Hi KateA:

You're right that depression is common in adults with ADD, especially those trying to juggle a household and children with special needs, as you are. Of the 17 million Americans suffering from depression, a strikingly large portion are adults with ADD. The best advice I can offer is to take things one day at a time and not linger too much on what coulda/shoulda been - take pride in the small victories and go from there. You might also talk to your doctor about your feelings/symptoms and, finally, find some help in the following resources I found for you online:

Symptoms of Depression: http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/1628.html

Recognizing and Treating Depression in ADD Adults: http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/748.html

How to Battle Depression with Exercise: http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/915.html

Six Ways to Build Better Moods with Adult ADHD: http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/678.html

I hope this helps!

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You are not the only one out there working well one day and barely functioning the next. I'm sure you think that since you are on medication that you should not only be functioning every day, but that you should be feeling good too. I was on Prozac and then Zoloft for many years and thought that since I was on medicine that "getting by" was the best I was going to feel. I thought that maybe I was just being lazy on those days I couldn't get going. It took some pushing from friends to learn that doctors are not always right and sometimes medicine doesn't keep working. Maybe you are not on the best medicine for you.

Go see a doctor and make sure that they hear you. Make sure they are willing to keep working with you until you feel good again. Obviously, this is not just affecting you, but your family. It is important for to your family for you to feel better.

Until you see the doctor, one thing that has helped me get by is to make sure I have something to look forward to every day. Something good enough that is worth getting out of bed for and that pampers me a little. This is your reward for getting up that day and taking care of your family. You have to take care of yourself too, you deserve it.

Laura

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It is so true many of us look for a reason why we are ADHD and don't realize of the other things we tend to be such as depressed, OCD and that is because we know we ae feeling disorganized and many of cases called "crazy" because of the silly things we do. Wetend to believe a negative comment rather than heariing the positives of being ADHD . Thinking out of the box is a kind of genius, and seeing thing before many other sensing something is rarely a bad thing that unless about someone affair and you open your big mouthAdd has many faces and sometimes depression come a long with it I however felt best on Welbutrin XL I had so much life and it did not impair my sex life which I found the other did. ADHD can make it hard to focus but so can depression so it means we need know what we are dealing with

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