You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!: The Classic Self-Help Book for Adults With Attention Deficit Disorder (48 page)

We don’t mean to scare you. Life with ADD can
be scary enough without adding more stuff to worry about. There are countless ways in which ADD causes stress in our lives. We have touched on only a few in this chapter. The reason we have raised the issue of the ADD-stress-illness connection is that there is something you can do about it. We want you to take self-care seriously. You are worth it.

The first step is to take some time to become
aware of the impact of stress on your mind and body. For a few days, make an effort to focus on your body sensations. What patterns of stress show up in your body?

When you are aware of your stress patterns, you can use your meditative activity to relax the body. You can also decide to retreat from stressful situations until you are ready to deal with them.

Here’s a piece of homework for you,
should you choose to accept it. The next time you go on an adrenalized productivity binge, make a few notes to yourself. Rate your functioning every hour or so during the binge on a scale of one to ten, with ten being peak performance. Note how long your enhanced performance lasts. Then rate your functioning for several days
to a week after the binge. How long does it take for you to recover?
Is your period of focus worth the price or are the interest rates just too high?

This chapter has been about finding ways to slow down and become more mindful about the effects of your lifestyle on your brain and body. Putting the meditation chapter
before
the chapter on medication was intentional. Without putting in those pauses to check
in with ourselves, it is all to easy to use medication as a tool for pushing ourselves harder than we already do. In the next chapter we will explore medications and a few alternative methods for waking up the brain.

Chapter 14
Medication and a Few Alternatives

a New Book by Dr. Knowitall

Running Away from Ritalin,

This new addition to the ADD bookshelf tells you everything you need to know in order to make the decision to run as fast as you can away from anyone who dares to breathe a word about how you might want to consider medicating your ADD. It does a terrific job of presenting the horrors of the evil
stimulant drugs in full living color and gory, graphic detail. You will find out how Ritalin (and other stimulants) will turn you into a character from
The Night of the Living Dead
, among other things. This sequel to
Reefer Madness
is a warning of the dangers awaiting you if you stray from the path of clean, wholesome, stimulant-free living. Ritalin and its evil twins can turn you into an instant
junkie, lead to incurable madness and even make your hair fall out! Thank God for the author of this groundbreaking book—he has saved us from the fiery pit of stimulant Hell. Read it … before it’s too late—ARGhhhh!

—I. M. Wrong,
Fear
magazine

We bet that you have never seen a book review quite like this one, but really, it is only an exaggerated version of common fear-based thinking about stimulant
medication. All right, we know it’s a rant, but you have probably run across Internet postings, books, radio shows and other highly negative communications about the first-line medications used to treat ADD.

We are not here to make the decision on medication for you. As good coaches, our job is to offer information and help guide you through the process of making a sound decision for yourself.
As writers, however, we feel a responsibility to make a recommendation based on our personal and professional experience. Stimulant medication is the most powerful treatment currently available for waking up the ADD brain. It has been a lifesaver for many people. We have had positive personal and professional experiences with stimulant medication. Do yourself a favor and at least consider exploring
this option. When you make your personal decision, you can consider that opinion along with the other pro and con factors on your list. Medicine, of course, is only one part of the solution to ADD recovery. It helps you to be available for all the learning and changing you will need to do in order to create the life that you deserve.

There Are No Right or Wrong Answers to the
Question of Medication
To Be or Not to Be Medicated?

Contrary to the sensationalized reports of doctors passing out stimulant prescriptions like candy, our experience is that most ADDults are initially very reluctant to consider medication for themselves. They think long and hard before they take the step of seeking medical treatment for their ADD. The following are common questions and issues ADDers ponder when they
are making the decision about medication. We will address each area of concern. In this section we are specifically discussing stimulant medication, such as Ritalin, Adderall, Dexedrine and related pharmaceuticals.

1.
Will the medicine control me?

The right dose of stimulant medicine does not control you … it allows you to have better control of yourself. Rather than being at the mercy of a
brain that is going off in a million directions at once, you will be able to steer your attention in the direction you want to go. A good analogy is that medication helps you to drive your own brain, rather than having it drive you.

2.
Will I become boring?

3.
I am not sure I really want to be normal—will medicine take away my uniqueness?

4.
Will medicine take away my creativity?

We are answering
these questions together because they are related. Most people have heard stories about children, in particular, acting like zombies on Ritalin or other stimulant meds. What these stories fail to mention is what, if anything, was done to carefully adjust the kind of medicine and the dose. One size does not fit all when it comes to stimulants. Some people have a bad experience with Ritalin
and a positive response to Adderall, for example. For other people, the situation is reversed. In addition, the specific dosage can have a profound effect. At certain dosages, people can indeed become sleepy or dull. The solution to this problem, of course, is to talk to your doctor about adjusting the type or dose of medication. We have worked with a number of folks who were dismayed because they
felt their uniqueness, their sparkle or their creativity was dampened by taking stimulants. Some did decide to go off medication. Others compromised by taking medicine for tasks requiring attention to detail, while giving themselves periods of unmedicated time for a more freewheeling thinking style. Many ADDults, however, seem to go through a phase of stifling themselves. It has nothing to do with
the chemical action of the drug and a lot to do with their newfound ability to observe themselves. For the first time in their lives, the brain noise has
calmed down enough to allow them to watch themselves in action, and they are judging what they see. Until they become more self-accepting, they are hampered by self-consciousness. It doesn’t help to stop taking the medicine. You don’t forget
what you observed about your own behavior. The solution is to hang in there … it is indeed just a phase. (Take a look at the chapters on mental hygiene and meditation in this book for more about this.)

