ADHD & Drugs.

[Mike Church]

I just want to talk a bit about the recent development in my life. I think you have already read some of the shit that I got into because of what happened to me. On top of all that I was diagnosed by my P as ADHD. When he first suggested by asking if I had ever been tested for add I misunderstood him and asured him that I did not have aids. But after when we got into it and over the next few months of testing and reviewing the confirmed diagnosis was made. As a survivor of abuse from childhood to 21 1/2 years my T put me on Paxil to help bring down my anxiety level. That did not work at all. A new P weened me off that and got me on to Effexor and then later added Welbutrin. Now for the past week I have been taking 10mg of Ritalin twice a day and 75mg of Effexor. I have to tell you that, at least for now, I have felt a profound change in myself. I an better able to deal with life and I am starting to feel that I am not as big a piece of shit that I thought I was. As a matter of fact Ime OK. What concerns me though is that I have been a member of AA for 26years and from 18-21 I was a heroin addict. And as long as I can remeber I have had an addiction for Violence perpetrated on myself. Hence my love of mountainbiking, smowboarding and inline skating and hockey. I get hurt a lot with theses sports. The adrenilen rush is awesome. My P, my wife and I are being very careful with this ritalin because it is very addictive. About 1 hour after taking it the rush starts and I feel incredible and am able to concentrate for the first time in my life on things that are necessary but not really interesting or that I do not care to think about (my abuse is a case in point).
Sorry about rambling but what I really want to know is if there is anyone else out there with this and what have they done to aleviate it and what has been there experience. Someone already has indicated to me that he suffers from the same thing.
At the moment the drug is helping me cope better than I have in the past but I am worried about the long term effects.

 

[The Dean]

Thyere is a good site on all of this--www.chadd.org
I had trouble getting to it so I put CHADD on Google and got a link and it took me there.

Bob

 

[Mike Church]

Thanks for the information. What that site and also the NIH site does not address or talk about is ADHD and sexual abuse. I know that up to 70% of adult prisoners are generally ADHD because of the nature of the affliction and that they also tend to be addictive in nature but I cannot find any info about the situation when someone such as myself is both ADHD and a survivor.
I know that as a survivor I was an alcoholic, a drug addict and a violence addict. These characteristics are also found in survivors.
How do we cope. Ritalin is a stimulant and can be addictive. I am just so concerned about my future.
I recently joined a health club and am going to get back into the kind of shape that I was as a young man. I am not out of shape but could use a little less fat aroud my middle. I have resisted being totally in shape because of my past. I was in perfect shape when I started hustling in a park. My T got it out of me that it was this was what kept me away from total fitness. I was not even aware of it.
I am doing so well now and am really afraid of what if anything could come of adding a drug to help my ADHD in the long term. It does make it a lot easier for me to concentrate and do things now. It is the future that scares the hell out of me. Does anyone have any experience with this situation.

"We are not alone"