adhd/depression

Did you know long term use of medication for ADHD can cause depression? Well it can. Maybe you should have that looked into. Also these drugs you are rotating, are nowhere near as safe as they are presented to be. Far from it. Many depression meds can cause more severe depression. If i were you i would see a different doctor or discuss this issue of the medications with your dr. See how you could make certain the meds are doing more good than harm because listening to you i suspect they may be doing the opposite. Long term use of ADHD drugs, is also a bad idea because once you have been on them for 3 years studies have proven they offer no benefits. What is more, they still continue to offer horrible side effects. Please do what is right for you always. If that is medicating yourself then medicate. If it is checking up on the medication or stopping it do it. But do what is best and can i suggest first you check on all the meds and get second opinions?

I am very sorry you are having so much trouble. Don’t feel too badly and if you need anything or someone to talk to feel free to send me an email. I also suffer from what you suffer from. We must therefore stick together and support eachother because no one else is going to. They would rather just look at us as different and less than when in point of fact we are no such thing. You don’t let your LD get in your way. It has only as much power as you give it. So take the power back and feel better and i am here if you need anything.

thank you so much Mandi…brought tears in my eyes….I want to stop taking all the medication…I really do…There are times I have tried….and it just gets worse. I have doctors appoitment today and probably change to new meds see if it could help.

thank you
khelen

They really do a piss poor job of explaining drugs to people. The reason for this is because each pill they sell is money in someone’s pocket. It is an industry. Which means contrary to common belief it does NOT exist to make people better or to really help them. It exists for the same cold reason all industry exists. To earn someone as much of a proffit as they humanly can. This is a sad cold hard fact.

I do not know what yiu are on. But if you google Dr. Breggin and Dr. Baughman i am sure you will be able somewhere to locate some drug information. There is a book you should read it is older but it still holds a wealth of great information it is called Talking Back To Ritalin.

I am not sure what ADHD medication you are on, but i know many of them are quite similar these are class 2 drugs. Ritalin is just cocaine. Yes it is. And studies have proven 2 things,

1. It effects people with ADHD the same way as it does those without it. (Which can be said in large part of all ADHD drugs)
2. Ritalin operates on the dopamine system. It effects the brain as an enhanced cocaine would. ie the response is more serious and major than the response of the brain to cocaine.
They need to be more honest with people about the drugs they are dishing out like candy. This stuff, its NOT candy and it isn’t generally speaking healthy. However, theres a time and a place for everything and if it helps you to study then by all means while you are in school take it. But there are major side effects related to ADHD medication including a shrinkage of the frontal lobe of upto 5% (the self editing and logic oriented center of the brain.) When you go off these drugs that are nowhere near as mild as you are lead to believe, expect about a month of true unholy hell and horror while slowly it finds it’s way out of your system. Withdrawal will last anywhere from between 1 month to 6 months. So if you feel worse when you go off meds, maybe it is because you are going through withdrawal? What state are you in? Because if you are in MA for example or close to it and up for a road trip, i know a dr. there who isn’t a moron. The only one that i trust as far as i can throw him. No BS out of him. He is also very weird but he is…. amazingly good. So if youa re in or near MA and if you would like his name let me know. Drugs for depression in a recent study have proven to be actually as effective as a sugar pill. Except for the dangerous risks that come with them. including suicidal thoughts, and or homicidal thoughts and behaviors etc….

But if you don’t listen to me on all that which yiu don’t have to you don’t know who i am why should you listen? Listen to me on this… You are not alone with this. There are people in this world who suffer also. You are not all alone some strange alien running around a world where no one gets it or understands.Some of us understand it all too well and feel for you, and have been right there ourselves and accept we very well may be there again. But until that time, if you don’t have strength, i have plenty for both of us so you just make a post or you just email me and you are not alone because i am right here and if you have trouble lets talk… It can’t hurt any, but allowing your mind to go round and round in circles of negativity can and potentially will destroy you if you don’t hold on tight sometimes and just hang on. These moods this difficulty, it is going to pass. It will be replaced by new good stuff and easy stuff….. And new bad and hard stuff…. That is why we call it life rather than a joy ride. Others have it perhaps in the society we live in a bit easier. But so what? What we gain is so much more from life and so much more meaningful because we have to work sometimes in some ways so much harder for it. And that brings it’s own strengths with it. You are not alone. And you are not your LD. You are yourself. So why not focus some time each day to looking at the good things about yourself. For example, creative minds and amazingly brilliant unconventional thought comes with ADHD. They never tell you about the good aspects of it either and they really should. Just about every mega genius since the creation of written language has had you got it ADHD. The Right Brothers, Mozart, Agatha Christie, etc…. Look it up. They had no medication back then yet these brilliant people had such amazingly different ways of functioning with their brains they enriched our world and left a lasting mark on the world. You are not alone and there are positives here. If you can just start to get creative about ways to compensate and or get on/off the right amount of the right medication. ADHD itself can have a huge impact on mood. As it also possibly many believe anyway reacts with the serotonin in the brain (atleast that is one theory) in which case it could be if you effectively treat your ADHD you can as a result potentially treat your depression at the same time because they can be linked and by leveling off the brain chemistry that way, it may just fix your mood. But thebn i am an archaeologist not a LD doctor. Which is why i recommend seeing one who isn’t brain dead. (unfortunately most are just that brain dead…)

