you know when people talk about always having chatter or noise or things buzzing around in their head? music, internal conversation, thoughts... so on and so forth.

how am i suppose to know how bad it really is? i know i have it and i catch it every now and then.

i guess this isn't so much of a question as oppose to curiosity. i have never been on medication and i have lived with it my whole life...

before medication were you aware of how bad or minimal it was in your head? did you notice it actually affecting your day to day life more than you realize? what's it like for it not to be there?

just wondering.

Frank,

This is one of those great questions. But it pretty much applies to all of life. How do you know your mom is a bad cook? Answer: you don't until you go to someone else's home and eat the food of a good cook. How did I know I had a great stereo in high school? Answer: I didn't until I went off to college and set up my system in our room suite and my roommates got blown away by the sound of my system. That's when I knew I had a great stereo system. Before that, I didn't really "know" this or "notice" this.

So, the answer is ... you don't totally know until you quiet the chatter ... But ... you have hints and the fact that you're asking this question tells me that you probably have the sense that your brain is noisier than it needs to be.

I didn't know (or suspect) at all that I had adhd until my psychiatrist increased my wellbutrin xl from 300 mg a day to 450 a day. He did this for another problem I was having with my mood. Anyway, my brain got so quiet and my concentration improved so much that I was knocked out. I was dumbstruck. I was like, "are you kidding me? This is how other people live and have been living?"

I began to do the research and realized the good effects of wellbutrin was more associated with treating adhd than with depression (my original reason for taking the med). Since then the XL 450 doesn't quite work as well and I have added adderall and now concerta. But you're right. You probably don't know this in your "gut" until you get some relief. There are a thousand ways this principle applies. I am always shocked at how out of shape I can get when I lay off of exercise-and I learn this when I'm starting to get in good shape!

But the fact that you're asking about this tells me you sense that you have a lot more brain chatter than other people.

So have you been diagnosed?

So, the answer is ... you don't totally know until you quiet the chatter ... But ... you have hints and the fact that you're asking this question tells me that you probably have the sense that your brain is noisier than it needs to be.

i think i do have more than necessary...


So have you been diagnosed?

no im still waiting to see someone referred to me from my doctor.

Well good luck with things. Trust me: once you experience that quiet, you never wanna go back. It makes living so much easier. Sometimes, if I wanna depress myself, I can think of all the days and hours and weeks I spent around people where I was working hard to connect and at the same time working really hard to push through all the confusing chatter and static in my brain. It was totally exhausting.

Brain chatter comes and goes. It is the unwanted thought were you are reliving something you did wrong that is my biggest problem.
Whenever the brain has nothing to do it begins to think in earnest, and control over what you want to think is not really possible.

Brain chatter comes and goes. It is the unwanted thought were you are reliving something you did wrong that is my biggest problem.
Whenever the brain has nothing to do it begins to think in earnest, and control over what you want to think is not really possible.

same here...

for the longest time i never even thought about it. and then when i did more research on add i realized i have it all the time!!!

Hey Frank,

My question would be, does this "chatter/noise" keep you up at night? If it does, the term for it is "racing thoughts". Meds help, a lot. Often people can not get the racing thoughts to stop without meds. If this is what you have - I wish you luck in your search for a Dr and a diagnosis.

At Heart

at heart,

it does keep me up but only to a certain extent. to be honest i have chronic fatigue usually all day everyday and starting work at 3am helps make me tired enough to fall asleep within a good 1/2 hour. but i do have some days when i have to work early and it takes me a good 2 hours.