Posted by Libby on July 17, 2000, at 11:19:18
In reply to ADD and history of addiciton, posted by lea on July 16, 2000, at 13:36:05
Lea... I have a similar history except that I also abused amphetamines. During my ADD assessment I was asked about use of alcohol, marajuana, and stimulants. At various times, I have used/abused all of them. Disclosure was scary, but so was the idea of taking a drug that might lead me back to my old pattern of abuse. I decided to be honest and my doc decided to prescribe Ritalin anyway. In my case, the potential of abuse was outweighed by the cost of remianing basically nonfunctional in my new job. At age 39, my ADD symptoms were so bad I that I was on the verge of being forced to accept disability pay!
When I was asked about amphetamine use, I admitted to using them regularly as a study aid. The doc asked if they helped me and I told him that was the only way I had been able to graduate college. Before I discovered amphetamines, I was on the verge of flunking out. After, my grades went up to B's. That was actually one of the big indicators of ADD in my past... mediocre school performance (which in my case didn't show up til college) that drastically improved when I was on amphetamines. Apparently, amphetamines agitate many non-ADD people to the point where their school performance actually declines.
ADD-ers often use marajuana as a way of self-medicating anxiety symptoms, so that's not unusual either. However, from what I've read so far, marajuana is probably the WORST drug an ADD-er can use because of its tendency to interfere with cognitive functioning, memory, and motivation. For me, ADD is enough of a challenge without the added memory loss and cognitive fog marajuana causes. It may help with anxiety in the short-term, but in the long run, my experience is that is hurts far more than it helps. I found that I had to stop even occasional use if I was to function at all.
I'm not saying that it's ok to use drugs if you have ADD, only that it's not a terribly *abnormal* thing for an ADD person to do. If you do some reading you may be surprised to find that in many cases, medication has actually helped recovering alcoholics and addicts improve the quality of their sobriety. The book "Driven to Distraction" has a lot of good information on ADD& illegal drug use.
Because of my history, non-use of unprescribed meds is a condition of my treatment with Ritalin. Non-use hasn't been difficult for me. Now that I've had a taste of what it's like to think with a clear head & calm nerves, there's no way I'd compromise that.Good luck...
L.
poster:Libby
thread:40651
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000717/msgs/40746.html