Taking meds makes adult with ADD feel like a mental patient

[scarygreengiant]

"Mental patients" are people too, you know. What's wrong with feeling like one? They are not a lower species.

[craig0ry]

Originally Posted by Garry

...or help a snapping turtle across the road so he wont get run over by a Big Truck.

Ha, just did this twice last year. There's a reason I always keep gloves and stuff in my car. Do not want to lose a finger to one of these lil' guys!

[Ganjin]

Speaking directly, it seems to me that the original poster IS a mental patient. So am I. And so are most people on this forum, I gather. There sure is an unpleasant stigma associated with mental health problems.

[ditzydreamer]

Don't despair. I would have been researching each medication and finding out what to expect from each one, etc. I just wonder how you will be able to tell which is giving you a negative side effect and conversly, which one might be helping more than the other when you start them all together...?

I was originally diagnosed with major depression and anxiety disorders galore, and told that I'd likely have to take my "cocktail" for the rest of my life, given the severity of my symptoms. While I felt somewhat better initially, they didn't really get to the root of the problem...I was still missing appointments and late for everything, losing things, locking my keys in my car, completely disorganized in mind, body and home!
I have a great sense of humor and don't mind poking fun at myself, but I can only hear about how "blonde" I am so many times, or see how everyone rolls their eyes when I come in late for even really important things (such as my dad's funeral) and it will still get you down, even on anti-depressants...feeling "stupid" to me is far worse than feeling depressed and anxious. Eventually I gave up on those meds because I had to take higher and higher doses to deal with the inevitable increase in my symptoms.

I came to believe that I had ADHD when looking at the possibility that my two of my three children could be affected by it. Thankfully, my doctor agreed with my theory that perhaps ADHD was behind my ongoing bouts of depression & anxiety and sent me to a specialist.
When I started Concerta, it was clear that depression and anxiety were secondary or results to the ADHD. While I was on Concerta, I didn't feel depressed at all, so I wouldn't have needed an anti-depressant along with it, even though I presented symptoms of major depression when I first went to my (new) psychiatrist. I have taken just about everything for depression and anxiety and yet at the root of it all was ADHD, and I just didn't know.

I did have a bout of denial and stopped taking Concerta, but I'm going to give it another try when I go in next week...

I absolutely understand where you are coming from. It doesn't help that sometimes the biggest skeptics are our own friends and family. Only my husband and my best friend know that I am seeking treatment for this. That is why I love this forum so much...I never feel like a "mental patient" here with all the wonderful, supportive people here!! If anything, abnormal is the norm here!

I would suggest that you do your research and learn about what you are taking and exactly how they work. Ask questions if you don't understand anything about them or why your doctor chose those specific medications.

Be positive, you might find that the prozac and especially valium (excellent point btw, y-quantum) are temporary measures to get you started and feeling better quickly, especially if you were presenting with suicidal ideation.

Good luck! (from one mental patient to another) *cheers*

[rogerdodger91]

Originally Posted by cualexander

I am 23 and after having problems all my life I just recently saw a psychiatrist. I thought I was going to go to the psychiatrist and he was going to write me out a little prescription for Adderall and I'd be done with it. Instead, after talking to him for an hour I got Strattera, Prozac and Valium. Taking this cocktail of drugs certainly helps me out a lot, but in some ways it just makes me feel worse because I have to take drugs to make myself be normal. I haven't even told my family I am taking them. There is only one person I have really told about it because I knew she would understand I'm not a mental case. I almost want to give them up entirely because I feel like I should be able to function without them and not have to deal with this stigma that I am a mental patient. Does anyone understand what I'm talking about?

Dont look at it any different than someone who needs glasses. These are tools to give you a fighting chance in a competitive world. A purpose and a greater quality of life.

[Mesaana]

i agree with rogerdodger. personally, i see a therapist once a week, and a psychiatrist every month or two, and am currently on adderall, focalin, prozac, abilify, xanax, and xanax xr. no, im no thrilled that i have to take medication to feel normal. however, i accept it. i'm also grateful that i live in a place and time where these medications are available to me so that i can function in society. i pay rent, work, and drive just like everyone else, i don't see my disorders as flaws, just facets of my personality. my friends and family love me for who i am, everything included. everyone has their quirks, but isn't that what makes us unique?

[whicker0110]

Im 28, been on/off ssri since 19 and stims alone since 26, I have the same inter struggle daily.. Talk to my wife she could tell you all about my whining of oh I shouldn't have to take drugs because im a christian!!

[hanikamiya]

Originally Posted by cualexander

I almost want to give them up entirely because I feel like I should be able to function without them and not have to deal with this stigma that I am a mental patient. Does anyone understand what I'm talking about?

I agree with the posts that advise you to think of the drugs as a kind of crutch, like glasses.

But. Don't think of people as 'mental patients'. Everyone has a story, everyone has genetic predispositions and survived experiences that made them to the person they are now, and some people had tougher luck than others.

I think what you actually dislike is feeling like you're not in control of your own life in a way that you believe you should be. That's quite paradoxical - the medication allows you to be more in control of your own actions, and yet you feel less in control, dependent.
I know that feeling.

But you have to realize that this idea of control is an illusion. I realized while caring for my grandma, who has osteoporosis and fractures bones very easily. Even vertebrae.
So I helped her, trying to be respectful towards her dignity and her wish to remain independent, even when she had terrible pain and couldn't walk stairs on her own (but lived in a house with the bedroom two flights upstairs).

That showed me that in order to be in control of your own life, you don't have to meet certain standards.

You have to look at the actual situation and figure out what your real options are, and make the best of it. And if you have people who help you, or tools to work with, you should make use of them in a responsible way.