5.
What kind of side effects can I expect?

The most common side effects are disturbed sleep and appetite, headaches, stomach upset, cardiovascular changes and anxiety. Another common effect is
rebound symptoms, which occur when the medicine is wearing off. For a time, the symptoms return in a magnified form. Generally, with the longer-acting forms of medicine available today, rebound is not as big an issue as it was in the past. Rebound can be minimized by carefully timing the dose. A bit later in this chapter we will discuss side effects in more detail, offering practical solutions for
dealing with them.

6.
What are the long-term effects of taking these medicines?

There is no evidence of negative long-term effects from taking stimulant medication.

7.
Is taking medicine just a crutch? Maybe I just need to try harder
.

This one is a big stopper for a lot of ADDults. Many people still view mental or emotional challenges as diseases of the will. In some ways, it may be easier
to view the symptoms as something you can control—none of us like to feel out of control, after all. And there are old, outdated notions still hanging around about being, well, weak, if you can’t solve all your problems on your own. When we imagine a crutch, in this sense, the picture is of someone leaning very heavily on it. Imagine instead that your medicine is not a crutch but a ladder. It is
not something you lean
on because you are helpless, but a tool that helps you rise in life, rung by rung. Are your glasses a crutch? What about your blood pressure medicine? Trying harder does not work to lower your blood pressure, and it doesn’t usually make things better for your ADD (in fact, it can often make things worse). Yes, it is important to take steps that will make your life more manageable,
but trying to force your brain to do something it is not capable of at a given moment will only result in shutting it down.

8.
I am functional … I have a responsible job. Medicine is for people who are really sick
.

It is a mind trap to think that you have to be practically on skid row before you accept help. There are ADDers who struggle ferociously just to keep the basics in place … or are
dependent on others for financial help. Many of us, however, manage to function, at times on a very high level. We are so used to the effort of keeping all those balls in the air that we don’t register the level of stress and strain involved in doing it. Are we doing ourselves, our loved ones or anyone else a favor by continuing to live this way?

9.
I don’t even like taking aspirin … aren’t there some herbal remedies that can help?

Of course, if you are generally opposed to taking medicine for any reason, pharmaceuticals for ADD may not be an option for you. Toward the end of this chapter we will include some alternatives for your consideration.

10.
Will I jeopardize my job or career by taking medicine?

Good question. There are some positions that do not allow workers to take stimulant
medication on the job—pilots, for example. For most people, however, there is no clear information about the impact of taking stimulants on your career. If you are not willing to disclose your diagnosis and treatment to your employer, there is also the issue of drug testing to consider.

It may help to know that methylphenidate (generic for Ritalin) and Dexedrine are detectable in a standard urine
test for only one or two days. We were unable to find any specific information about Adderall and drug testing.

Actually, we found an interesting tidbit when we did a Google search for “pilots and stimulant medication.” Apparently, the army and the navy have approved the use of stimulants (called the “go-pill”) for fighter and bomber crew members in combat. The name of the article we turned up
was entitled “Fatigue Kills.”

11.
Can I afford it?

Do your homework before you make this decision. Find out what it will cost for a diagnostic assessment prior to scheduling your appointment. Ask your potential prescribing physician how often you will need to see him or her once you are on a regular dose of medication. Factor in the cost of office visits as well as the cost of the medicine itself.
Check with your insurance company to find out how much they will cover. Get on the phone and do some comparison shopping about the price of medication. Ask a number of pharmacists for information on the best deals. For example, you may save some money by getting a prescription for a higher dosage than you need and then cutting the pills in half. Make sure you check with your doctor on this
one, however, as the longer-acting stimulants are not generally designed to be broken up. Our own research turned up some substantial bargains at Sam’s Club and Costco, for example.

Of course, the answer to this question is not strictly about dollars and cents. How do you assign a monetary value to your ability to function and your quality of life? If your children get a parent who is more available,
isn’t that more important than providing certain nonessential material items? Do you wonder if you are worth all the trouble and expense? We, of course, are convinced that you are worth it, and that you deserve whatever it takes to get the help you need.

12.
Taking medicine makes me feel defective
.

Many of us are ashamed about needing to take medication, especially at first. We often go through
some pretty funny “cloak and dagger” stuff to ensure that we are not caught taking those telltale pills. Well, it’s funny later on, when we are more self-accepting. In the moment, that feeling of shame is painful and nothing to laugh at. The most effective antidote to this particular pain is to seek out the company of other ADDults. Together we create a forgiving subculture that nurtures all of
us. In fact, that culture already exists. Spend your next vacation at the ADDA conference or one of the other ADD conferences to experience the warm, wonderful feeling of coming home. There is nothing quite like the experience of taking out your pill bottle and seeing everyone around you suddenly remembering to take their medication too. It’s kind of a spiritual experience, like taking communion.