Thanks for sharing about ADHD in Melbourne. I was diagnosed as a 50 year old (three years ago) here in Melbourne through an ADHD specialist (costly psychiatrist also!) and had many of the same responses...anger and sadness at first (that no one had recognised the condition in me all those years) along with enourmous relief that I had a name to my condition and excited about the future and interested in finding out more and using some of the resources available (books online groups forums coaching etc) I am interested in finding a GP that understands ADHD in adults & medication etc..(my GP is not experienced in ADHD matters) also if there are ADHD coaches in Melbourne that I can resource..any information you could provide would be helpful. I can give you my contact details if that is appropriate in this forum. David O'Halloran david@wired.net.au

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Hi David,

I would be interested in being advised of any ADHD coaches you may find in Melbroune. I have also been searching for an ADHD group in Melbourne/Vic and have not been lucky enough to find one, that is active. Or rather replies to email.

Just a suggestion if it is early days after first being diagnosed with ADHD, then it can be a good idea to check in with a psychiarist every so often.

I suggest this as quite often we older adults with ADHD can have established comorbid disorders. eg. anxiety, depression, Obbessive Compulsive Disorder etc. Not with standing the possibility of Bipolar Spectrum.

It can take some time to finally find the "correct" medication etc.

And of course find out all you can about ADHD.

Good Luck,

JennyWren

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Thank you for sharing your uplifting story. I was diagnosed a few months ago at age 42. I am so encouraged by your message. It was a relief knowing that there are reasons for what I have always been told were my shortcomings. Unfortunately, my marriage did not survive. If I had been diagnosed when I was still married, maybe we would have had a chance. I am so happy for you and your wife that things are working - I am sure things can only get better based on your great outlook!!! Thanks again for lifting me up!

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Hi, im also a 25 year old Male from MELBOURNE who was diagnossed with Adult ADHD from my GP and then later confirmed those finding with a Psyciatrist who is sure that im also suffering from the condition. I too am fustrated i wasnt diagnosed earlier. My psyciatrist thinks i would benifit from the medication used to treat this condition but aparentlly he cant prescribe them as ADHD isnt his speciality, so he is trying to get me in touch with a ADHD specialist Psyciatrists which has been a nitemare its been over 4 weeks and none of these specialised doctors wants to take new clients or are too busy. Im getting fustrated in myself and ready to really give up... Can someone please help me FIND THIS GP WHO SPECILIZES IN ADULT ADHD. Kindest Regards Vass

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Toorak Medical Centre - 03 9826 8437.

Neurotherapy Vic - Malvern 03 9822 5033

Apparently there is a new group in Melbourne, but I haven't been able to find them on the net.

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Thanks for these posts everyone! (at first I wasn't sure if I could cope with all those words on the screen but it was worth it in the end!)

As I was reading the first post (CanThisBeReal), I realized that we must have the same GP :)

I'm 27 years old, and still trying to get my first degree. It's a "four-year" degree which I started after I turned 21.... I was diagnosed with ADD and severe depression about a year ago. I always suspected I had ADD or some sort of learning deficits, long before I forked over hundreds of $$ to hear a psychiatrist confirm it for me (which, by the way, put me in debt for the best part of '09). I'm also on dexamphetamine, and lexapro. It took a little while to start feeling the positive benefits of dex, but the first thing I noticed was that I didn't need an early morning coffee to get me going through lectures. I was concentrating quite a bit better, though I'm not sure how much I'm retaining, and generally in a better mood. I've had to get my medication adjusted from time to time, and learned to monitor my own symptoms to become semi-confident with self-adjusting the dosage. Besides, as a student I can't really afford to see the specialist as regularly as I'd like to for every little worry, that's why these sorts of websites are so valuable to me. Overall, however, the stress of being in what ought to have been the final year of a very demanding course ( Physiotherapy - don't ask me how or why, esp with my condition - I'm still trying to work that one out myself!), I was losing too much weight off my already thin frame and generally not coping well enough to get through. The appetite thing was odd for a girl who usually eats like a horse and would then eat the horse for dessert. At uni I was really struggling particularly in some of my clinical placements - no surprises there, but funnily enough since diagnosis it was getting to be overwhelming than usual.. Harder to bounce back. Eventually I went on compassionate leave for a few months, on advice from my supervisors. I ended up losing my scholarship, and now my family is having to help me with tuition fees so I can go back to uni and re-do yet another year of this course. I feel blessed to have parents who'd make that sacrifice for me. I have to keep telling myself "this time it'll work, I know what I'm up against.. This time I'll graduate.." But to be honest, a lot of the time I don't feel so confident or motivated or sure if this whole hyperfocus/underfocus thing is such a cool thing to have when you're dealing with real patients, and potentially legal issues because say you forget a detail. (None so far, thank God, but supervisors never let u forget your mistakes,in my case there've been lots of those). Don't get me wrong, the best - the only good - part about the past six years of grueling study for me has been the patients. Even the difficult ones :) Apparently I am good at some things :) But the bad memories of failure still haunt me sometimes, I mean how do you deal with supervisors/future colleagues who can clearly think you're not in the same league as them? It's a quesiton of whether to disclose (& risk losing their respect and confidence more, if that's even possible), or not to disclose and pretend that I'm just like everyone else? Who would believe that I actually am a smart, gifted, talented individual, whose I.Q. (and E.Q.) is probably higher than some of those other kids who're getting better marks? (What does that matter in the real world, anyhow...) On top of all the other challenges an international student has to face daily. Life is.. colourful :)

