Over the past couple weeks, I have been stressed to say the least.

Being unemployed means watching every penny very very carefully, and moving house makes it all that much more important.

I sold my wedding rings to go and see Hull City move into the Premier League, and it was worth every penny. The entire trip was amazing, and seeing so many people united throughout the city has been a truly spectacular thing.

Last week, I had my debit card stolen, and some chavvy fucker thought it would be cool to go on an internet shopping spree. He even had the cheek to tell the shops that he was my son, and was being sent to Iraq the following week with the military, and everything must be shipped quickly. The idiot had everything sent to his home address, and even ordered Sky Satellite tv and paid his phone and internet bill using my card. After a few phone calls, it’s pretty certain that not only were these things cut off, he won’t be able to get internet again because he used their lines to commit crimes, and seeing as we only have one internet company here, he’s screwed himself.

The good news is that I will get my money back and he will get criminally charged (made another statement at the police department today) but the bad news is that it will take at least 2 weeks to get my money back - money that I need to pay bills and buy food.

Luckily my new landlord has been very understanding, and my mates have tried to help as much as they can. My mom loaned me the money for the deposit on my new place. Louise is even helping me move to make sure that I am okay - what an angel. Paddy has been kind enough to send me some cash as a birthday preset, and I cannot thank him enough. The Mr’s brother is helping me move so I don’t have to pay for a van, and the Mr himself has been very supportive throughout all of this.

It’s hard times like these that make you really see how wonderful people can be, and how much emphasis we put on shit that just doesn’t matter. I tell ya, I have become a much more frugal shopper!

I have had a very hard time sleeping, and have resulted in taking diazepam (valium) at night, but it only seems to work for a few hours, and once its worn off, I am up and alert all over again (it is helping me with the anxiety, so I will discuss this with my doctor as well). Tonight I intend on trying wine instead.

I plan on seeing my doc next week to see what she can offer me because 2-3 hours of sleep, if I am lucky, a night is screwing up my life. I am weary about Ambien, especially after my mum’s sleep eating and hallucinations while taking it, but would love to hear any of your experiences with sleeping medications and aids.

On the plus side, I have a couple of interviews next week and some potential temporary work. I know it may not be ideal, but I have bills to pay, and am not above doing administrative or accounting or even bar work to get by.

I happen to have a very nasty headache at the moment, which seems to have been triggered by some cheap chocolate. I don’t know if it is because my body doesn’t do sugar too well since my gastric bypass, or if it is just the small amount of cheap chocolate, but I have no intention of repeating this.

The jury is still out on chocolate. Is it evil for migraine sufferers or not?

My ADHD symptoms are really bad at the moment, and I am trying to make sure I take my Concerta first thing in the morning - otherwise I spend the days on tangent after tangent, which isn’t healthy for me or those around me. I keep getting these stupid obsessive thoughts which just make me more stressed, and I need to just let some of this shit go.
I am not the easiest person to live with at the best of times, and I can imagine that the Mr is at his wit’s end.

I continue to lose weight, and hope to buy some more clothes that fit once I am working again - gonna hit the charity shops and will hopefully get some funky finds!

Oh yeah, I had a birthday this week - the big 33. How are you supposed to celebrate these things as you get older? Am I supposed to have a party, barbeque, dinner, drinks, or what?

I would settle for a good night’s sleep…

Lately, it seems that I can handle very little stress.

I’m conscious I’m a bit of an irritable old cow right now, and I am not very happy about it.

I am overdue for my B12 injections, and I am positive that this is a major contributing factor on my mood.

I have experienced fatigued like I have never felt before, as well as numerous nasty headaches.

I am so bloody irritable. Very small things can make me snap completely, and this is very hard to handle for the people around me.

Irritability:

For outsiders it’s very hard to understand why I am irritable. Some people perceive me as short tempered and even aggressive when I am like this.

In reality I am very emotional and far from aggressive. So why does this change when I am stressed? Do I change?

