My nephew is diagnosed ADHD, and it helped actually to pinpoint a misdiagnosis (we think, anyway) in me and my father, where they thought we were bipolar.
As far as ADD goes, my nephew, who is 7, said that it was like being in a crowded, noisy room-- and not being able to distinguish a single conversation out of that, which is a VERY accurate way of describing things for me, as well. It's not just having a hard time concentrating-- if I'm trying to work on something that's not keeping my attention, I'll literally forget what I'm doing less than a second after I did it. So for simple tasks, for example, I'll have to go back and check where I'm at between 3 and 10 times before I can remember from one second to the next what I was working on and what goes where. Like, in the space of flipping from one screen to another on the computer I'll get distracted.
That said, if it's something interesting-- books, for me, Star Wars for Ian, etc.-- I'm obsessive with them. I literally won't hear someone calling my name the first few tries; it's not blocking it out, it's that my focus is entirely in that book-- and it's because it fills my brain; there is a visual effect, the actions, the dialogue, etc. My brain is supplying all the "background noise." Ian can't have any distractions at all doing his homework, whereas I do best if I have music going in the background-- but nothing visual, as that's a distraction. Music I can tune out, but it still provides some kind of focus, for some reason. Almost like arrows pointing back to the center, if that makes any sense.
As for bi-polar, my grandmother was that (maternal side, and yeah, I got slapped with a whole host of mood/learning disorders genetically). Given that I was mis-diagnosed most likely, and haven't touched medicine for either ever since I almost killed myself on Prozac, I'm not really an expert there by any means. (I know now that Prozac is the worst thing you can give to either b-p or ADD people). And I think the main difference I could pinpoint was timing. ADD folks tend to range emotionally throughout the day or over a shorter range of time; my grandmother's periods would last weeks at a time. In some ways, they were more...stable, I guess? But maybe that was just her. Each period lasted, give or take, about the same amount of time.
Now that he's older, I'm hoping he'll be able to help us out with his diagnosis and treatment. In the past it was just a a lot of me going, 'I don't know! Just look at him!' But now he;ll be able to talk to the doctor and actually tell her a little bit about what's going on in there. And luckily my doctor is great - she always pays attention to what my kids are saying (and not saying) to her.
My poor kid hit the genetic lottery: mental issues on all sides, with the extremes of bipolar from me. As for the roller coaster, I think that's very true: Goob will go from literally pulling his hair stressed to giggling within an hour, whereas my mood tops and lows tend to last a good three-five days.
I'm actually wondering if maybe I can't get him on something for both ADHD as well as depression. I don't want to end up giving the kid 9 pills a day or anything, but hopefully there's a combo out there for him.
As far as ADD goes, my nephew, who is 7, said that it was like being in a crowded, noisy room-- and not being able to distinguish a single conversation out of that, which is a VERY accurate way of describing things for me, as well. It's not just having a hard time concentrating-- if I'm trying to work on something that's not keeping my attention, I'll literally forget what I'm doing less than a second after I did it. So for simple tasks, for example, I'll have to go back and check where I'm at between 3 and 10 times before I can remember from one second to the next what I was working on and what goes where. Like, in the space of flipping from one screen to another on the computer I'll get distracted.
That said, if it's something interesting-- books, for me, Star Wars for Ian, etc.-- I'm obsessive with them. I literally won't hear someone calling my name the first few tries; it's not blocking it out, it's that my focus is entirely in that book-- and it's because it fills my brain; there is a visual effect, the actions, the dialogue, etc. My brain is supplying all the "background noise." Ian can't have any distractions at all doing his homework, whereas I do best if I have music going in the background-- but nothing visual, as that's a distraction. Music I can tune out, but it still provides some kind of focus, for some reason. Almost like arrows pointing back to the center, if that makes any sense.
As for bi-polar, my grandmother was that (maternal side, and yeah, I got slapped with a whole host of mood/learning disorders genetically). Given that I was mis-diagnosed most likely, and haven't touched medicine for either ever since I almost killed myself on Prozac, I'm not really an expert there by any means. (I know now that Prozac is the worst thing you can give to either b-p or ADD people). And I think the main difference I could pinpoint was timing. ADD folks tend to range emotionally throughout the day or over a shorter range of time; my grandmother's periods would last weeks at a time. In some ways, they were more...stable, I guess? But maybe that was just her. Each period lasted, give or take, about the same amount of time.
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My poor kid hit the genetic lottery: mental issues on all sides, with the extremes of bipolar from me. As for the roller coaster, I think that's very true: Goob will go from literally pulling his hair stressed to giggling within an hour, whereas my mood tops and lows tend to last a good three-five days.
I'm actually wondering if maybe I can't get him on something for both ADHD as well as depression. I don't want to end up giving the kid 9 pills a day or anything, but hopefully there's a combo out there for him.
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