I got to tell ya, in previous post I have talked about lack of sleep and how i can function on less of it, boy was I wrong. Because it was making me moody.

I don't think I need to tell you the stresses of my job. I am not about to write a large rant about reporters, producers and other photographers I work with (like the post I did about what I think of the education system). All i will say is that I am a photographer/editor with a lot of demands and deadlines for the news at 5, 5:30 and 6PM. That alone tells how stressed I am.

I have made some changes that contributed to my moodyness. I am going to bed sooner. Thats one thing. I am taking Valerian root. I am no longer eating or drinking things with high amounts of sugar and caffeine. I have found those made my stress levels worse. I feel happier and more energized. What caused these changes?

I yelled at one of our interns the other day in the morning because of my moodyness and not getting enough sleep. That and consuming a can of Red Bull for a pick me up. Not too bright on my part. In addition my video and packages were not as good and were lagging. Since changing my diet and getting more sleep, I have found I am doing much better. All I do now is drink lots of water, eat alot of protien and take my Valerian Root when I know I may be dealing with some intense situations. Like "oh crap two officers shot to death in the line of duty, got to get to the scene." No joke either. I was calm and collective the day after two Bradford County Sherrifs in our area were shot to death and I just concentrated on what needed to be done with no stress.

In my previous post I said I had my stress level under control. That was a load of crap. Now I feel I have it more under control then ever before.

That is cool, I should be following your advice it helps me too.

wow, you know, I definately noticed the same thing in my own life - it's not stressful in the same way, but it's definately stressful (actually, i was MAKING it stressful,a dn its' gotten a lot better since then but anyway...)

For a while I was sleeping 3-6 hours per night, not eating... not eating WELL, etc... and I was terrible. My grades were bad, I couldn't concentrate, I was moody and irritable, it took me ages to do homework, I couldn't remember things when I read them.

At the same time I also tried Adderall, and it made it even WORSE, and the lack of sleep combined with a stimulant gave me bad headaches and dizziness.

so I stopped the medication, and focused solely on trying to live healthier - lo and behold, sleep IS important!! I'd actually been punishing myself for bad grades by sleeping less (tyring to do more homework) and not eating. Yeah... it was bad and I am trying to do that less. I was absolutely amazed at how much effect SLEEP actually had on me. And I used to always tell my freinds about how I didn't have to sleep much too.... yeah I was wrong... 4 hours really ISN"T enough. And also, protein and other nutrients actually seemed to help too, although it's hard to distinguish since I changed so many variables all at once.

I'm not too sure about the protein thing since i think it might actually make me OVER focus (which is also a huge problem for me) but its' better than not eating at all, and I definately need SOME protein. I've decided that I need to strike a balance there. That's for me anyway. Dr. Amen seems to agree, he "prescribes" a low carb/high protein diet for every type of ADD except for his type #3 - overfocused. For them he says the opposite. Of course, I dunno how much I agree with Dr. Amen anyway... and also I think it's really too difficult to tell. But just somthing to keep in mind.

anyway, yeah I definately saw what you saw with the diet/ sleep changes... some people say that ADDers are much more sensitive to diet than most people. I don't know if that's true but it seems to be.