort. The rest of the class seemed to be held in rapt attention, thoroughly immersed in the teacher***8217;s narration. It was always obvious to the teacher and the rest of the class that I hadn***8217;t followed a story because we all had to have a discussion about it afterwards and I didn***8217;t have a clue. A shame really because I believe the stories she read were really entertaining. I got some ribbing about my lack of attentiveness from the teachers and some of my classmates, but I don***8217;t remember outright bullying. Not surprisingly, I performed very poorly at primary school and always failed the class tests miserably, much to my shame. This was back in the early seventies before ADHD, autism and such like were widely understood or recognised. The problem has stuck with me unfortunately. I still find it difficult to follow and engage in conversations, especially if it***8217;s a group discussion. This is one of the reasons I dread meetings. I much prefer reading up about something myself when I can go at my own pace to being given instructions by someone, say at one of these intensive training courses I***8217;m sometimes made to go on. In fact I much prefer reading than listening to people, period. I find strong coffee does boost my ability to concentrate and I always start the day with two cups, but the effects are short acting and I can only take a few cups of coffee daily without upsetting my stomach and causing me insomnia, especially if I drink after lunch. Anyway, I think attention deficit disorder, or something akin to this, is a significant factor in my social anxiety problem as an adult and probably was a big contributor to developing full blown SA in my teens.

[Phantomy]

Well I find it most obvious when I try to read a book, I simply cannot do it.

I will read a paragraph and my mind will wander off, when I realise I am trying to read a book I end up reading the same paragraph again because I 'zoned out' whilst trying last time. Then this happens again and again and I end up going back to previous pages because I can't remember if I read them or not until I eventually give up.

Websites and newspapers are ok because the text is broken up much better and there are pictures etc It doesn't matter if I miss something on a website or in a newspaper.