Okay, so I haven't visited this site in a while... I'm gonna try to keep coming on here though, I like how EVERYbody knows what I'm talking about lol, or at least tries to understand it. But yea so if you want to read my tangent on how I'm kind concerned about Biology at school go ahead, but the real idea of this topic is the bottom paragraph, which has to do with reading and blurry vision and stuff.

Anyhow, so maybe a couple weeks ago I think, I came on here and asked about if anybody else had similar things going on with their meds. Like, Adderall was a miracle drug for me, and I don't even say drug, it was just a miracle... like, finding a wrench and some helpful manual in a glove-compartment in one of those little German cars instead of duct tape when the door falls off. So Adderall was a life-changing phenomenon for me... at least, temporarily. After a while the effects sorta, I guess they just like, disappeared? I don't care about the euphoric feeling or whatever, I get that now from playing my French Horn (the Adderall opened my eyes to the passion I have for playing my horn... weird). But like, I had pulled up my biology grade from some ungodly terribly low grade, like 20% or something up 50.1%. That was sooo like amazing, because I knew I only had to get at least 70% this quarter to pass the semester (I failed last year and have to take the freshman class over... I'm a sophomore :( ) But okay I noticed after a while, especially in English I think, that things seemed way similar to how they were before. I didn't do my major huge English packet on Macbeth and barely passed the quarter with D-, thank god. I'm doing well in all of my classes now, though. I'm passing all of my classes by at least a C and that's something I seriously haven't done since 7th grade. All of my classes are good... except, biology... the most important one. I NEED to pass this quarter, I NEED to get my act together, and I don't understand why for some reason I just can't make myself do this biology homework. I'm soo behind in it, and I'm doing awesome in my other classes. Even Aviation I'm trying at, and math being my uber totally NOT strong point, I think I'm doing okay with the rocket science we're doing now ;) . But yea, I just don't know what it is with biology now, I did so great last quarter even though I still failed the class... I mean when I fail a class, it's not by 10%, it's by like, 40% or something no joke and it sucks. I wasn't diagnosed with ADD until January something, so I had been, well not "misdiagnosed" with depression, but it wasn't the root problem that we were trying to fix. But they put me on Stratera which did jack for me, then changed to Adderall and it totally kicks jacks butt and is sooo completely awesome.

Okay so aside from that whole big tangent, I think I'm just being lazy with bio... I'm going to try to do my missing stuff tonight before tomorrow, I'll see how that goes. Anyways, I have a question about reading, out loud. When I was first on Adderall, maybe before that, I'm not really sure, but I noticed that when I would read those big huge soliloquys in Macbeth, my eyes would lose focus. I would literally stop being able to see the words, they would all blur. I felt like a total retard during the whole "What dagger is this that I see before me, it's handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee!" or whatever speech when I was literally guessing as to what the words were. Constantly moving the book away and toward my eyes in hopes of gaining my vision. So if that's not weird enough (keep in mind I had 19/20 vision), immediately after I finish reading my creepy long Macbeth speech, and somebody else starts on reading aloud their part (yea sorry I didn't mention this is all reading out loud to the class) the words which got totally blurry and disabled my seemingly advanced reading ability suddenly VISUALLY morphed back to regular and I could read along without a problem! Like, I would watch as the blurry words gained back clarity. It was insane. And this still happens, so I can't read out loud for too long without these words getting blurry and my eyes losing focus. It sucks butt, especially because I know it's not because of my anxiety because that's been under control for almost a year now. I'm on Prozac and it's helping a lot with my depression and anxiety... like, before I was afraid to walk down the hallways at school in fear of what people behind me were saying or thinking or whatever, and every once in a while I get a little nervous but it's not a problem that's going to ruin my day... and now, it's like, I can get up in front of the class and give a presentation without turning red, I can speak up in class and raise my hand and answer questions and school is just sooo awesome now. I can play my horn awesome, and I'm soo pumped for next year. But this reading thing is really kinda weird... I don't know what it is, does anybody else ever deal with something similar?