I give several side effects below and explain them:

• Insomnia: lack of sleep
• Feeling useless
• Concentration problems
• Not able to have fun

Insomnia: lack of sleep

Often in a stressed or ADHD episode I either sleep a lot (sometimes 18 hours a day), or I have catnaps followed by several hours of walking around like a zombie. It’s easy to understand that not resting well causes irritation. Imagine getting ice cold water over yourself in the middle of the night. Are you an aggressive person? Or just not amused, and expressing that in an “exaggerated” way?

When I am stressed I often feel tired, not having any energy. Not being able to sleep well adds severely to this problem, and feeds the depression. Forcing a sleep pattern, in my experience, doesn’t work. Staying awake when I feel tired exhausts me so much that I can’t sleep when I am “allowed” to. And trying to fall asleep when I have been awake for just a few hours doesn’t work either; I keep turning from left to right, and moreover keep my partner awake, and disrupt his sleep. This might result in two grumpy people in the morning.

One reason it’s often hard for me to sleep is that due to lack of energy and depression during the day I can only do a few things. A thing that is often hard to understand for outsiders is that my overall feeling somehow improves at the end of the day. So when other people start calling it a day, I start feeling slightly better. And when other people go to bed, my mind starts to work in overdrive: I suddenly get many ideas. Things I wanted to do that day, but just couldn’t. So I start to do them in my head, plan them for tomorrow. And before I know it, it’s 5 in the morning, and I fall finally asleep, exhausted: a vicious circle.
Feeling useless

In the past, when I had short (1-2 weeks) ADHD or stressed episodes (without even knowing this for ADHD episodes), I stayed in bed. I slept a lot, and sometimes was able to read a little. On one hand I felt like I was lazy, profiting, etc. On the other hand, I felt very tired, had hard times concentrating, and often had symptoms of a cold. Back in those days I just thought it was just that: a cold, and that I was just overdoing it a bit.

Now I know better, so no more guilty feelings. In the past, therapy told me not to stay in bed. So I have been trying to get out of bed, and do something. But alas, not being able to do anything useful the whole day doesn’t really improve my situation. Yes, I know that “therapy” prefers to fit one back into society, and society frowns up on people who stay in bed when there is “nothing wrong” with them. But does it really help? In my personal situation; the harder I force myself to do something the less I can do the next day, or even days. So I try to go with the flow: not forcing, but neither drowning.

Moreover, when I try to do something, very small things that distract me can trigger me, and result in an explosion of anger. I try to contain such feelings, but there is often a last straw. After such an explosion I feel even more exhausted, and it can affect me the next day or even days.

Concentration problems

As an IT professional I work with my head. So not being able to concentrate means I can’t work. Moreover, I can’t read, something I like to do a lot in my free time. When I have a very hard time concentrating, how I feel can be described best like not having been able to sleep for days. It’s like everything around me slows down, and I am floating in syrup.

When I have little concentration, anything that takes it away from me: sounds, visuals, even touch, I dislike, hate even. I get angry; snap.

Not being able to have fun

This is another thing that’s very hard to understand for the outside world. People often think that stress or depression is feeling sad because your cat died 3 days ago. Moreover, that you are exaggerating it, and enjoying time off, and of course attention to the max.

Sadly, one of the big disadvantages of feeling like this is: there is (almost) no fun anymore.

In my case: things I love to do normally don’t “work” anymore. I can’t do them because I can’t concentrate. But even harder, I can’t enjoy things anymore since it’s like there is a huge wall between me and fun.
I can watch a funny movie, but feel nothing. The fun can’t reach me.

Not being able to have fun creates two problems: I feel envious because other people are having it, and I can’t join. The latter means that if friends, or my partner want to go somewhere, I feel as though I have to explain that I don’t feel ok. I know that when I go I will feel worse, because I don’t experience the fun. When I don’t understand this, I push myself harder, and that hurts me, and I get angry.

Lately it seems as if the only emotions I can feel are negative ones, and feeling those are better than feeling nothing at all.