Good luck with your studies and take care of yourself and just take a few minutes or do some small thing every day that brings some amount of joy to your life. For me i take the dog out in the afternoon. I throw his his squeeky blue balls for him and he goes and he gets them and brings them back. Simple things like that can really help. You are not alone though you never were and you never will be and i hope things get bette ryou just hold on and if you need anything, just email or post. I am right here.

sorry you are having a difficult time. i understand, i was only diagnosed with adhd a few months ago. it can be a very lonely world, with not many people to understand.

just remember all the great things about having adhd…. you are probably more intelligent and creative than all your friends and family right? you can get heaps more done in a day than most people can right? you are able to be sensitive towards people because of how hypersensitive you are right? you probably thought of the answer before anyone else did right?

dont be too concerned about your marks. i am also a teacher, and also completing an adult teaching degree and can tell you that your marks will most likely not reflect your actual understanding of your learned material. you probably understand more than what you are able to apply in assessments, so please do not beat yourself up about it.

do you have a good friend you can talk to? have you thought about seeing an adhd coach, who can teach you to monitor your depression, hyperfocus, hyper thought and feelings of overwealm? they are good quality also.

best wishes to you

I also am an adult diagnosed with ADD late in life. I am soon to be 43 and was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago. I have been dealing with clinical depression since I was 30. At 4 years old I was found to have petit mal seizures.

I have been on a variety of medications-some for seizures, some for depression, some for ADD. I cannot recommend any one over another, I finally have a combination that allows me to work, sleep, smile and socialize at church on Sundays.

I can recommend that if you have any reservations about the medical professionals that are treating you, that you speak to them honestly about your concerns. If they do not directly address your needs or push your thoughts aside then walk away and find a practitioner you can trust and talk to. If you have any discomfort communicating with your doctors then you are not receiving adequate treatment.

Also medication does not stand alone-psychotherapy/counseling is an essential part of dealing with depression whether it is linked to ADD/ADHD or not. However I have found that the ADD part of me needs the guidance of counselor/therapist to help me stay on track of dealing with the depression issues.

That’s all for now-I’m around if you want more support-Get some rest-Tomorrow is another day…

[quote=keephelen]thank you so much Mandi…brought tears in my eyes….I want to stop taking all the medication…I really do…There are times I have tried….and it just gets worse. I have doctors appoitment today and probably change to new meds see if it could help.

thank you
khelen[/quote]

Hi,

If you decide go off your psych meds, they should be tapered at 10% of current dose every 3 to 6 weeks. Most people taper way to quickly and withdrawal symptoms get confused by professionals as a return of the illness.

PT

One of the biggest causes of depression are and anti-depressants. They give that crap out like candy. For every 1000 people on an anti-depressant only one actually has clinical depression.

You have to consider who is prescribing this poison. MDs are. What are MDs? MDs are the third leading cause of death. If you don’t believe me simply google; “doctors third leading cause of death.” More dangerous than a regular MD is a psychiatrist with a prescription pad. When you compare prescription drug with street drugs you will find that very few people die from using street drugs but there is a prescription drug holocaust. Not only are many prescription drugs chemically more dangerous than street drugs but the suppliers of those drugs are far more unscrupulous than Leroy the crack dealer.

Depression is a retarded term.

I do kinda agree on ths one Testaclese. They ned to be handing out pills vastly less than they do. it isn’t healthy. And yes many anti-depresants are dangerus. Still, IF SOMEONE IS ON THEM AND WISHES TO COME OFF THESE ARE SERIOUS DRUGS!!!! NE MUST BE SLOWLY WEENED OFF OF THEM!! DO NOT STOP COLD TURKEY! But i wuld advise most on such pills that they are not healthy to take and to stop taking them, just be sure t stop the right way so you do lss damage to yourself in the process. The drugs will do enough damage all by themselves by being dumb about how one quits taking them will only cause additional problems.

And i agree completely!

[quote=Mandi]I do kinda agree on ths one Testaclese. They ned to be handing out pills vastly less than they do. it isn’t healthy. And yes many anti-depresants are dangerus. Still, IF SOMEONE IS ON THEM AND WISHES TO COME OFF THESE ARE SERIOUS DRUGS!!!! NE MUST BE SLOWLY WEENED OFF OF THEM!! DO NOT STOP COLD TURKEY! But i wuld advise most on such pills that they are not healthy to take and to stop taking them, just be sure t stop the right way so you do lss damage to yourself in the process. The drugs will do enough damage all by themselves by being dumb about how one quits taking them will only cause additional problems.

And i agree completely![/quote]

Paxil is a real rattle snake. They put my wife on it and it caused her toes to cramp and become twisted. That was not the worse. She got of it and even though she cut down gradually she got these feeling like electrical shocks in her brain and today she has involuntary movements in her shoulders.

The pusher/doctor that put her on it diagnosed her with “anxiety depression”. He did no testing whatsoever. My wife had a serious hormone imbalance and she was experiencing PMDD. I know that was the problem but because I don’t have MD after my name and because she was not thinking right she trusted the doctor.

Many women in he late 40’s have hormonal imbalances that make them nuttier than usual. Let’s face it, women are nuts. In fact women are 3 times more likely to get a depression dx and 4 times more likely to have anxiety.

Many crazy women have FADS (Female Androgen Deficiency Syndrome) I have a tough time referring my patients to doctors who will even acknowledge that FADS is real let alone test for it and treat it.

Sorry to go off in so many direction but let it suffice to say that MDs do more harm than good.