I'm loving school and Adderall was my saviour (even though the dosage may need to be adjusted a bit, maybe lowerd or whatever), my birthday is on Thursday, (05/05/05!! :D ) and I'm totally pumped... it's my sweet 16 and all that, and last year on my birthday I remember wishing I could just skip it over because I didn't want to deal with it. All the people and what not. Anyhow, yea I guess I got a couple things to sort out, huh.

I hope this isn't laziness... :( :confused:

Happy Sweet Sixteen, Rev.

Rev...I want to stand up and applaud you for your hard work and committment to self-discovery! I am glad that Adderall is helping, but you are learning that it doesn't fix everything. We still have to struggle. Keep up the good work and be patient.

As far as the reading goes, that will happen to me, too, if I am tired and bored. Although, I think from what you describe it is more anxiety related. Not the heartpounding, panicky kind, but just nervousness at being in the spotlight. I can imagine that you want to do well and the harder you try the worse it gets.

I would suggest just reading slowly, breathing deeply, and try to read it for yourself. Try and shut out everything around you and see if you can't relax into it.

Keep up the good work. Remember, we can't be good at everything and there will always be areas that go smoothly and others where we struggle.

Kim

Vision problems can cause ADHD-like symptoms. Maybe you have a vision problem, that you need to address, instead of ADHD.

Hi jlscott252,i'm not having a go but am just making an observation,why do you always question peoples AD/HD even if diagnosed-and say they might have something else instead? :confused:
From the small bit I could read,it sounds like Rev_kareline has been diagnosed and will have had all main areas looked at before getting a diagnosis.


Rev_kareline,i'm judging this on the topic title,so i am sorry if i'm wrong.
Do you use computers a lot?
If so it's possible you could have eye strain from staring at the monitor for too long,as the person is less likely to blink as much as when they are not focussing on monitor.
I get this problem often because I use computers a lot. :D


Have you ever had your eyes tested by an optician,

Emma S-because I have read that vision problems can cause ADHD-LIKE symptoms. A lot of cases are mis-diagnosed, because there are other factors that are causing these symptoms. For example, my son has a central auditory processing disorder, and our special ed teacher said that kids with capd, exhibit a lot of adhd LIKE symptoms. I think we have to be careful, that ADHD doesn't end up being a catchall, and if you truly have ADHD, then fine, but IMO, you should rule out other factors first.

This is just my personal opinion. You can think what you want.

Emma S-To add, I am not a medical doctor, and do not have medical degree..I am stating my own personal opinion. You can take it or leave it.

Hi Rev,

You are too funny! I love your tangent. My daughter has some of the same visual problems you seem to experience, plus she can't scan a line of print from L to R, her eyes seem to skip all over the page. My son has visual filtering problems, but the meds help. I "veg out", which causes my vision to blur, sometimes when I'm reading. I think some of that is being tired. Maybe in addition to the ADHD you have some sensory problems, it's really common. Schools often have the ability to do the testing through an occupational therapist if your parent will ask for it. You should probably discuss it with your doctor to get his take on it. I think I'd mention it to your teacher too, so they can make adjustments for you if necessary.

Good luck with this!


To jlscott: CAPD, as well as many other sensory issues, very often go hand in hand with ADHD. Two of our kids have been diagnosed with both ADD and CAPD. The meds for ADHD are nothing short of a miracle for them, so for us, I'd go with meds before anything else. Of course that is a decision each one of us has to make for ourselves. I was very opposed to medicating, although, now that we have, I'm sorry we didn't do it sooner. As for ruling out other things, that's good to do anyway if you suspect something is going on. We tested for other things, tried various treatments, and found that nothing works as well as the meds. And, if you can tweak the brain for maximum performance, why wouldn't you do so? Whatever works, do it.

. . . Although, I think from what you describe it is more anxiety related. Not the heartpounding, panicky kind, but just nervousness at being in the spotlight. I can imagine that you want to do well and the harder you try the worse it gets.Kim
I can relate to this. I remember being nervous playing at a piano recital and not being able to start the opening of a piece. My teacher brought my music over to see if that would help. Every note on the page was a blur until I calmed myself down enough to be able to read the music. :eek:

My son has CAPD and have been told by the special ed teacher who has a lot experience with these disorders, that CAPD and sensory issues, have a lot of ADHD traits. Some people are misdiagnosed with ADHD, because of this. It LOOKS like ADHD. I think the ADHD traits go hand in hand with CAPD.

