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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular

USA
894 Posts

Posted - 07/01/2011 :  10:05:11  Show Profile Send Ebone4rock a Private Message  Reply with Quote
This article to me reads almost like a horoscope. Kinda all-encompassing. I read about one sign and say " Hey! Thats totally me!" and then the next sign is totally the opposite.

Whattaya folks think? Can this article be trusted?

Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring

Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 07/01/2011 :  11:40:17   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Ebone4rock

This article to me reads almost like a horoscope. Kinda all-encompassing. I read about one sign and say " Hey! Thats totally me!" and then the next sign is totally the opposite.

Whattaya folks think? Can this article be trusted?
I think this from Pub Med might be a better resource for you.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: ADHD in Adults

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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Baxter
Skeptic Friend

USA
131 Posts

Posted - 07/01/2011 :  12:25:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Baxter a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well, I think that most people have certain traits of ADD. The main thing that matters in a diagnosis is whether the symptoms are majorly affecting one's life on a daily basis. That's when a person may want to do something about it.

"We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me." ~from Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

"We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know." ~Robert G. Ingersoll
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Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 07/01/2011 :  13:47:48   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Baxter

Well, I think that most people have certain traits of ADD. The main thing that matters in a diagnosis is whether the symptoms are majorly affecting one's life on a daily basis. That's when a person may want to do something about it.
I looked at the symptoms and almost panicked! But no. I don't think I have ADHD. In any case, it's not the sort of thing that should be self diagnosed.

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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tadcrawford
spammer

1 Post

Posted - 07/01/2011 :  22:37:48   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send tadcrawford a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Thanks for sharing such a nice information.
http://www.uselesslink.com
http://www.uselesslink.com
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict

2830 Posts

Posted - 07/02/2011 :  07:48:31   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send sailingsoul a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Aren't there enough disorders that doctors can misdiagnose or can't do shit about without other doctors coming up with more? This crap will never end. SS

There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS
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Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 07/02/2011 :  10:17:47   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by sailingsoul

Aren't there enough disorders that doctors can misdiagnose or can't do shit about without other doctors coming up with more? This crap will never end. SS
Well gosh. Here's the thing. Diagnostic procedures are getting much better. And ADHD isn't new. It's just better recognized. Also treatments for it are getting better, including medications that aren't central nervous system stimulants. The idea that the medical community is just running around inventing new things to treat is a very anti-science attitude.
What's really going on is they are better recognizing symtom clusters that point to a diagnosis that is treatable. Nothings perfect. Lots of things can be misdiagnosed if the treating physician doesn't have the current data on hand, and even if she sometimes does. But that's no excuse for not moving forward in finding better treatments in areas like neuroscience as they apply to medicine and as they become available through research.

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie

USA
4826 Posts

Posted - 07/06/2011 :  08:24:35   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Valiant Dancer's Homepage Send Valiant Dancer a Private Message  Reply with Quote
There is always a problem with self-diagnosing a particular diagnosis. You might identify several traits that are indicative of the diagnosis. They may also be present in several other completely different diagnoses.

ADHD tends to get my scorn because I see it overdiagnosed. It was the original cool diagnosis used by school districts everywhere to drug kids they didn't want to deal with. Autism Spectrum Disorder has moved in to this spot because the medical community identified that ADHD was being overdiagnosed.

This is to say that ADHD (juvenile or adult) exists. Perhaps not in the numbers posited, but it does exist nonetheless. In some cases, medication is appropriate. In some cases, therapy and exercises can mitigate the issues. Severity of impairment should be the determining factor over a course of treatment.

I just think that the therapy and exercise regimens get the short-shrift in favor of drugs due to expediency.

Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils

Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict

2830 Posts

Posted - 07/06/2011 :  10:09:54   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send sailingsoul a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Kil

Originally posted by sailingsoul

Aren't there enough disorders that doctors can misdiagnose or can't do shit about without other doctors coming up with more? This crap will never end. SS
The idea that the medical community is just running around inventing new things to treat is a very anti-science attitude.

