Posted by bleauberry on March 9, 2012, at 13:48:18
In reply to Pdoc Said Unless Add As Child Not As An Adult + De, posted by Phillipa on March 8, 2012, at 15:31:14
Jan, I'm so sorry. I have a fair idea of what you have to deal with each day and you just want to feel a little better. And then someone you trust your care and money to gives you this kind of nonsensical mumbo jumbo, wow, that's just really discouraging. Unfortunately I think that happens a lot.
I don't know. I think politics, money and personal egos are involved. Actually doing something to help the patient takes a lower priority than does not rocking the boat with an insurance company, or earning rewards for prescribing certain meds from reps, or a big ego doc that is convinced he/she knows all. Sorry, I guess you can tell I'm feeling a little bad and negative myself today. No matter, it's all still probably true with certain doctors. I'm sorry you got stuck with one of them. There are some fabulous doctors, but these guys tarnish that image.
Nobody knows what ADD or ADHD actually is....all they know is that a certain cluster of symptoms can be given one of those names for purposes of categorizing or attempting to compartmentalize something that really isn't comparmentalizable. Is that a word? So anyway, let's assume the doctor is speaking a provable fact and that indeed unless you had add as a child you couldn't have it as an adult. Ok, so what? How does that help the patient, you? It doesn't. Just that simple.
If a doctor told me what that doctor told you, I'm not shy about being suspicious or curious or whatever, because after all it is my $120, right? I have a right to ask questions. Patients are expected to ask questions. In your case I would have said, "I have a hard time believing that but it sounds interesting...how did you come to believe that?" (basically trying to get a feel for whether his view is scientific or personal)Look, add in some cases can be nothing more complicated than small amounts of potent neurotoxins from a bacteria or fungus or metals or plastics or chemicals or petroleums....stuff in our fatty tissues....and it's causing some moderate level of chaos in terms of neurotransmitter-to-receptor relationships, or in the actual construction of neurotransmitters, or in turning specific genes up or down.
Most people would probably disagree with what I'm about to say and that's fine. I think the names we attach to certain clusters of symptoms are really fairly useless and do not further the effort to get a patient well. Sometimes they are not only fairly useless, but downright devastating. For example a person with a history of tick bites who was told they have fibromyalgia not lyme because the lyme test came back negative. That person is screwed. Because unless they have had the western blot by Igenex lab, they did not get the most accurate test, and even the most accurate test has about a 30% to 50% error rate. They need antibiotics, not pain relievers. They were bit by a tick and they have symptoms consistent with that, ok? End of story.
There are plenty of similar examples. One thing they all have in common....real people like you and me have years or decades of unnecessary suffering and deterioration and sometimes permanent damage because someone attached the wrong name to their cluster of symptoms.
It's too subjective. Ten doctors, ten different opinions.
So I guess what I'm saying, Jan, is screw the names....doesn't matter if it's add or whatever....what really matters is to have a doctor who is open and willing to try stuff, to work with you, and to be your partner in this mysterious journey where NONE of them and NONE of us really know what's going on. It is a discovery process and a journey, hopefully with a nice outcome, but it for sure is not going to happen with a doctor like the one you saw. In some parts of life I think things need to be rigid and structured....as in how to construct a building for example, or how to make CO2 from two other substances for example, and such. But when it comes to medical problems, especially long suffering chronic ones, rigid is a bad thing. It keeps people sick.
In my opinion.
> I just saw my pdoc who does Charge $120.00 for 20 minute sessions. He Said "If a person doesn't have add or adhd as a child they can't have it with depression as an adult". Those words are his not mine for clarification. True or not? Also He feels that Ad's SSRI's etc do work and multi-pharmacy isn't called for other than with lets say Bipolar, Or Schizohrenia. Again his words and not mine. Curious as I feel others on here have had both as adult and not as a child? Phillipa
poster:bleauberry
thread:1012596
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120302/msgs/1012660.html