Irritable: coping mechanisms

Below I give a short list of things I will try to do.

• Talk about it
• Apologize afterwards
• Avoid certain situations

Talk about it

This is my way of trying to explain the people who are close to me that I can snap very easy at times. I often try to illustrate it by saying: what would you do if tonight at 4 I throw ice cold water over you when you sleep. People who are close to me often understand this, since they know that I am usually very easy going.

Of course there are people who don’t understand, sometimes because they have no experience with it, and try to extrapolate what they would do in my situation based on their feelings and experiences. So sadly, they quickly draw the conclusion that I play the role of the victim, want attention, or profit from my ADHD in some way.

One thing I learned very fast at the beginning of understanding my ADHD: you will lose a lot of friends. Yes, I still call them friends, not “friends”. Since in my opinion they can’t blame me for my shortcomings, hence I can’t blame them for theirs.

So when I have tried to explain things and people don’t understand, I give up, instead of creating a new conflict every time, and feeling bad for one or several days afterwards.

And in those cases people try to understand my situation, the following two items help.

Apologize afterwards

Even though I often have a good reason, from my point of view, to snap, I understand that this reason is not obvious at all for other people, so I try to apologize afterwards. Sometimes this takes some time, but I have learned that apologizing has several benefits, so I do it, even if it’s afterwards, or late.

One benefit is that I get what happened out of my mind, give it a place. Otherwise it keeps running around in circles in my head, I keep thinking about what I could have done to avoid it, and how to do better next time. Saying sorry, and creating room for talk does help. Another benefit is that I show to other people that I am aware that something went wrong, and that it was not something I liked.

Avoid certain situations

Some situations can be avoided. Sometimes in an argument it’s better to say: ok, I don’t want to talk about it now, we talk about it later. Or just: I am too angry now to think, so I go out for a short walk to clear my mind. In the beginning this might look like defeat, like losing, admitting being wrong. But ending up in a fight, and feeling worse for days afterwards is to me really losing.

Conslusion

I am having a B12 injection today, so I am sure that this will improve my mood.

I know that I have not been easy to be around lately, and I really feel for those around me.
I know that I have been alot of very hard work, and I appreciate your patience.

Allowing things around me to upset me just makes the situation worse - I have to take responsibility for my mood and my actions.

Being unemployed has some upside, it allows me some time to contemplate things in the past, present, and future, and the opportunity to evaluate everything around me.

As I sit here in Starbucks, on my own with my Oprah magazine (I know that admitting that I read such a publication by the female incarnate of satan will make you all cringe - but it makes me feel that little closer to home), I notice a woman at a table nearby reading a magazine, and on her own as well.

She is much older than me, well dressed, pretty even. I wonder if, like me, she feels lonely in this shopping centre full of people. Is she single? kids? Does she have a career that is fulfilling?

I wonder if I am staring at my future. She looks content, so maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.

As a child, we are taught that you must get married, have kids, buy a house, drive 2 cars and all of that - but are those things really that important?

I have come to the realisation that no, they are not, and life is too short to adhere to some bullshit that society dictates.

I am happy being single, being independent, and having my own opinions, and I will be damned if I am ever repressed by anyone again.

If society doesn’t like it, tough.

As someone who has ADD/ADHD, poor impulse control is something that I struggle with on a daily basis, and causes numerous issues with communication.

To add fuel to the fire, people who have ADD/ADHD tend to intterupt conversations, and even change the subject, much to the irritance of those around them.

Here is an example:

A few years ago, I went on a road trip with a friend through the countryside. Since he was doing the driving, I had the opportunity to just sit, enjoy the scenery, and have conversation.

My friend was talking to me about his new job, and issues he was having settling in and worries about his performance - something that was very important to him. In fact, one of the reasons we went on this trip was to discuss the things going on with each other, and me being a passenger would allow me to concentrate on the conversation (nice theory).

Suddenly, I stated “excuse me a moment, did you see that old car over there?”. He said “What are you on about” and gave me an evil look.

