I didnt even have problems with hyperactivity until middle school. before that i was never disruptive. just disorganized and distracted. by high school it was pretty severe and seems to have only gotten progressively WORSE! Is this at all typical?

It is quite embarrassing to me to be an adult treated for ADD.

embrace it... get some meds, it happens ;)

i take adderall. very effective in many ways. 1 complaint (other than the slight sleepy feeling i find a bit unpleasant) - i feel tired, but lay down and cant sleep.

give yourself time. Go through the stages of grief, you've earned them all. Meds aren't enough. Are you getting some help, as in counselng, or coaching?

Melv, I was the same...I think it is quite common in us ladies to get more hyper with age. I was ok, very impulsive etc, but not sooo hyer that I can remember until I was about 12...

It's not at all uncommon, Melv, especially if your flavor of ADD is primarily inattentive. For gals the onset of puberty frequently makes girls who hadn't had much problem look a lot more like the ADHD boys. Thomas Brown does an excellent job in his book Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults of explaining why ADD sometimes doesn't show up until later and why it can become more problematic as responsiblities increase. Lots of things affect ADD and hormones are one of those things. For some, things get better, for others they make it worse. My ADD improved greatly when I hit puberty, but is getting worse again now that I'm in perimenopause. Natural aging processes can also make things more problematic down the road. The grieving process and trying to figure out who you are all over again with the diagnosis is a very real thing we each face upon diagnosis. A good counselor who understands ADD in adults can really be an asset with this or an ADD support group if one is available, plus just learning all you can about ADD through books, tapes, conferences, etc.


Take care,
Scattered

thanks for responding. good to hear im not alone i suppose :rolleyes:

I feel like I went in the opposite direction. I went from being an out of control pre-school and elementary school tornado to a spaced out (yet still quite reckless and impulsive) teen. I think over the years the hyper is getting tamed and the inattentive taking over . . . i think. Now I only get hyper in exciting or mentally demanding situations, and at night. I don't know what that means, but I kind of wish I had more control over myself.

I know what you mean by saying you wish you had grown out of it.

Don't be ashamed....Get to know the 100's or 1000's of us here, who are proud to be ADD....Maybe try reading some books about the wonderful things about being ADD? All those famous people who were and are?

Here are a couple of good links....

http://www.addcoachinggroup.com/content/quotes.html
http://add.about.com/cs/foradults/a/10favorite.htm


I personally and not ashamed one bit about being an Adult with ADD...I never had an issue telling anyone about it wheather they asked or not! LOL
I think it makes of a large part of my "being different" , thinking outside of the box, and being creative. (the BPd was a whole different thing, and another subject all together)...

So like Pixie said...embrace it...read here..and get to know the positives and the great people here!

ADD and proud!

Hope


The upside of ADD isn't discussed nearly as much as the downside. The ability to see connections that others don't, the mental gymnastics and creativity that often come with the package, the innovative problem solving abilities...Look at a list of famous people who have or are believed to have had ADD. It's impressive. There are lots of web resources and books to read. It's a fascinating subject. Good luck in your search. Linda Lawton

Look at it this way. Adhd is a medical condition. Do you expect it to clear up on it's own, or with time.

I didnt even have problems with hyperactivity until middle school. before that i was never disruptive. just disorganized and distracted. by high school it was pretty severe and seems to have only gotten progressively WORSE! Is this at all typical?

It is quite embarrassing to me to be an adult treated for ADD.
Oh sweety i know how that feels. I was hyperactive most of my life but throughout it I tend to have matured then go back to hyperactiveness. I find following a low GI diet plus take out the processed foods in your diet helps alot with behaviour. Dont drink coffee as coffee will just send you bouncing off the walls.

Roxy.

I never grew out of it either. Part of the reason is because there is a biological component to ADHD/ADD. You can't make it go away any more than you can make any other biological condition go away.

I also think that it's fairly typical for ADD/ADHD to become more of a struggle as your get older because as you continue to get older, life continues to get harder in many ways and the amount of responsibilities that you have continues to increase. As my life coach loves to remind me, life only gets harder as you get older (but she also reminds me that you also develop more skills to deal with life more effectively, even though it gets harder).

As for being embarrassed to be treated for adult ADHD, would you be embarrassed if you were treated for asthma or diabetes as an adult? You can't control having ADHD any more than you can control having asthma, diabetes, or any other physical condition.

Well said, Wish...well said....;)

I didnt even have problems with hyperactivity until middle school. before that i was never disruptive. just disorganized and distracted. by high school it was pretty severe and seems to have only gotten progressively WORSE! Is this at all typical?

It is quite embarrassing to me to be an adult treated for ADD.
I think it's pretty normal to feel frustrated over something that's getting worse, not better. It can be really embrassing when your ADD can single you out of a crowd.. :(

So far my ADD symptoms have been pretty stable, but I wholeheartly agree that ADD can be a pretty embarassing thing to admit.

Reading these posts, I am giggling then tearing up, then back to giggling, etc. When I first realized I had adhd I felt huge relief. I had just decided that maybe I was stupid.
Then I felt so mad that no one thru out my childhood noticed even though the signs were in 3-d. Now, I can relate to feeling ashamed. At first I wanted to shout it from the roof tops. "Hey everyone!!!! I have adhd, I'm not stupid, lazy, unreliable, etc!!!!" Now I don't want anyone to know and I'm so embarressed if I'm "outed".
I take adderall which has helped tremendously and also go to a therapist. But i really hate a lot of the characteristics of adhd that I have. Maybe I'm trying to fight it too much, but my adhd is such a big problem that I can't think of an area of my life that it doesn't hurt, even with medication. Is there a resentful stage after dx?