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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2010 9:17:59 GMT
I get this and i know it has got worse as I have got older.
I am starting to think the impatience aspect of ADHD and anxiety are quite closely related. If I don't sort something "NOW" I will forget it and it'll never get done... So the anxiety is sort of a "coping strategy" for ADHD which is maybe why it gets worse with age? Does this ring true for anyone? Has there been any research on this?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2010 9:29:52 GMT
I get really anxious and it's probably the thing that causes me most problems.
I've not heard of any research being done - but I've not been looking hard.
I've got my own theory on why it bother me so much - but I'm not up to explaining it right now.
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Post by kakema on Sept 4, 2010 19:31:04 GMT
Mmm. The anxiety was the thing that got me to thinking I might be ADD, when it got out of hand earlier this year. But I've just taken myself off the propranolol the doc prescribed, and I find that the most obvious problem that has flared has been my impatience/temper/volatility. Not so much with the anxiety, which was largely about my awareness of repeated failure and fear of getting 'caught out' at work. But overall, feel a bit sharper without the meds, and more energised - the meds seemed to exacerbate my inability to 'get started', so won't be going back on in a hurry. Swings and roundabouts, I guess, and let's see if I get a +ve dx of ADD idc and what meds they offer then.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2010 20:24:48 GMT
Hi i find i get this alot, but somehow overcome when i go into difficult situations and feel alive after its a good feeling, but takes pratise a lot of pratise in our cases, but just keep going out keep strong and you shall become a legend.
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Post by boo on Sept 9, 2010 19:51:21 GMT
i suffer with anxiety. i reckon i am over compensating with the thinking process........... seeing as i went through my entire 'yoof' not stopping to think for one secondo........
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Post by laura on Sept 9, 2010 21:36:34 GMT
i get this too, its mostly to do with social situations and i suppose it could be to do with over thinking things and my mind wandering mid conversation however the meds have helped with this and im still anxious , my anxiety did help when at college i used to get so anxious about being late it helped me get there reasonably late rather than ridiculously late
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2010 23:39:55 GMT
Remember spending a lot of time worrying even as a kid. Wierd thing is I'm only just recognising anxiety in some of its other guises (is that the right word?) and how it effects/causes some of my mood swings and problems. I didn't realised how often it effects me. My life is pretty much ruled by anxiety and depression.
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Post by breezibee on Sept 14, 2010 11:08:43 GMT
I've had Generalized Anxiety Disorder since I was a kid, only it's much worse these days than it ever was back then. I've heard that meditation can help both ADD and Anxiety but I've tried meditation and my mind wanders each time. I still might give it another go, or if not something similar.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2010 21:50:57 GMT
I have issues with anxiety, and paranoia, i have anxiety attacks sometimes where my breathing increases speed and i cant slow it down and i shake and cry and feel sick and dizzy
I pull out eye lashes, eye brows, nose hairs and i bite the inside of my mouth constantly, and my lips, and my finger nails and the skin around them
Its a nightmare, i cant stop it, its like smokers trying to stop smoking
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Post by kakema on Sept 22, 2010 22:13:44 GMT
I read today that there have been a couple of studies showing that chewing gum calms anxiety. Maybe all this chewing is self-medicating? I shred the sides of my thumbs when stressed. And also pluck facial hair pretty obsessively (although always elegantly!).