I said “I was talking about that car that we passed - did you see it - it was an old American Mustang”.

The next thing I knew, my friend was upset. “Haven’t you been listening to what I was saying?” he asked. “You know how hard it is for me to talk about these things, and now you are not even paying attention. That has really wound me up!”.

I said “Of course I was listening”. Sheesh, what was his problem? After all, I did say excuse me.

But to my mate, it was exactly like I had butted into the conversation. Here he was talking about something very important to him, and since I am a friend who sincerely cares about him, I should not have interuppted while he was telling me about his deepest darkest fears.

Often, people with ADD/ADHD will interupt communication with their friends or partner by saying “excuse me, I don’t mean to interupr the conversation, but…” and then change the subject completly.

To the person with ADD/ADHD, this is perfectly valid. It is not an attempt at being rude, even though it certainly feels that way to those around them.

What is happening is that AT THAT VERY MOMENT is that the ADD/ADHD person gets a thought in their head. They feel a TREMENDOUS amount of pressue to get this thought into the conversation. So they butt in, albeit politely. We sometimes assume that if we ask politely, those around us will not have a problem with this. I have to often remind myself that people do.

What is taking place in the mind of the ADD/ADHD person when this happens?

People with a hyperactive/impulsive ADD/ADHD have a brain that races a million miles a minute. It is constantly rushing from one thought to the next - one of the pluses and drawbacks of having ADD/ADHD.

In conversation, if something is said that sparks another, seemingly unrelated, thought in their mind, THAT thought will catch their attention. But because our minds rush around so fast, we also know that the new thought may only stay in our minds for a split second. We believe that it’s important information to give you even though it may totally be unrelated to what we may be talking about. Fearful that this important thought may be lost forever in the ever-rushing flood of other thoughts, we blurt out, as politely as we can in the intensity of the moment “excuse me, I don’t mean to change the subject but…” - and in that instant we a re off and running. We are afraid that if we don’t say it THAT INSTANT that it will be gone forever.

All of this makes sense as to why there is so much intensity in our conversations. We do not intend to sabotage other people’s sense of significance, and this is something I personally struggle with.

If you could imagine that you were a “prisoner of the moment” and had something incredibly important to say and had to say it NOW, and you could not, you could start to understand what this is like for some of us.

When people with ADD/ADHD are forced to wait for their turn in conversation, and wait, and wait, and wait, we feel like we are insignificant.

One method that I use to control this behaviour in meetings is to take a notepad and pen and take notes. This way, when one of those wonderful rushing thoughts comes in, I can jot it down and wait for the appropriate time to speak.

I would love to hear about any coping methods that others have in regards to this.

One way that people with ADD/ADHD try to show our partners how much we love them is by finishing their sentences for them. That is a whole other kettle of fish, but I will get around to it - eventually!

One of today’s secrets at PostSecret really touched me (click to open full size):

Today, when i tried to login to my gmail account, i got the message in an annoying javascript pop-up :

“oops… the system was unable to perform your operation(error code 766).
please try again in a few seconds.”

Goddammit.. Not again.. that too when I REALLY want to check my mails!

Ok..i tried googling error code 766… nothing!! Got some stupid search results which niether concerned gmail or anythin near!

Hmm.. i decided to wait a few ’seconds’ as advised.. seconds passed by.. same msg… minutes passed by.. same stupid msg.. an hour passed by.. and it was the same message telling me to wait for a few seconds!.. Please tell me the exact no.of seconds i should wait instead of a ‘FEW’ seconds…

Waiting…

Impatiently… Damned ADD…

F*cking google… (I love you really I do)

Prior to surgery, I was on Concerta - time released Ritalin. I have ADHD and although I am highly functioning and use it to my advantage (was great in med school), I need to focus more now and it has helped.

Because of the issues with absorption, I have switched to Ritalin and taken my first tablet this morning - its been awhile and I kind of missed the ability to focus to be honest. Its nice to feel some normality again.