Though it's impossible to diagnose as a non-doctor, it sounds like it could be blood-pressure related. Maybe nervous tension combined with blood pressure rise from medication creates a pressure that interferes with the proper functioning of the eye or optic nerve.

As for not being able to focus on biology anyway -

I've recently noticed that I have a habit of falling back into my old behavior patterns even when medicated. For instance, I've learned over the years that it's impossible to control my attention unmedicated, so I eventually stopped trying. So for me the solution was always to just keep doing whatever I'd gotten sucked into until it was done, and just hope my focus would drift back to work or school or what it was I should be doing.

Of course, when I'm medicated, I can control these impulses better - so suddenly self-control actually matters. It's no longer a futile exercise. You might find yourself needing to do what people have always told you to do but didn't work before: things that ultimately amount to forcing yourself to start your biology studiyng. You may not like it still, but with help from medication, you might just find that you can do it if you try.

My son has CAPD and have been told by the special ed teacher who has a lot experience with these disorders, that CAPD and sensory issues, have a lot of ADHD traits. Some people are misdiagnosed with ADHD, because of this. It LOOKS like ADHD. I think the ADHD traits go hand in hand with CAPD.
The teacher might very well have a lot of experience, BUT they are still not doctors and can't make a diagnosis no matter how much experience they have.

CAPD and sensory disorders are very often a part of ADHD, which isn't always the case, but it is the case with our kids. They have had both occupational therapy, and the OT found the CAPD and sensory issues, but never mentioned ADHD. They have also been diagnosed as ADD by their pediatrician, ENT, and psychiatrist. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that ADHD is neurobiological, runs in families, and since both mom and dad have it, so they were just more likely to have it too. We chose to explore all the options, taking the least invasive first. We tried a long series of OT, along with brain entrainment and Brain Gym, but it did absolutely no good whatsoever. The ADD meds however have done a world of good.

I think you'd have to agree that often it's the lens that being looked through. An OT is likely to see CAPD and/or sensory issues, whereas a doctor is more likely to see ADHD or some other neurotic or psychiatric disorder. Often, if the doctor specializes in bi-polar (or whatever other disorder), and doesn't specialize in ADD, they'll diagnose that more readily than ADD.

As far as teachers, special ed or not, depends on the teacher as to whether they see a child's problem as ADD or something else, but again they are not able to make a diagnosis, so that's really a mute point.

As far as blurring of vision, in Delivered from Distraction, Dr. Hallowell found that his son had the same type of problems our daughter was having. It's good to know all the possibilities, and try to figure it out with that knowledge. Maybe it's physical issue, maybe stress, maybe neurological, who knows, but why not offer the information up as a possibility just in case your information might help someone else. I don't have the answers for anyone else, all I can do is talk about our experiences, and hope that it's helpful to someone else.

You may have whats called latent hyperopia and are experiencing accomodative spasm. Basically, you can be farsighted, so by working your eyes hard you can focus and see well, possibly even 20/20. But, if you are tired, getting fatigued, you lose the ability to work your eyes harder to see so it begins to blur. But then yu work your eyes hard again so it clears, but then you blur up again. This is all done in a non concious way. Get an eye exam !! If that is negative, then go see your medical doctor to rule out a systemic cause.

I found this a few minutes ago while doing some research on the subject... I think I may have hit something!

"Retinal defocus while reading probably occurs due to centralizing of attention. Josh Wallman has proposed that the large areas of peripheral image degradation is a form of form deprivation.48 research seems to point to a retinal growth factor, probably involving dopamine and a collagen synthesis factor.49 One researcher (Angrist), in particular, noted that scleral tissue is normally a wondrously complex structure and questioned why it should give way and stretch as it does in myopia - this is an enigma, he said.50 Part of the answer may be that there are time-dependent ocular rigidity actions in the sclera that allows a vicso-elastic property to do a slow stretch after an initial resistance.51"

funky