I never intended to convey that, as you put it "the medical community is just running around inventing new things to treat". That's why I didn't say it. I was being a bit cynical about how whether or not properly diagnosed doctors prescribe Drugs from big Pharma to often in favor of other more benign treatment first and I, along with other patients should not read reports like this and dogmatically jump on board the pill cure. Even if directed so soon.
Nothings perfect. Lots of things can be misdiagnosed if the treating physician doesn't have the current data on hand, and even if she sometimes does. But that's no excuse for not moving forward in finding better treatments in areas like neuroscience as they apply to medicine and as they become available through research.

God is! But very true for everything else. Including my replies or how there taken. SS

There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 07/06/2011 :  10:49:52   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
ADD was, and still is, overdiagnosed. Its an easy fix to just drug up a kid who really just needs an extra 10-15 minutes of your time.

I have little doubt that if my parents were less interested when I was starting school that I would have been put in that category and possibly medicated. I was easily bored with school, I learned to read a couple years before kindergarden age, so there wasn't much content for a few years that I wasn't already familiar with. Sometimes, even today, I have a hard time focusing my attention for long periods of time on academic things that I am actually interested in. My eyes blurr, mind wanders... my key to get up and do something else for a while.

These days I also have a horrible case of apathy. I look around at how fucking retarded the majority of the human race is and I can't even get worked up about it anymore. That might be a manifestation of adult ADD!

Maybe I can get some cool drugs.... hmmmmm..... Dr visit!


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Hal
Skeptic Friend

USA
302 Posts

Posted - 07/06/2011 :  11:02:26   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Hal a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dude

ADD was, and still is, overdiagnosed. Its an easy fix to just drug up a kid who really just needs an extra 10-15 minutes of your time.

I have little doubt that if my parents were less interested when I was starting school that I would have been put in that category and possibly medicated. I was easily bored with school, I learned to read a couple years before kindergarden age, so there wasn't much content for a few years that I wasn't already familiar with. Sometimes, even today, I have a hard time focusing my attention for long periods of time on academic things that I am actually interested in. My eyes blurr, mind wanders... my key to get up and do something else for a while.

These days I also have a horrible case of apathy. I look around at how fucking retarded the majority of the human race is and I can't even get worked up about it anymore. That might be a manifestation of adult ADD!

Maybe I can get some cool drugs.... hmmmmm..... Dr visit!




I won't comment on the objective validity of my own, professionally diagnosed, case of Adult ADHD, but I will say that my symptoms were quite a lot like yours. I eventually came to the point where I found it nearly impossible to get anything done at work, and my whole career was on the line. I only knew that I didn't care about any of the responsibilities I had in front of me, couldn't follow a conversation, and I was always baffled at how everyone else seemed to be "into" all this bullshit that bored me to tears.

Again, I don't know if it was a valid diagnosis, or if the drugs I was prescribed were a mistake, but I can say, with 100% confidence, that this treatment has, quite literally, turned my life around.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King Jr.

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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 07/06/2011 :  20:51:29   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Hal

Originally posted by Dude

ADD was, and still is, overdiagnosed. Its an easy fix to just drug up a kid who really just needs an extra 10-15 minutes of your time.

I have little doubt that if my parents were less interested when I was starting school that I would have been put in that category and possibly medicated. I was easily bored with school, I learned to read a couple years before kindergarden age, so there wasn't much content for a few years that I wasn't already familiar with. Sometimes, even today, I have a hard time focusing my attention for long periods of time on academic things that I am actually interested in. My eyes blurr, mind wanders... my key to get up and do something else for a while.

These days I also have a horrible case of apathy. I look around at how fucking retarded the majority of the human race is and I can't even get worked up about it anymore. That might be a manifestation of adult ADD!

Maybe I can get some cool drugs.... hmmmmm..... Dr visit!




I won't comment on the objective validity of my own, professionally diagnosed, case of Adult ADHD, but I will say that my symptoms were quite a lot like yours. I eventually came to the point where I found it nearly impossible to get anything done at work, and my whole career was on the line. I only knew that I didn't care about any of the responsibilities I had in front of me, couldn't follow a conversation, and I was always baffled at how everyone else seemed to be "into" all this bullshit that bored me to tears.