Is anyone else on Ritalin (generic name methylphenidate) or someting else for ADD/ADHD?

If so, what has your experience been?

Been an interesting read over on Tea & Podcasts - here is one of my snippets:

First off, thank you Jen for sending me this link.

I can completly relate to many of the things that Jen has said.

I am a fully-trained in medicine, and have one friend who is also a doctor who suffers with ADD (ADD can be of benefit, see).
ADD/ADHD is a medical condition, andthe quicker people start to recognise this, the better.

I came to the UK almost 10 years ago, and the condition is extremly hard to get treatment for, as it is not recognised as a culture here.

My condition cycles through severe depression (often accompanied by self-loathe, the wish to not exist, uncontrollable crying, self-destructive behavious, and sleeping as escapism), to euphoric mania of hyperactivity, too.
My ADD/ADHD has similarities in many respects to Manic Depression/Bi-polar. I have been diagnosed in past with Manic Depression, but have since had numerous doctors tell me that it was a misdoagnosis.

I have a high-pressure, deadline-oriented position (software developer and business owner).
I, too, am able to get up, go to work (am ALWAYS late - anyone else?), function (just, at times), and then go home to crash.

I often do the “I’ll get everything done tonight” bug, do so when I shop, too, cause I may forget to buy it and I need it NOW.

Have often done the “Is my insurance due? (next 1.5 hours spent hunting for my certificate with increasing frustration)” - I have even purchased two house contents insurance plans because of this.
I used to blame my housecleaner for this, but I have since changed housecleaners and bought one of those fireprrof file storage boxes to try and get some sort of system going.

Sometimes I can’t get to sleep - too much to do, damn it I can’t forget! I find that having the ceiling fan on helps.

I, too constantly blurt out the most inappropriate things or say things that make me seem brutally frank. I nip out for sandwiches at lunch and often mention to work colleagues how much I hate the giro scum that are about pushing their prams and cashing their welfare cheques at lunchtime.

I often sleep through weekends to disappear, and most weekends spend at least one day in my pyjamas, refusing to leave the house, thanks to Rob for nipping to the shops when I need something, (does anyone else do this - cause its damn frustrating to those around me).

I also struggle with some ordinary things, and some extraordinary things are a walk in the park (I have degrees in both medicine and comp science and like to continuously challenge myself).

I often talk about my ADHD/ADD on my blog, www.thegeneva.com

I was taken to many specialists as a child, I was classed as having a genius mind that worked on numerous more levels than those around me, but my behavious and acting up and being so easily distracted hindered me.
At the time, it was ADD, but we didn’t know it. Imagine being told at 12 that you were a genius but couldn’t do anything with it? I was so very frustrated.

Here is a snippet from one of my initial posts about having ADHD/ADD.

What is it like to have ADD?

You get one idea and you have to act on it, and then, what do you know, but you’ve got another idea before you’ve finished up with the first one,and so you go for that one, but of course a third idea intercepts the second, and you just have to follow that one, and pretty soon people are calling you disorganized and impulsive and all sorts of impolite words that miss the point completely. Because you’re trying really hard. It’s just that you have all these invisible vectors pulling you this way and that which makes it really hard to stay on task.

Plus which, you’re spilling over all the time. You’re drumming your fingers, tapping your feet, humming a song, whistling, looking here, looking there, scratching, stretching, doodling, and people think you’re not paying attention or that you’re not interested, but all you’re doing is spilling over so that you can pay attention. I can pay alot better attention when I’m taking a walk or listening to music or even when I’m in a crowded, noisy room than when I’m still and surrounded by silence.

What is it like to have ADD? Buzzing. Being here and there and everywhere. Someone once said, “Time is the thing that keeps everything from happening all at once.”
Time parcels moments out into separate bits so that we can do one thing at a time. In ADD, this does not happen.

In ADD, time collapses. Time becomes a black hole. To the person with ADD it feels as if everything is happening all at once. This creates a sense of inner turmoil or even panic. The individual loses perspective and the ability to prioritize. He or she is always on the go, trying to keep the world from caving in on top.

