Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2012 16:41:18 GMT
Hi all,
our diagnosis, medicating, re-educating journey started over a year and a half ago. It wasn't easy and it felt like an eternity but there is light at the end of the tunnel! Don't give up hope even when it feels like things can't get any better.
Your journey may not take the same path as ours did but here's a summarised version of ours:
1) Denial. Lots of it. To my husband that was all he had ever known, to him it was normal and that's what he assumed everyone else was like. It probably didn't help that everyone he looked up to in his life (teacher, parents, grandparents, etc) thought his "quirks" were just that - quirks.
2) Acceptance. It took a long time before he started to notice the symptoms were hindering/adversely affecting his life. When the bills mounted up because he forgot to pay them or impulsively had spent bill money on clothes, etc he put the blame on ADHD. I suppose this added stress and all the unpleasantness of the situations he kept finding himself made him quite sick of it and helped in wanting to seek help. During this stage he used ADHD as an excuse for all the mistakes he made, even though he hadn't been diagnosed yet. If you're a spouse or partner in a similar situation , my advice to you is NOT to accept it as an excuse even if you know more often than not it's probably true. When he was given no choice but to better himself, he sought diagnosis (which he had avoided up till then).
3) With acceptance came fear. The fear that the doctors would say that nothing is wrong with him and that he can't be "fixed". He was also sick to the teeth of being in a constant cycle of creating debt and struggling to clear it and repeating the process.
4) Doctors, tests, forms to fill, etc. This is were you have to jump through all the hoops. It will get frustrating, weeks will feel like years but persevere!
5) Medication. My husband was given Concerta XL 18mg for the first couple of weeks. The first week was the hardest. With him it was not a miracle pill that fixed everything on day one. He looked drugged up to the eyeballs and was running around wanting to do everything all at once, the only difference was that he actually managed to finish these tasks. There were certain times during the day when he would "crash", so he would feel really down, he also lost his appetite and had a dry mouth. From what we've read and been told, these are common side effects. He slept well at night and ate well when the medication wore off. Since then the specialist has tried him on 36mg and 54mg. The side effects of the 36mg were the most severe and he's now on the 54mg with a healthy appetite throughout the day and only "crashes" once a day. Higher dose does not necessarily equal better, it's just what suits the individual. He's found that keeping active during the day with some exercise on the evenings keeps him from "crashing".
6) Behavior- we've found with medication, he's less forgetful, the temper tantrums and irrational outburst have disappeared, more tidy, unbelievably organised and he learns quicker. He's a whole new much better version of the pre-diagnosis him!
If you are going through this, please be strong, seek support from friends, family and this forum. Know that there is hope and things CAN change for the better. We wish you luck and hope your journey was as successful as ours.
xx
our diagnosis, medicating, re-educating journey started over a year and a half ago. It wasn't easy and it felt like an eternity but there is light at the end of the tunnel! Don't give up hope even when it feels like things can't get any better.
Your journey may not take the same path as ours did but here's a summarised version of ours:
1) Denial. Lots of it. To my husband that was all he had ever known, to him it was normal and that's what he assumed everyone else was like. It probably didn't help that everyone he looked up to in his life (teacher, parents, grandparents, etc) thought his "quirks" were just that - quirks.
2) Acceptance. It took a long time before he started to notice the symptoms were hindering/adversely affecting his life. When the bills mounted up because he forgot to pay them or impulsively had spent bill money on clothes, etc he put the blame on ADHD. I suppose this added stress and all the unpleasantness of the situations he kept finding himself made him quite sick of it and helped in wanting to seek help. During this stage he used ADHD as an excuse for all the mistakes he made, even though he hadn't been diagnosed yet. If you're a spouse or partner in a similar situation , my advice to you is NOT to accept it as an excuse even if you know more often than not it's probably true. When he was given no choice but to better himself, he sought diagnosis (which he had avoided up till then).
3) With acceptance came fear. The fear that the doctors would say that nothing is wrong with him and that he can't be "fixed". He was also sick to the teeth of being in a constant cycle of creating debt and struggling to clear it and repeating the process.
4) Doctors, tests, forms to fill, etc. This is were you have to jump through all the hoops. It will get frustrating, weeks will feel like years but persevere!
5) Medication. My husband was given Concerta XL 18mg for the first couple of weeks. The first week was the hardest. With him it was not a miracle pill that fixed everything on day one. He looked drugged up to the eyeballs and was running around wanting to do everything all at once, the only difference was that he actually managed to finish these tasks. There were certain times during the day when he would "crash", so he would feel really down, he also lost his appetite and had a dry mouth. From what we've read and been told, these are common side effects. He slept well at night and ate well when the medication wore off. Since then the specialist has tried him on 36mg and 54mg. The side effects of the 36mg were the most severe and he's now on the 54mg with a healthy appetite throughout the day and only "crashes" once a day. Higher dose does not necessarily equal better, it's just what suits the individual. He's found that keeping active during the day with some exercise on the evenings keeps him from "crashing".
6) Behavior- we've found with medication, he's less forgetful, the temper tantrums and irrational outburst have disappeared, more tidy, unbelievably organised and he learns quicker. He's a whole new much better version of the pre-diagnosis him!
If you are going through this, please be strong, seek support from friends, family and this forum. Know that there is hope and things CAN change for the better. We wish you luck and hope your journey was as successful as ours.
xx