Interesting conversation

[kitanzi]

It's a very short work week, only three days long, and you just know no one's getting much done if they can help it. Well, a couple of my coworkers were trading amusing stories from childhood, and I stopped to listen when one mentioned that she was/is hyperactive. It caught my attention, since my ex F's kids were all diagnosed ADHD or ADD long before I ever met any of them. It was an interesting conversation, with her stories from the kid's perspective and mine from the (stepish) parent's perspective. We agreed that the condition tended to go along with high intelligence, and was often overdiagnosed but still a genuine problem. Then she casually mentioned she was pretty sure that I was ADD or ADHD as well, and the other coworker nodded vigorously, both of them listing what made them think so.

It's something I've considered before. I do have some of the indicators, but then I have some indicators for other things as well, and in my opinion, in *my* case, it doesn't matter. Sure, I twitch a lot and I get bored easily, am easily frustrated, and I multitask like hell, etc etc etc. In the end, though, these are things that I cope pretty well with and mostly turn to my own good advantage, so I'm not concerned with whether a diagnosis fits me, because I'm not looking to be treated for it, if it even is so.

It was an interesting conversation, not in the least because it highlighted to me how not-new an idea this is to me, and how little I'm actualy concerned about it. From what I gather, there's a spectrum of behavior which is part of what makes diagnosis of ADD and ADHD difficult *as a condition*. I'm curious (in a hopefully flame resistant fashion) what experiences you all have had with this, in whatever context? Please do keep in mind that I'm not even vaguely interested in arguing whether ADD and ADHD exist, valid and invalid courses of treatment in general, possible abuses of the diagnosis, or any of the hot trigger issues that abound with this. I just find this kind of interesting, especially since two rather casual acquaintances apparently think they see this in me as well.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

When I was in school, the concept of ADD didn't exist; wandering attention was simply punished. I recall a few times I was kept inside during recess because I couldn't hold myself back to the pace of a classmate's stumbling through a page in the time that I could read the whole book. (This meant that I could read at my own pace during recess, so it wasn't much of a punishment!)

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! When I was in public school, I don't recall ever hearing about ADD or ADHD. I'm not sure if I ever even heard the term hyperactive. I was fortunate enough to mostly be in schools that had programs for gifted kids, though it was pretty variable as to whether I got put in one. I was in quite a few different schools. I do know I was often bored silly, but I'm pretty sure it didn't come out as a discipline problem, possibly just because I was rather withdrawn and avoided attention. Beaing left along to READ has always been a reward to me as well.

[madfilkentist]

Perhaps I should have mentioned that it was only in the first grade that I was kept in for recess, and the teacher that year was a particularly unpleasant woman.

[davehogg.livejournal.com]

I was in the exact same situation you were six months ago. I finally got a diagnosis, and the doctor suggested Strattera. I was skeptical, but I'm stunned by how much of a difference it has made for me in a span of six weeks.

It seems to be harder to catch in highly-intelligent people, because we are able to overcome the issues just by sheer speed of thought, but it has helped me with being so easily distracted from a project and bored by detail work.

It has also done wonders, oddly enough, with my anxiety issues.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I don't have experience with this, but I'm going to lurk here and see what you get, because I have a tangent of interest. My eldest is autistic, fairly high functioning. There have been various discussions about lots of my family being on the really high end of the spectrum, but high enough that we get by.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Yep. Asperger's is one of the "other indicators" things I was talking about. But, as far as I can tell in researching it, that's even more elusive to pin down than ADD/ADHD, and some of the things (repetitive movement, aversion to eye contact) I appear to have outgrown, so dunno if those count. Again, it hardly matters but it's some matter of curiosity.

[poltr1]

Yes, I definitely see this in myself as well. At work, if I see something that needs doing, I'll drop what I'm doing and take care of what I just saw. I also have a hard time remembering what people tell me verbally.

I once had a music lesson in high school scheduled for 2nd period. I saw the teacher between homeroom and 1st period, who reminded me about the lesson. 2nd period came and by then, I forgot all about the music lesson. The teacher asked me where I was. I told him "I forgot about it", and he couldn't accept that I was telling him the truth.

A problem I see is that ADD and/or ADHD are diagnosed too often now, and Ritalin is dispensed like candy.

My mom also told me that I was taking Ritalin when I was 5. I have no memory of that. About the only memory I have was seeing a psychologist and missing a day in kindergarten. We were working on ceramics projects, and that was the day the class was shaping their items. I missed that day, so my project was a lump of clay when it went to the kiln.