Shooting myself in the foot

[allihay]

Hi - I'm new here. I'm 40, my husband is ADHD, diagnosed as a kid. My oldest daughter, now 9, has been formally diagnosed. I have always been extremely skeptical about ADD. A non-believer. My story: counseled for years, no relief. Low-grade, chronic depression. No motivation, no follow-through, no successes, house a disaster, not alot of friends. Tried anti-depressants - Zoloft helped when REALLY depressed, but didn't help with the motivation. I finally read an ad for Strattera, and brought it to my psychiatrist. She gave me some tests, and then apologized profusely for the previous 3 years. I used Strattera for a couple months, but found I was very angry. So, then I tried Ritalin.

Wow. What an incredible difference it made.

Here's what my post is about: In January, my whole house came down with the flu. I literally stayed in bed for a week. Needless to say, I didn't take any medication. But since recovering, for some strange reason, I feel very apprehensive about taking my medication, even though I know it helps. And believe me, I need it. Has anybody out there had this same problem? Logically, I know I should take it. I don't know if I'm just being stubborn, or if there is some reason that I am just too out of touch with myself to realize, that is causing me to thwart my own progress.

On another note, how many people out there are in relationships where both you and your significant other are ADD?? Just curious. Our house is a crazy house.

Anyway, found this site while surfing, and it looked good. I haven't posted regarding my ADD before. Nice to meet you, talk at you later!

[firefly]

Hi there, I'm new too, undiagnosed and not on meds, so i don't suppose I'm necessarily of much help, but i can understand what you say about being reluctant to take the medication; if you were a skeptic in the first place, it could be hard to accept you have ADD and hard to accept that you actually need to take the Ritalin/benefit from it.
I was also on antidepressants for a few years and they didn't help me either. Probably becuase of bad experiences with medication, and wounded pride, i would be very unlikely to go near medication myself -very stubborn, but I think "just stubbornness" isn't always something light, for me it goes beyond just how I feel about things, in respect of meds its probably almost a protective barrier.
Anyway, it doesn't seem an unnatural way to feel at all.

I'm sure a crazy house is better than a boring one. I've never really thought about the idea of both partners in a relationship being ADD. I could see it working though since you can both understand each other.
Though I fit the description perfectly I don't call myself ADD but I'm lucky to be with a man who is very understanding and just accepts me the way I am, even though he has told me I'd lose my head if it wasn't stuck on!
In some ways we balance each other out, and on the other hand he has forgotten to tell me he was going away on business to another country before, so who knows!
Glad the Ritalin is working for you

[organizemepls]

Hi, I'm also 40 and just finding out I have ADD. For me though it is a relief, finally the WHY for so many things in my life...Anyway, I found out because i think my daughter has it and when I started doing research on it for her, I started seeing things about me...my live in boyfriend is also AD/HD, diagnosed 10 years ago, so he's got a much better handle on it than me, but yeah, our house is a little nuts but I love it. My ex husband was OCD and my life was a living hell; ironically, he was also a special ed teacher and never made the connection til now, when I told him about it and he is now saying ahaaaa. But I think it's great that we both have ADD/ADHD cause we understand each other so well and can laugh. Case in point, this morning right before I left for a bike ride, I asked him to give the dog some water, then noticed the trash needed to go out to the street for pickup. I came back from my ride and noticed the dog's water dish was still empty, so I filled it and IM'd him (he's in his office downstairs) that it's okay, I gave the dog water - but could he put out the trash? And he lol and said you walked right by it...he had in fact put it out and yes, I'd walked right past it. We had a good laugh. Things like that happen all the time; but we know how to work together, and we're easy on each other when the other screws up. He helps me break my "organizing around worry" cycles and is helping me learn some coping skills...finally! Oh, I'm new, nice to meet you all, and sooo very glad to be here!