I change channels a lot. And radio stations. Drives my friends nuts. “Can’t we listen to just one song all the way through?”

The way I go through a museum is the way some people go through the sale at Ikea. Some of this, some of that, oh, this one looks nice, but what about that rack over there? Gotta hurry, gotta run.
It’s not that I don’t like art. I love art. But my way of loving it makes most people think I’m a real Philistine. On the other hand, sometimes I can sit and look at one painting for a long while. I’ll get into the world of the painting and buzz around in there until I forget about everything else. In these moments I, like most people with ADD, can hyperfocus, which gives the lie to the notion that we can never pay attention. Sometimes we have turbocharged focusing abilities. It just depends upon the situation.

Lines. I’m almost incapable of waiting in lines. I just can’t wait, you see. That’s the hell of it. Impulse leads to action.I’m very short on what you might call the intermediate reflective step between impulse and action. That’s why I, like so many people with ADD, lack tact.Tact is entirely dependent on the ability to consider one’s words before uttering them. We ADD types don’t do this so well. I’ve learned how to say these inappropriate things in such a way or at such a time that they can in fact be helpful. But it has taken time. That’s the thing about ADD. It takes a lot of adapting to get on in life. But it certainly can be done, and be done very well.

As you might imagine, intimacy can be a problem if you’ve got to be constantly changing the subject, pacing, scratching and blurting out tactless remarks. Some of my friends have learned not to take my tuningout personally, and they says that when I’m there, I’m really there.

Many of us with ADD crave high-stimulus situations.In my case, I love having lots of people around. Obviously this tendency can get you into trouble, which is why ADD is high among criminals and self-destructive risk-takers. It is also high among so-called Type A personalities, as well as among manic-depressives, sociopaths and criminals, violent people, drug abusers, and alcoholics. But is is also high among creative and intuitive people in all fields, and among highly energetic,highly productive people.

Which is to say there is a positive side to all this.Usually the positive doesn’t get mentioned when people speak about ADD because there is a natural tendency to focus on what goes wrong, or at least on what has to be somehow controlled. But often once the ADD has been diagnosed, and the child or the adult, with the help of teachers and parents or spouses, friends, and colleagues, has learned how to cope with it, an untapped realm of the brain swims into view. Suddenly the radio station is tuned in, the windshield is clear, the sand storm has died down. And the child or adult,who had been such a problem, such a nudge, such a general pain in the neck to himself and everybody else, that person starts doing things he’d never been able to do before. He surprises everyone around him, and he surprises himself. I use the male pronoun, but it could just as easily be she, as we are seeing more and more ADD among females as we are looking for it.

Often these people are highly imaginative and intuitive.They have a “feel” for things, a way of seeing right into the heart of matters while others have to reason their way along methodically.This is the person who can’t explain how he thought of the solution, or where the idea for the story came from, or why suddenly he produced sucha painting, or how he knew the short cut to the answer, but all he can say is he just knew it, he could feel it. This is the man or woman who makes million dollar deals in a catnap and pulls them off the next day. This is the child who, having been reprimanded for blurting something out, is then praised for having blurted out something brilliant. These are the people who learn and know and do and go by touch and feel. These people can feel a lot. In places where most of us are blind, they can, if not see the light, at least feel the light, and they can produce answers apparently out of the dark. It is important for others to be sensitive to this “sixthsense” many ADD people have, and to nurture it. If the environment insists on rational, linear thinking and “good” behavior from these people all the time, then they may never develop their intuitive style to the point where they can use it profitably. It can be exasperating to listen to people talk. They can sound so vague or rambling. But if you take them seriously and grope along with them, often you will find they are onthe brink of startling conclusions or surprising solutions.

