Adults with ADD/ADHD

Good morning!

This is the first time I have visited this board so I have many questions.

After several years of wondering if I am ADD, I finally went to the doctor yesterday. He put me on Strattera based on my symptoms, but I also opted to go through the full eval just to be sure. First I have to make sure insurance covers it, though!

I have very mixed feelings about all of this. First of all, I am hopeful that tackling this issue will lead to positive changes that I have tried to make for YEARS on my own, but was never successful. However, I am nervous about having a label attached to me and being on medicine for the rest of my life.

What are some of your personal experiences and feelings? have any of you had any luck with Strattera? I personally wanted to go with this medicine first, because it seemed less "risky" than the others.

When we you guys diagnosed? Looking back and reading literature on the subject, I suspect that I have had ADD from childhood, but it just was never recognized, especially since I don't have the hyperactive symptoms.

Any help and advice would be great!

Thanks,

Jodi

Jodi

I don't have any experience with Straterra, so I can't help you there.

I was diagnosed four years ago and it was more of an informal diagnosis.  The doctors were reluctant because I was never diagnosed, or even suspected as a child to have ADD.  Yet, with treatment, my life has changed dramatically.  I'm so much more focused at work and even at home. 

I did well in school and wasn't excessively hyper, which is why I think it was missed.  I was able to pull things off last minute somehow.  That's still the case now.  It's funny how in past jobs, I could spend most days doing next to nothing.  Then my boss would ask for something out of nowhere and I could pull it off so quickly that she was always impressed.  Yet deep down I knew how much I was messing up.  Eventually it all was bound to catch up with me... and it did. 

I've sworn to never let ADD keep me from being successful.  I still have my ups and downs, I think mainly because of the side effects of the Adderall I take.  It works, but the anxiety it gives me is hard to cope with so I stop taking it some days just to try to stay level.  A missed day here and there doesn't seem to hurt, but when I stopped taking it for several months, I found myself falling back into old patterns again.  It wasn't good. 

I'm a little iffy on the Adderall.  I love what it does for my ADD, but it makes it difficult for me to cope with anxiety.  I've been off Adderall for a week now just because with back problems and other issues that are making me anxious, I'm afraid to make it worse.  (sigh)

I'm ready to throw in the towel on meds, but they've helped so much.  It's hard to give it up. 

I'd write more, but I'm tired.  I'm not even sure why I'm still awake.  So much I want to do I guess that I never have time for during the day... including just relax and surf the internet for a while. :p