Hi to all on this thread,

I too was finally Dx'd at 55 YO to have had ADHD mostly inattentive type all my adult life. I actually was looking on the MGH Boston site for studies to get some expensive health work-ups done when there it was. The study was for adults with well regulated Hi-blood pressure on medications to get evaluated for ADHD and a trial of a fairly new medication formula (vyvanse) to treat ADHD and see if it affected the HBP. Got a free physical exam, blood work, full cardiograph-echo-gram, and stress test that pro athletes go through. Then on the other side of the scale I got the full evaluation to see if I was truly ADHD.... guess what, It's been a blessing and a source of concern ever since. Through the randomization process ( fancy way of saying weeding out the crap) It was confirmed I was adult ADHD inattentive type ( formerly just ADD). I also had a place to share some of my vague childhood memories and get clarification on several things that kept cropping up over the years. Now for the record I'm a substance abuse counselor at a local VA hospital, I work for the program I got sober at 24-years ago and was told way back then that anyone who saw a psychiatrist as a solution was med seeking and doomed to relapse. So over the years as I transitioned to a job that required me to sit still and pay attention to what folks were saying from say my old ship fitter days I began to here what I've come to realize is a common theme amongst ADHD'rs. My bosses were always giving me yearly evaluations that were great except for areas that required administrative detail, follow through to the finish projects, being on time for work, time management. When my old boss retired in 2003 he warned me that it was going to get harder for me as he was pretty tolerant of my shortcomings and even developed a modified system for me to do notes that cover all the key areas but I only had to attend to them once a week. My new boss well she was someone who could come in, attend to all the administrative stuff at her desk, and spend long hours with great focus to the tasks at hand. I sort of stood in great contrast to that and thus began the 7-year process of realizing, my gut feelings were true, but how to confirm this? I knew I wasn't dumb but remembered remedial reading classes from the 3rd-5th grade and there was this memory of some kind of 'special vitamin'. I also through the study began remembering a time when I saw both psychologist and psychiatrist as well as all kinds of IQ testing and cognitive testing. I used to deal with my boredom in school by purposely breaking my pencil and going up to the pencil sharpener at the window sill and grinding it to a nub so I could daydream out the window. On one of my pencil repair trips September 1964 I witnessed the start of the great Bellflower St. fire, i was actually in the process of being scolded by Mr. Fay when I saw a column of flame equal to the height of the 3-Decker it stared from shoot into the air. If I wasn't an ADHD kid I wouldn't been at that window and been able to mutter " Mr Fay maybe you should look at this". 17 houses(3 Decker's) were destroyed in that fire and only because the wind died down did it not make it to our school. But I digress, don't we all, on the subject of older adults and ADHD. Needless to say I found the core of the problem and was on a clinical path of structured treatment. The cathartic experience of being evaluated has been a good one so far, it reminds me that no one is perfect and even professional health care providers need to keep an open mind about their own well being. In my heart I don't feel like I gave up or relapsed from sobriety ,If that were the case I would have take a month's prescription in like 5 days and hit the liquor store by day 3. I stay sober by being 10% sick at all times so I don't fall into the I'm cured trap. Work is getting better but it's not there yet. My wife can tell if i haven't taken my medication yet and calls me on it. This was the first weekend in a long time my 15-year old daughter didn't yell at me for being a hyperactive pest. I'll check back later to see what if anything people wrote after me because well... I have a vanity streak as well. Later folks, DJS

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Thanks DJS for sharing your story, I found it very helpful and inspiring being someone still finding their feet with my recent diagnosis.

My Dr explained it in very simple terms to me. That if a person does not get treatment for their ADHD, the percentage of co-morbid disorders and addiction is high. And that is what happened to me too so reading your story confirmed what he said.

I'm blessed to be retired from work, so without those demands, I am able to take things easy and am getting used to the medication and implementing some routines which I'm finding easy to do for once in my life. So far, I can see many improvements and feel as if a missing piece to the jigsaw puzzle has been found.

When I admitted I was powerless to an addiction about 10yrs ago, from my very first meeting I went into recovery for my addiction and found the 12 Step Program just what I needed and I embraced enthusiastically and never felt the urge to relapse. However when I was diagnosed 3 yrs ago with Bipolar, I wondered if my addiction was more a result of that and dropped my guard and started making excuses and slowly reverted to old habits. Once I learnt about the connection with ADHD and addiction, I then realised there was no doubt at all and I was playing with fire kidding myself that I could be a little bit addicted and I think I tested myself and of course failed and had a period of being out of control, just like a decade before. I'm fortunate to have a very supportive husband who was aware what was going on, so I'm thinking right again. Hard to swallow sometimes, that I have a bipolar condition and am also ADD and recovering from an addiction!

But you have demonstrated the positives that can come out of it in the way you help others. Huge Congrats.

Thanks again. Looks like this thread did not strike a chord with others here. Cheers L

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Hi Serenity!

I love the idea of this forum thread! You're right that many of us share our diagnoses but then tend to peter off. Or else we post only in moments of crisis. At least, that's what I've tended to do.

I thought I should reply here because I find myself in a MUCH better place than I was 2 + years ago, when I received the first ADHD diagnosis of my adult life (I had been diagnosed as a kid, but never really realized it ... my family is, well, shall we say, "neurologically special" and when you're in the middle of it all, sometimes you miss the exact labels).

In any case, since then I left my PhD program after I got through the Masters program, and started a different program w/teaching certification track at an equally-if-not-more prestigious institution than I was at before. While my first year was a lot of work, I loved it and did very well! It seems that the variety of coursework, many deadlines, and explicit guidance on how to do academic work in my new field were just what I needed! (As well as the realization that I am NOT a literature geek!!). I realized over the course of the year, however, that I am also NOT cut out to work with kids full time, and so I switched to a more theoretical, adult-education - oriented track in more or less the same department. And, irony of ironies, I'm considering going on to a PhD in my new field, with the encouragement of at least 2 profs in my department whom I like and respect very much.

I also had a job handed to me on a silver platter (at a non-profit where I volunteered as a teacher this summer). It's administration, which seems to go against my ADHD grain, but I made it through my first week. It helps that the staff are mostly stressed out grad students and really nice, encouraging people. They helped me to quickly gain a realistic expectation of what I'm capable of doing and the kinds of boundaries I will need to draw in order to get my school work done (I have one more year in my current program).

Finally, a psychiatrist drew my attention to the fact that my school records had me also diagnosed as PDD NOS (very similar to Asperger's Syndrome and HFA). I never would have thought to look into that connection on my own, but after reading up on the Autism Spectrum, it seems like I'm still a ringer. Yet another mystery of my quirky self possibly revealed!

So all in all, things right now are going pretty darn well. I still have dark periods and spend ample amounts of time just trying to keep the thoughts in my head still enough to write one of them down or get one of them done, but I'm finally coming out of the miserable state I was in my first year of my first grad program.

See? ADHD success stories do happen!

FC

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Hey Serenity,

I went off of the Concerta an eternity ago as my upper abdomen had way too much pressure for my liking.

I went from devouring 2 books/week to reading 1/2 of one in the past 5.5 wks.

The anxiousness is gone :o) and I stopped losing weight :o( My pulse rate came down and all is well.

I asked the doctor to change me to the CBT group of the study (if possible) and never heard back.

On the good news side one of my ideas raised over $30 million for charity so that was nice to see as I gave the organization the idea 18 yrs ago, and it was finally used. I wonder if they have ADD (procrastination).

All the best to you!

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