hi there.

i'm new to this forum.
i was diagnosed with add about 6 months ago, and every problem i've been diagnosed with has majorly improverd beyond possible relief as they are all symptoms of add.-and i'd like to communicate and share tips/ideas and stratergies with other adults with add.so hi there!

just a quick intro: my story is long and complicated-heres a run down in point form (if u cant be bothered reading just skip to the last paragraph in capitals-very imp!)

-i've known i had add for about 7 years b4 i saw a dr who knew his stuff and agreed with me. but by the time i saw him i had given up and thought i didnt

-i'm 23 years old

-theres definately a link between add and the following:
(i know from personal experience)

-eatting disorders-i've had a long history with, and from when i was 13-20 i was dangerously ill with anorexia-spent many many years in hospital-at times literally death bed-
HOWEVER!
i'm very healthy and fit now physically, i eat! i'm physically well and rewcovered!!i still struggle with my self perception, but am alot better at fighting anorexic thoughts- and realising they are not true. (yipee!)

-have been also now labeled with bdd, as i still struggle with my self perception

-my dr said (and me and my family can see now)had my add been diagnosed with add in my childhood, its likely i would have never gotten so ill with anorexia in the first place-which was amazing to here someone say-both relieving i now have the answer, but also sad cos i nearly lost my life to anorexia

-for about 2 years i used to buy add medication on the street and have an excess amount every day for those 2 years. i was a total addict. but i loved the medication so much! i discovered it once when a friend gave me a few dex at a party. i was hooked. the only thing that got me over the hardcore addiction was a year in hospital with add-that was about 3 years ago-up till i was dianosed i used to take speed on a regular basis and used it daily at times when i've had jobs. i had no idea why i loved amphetamines so much. now i know! its my add. i know get the meds i love every day-in a controlled healthy dosage and love it

-i also have been diagnosed with ocd

-servere depression

-anxiety

and ive got a very addictive personality-ive been addicted badly to excercise. i'm a heavy smoker

all i've these illnesses i've experienced pretty badly. and for so many years i asked countless dr's 'do i have add'? they all said 'no'
until i saw my wonderful specialist-i had given up but i told him my history and that first appointment he told me it was add. and my life has been so much better since!

my medication is helping so much-its like replaced a part of my brain that always should have been there but never was
-so many ?'s have been answered
-and i now know the full reason why i got anorexia and all the other stuff in the first place, i work on it with my psycologist weekly-who i've seen for about 8 years-he said since ive been on the meds my progress in recovering from my anxiety/bdd/anorexic thinking/ocd/addictions has never been better! and i know its true-i can now think better to understand the reasons 'why' i became unwell in the first place

it'd take years to explain to anyone-but i know i'm on the rtight track. i now realise i was just a little girl who was trying to find something to calm down all the chaos inside her head when i realised focusing on my body-obsessing-not eatting would calm it down quite a bit, things didnt feel 'like something is wrong' all the time, and gave it meaning-in anorexia i found what i thought was my normal thinking-starvation wasted my brain-which calmed the chaotic noise. i now know that was just a way of me dealing with the 'chaos' (my add) and that it wasnt the issue of my body that was the problem-it was my undetected add.

i now know 'nothing is wrong' anymore-or ever was-tho i still have the thought it my brain it is-i've learnt to combat that and ignore/not engage/ sit thro or argue against and win over that feeling. i dont react to it anymore. i love myself and my body-being diagnosed with add was like having a big giant circle drawn around all the problems of my life, they wern't illnesses they where symptoms of my add! so life is lovely for me now-still hard work-long way to go-but really working and know i'll get there.theres never been such a positive ending i could have hoped for!


THE SAD THING IS, I HAVE BEEN THRO EVERY POSSIBLE EATTING DISORDER TREATMENT PROBGRAM OR POSSIBLE IDEA OR AVENUE OF HELP IN MY STATE IN AURALIA WHICH IS VICTORIA-THIS STATE HAS THE BEST IN THE COUNTRY AS WELL AS NSW. NEVER ONCE HAS ANY DOCTOR OR ANY EXPERT EVER MENTIONED THE LINK TO ME-I'VE SEEN THE BEST OF THE BEST IN EATTING DISORDERS IN AUSTRALIA. EVEN WHEN I SUGGESTED I HAD ADD I WAS LAUGHED AT, IT WASNT EVEN EXPLORED-ITS LIKE A SECRET FACT THAT NEEDS TO BE DISCOVERED THWE LINK BETWEEN ADD AND EATTING DISORDERS-FOR ALL THOSE GIRLS OR GUYS WITH EATTING DISORDERS-I KNOW IT WOULD HAVE HELPED ME TO BE DIAGNOSED MUCH EARLY BUT IT WASNT EVEN AN OPTION. IT SHOULD BE EXPLORED. BECOS I KNOW FROM MY EXPERIENCE-IT FOUND ME THE ANSWER AND SAVED MY LIFE. IM SO LUCKY TO HAVE DISCOVERED THIS FACT-AND NOW I THINK ITS MY DUTY TO SHARE IT. I WANT TO HELP-I WANT TO RAISE AWARENESS. HOW CAN I MAKE IT KNOWN?
i guess this is one way i'm trying to make a start. sorry to get so full on! i just feel really strongly about it!

if u have any ideas or suggestions or similiar storys please share

I would not go as far to say ADD causes eating disorders although eating disorders may be secondary due to the anxiety caused by being ADD - I have ADD I do not have nor have I ever had an eating disorder.