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Post by snickerz on Sept 23, 2010 8:14:40 GMT
i get very anxious and that has got worse as i got older, got put on beta blockers last week and while they have calmed my body down they aint me mind. Got the docs this morning and can feel myself getting worked up already grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
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Post by snickerz on Sept 23, 2010 20:54:09 GMT
well there keeping me on the beta blockers and have put me on mitrazapine as well so will see what happens
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2010 13:08:51 GMT
well there keeping me on the beta blockers and have put me on mitrazapine as well so will see what happens I have also suffered from Anxiety all my life and been put on various meds to help with it. (though I am currently not taking anything) Mirtazapine was the only anti depressant that I tried that had a positive effect on me. Unfortunately I put on 2 stone in weight in the one month that I was taking it. Just keep an eye out on your weight when taking it. John
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Post by snickerz on Sept 28, 2010 13:29:22 GMT
jonboy im taking mitrazapine as was getting very anxious, but bloody hell I cant stop eating and its all the crap that you want to eat, ive gone from eating hardly anything to not stopping eating and ive only been on them a few days
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2010 23:01:15 GMT
I've been treated in last few years for anxiety. I constantly chew my lower lip and the skin around finger nails. I'm now in late 30's, and since my early teenage years I have never been without cuts to at least 1 or 2 of my fingers. The ends of my index fingers are slightly mis-shapen these days. If I don't sort something "NOW" I will forget it and it'll never get done... So the anxiety is sort of a "coping strategy" for ADHD which is maybe why it gets worse with age? Does this ring true for anyone? Yes, totally. I go on mini-rampages, interrupting people to get things sorted out.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2010 11:11:10 GMT
OMG angle, I've never heard or seen another person who bites the skin around their finger nails, I've done this since a child.
My ADD is only a provisional dx as I can't remember much of how I was as a child, about from a daydreamer and anxious.
For the treatment of anxiety could you not push for CBT?
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Post by mizmog on Nov 11, 2010 23:43:26 GMT
Hi Angle, Loopstar I do exactly the same with my fingers and it gets so painful!... i bite my lower lip all the time and i hv permanent cuts there and on the inside of my cheek! I never even thought it was related but maybe it is...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2010 2:02:07 GMT
I do the skin biting around the nails as well. As well a biting my nails.
I also have some kind of thing about having to pull any hairs I find in and around my ears.
Some might take a day or two of trying but I will get them in the end (though sometimes I make a right mess of the skin if I have been trying to get hold of a stubborn one).
Half the time I will not notice I'm doing it - but it's strangely satisfying.
I sometimes have a blitz on nose hair too, but it hurts like hell. I usually start with that if one hair is annoying/tickling me, and before I know it I might pull out 20 or so.
John
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Post by mavster on Nov 12, 2010 7:31:21 GMT
I am always biting my finger or thumb , it drives my mrs nuts
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2010 17:58:59 GMT
I do this to , and your right its painful. The only thing that stops me is nail extensions but they are pricey.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2010 18:09:49 GMT
my angel used to slap my hands every time they went near my mouth now after 35 years i dont bite my nails fingers or thumbs you can stop wear gloves every time you want to bite that helps
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Post by Deleted on Nov 12, 2010 22:10:48 GMT
Its good to know I'm not alone. I've really tried to stop, surgical tape is all that works in the short term, but as soon as its removed, it begins again. My boyfriend pinches me each time he catches me, but that doesn't work.
I did a set CBT sessions a couple of years ago. It was done via a software program on a computer, at a local community centre. I found it was very useful for learning how to nip negative thoughts in the bud, and still helps me avoid depression now. Didn't really help with anxiety though. Citalopram didn't help with the fingers, but it made me a bit happier. I'd rather get to the root of my problems though.
I've been thinking about this more now, and my experience would back this up... I've only ever met one other person who does this, my boss a few years back, and I would describe him as very bouncy/hyper, and I remember him saying that his kid was adhd, but I didn't know much about it back then.
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Post by kakema on Nov 13, 2010 8:24:07 GMT
Well, I do it too and I'm convinced is's part of how hyperactivity manifests for me. Constant activity, pretty uncontrolled, just kept on a very small scale. It's def linked to stress though - my fingertips are a def barometer of how much I'm fretting.
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Post by andy12345 on Nov 13, 2010 14:36:13 GMT
Do you think that the easy forming of habits, of which I am great at, is a trait of an unsettled mind. I wonder how meds affect the potential for these habits to form.
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Post by twix on Dec 10, 2010 19:44:12 GMT
GP has given me beta blockers, not taken them yet, not sure about them, or how they might mix with the concerta + equasym? Anyone know and any thoughts?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2010 20:07:30 GMT
They should be fine mixed (but everybody reacts differently).
