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Re: ADD experience w/bipolar w/o » JohnX2

Posted by Ritch on March 10, 2002, at 10:54:58

In reply to ADD experience w/bipolar w/o, posted by JohnX2 on March 10, 2002, at 3:16:49

>
> I'm trying to understand differences between
> ADD diagnosis (non hyperactive type) that may
> or may not accompany bipolar disorder.
>
> Are there people with ADD who don't take medicine
> who do markedly well in schooling?


Hi John. I did markedly well at schooling when I was *at* school. I kept changing my majors constantly and getting bored and dropping out. All it would take is one class with a dud professor and I would rethink the entire degree program was nothing but well.. hockey. I always got good grades, but "very poor" marks in elementary school for "listening" and "following directions". I don't like being boxed in a big lecture hall and have to *sit* an entire hour listening to a droning boring lecture (ARGH). I just couldn't make plans, stick with the plans despite a short term negative experience. I would sit and look at the academic catalog for an hour or so several times a week-"is this area the *one*?" I finally got sick of being in school and just wanted out.. with a degree this time around. I must credit Prozac+Lithium for finally getting my ass outta there.


>
> Do people with ADD tend to do better in certain
> disciplines than others?


All I can say is that I don't like being "bossed" (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I don't like jobs that *require* supervision), and I hate the inevitable negative group politics that always go with organizations. Math was my favorite subject until I got to high school (when the "bipolar" kicked in), then I liked art/humanities stuff. The only "awards" I ever got was for a regional math contest my freshman year and creative writing my junior year in high school. So now I am a llaison engineer and technical writer. But, I swear I could be happier driving one of those raspy trucks that hauls rocks around from the quarries to construction sites. Throw a decent stereo in there and let me manage the driving!

>
> Can someone who is bipolar and "stabilized"
> be ADD, take a stimulant, get the ADD cured, but
> be driven (hypo)manic and in the process trigger hyperactive
> behaviour thus utterly confusing the whole diagonsis?


Oh, absolutely possible. All I know is the pstim works better than *any* antidepressant I have tried for bipolar depression. Perhaps I really don't have ADHD at all-perhaps I am just a "BPII" or "atypical bipolar" that only responds well to a pstim for bipolar depressive episodes. That wouldn't surprise me-I could accept that. I am only taking a teensy-tiny dose of Dexedrine during the day now and I can tell if I took very much of it I would probably get into trouble. However, it doesn't appear to aggravate *cycling*. It would be quite likely I will just stash it away for my predictable depressions and keep everything else going so I don't get panicky...

>
> comments?
>
> -John


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poster:Ritch thread:97292
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020307/msgs/97328.html