Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any insight or opinions on what is an acceptable or "average" timeframe for progress after diagnosis and treatment...

Of course taking into consideration medication trial and error and general life stumbling blocks, I understand this may differ for everyone... Just curious how long others have been "on the road' and if anyone was ever discouraged by the amount of time it can take sometimes to get it together...

Also, does anyone feel that after a certain amount of time if there is not substantial progress it might be prudent to reconsider diagnoses and/or treatments? If so, what do you feel is "enough' time? I have discussed this with my doctor and he say it can be very complicated and encouraged me to start with a therapist who can better advise me on my progress since I would be sharing more with him/her on a regular basis... He is only my prescribing psychiatrist and our monthly visit is simply not comprehensive enough.

Any thoughts? :)

I'm 47. I have no goals, have never been to college, and want to do all kinds of things in life but never seem to get going on them. Some things will take risks, like quitting my unfullfilling job to pursue what I'd LIKE to do. It depresses me quite a bit that I'm wasting my life, but no one supports me in anything I'd really like to do.
I've decided that making money is NOT the goal, just to do what my talents allow. But of course, that will never happen for me.

You are quite correct. The journey is different for each of us. I am ADHD, as are my two sons. All of us have one disorder but have travelled different paths.

You ask, what is the timeframe for your initial progress? This reminds me of the person who observed a father teaching his young child to walk. The father helped his son get up again and again and again, but the child could not even gather the first step. He was obviously well behind of other kids his age. The young dad kept patiently encouraging his child to get up, but the child failed at each attempt.

Finally, the observer got frustrated watching the "spectical" and challenged the father, "how long are you going to keep doing that? Its obvious the child is having problems!"

The father turned to the observer with calm, knowing eyes and replied: "How long? Well, as long as it takes ... of course!"

In thinking about your questions, I wandered around this site a bit. I saw people with a wide variety of symptoms, widely different abilities and disabilities.With Hyperactivity or without it. All of this has a certain central commonality, but the variety was quite interesting to me. There also appear to be a variety of different co-morbidities; that is, other disorders that occur alongside ADHD. These seem to be quite commonplace and raise a host of additional issues. (Others may speak to this point, and there is a great forum on this subject.)

I recall my two sons after they were diagnosed with ADHD in 1992. Both began drug treatment with Ritalin. Each was a completely different story. Ultimately, for both, therapy and improvement meant making certain personal commitments, changing lifestyles and developing coping mechanisms. That is, in addition to drug therapy

Ritalin affected the two differently. It noticeably calmed one and he took it on schedual without any problems about remembering to take it.

The other son got relief, but had trouble both with the dosage and remembering to take it. He finally ended up (after a year) with a timed-release version that has been a good solution for him.

For our family (myself included) the Meds have been a real help. But they were no silver bullet. ADHD is not something that we could shoot with a pill and have it go away. It is with us 24/7, albeit in a more moderated form.

For me the real change has come from noodling over my ADHD and coming up with ways to deal with it. I have sat down (again and again) with family members and talked with them. They live with me and could see my situation from a different (and sometimes clearer) vantage point than I could. I joined organizations such as CHADD and gained a wealth of real, close to the ground information and experience from others with ADHD. And I bought books and tapes, and read and listened quite a bit. The people interaction was most important for me. Since many of the lessons were already there to be seen, this spead up the process of dealing with my ADHD quite a bit.

Therefore, for me, learning about ADHD at a ground level and from available information was much more helpful than talking to my Doctors. Yes, the Doctors were very important, but not a total end in themselves. Perhaps it is the way I think. I like to gather facts and then start interacting with people. I seldom believe one authority.

Timeframe for progress? Personally, I am more interested in what the next step and goal is, the progression of problem solving, if you will. My situation is so complex (at least for me) that I would have a meltdown if I tried to masterplan the whole thing. I cannot today say I have been able to plan or anticipate my rate of progress. And one son moved at a different speed than the other. Instead, I have learned to pick the parts that seem most important and work on them until I accomplish the task. I do set goals, both long and short term, but I try to keep it simple and prioritized. It was really tough for me, as someone with full blown ADHD to deal with priorities. Actually, I really did not understand the concept of priorities.

