Learned a valuable lesson

I've been on Adderall for a few days now, and I think it's helping. I still haven't noticed a huge difference. I think it's filling the voids in my energy level so I don't crash. I seem to be getting more done, but still have some trouble with forgetting things.

I learned a lesson on Sunday. I take two pills per day, one in the morning and one with lunch. I didn't eat lunch until almost 3pm on Sunday. I was up really late Sunday evening. I don't think I got to sleep until sometime between 2:30 and 3am. Monday was a hard day. Luckily the pills helped to keep me going through the day although I could tell it was a fake sort of alert where I had decent energy but my coordination was off. Needless to say, take your meds earlier in the day if sleep is important to you.

Today I forgot to take them. I got a lot of sleep last night, but I can feel that I'm more tired feeling today than I was yesterday.

Tomorrow I will have a good test for my meds, I have a computer training class, that should put me to sleep in seconds!

New Perscription and Pills!

So, after getting the news about the cost about Adderall XR, I called my Dr., and he changed it to regular Adderall 10mg, shich was about $60 rather than $460!

I started taking it yesterday and went out for a day of working in the garage on various things that need doing. I didn't notice a huge change at one pill twice a day, but I will admit that it seemed that I had a bit more energy, about like having a coke or something, but less jittery. I might try two pills in the morning tomorrow to see how things go with that. Overall, I think it's working but I will know better after a few days.

One thing that occurred to me is that I don't really know what to expect. I guess I should have talked a little more about that with the Dr. But on the other hand I don't know that I wanted to know beforehand. This way it'sa little more blind for me so I won't be looking for anything in particular, I can be more objective.

I like the boost in energy and it seems to help me stick with things, but you can't really tell from a one day experience.

A perscription and a disapointment

So, finally I get my long awaited appointment with a psychiatrist and at long last a prescription for medication! Let the healing begin!

Oh, what's that Ms. Pharmacist? My insurance didn't cover the whole prescription? Oh, well, no big deal, I can afford it what can it cost? Oh, $450 you say, umm, well, I can't exactly swing that. I umm guess I'll have to skip on that. No Adderall for me!

I had assumed, wrongly so that since it was a generic medication, and that the drug was widely available and relatively popular that it wouldn't be very expensive. So wrong. I'll have to call the Doc and see if there's a cheaper alternative

Having an up day

Wow, I've been feeling really down the past few days. Seems like the ADHD really takes over when my energy levels are low. Today (this morning anyway) I've been really up. I don't know what it is, perhaps there was some sort of allergen affecting me the past few days.

Its kinda crazy that once you know you have ADHD and what to look for how many things you begin to notice that are ADHD symptoms. Like I said, this morning I've having an up day and while I feel really good, my brain feel like a ping pong ball bouncing around. i'm having a really hard time settling down.

Like a computer virus

I like to use analogies to explain things, it helps people understand things better.

I've been trying to think what would be a good analogy would be for ADHD to help people understand what the symptoms are like, and I think I've got it.

It's like using a computer that's on the blink or has a virus. Consider this, how frustrating would it be if you computer switched applications without warning, dropped information, anf turned on the sleep function after about 2 minutes of non-use? Pretty frustrating huh? That's what it's like having ADHD for me anyway.


I can be working on something as pleased as punch, and then without waring I find myself working on something else, then back again, like a computer switching you from Excel to Word, then to Powerpoint for a while, then the internet, then back to Word, now some video edting, and on and on even though you know you really need to be working on that Excel spreadsheet. And now that you've almost finished that Word document the file goes missing! I forget things all the time! Now you've been working on that powepoint for a few minutes and the computer goes to sleep, much like how I will be working on something that maybe doesn't engage my brain completely and BLAMO, I'm nodding off.

I heard that ADHD may be due to parts of the brain not getting enough glucose (sugar) This makes a lot of sense. I self medicate myself all the time by either drinking cafein (somethign I try to avaoid) or by eating starchy or sweet foods. raising my energy level temorarily and bring about a bit of productivity. I actually think that once I start taking some medication I will loose this extra 20 or so pounds that I carry. I try to eat healthy, but when your brain says you're going to sllep if you don't feed me and it's 2:30 in the afternoon, you're going to grab some jelly beans or potato chips to get you through the end of the work day. If given the chance I would eat all day long, a constant sugar drip would do me wonderfully.

God Damn, it just happened, I was typing and the next thing you know my freakin eyes are closed!

Back from Vacation

Took a nice vacation to Atlanta. I just goofed off while my wife was in some conferences. No realy ADHD business to report, probably won't be much until after the appointment in mid Sept. I wish it would be sooner so we can get it out of the way.

I have some training classes the next few days and I'm a little concerned that I'll have a hard tome paying attention to what's going on in class. I'll probably "self medicate" with caffeine. It actually works reasonably well as long as I don't drink too much of it or stop drinking it too early in the day and crash. Generally drinking a little every hour or so keeps me on track, only problem is sometimes my stomach doesn't agree with it though.

On a side note, Atlanta is the world headquarters of Coke-a-Cola. I looked into the "World of Coke" museum, but it costs $15 to learn more about a friggin soft drink? Couldn't bring myself to do it.

Have a happy day

Nothing much (part2)

Still nothing much to report on the treatment front, still waiting for the appointment date to finally roll around.

I found it interesting that in my packet of information I got from the clinic that my $300+ 2 hour appointment includes one hour of paperwork! So, I'm paying for and hour of paperwork! Man, what a disappointment, I figured it's worth the cash for a couple hours with the Doctor, but I hadn't really expected to pay to do the friggin paperwork.

I'm going to keep the appointment and just go with it at this point, maybe it's more than that, maybe they will have an underling do an intake interview or something that actually is more than me doing paperwork on my own.

I'm still struggling with things, in my personal/professional life, but it's a little easier when you have some understanding of what's going on and can justify your actions to some degree in your mind. The past couple weeks have been pretty up and down as far as symptoms go. I had a few really bad days when I think maybe I had a bug or something I was operating in a pretty thick brain fog which may be due to food allergies (I have food allergies) perhaps something got to me that I didn't realize was there.