ADD and fatigue...

[callmehats]

I have felt so tired for my entire life. I've come to assume it's an ADD thing. Maybe it's a manifestation of being horribly chronically bored. Adderall has been a big help.

[elvis1]

Originally Posted by NekoGirl

My fatigue fluctuates, but when it's bad it's pretty bad- enough to make daily life really, really suck, mainly because the feeling of lack of control over my body/situation. I hate feeling powerless like that.

I don't think that it's ADD related, personally.

Have you had your thyroid fully tested? This includes not only TSH, but testing of T4/T3 levels and others?

TSH is the intermediate in the thyroid hormones and the most adequate to check the normal functioning of the axis itself, so the expression: the most sensitive to be checked is TSH. TSH responds to TRH and TSH works directly with t3 and t4 and you get your bloods t3 from the thyroid originated t4. What does this tell you? mainly focus on looking at TSH. watch it in case it is under the normal level.

Originally Posted by NekoGirl

Depression, allergies, and infections can make you really drag, too. You can also google chronic fatigue syndrome, lots of information out there.

he is referring to something more under the surface than depression. a kind of not that tangible thing

[elvis1]

Originally Posted by callmehats

I have felt so tired for my entire life. I've come to assume it's an ADD thing. Maybe it's a manifestation of being horribly chronically bored. Adderall has been a big help.

I wish I could have had the chance to try it out. My last doc has already interviewed me 4 times ( in a 1 hour average per session and having provided truckloads of psychological, sleep studies, interviews with neurology ) @ a 75 bucks per session approx ( very expensive here) even though I have the best medical insurance and nothing still. Only tests , tests and more tests. Time goes by and I am getting ripped at the University. She does not seem to consider that ( as she has the honor diploma already)

[sortawicked]

I cant remember ever not feeling tired. I remember coming home from school when I was 12 and I would take a nap for 2-3 hours every afternoon. One day my dad trhew open my bedroom door and yelled " Get your ***** outta that bed! What's wrong with you? Are you on drugs!?"

I was so hurt that he would say that!

I'd never even thought about drinking. I said "No, Im just tired."

I need a nap everyday when i get home, I get so sleepy driving home from school its not even funny.

Especially after eating.I hate eating because i know I may be fine before but afterwards Im going to want to sleep.

The only time I didnt feel like that was when I took the Ritalin, and Adderal.

Of course Im never sleepy when I NEED to be---like NOW. I fought off the nap today too. **sigh**

[PickMeUpRoadie]

Originally Posted by sortawicked

I cant remember ever not feeling tired. I remember coming home from school when I was 12 and I would take a nap for 2-3 hours every afternoon. One day my dad trhew open my bedroom door and yelled " Get your ***** outta that bed! What's wrong with you? Are you on drugs!?"

I was so hurt that he would say that!

I'd never even thought about drinking. I said "No, Im just tired."

I need a nap everyday when i get home, I get so sleepy driving home from school its not even funny.

Especially after eating.I hate eating because i know I may be fine before but afterwards Im going to want to sleep.

The only time I didnt feel like that was when I took the Ritalin, and Adderal.

Of course Im never sleepy when I NEED to be---like NOW. I fought off the nap today too. **sigh**

I am pleased to see I'm not the only one that has problems with fatigue after eating. In my experience, it ends up being the more I eat, the more tired/fatigued I am. And if I eat alot, the drowsiness is equal to taking 2 or three too many Benadryl.

The only sleep I had ever gotten on this type of fatigue was utterly useless. And while for some reason such fatigue did not really occur in high school, once I got to college it did. Maybe this was due to the buffet lines in college cafeterias and my boredom eating.

Before I figured out that eating was the cause I even went through one pretty bad (imho) depressive episode lastinng about 3 weeks.

One day I was almost out of food in my room and the campus was snowed in so I had to stretch my food, then I discovered that excessive eating caused this fatigue. I slept 5 hours that night and felt the most rested that I ever have.

[ADD-LA]

Try being tested for food allergies. And not a scratch yet as they are garbage but a blood test. I had the exact same thing you did, always wanted to sleep, mentally exhausted. Turns out I'm l allergic to a number of foods including cows milk and wheat. My ADD is still there but I now have much much more energy now that I'm off of those foods. I think I've seen food sensitivities mentioned in a few ADD books.

[ADD-LA]

To start try staying away from carbs at lunch. I bet you'll feel much less tired after a salad with some sort of meat (protein is key, yes vegetables are carbs but they don't spike your blood sugar like breads) than if you had a sandwhich or burger with French fries. Try it one day and see how u feel

[PickMeUpRoadie]

Originally Posted by ADD-LA

To start try staying away from carbs at lunch. I bet you'll feel much less tired after a salad with some sort of meat (protein is key, yes vegetables are carbs but they don't spike your blood sugar like breads) than if you had a sandwhich or burger with French fries. Try it one day and see how u feel

I have performed this experiment on myself and it has worked. The missing part of the equation for me is WHY is this happening. And you have a very reasonable answer that I will have to explore further.

Thanks.

[ddsuze]

Hello I am new in this forum and I am not going near a doctor that can give me an official diagnosis but I read a book last year that caused me to go into a very deep and long shock. I was like reading my life story. I prefer to use my life time stock of coping mechanisms. I am quite old. I don't even remember hearing that ADD existed when I was young.

I remember as a child learning to knock myself out in situations that I found too,too,too boring. This had nothing to do with fatique, I just wanted to be out of there and I was gone. In first year University I had an English prof that could put me to sleep in 4 minutes. I walked into a final exam shaking. I am unable to read if I am trying to concentrate (in those days I thought I was lazy and stupid) and I'd slept through every class. Before I knew what this all meant I used to joke that the prof had had a heart monitor on me to know when I was awake so that he could ask questions that I knew something about.

I learned to drop any class in which the prof put me to sleep in the first week. After that I had the benefit of only attending classes in which I found the prof interesting and were of interest to me.

The downside was that I never learned to function in areas which did not interest me. I did learn to know what I liked and what I didn't like.

I don't know if this is helpful, for me there is a difference between fatigue and
tuning out