What is the treatment all about? Anything tha tturns down the noise. Just making the diagnosis helps turn down the noiseof guilt and self-recrimination. Building certain kinds of structure into one’s life can help a lot. Working in small spurts rather than long hauls. Breaking tasks down into smaller tasks. Making lists. Getting help where you need it, whether it’s having a secretary, or an accountant, or an automatic bank teller, or a good filing system, or a home computer, getting help wherey ou need it. Maybe applying external limits on your impulses. Or getting enough exercise to work off some of the noise inside. Finding support. Getting someone in your corner to coach you, to keep you on track. Medication ca nhelp a great deal too, but it is far from the whole solution. The good news is that treatment can really help. Let me leave you by telling you that we need your help and understanding. We may make mess-piles wherever we go, but with your help, those mess-piles can be turned into realms of reason and art. So, if you know someone like me who’s acting up and daydreaming and forgetting this or that and just not getting with the program, considerADD before he starts believing all the bad things people are saying abouthim and it’s too late.

ADD is a way of life, and until recently it has been hidden,even from the view of those who have it. The human experience of ADD ismore than just a collection of symptoms. It is a way of living. Before the syndrome is diagnosed that way of living may be filled with pain and misunderstanding. After the diagnosis is made, one often finds new possibilities and the chance for real change.

The adult syndrome of ADD, so long unrecognized,is now at last bursting upon the scene. Thankfully, millions of adults whohave had to think of themselves as defective or unable to get their acts together, will instead be able to make the most of their considerable abilities. It is a hopeful time indeed.

I have been to the Maudsley Clinic that Jen mentions, and have had a pretty good experience with them.

Alot of my diagnosis criteria came from my childhood and discussions with my mother - she lives in the USA and they did lots of phone confrences.
She was great throughout all of this.

I personally haven’t gotten into podcasting itself, perhaps I should.

Watched a documentary last night that not only brought back memories, but also made me ponder many questions.

The documentary was:

BBC Horizon -2005- Living With Adhd (click links to the torrent file - a must for any other fellow ADD/ADHD/ODD people and my mum - I am posting her a copy on CD).

When most UK doctors see a child with a disability or behaviour problem, they know that will see them for ONLY 30 minutes and then move on to the next patient. The parents cannot move on. This programme showed some of what parents of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have to put up with.

Dr Philip Asherson, a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Psychiatry at King’s College and a highly-regarded specialist in the field, contributed to a programme about a mother and her two children who suffer from ADHD. Dr Asherson has also written two articles for the Horizon website on this subject.

Some of the questions it raised within me are:

• How can we identify the comorbidities associated with adult ADHD?
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) - understanding it, does it affect adlts with ADD/ADHD, and is it becomming more common as a co-diagnosis (comorbidities)?
• How much to do we really know about comorbidities?
• How can we treat them?
• If the potential clinical importance of comorbidity has been recognized in children, has it been recognised in adults?
• It appears that ADHD/ADD subjects are vulnerable to earlier development of adult depressive disorders, so therefor, should all ADHD/ADD subjects consider anti-depressants as well as their stimulant medications?

I have been reading alot of the Journal Watch articles, and some of you may find it interesting.

The shortage of child psychiatrists in the United Kingdom will not be resolved in the next decade, so most ADHD will continue to be diagnosed and treated by community paediatricians, often without the ideal package of behaviour support as well. Depressing, isn’t it?

We (well, most of the Western scientific community, with the exception of the UK) are truly coming to terms with ADD/ADHD, and I am hoping that in my lifetime, we understand and learn more about it.

This could be the very minute
I’m aware I’m alive
All these places feel like home

With a name I’d never chosen
I can make my first steps
As a child of 25

I wanted to introduce you to headwedge - a fellow individual who did a degree in the medical field and is pursuing a Phd in Computer Science *although I finished both of mine, neither were Phds.

Anyways, he is like dead insightful most of the time, and full of crap only some of it. I would say it’s about an 80/20 ratio.

I can honestly say that he has given me some of the best advice (and diagnosis) that anyone ever has. But don’t trust him when he tells you which horse to bid on.

Oh, and do any of the fellow bloggers out there have a reason to blog, other than narcissism?