ADHD Support Group

my Name is Danielle, I am 32 years old mom of one and wife of almost 11 years to a person with OCD. and on top of this i am trying to runa a small home business( i am a direct seller) yup! that's life!

I was diagnosed in may after joking that i was sure i had ADD. As a child, Teen, and Adult life as been a ride. I never thought i had the extra H added in until i recently. Started taking Straterra(12mg Wk1, 25 wk2, 40wk 3 60 wk 4 40 wk 5 week 6 me free!) and WOW! as first it was great, life slowed down a little and the realness of it all showed! By the time i was at full dose i was having WAY to many side effects and was worse off then when i started it!

anyways my Psych and i decided i will be trying alternative and natural medicine. I am also told to research the heck out of it! So i am looking forward to hearing what has and hasn't worked or whats been busted and tried and true!

My H in the equation is mostly speeding thoughts( more so at night) need of constant stimulation and distractions... yup still here! lol I had at one point learned to master enough to function... well function enough! but not as well as now.

I am learning SO much about just in the short amount of time and really being ok with my H(that what i call it. the H in the ADHD) and coming to know more about my self and my triggers and how i can work towards my life that i want. We are choosing to not go to stimulants at this point unless needed. a HUGE reason is that I REALLY want to have 1 more kiddo and complete my family. so there is a novelette on me! hope to get great info out of this group!

We are a small but supportive bunch here. Fell free to jump right in and ask questions, respond to posts, etc. I have just started an ongoing thread based on the book "ADHD for Dummies" and some members are finding it helpful. We just started this a couple of days ago and you may want to check it out. We are currently discussing turning the negative aspects of our symptoms into positives.

I'm glad you found us.

Reading your post I at first was going to respond about other meds being available but since you want to have another child I can see why you might rather try a non-med more natural route first.

I think you will probably do ok. For quite some time after my diagnosis I wasn't on anything because my pdoc didn't want to treat my ADD/ADHD as she was already treating me for bipolar. Just being aware helped a lot in that period before I ended up with a practitioner who was willing to prescribe.

Now not to bury you in book suggestions but I have been reading Taking Charge of Adult ADHD by Russell A. Barkley PHD and Christine M Benton. I loved it so much I actually bought a copy new and I never ever buy a book that isn't used!

The book has concrete strategies and skills to help overcome symptoms. I have been reading it like a personal survival guide. I really recommend it.

Anyway, I am glad you find our group and I look forward to reading about what you are doing to thrive despite ADHD. You've got allies in your corner here!

Post edited by: centerseeker, at: 06/15/2012 07:59 AM

Excersize is apparently one fo the best things to try, by the way.