As for the Dex, I had to cut back 'cause the I'm not coping too well at the moment with the side-effects (irritability; insomnia; loss of appetitie; occasional palpitations; impulsive mouth). If they really are side-effects. All things considered, I survived 2009 - barely, but I'm still here, and I still have a fighting chance to make it work for me!! :)

Well, that's the long & short of my story. What I hadn't added was that even though my family loves me and is aware about my condition, I still tend to feel like I'm on my own with this. I'm slowly getting over being angry that no-one picked up on the classic symptoms all along. But its still disappointing that I'm the only one who seems interested in getting educated about ADD and the co-morbidities. I'd almost settle for being labelled, if it meant they were trying to make sense of "me". It would spell "support" to me, like it did for the gentleman who's marriage was saved. That's why it really helps to find out there are people out there who kind of "get" me; and for a little while, I'm acceptable as I am, I'm normal.

Wow, I just realized how much I wrote...!! Oh, and before I forget, to the lady who's been looking for support groups online, check out ADDventurous Women, its a yahoo email-based group exclusively for women (sorry guys) in Australia/NZ regions.. because ADD women tend to have unique sorts of issues. Hope it helps!

Good luck all!

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choccita

Nice to hear from you.

It took me a while to adjust to the dex. I had a month on Ritalin and then went back to dex. I gradually increased the dose half a tablet at a time until I was on the full amount. I can even fall asleep with it in my system now. ;) It aides concentration but it's not a cure. It doesn't help with forgetfulness, procrastination, poor time management / understanding of time things like that. You need a raft of other things in place to help you manage the condition. I find that forums are of limited use on day-to-day matters as they tend to sop up more time than they save, but for bigger things like this they are great.

Supportive and understanding friends and relatives are vital. There is a lot of stigma attached to mental illness and neurological conditions like ADHD but, on balance I think it is better to be up front about your condition than hide it. This said you don't need to blurt it out to everyone you meet - just those in your immediate circle. Don't expect miracles. My wife understands the condition from an intellectual point of view but still thinks I should be able to just "snap" out of it! Exasperating though this is you have to see it from their side - you look perfectly normal. You're not in a wheel chair, you can have a normal conversation, you don't twitch ergo you're normal and you should be able to behave normally. I've learnt not to depend to much on my wife for understanding and support of my various neurological conditions: I find that elsewhere. Changing my attitude towards her has made our relationship much more harmonious.

It's difficult to expect others to understand us. The stereotypes are so extreme and are all about out of control kids. Getting people to understand the concept of adult ADHD is like pushing water up hill with a teaspoon. At our best we are quirky odd balls that don't fit any of the expected norms. I focus on getting as well as I can and being as organised as I can - both involve a lot of hard work.

Take full advantage of all the medical and psychiatric support you can get. If you are on a low income you should be entitled to a healthcare card which with most GPs gives you access to bulk billing. Talk to the surgery and see if this is the case. Even if it doesn't I quickly got onto the safety net which gives you massive savings in fees. I got a course of 12 sessions of CBT with a counsellor in Malvern for about $15 a throw after the rebate. This has helped me massively with my depression and anxiety. I am now within normal ranges for both these conditions. I'm sure if you talked to the surgeries in question they would assist you with the fee problem.

Regards CTBR

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Another one using the GP in Malvern!

I'm 56yr old female, married, no children who was shocked to be diagnosed with bipolar about 3 years ago, After a while experimenting with different meds, things seemed to be going quite smoothly. Then I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism in Oct '09, caused by Hashimoto's Disease which also has symptoms which include depression and anxiety and once I started meds for that, I felt fantastic and the depression, anxiety and mood swings were no longer causing me major issues.