Stephen Covey described the totality of human tasks as falling into only four catagories. One group was Very Important and one group was Not Very Important. The other catagories were things that were Urgent, and things that were Not Urgent.

So the final four catagories were: 1) Very Important/Ugent, 2) Very Important/Non Urgent, 3)Not Very Important/Urgent, and 4) Not Very Important/Not Urgent.

Obviously, you want to accomplish the Very Important Items first. The real payoff, actually, comes from the Non Urgent /Very Important items because these are the things that have the most impact, long term on your success or failure.

But guess where almost all of us spend our time? Not Important! And Urgent. Then, Not Important/Not Urgent! Unimportant things suck all the time and energy away from what it really takes to play and win. And I , particularly, have the natural born ability to much around from one Unimportant activity to another. I think "priorities" was something that really delayed my personal progress quite a bit.

Sound like a speech? Well, I am mostly talking to myself and re-encouraging my wandering ADHD brain to see it the way I have described it.

To rap this little diatribe up, let me suggest something now that you are here at ADD Forums. Follow your thread in this Forum actively, and question and requestion people responding to you. Use this as a starting point to seeing what is on this site. Then look at all of the Forums listed and find the ones that seem to relate to your situation. Read some of the active threads that seem to relate or offer information about your situation. And, by the way, there are no such things as dumb questions.

Finally, you may take a prescribed drug and feal a quick, real change for the better. I hope so. But, from my experience, dealing with ADHD is a complex, subjective and ongoing activity. For me, it has been like peeling an onion. The Ritalin is only one layer.

And maybe you will discover as I have, that ADHD is both a curse and a real blessing.
It has taken me a few layers of onion to get to that conclusion.

I am 36 years old, and was not diagnosed until 1992. It took me many years to find the right medication, and then the right dose. Please be patient, and trust that there is a time and a place for everything. It took me 11 years of being medicated to finally realize that I might have a shot at actually achieving my goal. I went back to school in January of 2003, and this fall will be entering my senior year in college. Next fall I plan to enter medical school. If anyone would have told me 14 years ago that I would actually be academically successful on a college level, I would have never believed them, much less that I would actually be struggling to decide which medical schools I should apply to. I made virtually straight "F's" in high school before I was on medication, and was completely unable to achieve anything academically. I ended up quiting high school and got my GED. Now, I am on the Dean's list each semester.

The natural order of things unfolds very slowly, for the most part. This is something that often can be difficult for us to accept, because we have our own time frame in mind for what we need, and when we need it. That being said, when I look back on my path since 1992 at the things which seemed to be wasted experiences (at the time) like trying this drug over that drug, or this therapy over that therapy, I can now honestly say that I would not change anything concerning my path along this long and winding road. The things that seemed like a waste of my time and effort actually ended up serving me quite well, and I hope that you will be able to say the same thing in 14 years when you look back at your path along this long and winding road you are now on.

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." ~Lao Tzu

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to this. It all depends on the specific goal. I think your doctor is right about suggesting that you work with somebody about these issues. Medication won't help you learn new time management skills. A qualified counselor or coach should be able to help you with time management and goals.

I think part of "getting it together" is accepting the fact that there are some things that will take a lot longer than we expect them to take.

My best advice, is to write down what you would consider to be progress for your own unique situation. Decide what's the most important one on that list.

Set the others aside!~

Work on that one item with your full attention. Don't set a time table, but agree with yourself, that you'll take a moment and reflect on how much you've progressed as to that one item.

Once you're satisfied there's been progress, move to the next item on that list.

The sense of accomplishment from doing one item? Well the next goal and the next goal will come even faster as you gain pride and confidence.

Hey, thanks everybody for the great replies.. The answers were mostly what I suspected and there were several interesting points made, and some very thought provoking insights (well for me anyway, ;)).. I have some more questions along this line, but I want to re-read the responses and mull it over for a bit! :)