Having an eating disorder would be a secondary condition that co-existed with the ADD. The eating disorder my be helped by treating ADD only because it was the reaction to the ADD symptoms that triggered the eating disorder in your individual case - I say your individual case because not every one with an eating disorder has ADD - but I have no doubt undiagnosed ADD may have triggered the secondary conditions you mentioned.

May people with ADD have co-existing conditions including myself - the but hairy million dollar wtf is the variety of co-existing conditions that are experienced For example my co-existing condition is dyslexia. I have a daughter and a sister whose co-existing condition is bi-polar neither of which have dyslexia - so far I have not been diagnosed with bi-polar. We have a brother who so far has only been diagnosed with conduct disorder. Many of the co-existing conditions like conduct disorder are not necessarily directly related to the ADD as much as they might be related to the way one is treated because of the differences ADD causes - in other wards societies crappy treatment of those who are different is the under lying cause in my opinion of some secondary conditions not necessarily ADD . ..

OKay this is my two cents worth . . . I almost forgot to say welcome to the forums

nither would i go as far to say add causes eating disoders. eating disorders occur for a number of reasons. in my case i never said it caused it-said if i hadof been treated for add as a child my doc said he doubdts i would have got anorexia-it was just a sympton of trying to deal with add, so to make it clear again 'i dont think add they CAUSES eatting disopders-but in my case it pretty much did amnd i'm not the only one.

raising awareness about this subject in the eatting disoders treatmemnt field could at least diagnose a few poor sould in hospital-u musrt understand its important to help these ppl-anorexia/eatting disoders bring ppl to the gates of hell, its life and death, medecine doesnt help, niether does therapy, theres no clue of how to help these ppl-maybe if it could help one out of 100 pattiend in hospitals for eatting disorders.
(oh and no, i dont think everyone wiTH AN EATING D/O HAS ADD)

sorry to be rude.
its something i feel strongly about and expect the saME FROM OTHERS

hey lana
its a great idea to raise awareness in the link between eating disorders, add, bdd, and substance abuse. I have had an eating disorder (bulimia) for 10 years and no doctor has ever put it together and neither did i till recently know they were even connected. I was binging and purging from the time i got up to the time i slept to get rid of my chaotic brain. when i went to university i also abused substances, but because of the impurity of street drugs and the inability to control dosage i went totally insane. I stopped substances and my eating disorder went up the roof.

ive dropped out 4 university courses. i couldnt hold a conversation with anyone. ive always been immature for my age and hung around with ppl 6 years younger than me (mostly boys) because they would climb trees and do impulsive stuff, but over the years i became more and more isolated from society and ppl and became severely depressed because i never thought i would be able to rid myself of being bulimic or around ppl.

the doctors put me on anti-depressants which made me 10x worse and i even tried to commit suicide many times because i felt there was no cure and i was too damaged to ever find a way out. my friends always used to tell me i had add b/c i couldnt sit still and would ramble on off-topic from one tangent to the next. when i told the doc's they thought it was a way to get meds so they put me on prozac/ citalopram, which defies logic since they are known to make suicidal tendancies worse.

i recently moved to turkey from london. (london docs and psychs are useless: they don't care at all, but i went to a psych here who listened to me). On chance i tried ritalin and what i thought could not ever happen happened! i was free from the binge and purge cycle! I CAN THINK IN MY HEAD AGAIN! i have not had a suicidal thought since i started taking it. i dont feel the need to abuse them/ i have self-control|!

however i still do have some problems when the meds wear off- i dont want to increase my prescribed dosage so i end up binging and purging once at night (which is an improvement to 5 x+ a day.)

also i do feel tired all the time on ritalin. what meds r u on? im thinking of asking for adderrall instead because i heard it helps more with motivation and lasts longer, and im hoping also it wont make me feel so tired.

i was thinking too of a way to share my story. although it is still early days for me, i too have been to eating disorder clinics who helped me none. i nearly ended my life because i thought i could never be free of this disease. but i never could have anticipated such a turn around, and i want other ppl who were thinking there was no way out and have had a long history of an ed to probe the connection. the link btw add and ed's are even on the somethingfishy ed website (it was never there a few years ago so it is probably a new development but one i wish id read ages ago). also on add.org there is a fantastic article on ed's, add and self-medicating.

thanks for sharing your story with me! lots of luck! x

I always found that starving myself counting calories, weighting myself everyday gave me control in my life. It help me start and finish my school work. Thinking about food all day center all my forces and energy into being more productive in life. If I started eating and stop trying to lose weight, I would become scatter brain. Just like my mother who is also ADD. I always barely pass my classes because I had the hardest time finishing projects. The feeling of hunger force my lost brain on track. The pain I felt help me stay on track with my plan. My head was in a fog. Before anorexia, I never knew where to start. I became overwhelm with choices, and stress.

Lanaxx, I was also laugh at, and second guess with I told my doctors I may have ADD/ADHD. They kinda thought I was telling them I may have ADD so I could get a prescription for adderall. Which is a well know "weight loss" drug on the street. Because of it's side effect.

There is very little awareness about adult add. I think there is a big chance add/eating disorder may be linked.

It may be a good idea to go to some eating disorder forums and express your thoughts there. Or some eating disorder meetings. Just by talking to other people that have eating disorders you can learn a lot and so can they. I believe knowledge will anwer everyones problems.