But still the nagging feeling that the original diagnosis was incorrect and I kept going back to researching ADD. I had been getting emails from ADDitude and briefly reading articles, but only joined today after stumbling upon this thread. There is still a part of me that is in denial that I have ADD and wonder if I am more of a Cyberchondriac! When I mentioned to my Psychiatrist my suspicion that I think I have ADD, he said co-morbidity is quite common, but it was not the area he dealt with.

So I kept searching for about a year on the net to find someone who could give a diagnosis as I live in country Victoria until I eventually found a person who was doing life coaching in Melb. with ADHD who recommended me to the Toorak Clinic where my suspicions were confirmed about 2 months ago. I felt relieved at first but after 3 weeks on Dexamphetamine, I must admit I was hoping for an immediate effect like you, CTBR! On my follow up visit I explained how my anxiety had in fact increased, so have modified meds. and will review again at next week's appt.

So at this stage I feel no improvement in the area of focus or feeling more energetic after sleep. In fact I feel I am sleeping more and doing even less, if that was possible.

As there are no groups in my area to discuss, I am pleased to have found this forum. I identify with so much from what I've read so far and it has been very helpful in coming to terms with this. Funny how I was in denial of having ADD as after not feeling any positive effects straight away, I immediately started making excuses about going back for treatment and how hard it was to make the drive for appointments and maybe I'll put it off for now and try again later....all patterns that have haunted me my entire life! I sometimes wonder how I got to this age, sort of flying beneath the radar, before being diagnosed and wonder if it would have shown up earlier if I had had children! One major change that took place about 3 years ago was after my dog dying, and a following illness, I virtually stopped exercising. I know how essential it is for ADD'ers but can not seem to get into a daily habit. But on that note, I'll head off for a walk ...or I'll be on here all day.

Bye for now

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I am in Melbourne and was diagnosed with ADD when I was 47 (now48). I have an ADD -sympathetic GP in the centre of the city and a coach in Caulfield - not sure if I am allowed to mention names in this forum - but call Silvan Lodge. Interested to know if there is an adult's support group in Melbourne - does anyone know ?

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No support group AP but there are a few of us currently planning. I have put together a survey to help us form something helpful. Hope all is well. http://melbozaddults.questionpro.com

I assume your GP is at Town Medical Centre? Started mindfulness training?

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I hope you've all had success with treatment and found some support in Melbourne. There is a support group for adults with ADHD (started last year) which meets in Melbourne. Here's the link if you're interested:

http://adultadhdmelbourne.wordpress.com

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When I was first diagnosed a year ago, I was so eager to learn every thing I could but after a while I stopped posting here, as it was a bit quiet. I'm so glad I accidently clicked back instead of ADDconnect which is a great resource too, because I was still keen to meet up with others, adults in particular, who have been diagnosed later in their life to learn & share experiences.

I've noticed many improvements over the last year, but like many things in my life as an ADDer, I've taken for granted many of the positive changes and moved my focus on to other aspects that I'm coming to terms with now I actually know the answers to so many of the mysteries of why I was the way I was!

I remember hearing a quote...paraphrasing somewhat that says

"Success in solving a set of problems inevitably creates a new set of problems"

and I identify with that. With my new clarity, came frustration of not being able to change certain habits as quickly as I wanted to, like being so easily distracted & procrastinating which leads to my poor time management particularly when it comes to deadlines when my anxiety spikes.

That clarity also had me seeing my husband of 39 years in a new light! Like when I asked him to read some of the material on ADD so that he may understand me better, he realised just how much he TOO identified with the symptoms and has recently been diagnosed & started on the same meds as me a month ago!!!! After I had been diagnosed, I sort of had my suspiscions he shared some of my traits but because of my ignorance of ADD especially about subtypes & adults, I was still rather surprised that people can live together for so long & be unaware. It did explain why he never picked it up in me & I just thought it was because he was so patient & accepting. Now I know he was so hyperfocussed & zoned out he never noticed my quirkiness. LOL!

So despite it feeling like we have been catapulted out of our comfort zone, I'm grateful that we can now both learn how to manage our different brains & hopefully make the most out of the rest of our lives. We are both subtype Inattentive, however he is more focussed & inflexible whereas distraction is my most difficult issue & the resulting anxiety that follows. I'm able to deal with these issues more easily these days.

When I'm feeling a bit discouraged & find I'm procrastinating, I like to google uplifting quotes. I liked this one...

"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year. — John Foster Dulles, Former Secretary of State"

I've joined the Melb support group so look forward to attending the next meeting & checking out the forum.

Lynne

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