Again, I don't know if it was a valid diagnosis, or if the drugs I was prescribed were a mistake, but I can say, with 100% confidence, that this treatment has, quite literally, turned my life around.



I was mostly being sarcastic. I can focus for extended periods of time, far beyond what most people are capable of, if the activity engages me. If it doesn't, I get bored quick, can't focus on it long, etc...(ok, ok, that may be a symptom of ADD...) Put a good book in my hands and you may not be able to speak to me for hours.

The apathy I chalk up to excess cynicism about the world. There is an infinite supply of stupidity and I have an increasing lack of concern for the wellbeing of stupid people. I don't think that one is a symptom, just a numbness from repeated exposure. I've been desnsitized.

Besides, if you go ask a doctor for ADD meds, or tell them you think you have ADD, they are probably going to want to send you to a shrink. I can almost guarantee that I'd be doing nothing but antagonizing that person in about 2 minutes.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Hal
Skeptic Friend

USA
302 Posts

Posted - 07/07/2011 :  07:37:39   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Hal a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dude

Originally posted by Hal

Originally posted by Dude

ADD was, and still is, overdiagnosed. Its an easy fix to just drug up a kid who really just needs an extra 10-15 minutes of your time.

I have little doubt that if my parents were less interested when I was starting school that I would have been put in that category and possibly medicated. I was easily bored with school, I learned to read a couple years before kindergarden age, so there wasn't much content for a few years that I wasn't already familiar with. Sometimes, even today, I have a hard time focusing my attention for long periods of time on academic things that I am actually interested in. My eyes blurr, mind wanders... my key to get up and do something else for a while.

These days I also have a horrible case of apathy. I look around at how fucking retarded the majority of the human race is and I can't even get worked up about it anymore. That might be a manifestation of adult ADD!

Maybe I can get some cool drugs.... hmmmmm..... Dr visit!




I won't comment on the objective validity of my own, professionally diagnosed, case of Adult ADHD, but I will say that my symptoms were quite a lot like yours. I eventually came to the point where I found it nearly impossible to get anything done at work, and my whole career was on the line. I only knew that I didn't care about any of the responsibilities I had in front of me, couldn't follow a conversation, and I was always baffled at how everyone else seemed to be "into" all this bullshit that bored me to tears.

Again, I don't know if it was a valid diagnosis, or if the drugs I was prescribed were a mistake, but I can say, with 100% confidence, that this treatment has, quite literally, turned my life around.



I was mostly being sarcastic. I can focus for extended periods of time, far beyond what most people are capable of, if the activity engages me. If it doesn't, I get bored quick, can't focus on it long, etc...(ok, ok, that may be a symptom of ADD...) Put a good book in my hands and you may not be able to speak to me for hours.

The apathy I chalk up to excess cynicism about the world. There is an infinite supply of stupidity and I have an increasing lack of concern for the wellbeing of stupid people. I don't think that one is a symptom, just a numbness from repeated exposure. I've been desnsitized.

Besides, if you go ask a doctor for ADD meds, or tell them you think you have ADD, they are probably going to want to send you to a shrink. I can almost guarantee that I'd be doing nothing but antagonizing that person in about 2 minutes.




Sure, there's a lot of room between general ennui and severe, debilitating depression. Some people get to a point where they, quite literally, can't make themselves get out of bed in the morning. Thankfully, I always managed to do that much, but eventually that was just about all I was doing! I'd once been an avid reader, but couldn't concentrate on more than a paragraph at a time. I neglected my social life because I couldn't make myself care about the things other people did or talked about. More importantly, since I wasn't accomplishing much in my own life, I didn't feel I had anything to share with others.

I'm sympathetic to your view on counseling. I started, very reluctantly, going to a psychologist because of the depression that went along with the attention deficit. Although I always enjoy having a nice person to talk to, I never made much of a dent in my symptoms that way. I'm much more comfortable with my psychiatric care - strictly clinical. "Try these meds. Feel better/worse? Side effects? See me next month and I'll renew your prescription."

It's entirely possible that lifestyle changes (better diet and exercise) will have similar effects, but if "better living through chemistry" gets me out the door, I'm OK with that!

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King Jr.

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