Thread: Adult ADHD ?
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Blueberrybook
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Member Since: Oct 2017
Location: La Porte, TX
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Default Nov 20, 2018 at 11:05 AM
 
I am in this situation too. I was just diagnosed over the summer & am 40 years old. Are you diagnosed with any other mental illnesses? Do you take any meds? There is always the possibility it could be another mental illness like bipolar with manic symptoms or bipolar mixed. Did you get a full psychiatric evaluation? It would be best to get a full evaluation from a psychiatrist, and from the start, as in don't have them assume you have X condition. I did this, and it led to every pdoc thinking I had major depression when it's bipolar (and it took 10 years to get that straightened out). Bipolar comes out at different times for a lot of people but around the age of 25, 26 is common (that's when it happened for me).

When I was younger, I was very focused in school. Graduated valedictorian of my high school class (though it was a small class, 109 students), graduated summa cum laude with a major in Microbiology & minor in Chemistry from a large, well-regarded university. I only had one B and straight A's; I did better than most of the pre-med students in my class. In college, I was diagnosed with major depression & anorexia. I got an M.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology from a bit less regarded university but still considered a good department, published journal articles, one a first author publication.

And then things fell apart. The bipolar came out. Well, I went off meds, had a baby, went to a new pdoc who of course went with post-partum depression, then depression, then bipolar II, then bipolar I after a giant manic episode I had in her office. Can't work, end up in the hospital or close to it any time I try. I can't concentrate to do the calculations to mix the enzymes, dyes and such to run PCR gels even (and I was doing SDS-PAGE and silver staining in grad school, much more complicated than simple PCR).

I couldn't read (my favorite hobby). I couldn't concentrate to watch a TV show or series or movie. I couldn't even concentrate to do a simple game on my iPad, not even solitaire. And as for playing a real board game, if it was more complicated than Shoots & Ladders, forget it. I had to get a new pdoc late March (last one of 10 years retiring), and he diagnosed me with ADHD though I got my medical records from the old doc and noticed she put something about my maybe showing signs of ADD and to watch it in her summation to the new pdoc.

New pdoc said something about hyperfocus regarding my school years and that the other MIs I have were untreated or not controlled and masking the ADHD at the time. He put ADHD down as a diagnosis. Whether I have it or not, I don't know. He put me on Adderall, and I do have to say, I can now read books again and watch TV shows and play games more complicated than solitaire on my iPad. I don't know if he is right or if my other meds along with bipolar hypomania/mania cause these symptoms, but oh, well, it's working out OK. I don't have any side effects from the Adderall except I have noticed an increased sex drive, not to the extreme, just that I finally have a sex drive again, so that is actually a plus for me.

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Bipolar 1, PTSD, anorexia, panic disorder, ADHD

Seroquel, Cymbalta, , propanolol, buspirone, Trazodone, gabapentin, omeperazole

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
--Robert Frost
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