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Post by twix on Dec 10, 2010 22:33:33 GMT
My blood pressure is normal already but the dose is low so should be ok, I am feeling better anyway so I will see if I think I need them or not.
I guess its normal for us to be up and down more rapidly than the normal ones...
Not totally sure I want the anxiety removed chemically, unlike the adhd, which is clearly a chemical issue, I think a good part of the anxiety is telling me to sort out my stress causes, and that seems to be happening. At least I have the option though so if it gets out of control I can take them.
I assume they are ok as an as and when or do I need to be taking them daily?
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Post by laura on Dec 12, 2010 13:08:31 GMT
i feel so lucky ive never been a nail biter, i paint them crazy colours to cheer me up and then dont want to ruin them, i chew the inside of my mouth and lips all the time tho, it gets really painful.
im waiting to try CBT again hopefully now im medicated it will work a bit better, i know what you mean twix not wanting the anxiety to be removed chemically, i want it sorted out without the drugs (not that i have much choice my consultant doesnt like the idea of me taking an anti anxiety) i want to get to the root of the cause, i just with this CBT will hurry up!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2011 13:23:41 GMT
Although I have always suffered from anxiety, for most of my life I thought depression was my core problem. It is only since I have been on ADHD meds, that I have realised that most of my depression was just a way of shutting down in the face of constant anxiety: an escape from 24/7 stage fright and a permanently knotted gut.
The depression sounds like a conscious choice. It wasn't. It blighted my life & I trailed myself and my depression to Doctors, therapists, counsellors etc., for decades, and gained not one insight into its causes.
I was already suffering from panic disorder when, at the grand old age of 53, I was finally diagnosed with ADHD. I had come off Propranalol (a sod of a drug that made even boney old me fat) when I went on to ADHD meds. For the next two and half years I was a full-blown agoraphobe. Getting better now - but I've needed a lot of help.
The point of this post (nothing better than ADHD circumstantiality!), is my crude and non-scientific intuition that ADHD is like having your amygdala dangling out of your ear. Stimuli get routed through this emotional regulator well before the prefrontal bits of our brains (which in our cases are often pretty crap) get a sniff of them. ADHD anxiety comes courtesy of an over-exposed bunch of dinosaur neurons. By the time a stimulus shuffles its way into our pre-frontals, the anxiety reactions are already racing and no amount of evaluation or rationality will help. Hence the reason for hypersensitivity and a fair lump of our distractibility.
This flavour of anxiety is another gift added to the pile of natural (?!) anxieties that flow out of a lifetime of struggling to keep up; of struggling to figure out what the hell is going on; a lifetime of living behind that strange, invisible, impermeable force-field that ADHD drops on us.
I still suffer from anxiety, but, with the help of meds, I am able to understand it and accept it a little more. The biggest part of the stigma that attaches to ADHD is, I feel, the implication of some sort of moral weakness; not just because, to many, we appear not to be trying, but because, however tough minded we may be, irrational anxiety reduces most of us (I suspect) into weeds.
Mantra: I am not a weed - I have a wonky brain... (repeat 50 times daily).
And, one of these days, I'm going to punch a GP out.... (only joking; I'm a lovely boy really.)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2011 14:45:41 GMT
The anxiety comes from our trying to conform to an environment that is alien to our hunter gene ability to thrive and the pressure to adapt and conform to the norm. Think about it, you put a lion in a circus cage surround with an environment totally alien to its natural environment and worse make it learn to do tricks when what it is best at is hunting and killing prey not jumping through hoops. It the same for us, child with ADHD made to conform to the non ADHD world, kid gets in to trouble from teacher and parents for not conforming anxiety increases. Later tis negative cycle develops in co-morbid symptoms of depression, low self esteem and natural anxiety i.e how many of us adders were bed wetters or nail bitters. This anxiety is not a product of ADHD it is a result of the environment we are forced to conform to. While I do not agree with is complete hypothesis see thom hartman the Edison gene for further reading on this theory.
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