Nm..

Vanessa, on the blood pressure thing, I think it just so happened that I went to the doctor, and they happened to notice that my blood pressure came up high. Sometimes it was super high (if I had taken cough medicine too). Other times it was normal. As your Dr. will probably not tell you, the half life of the meds for this is short. It doesn't take time to build up in your system to start working, nor does it linger after you stop it. So, sometimes I was taking it and other times I was not. As soon as that connection was made, they started trying to see if there was a dose of meds that was effective, but did not cause this, but it does not exist.

Good for you Vanessa!  Mental health is just like phyical health.  Some of us have a problem that will require treatment.  Be it diabetes, high blood pressure, PTSD, bi-polar....whatever

My partner is working through some PTSD issues right now.  My brother was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder several years ago.  He is married, expecting his first child, just published a book and is pursuing ways to help others through public speaking and writing.  He is doing really well.

You can do this.  These medical terms are not going to ruin your life.  You just need to find the meds, supplements, routines, therapies....whatever.........that will help you attain balance and stay there.

Please don't give a thot to offending ME of all people!  LOL!  Even as a child I knew that I was "different".  Not necessarily not normal but I was always different.  I recognized at a very young age that I wasn't really like the other kids, but didn't know why or how I was different.

Seriously, when the issues with DS were still pending, it was so like looking in a mirror of my childhood watching some of his behaviors.  In many ways it's probably good that I didn't know what the problem was with me, because over the years I simply developed coping mechanisms so that by the time I realized what was different, I had a solid defense already in place.

I am a reader.  Have loved to read since the day I learned how to read.  In fact, I wanted to repeat first grade so I could figure out HOW I'd learned to read!  But, I'm primarily a fiction reader and I need that hook to keep me interested.

I can't address the PTSD at all.  To some extent, after I got away from the ex, I'm sure I suffered from it, but.......this is a normal reaction to traumatic events.  Nothing at all to be ashammed of.

And honestly, either is ADHD.  There are a lot of ways to deal with this, and you'll find the way that is best for you.  Knowing is half the battle.

And, if your family can't or won't be supportive, "cook em".  You've got  us. 

Depending on your finanical resources the lengths to which you wish to go to "demystify" your personal "issues"; you might want to have a neurospychological examination.  It is sort of like and IQ test on steriods.  It should examine all the sensory processing disorders and then the higher level cognitive functions.  You can even add academics tests.  If you know the level (sensory, attention, memory or executive function) at with the issues are manifested, you might be able to adjust your treatment to something  that will "feel better" to you.  The knowledge base might also improve your response to the therapies because you know both the how and the why (at least in part).

You may also find that yoga and meditation would be worth a try based on some of the more recent recent research in motivatation with children... it must apply to adults as well.

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Depending on where you live, there are some really impressive neuro programs in Canada... University of Windsor being particually well developed.  Always wanted to study there under Bryon Rourke.  Unfortunately he has retired.   University clinics *especially if there is research going on can be a value.

My psychiatrist was the one who sent me for a neuropsych eval. He also sent me for a brain MRI and an EKG. He was checking to see if my issues were caused by something physical, and because stimulants can be a problem if you have certain heart conditions I had the EKG. He was a pretty thorough guy. Or maybe he was making me practice calling for appointments. He also gave me stuff from the PDR (which is some big book of all things medicine) about what he was prescribing for me, because I like to know it.

You may want to check out chadd.org There are lots of links there. There are forums, but I have no idea about how good or bad they are since I have never been on them.  

I My knowledge of PTSD though is limited to explaining what is happening  in behavior analytic terms. If it would help you to know that, I can do that here.
 

mrv

you might want to have a neurospychological examination.

Hmm I think from your description this is kinda what they did with Eli? They did a real battery of tests with him doing puzzles, a modified IQ test,  drawing what he saw, social stories, social interaction, etc? They mentioned the academic tests might need to wait since he was only 6 then...

We got a TON of detailed information at that, Vanessa...I might really consider it. We are one of those "how and why" people and it helps us to help him better know how and why he processes things so very differently than we do. Ours was only covered partially, by the insurance here in the states...we paid about $300 out of pocket for ours. Really tho, worth every penny for us.

I had all those tests too.

The model in which I was trained examines skills/abilities in ascending order related to cognitive processing.  It starts with senosry motor systems, then visual and auditory processes, attention, memory and learning.  Then executive functions followed by cognitive ability then academic performance.  This approach allows you to determine when basic processes are intact (then it tells you to look higher in the chain),  If the lower level area is a problem, address that. 

sorry for the hijack.  An out of pocket neuro witll run between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars US.  I have no clue about CA.

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Jewlieee

From what I understand, poor memory and attention can also be attributed to depression and doesn't mean you have adhd. So unless you are tested you really won't know for sure. (Of course, none of it is an exact science though.) If you address the depression the memory and attention problems may sort themselves out. If you have a long history of focus problems though, say going back to your childhood, then most likely it is adhd.

yes to that. However, if they are persistent ongoing life long things, it's probably ADHD. I didn't get a diagnosis until age 16, but the things were always there.  I think though, and this is probably true for a lot of females with ADHD, is that we tend not to get into trouble in school. I always raced through work, and did pretty well, so the occasional careless mistake wasn't a big deal. There were other things I have always done, like having the 2,3, or even more things happening all at once. One of the funny ones for me is that I often don't make eye contact, but as someone described to me once, not in the same way that the autistic children I work with do. They avoid it. I am looking at things that interest me more. It wouldn't bother me to do it,  it just isn't as interesting.

Ok, now for the basic behavioral explanation of PTSD. If anyone thinks I am wrong, please feel free to correct (not sure who could though). So, you are familiar with Pavlov's dogs, correct? That's respondent conditioning. A neutral stimulus (a bell) is paired with the presentation of food. Initially, the sound of the bell does nothing. Through pairing with the presentation of food, the presentation of the bell will come to bring about the drooling response. In PTSD, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with a fearful situation. In this case, it may only even need to be paired a single time. Some nice examples of this are going on right now on Grey's Anatomy. If you watched last week, you saw that Alex wouldn't get in the elevator. At the end of last season, he laid in the elevator dying in a pool of his own blood. The elevator was previously neutral, and possibly even in some situations, it is a reinforcer. Now, the elevator is a trigger for all sorts of fear behaviors. Now, you may also get some operant behaviors. So, you may have the situation in which you need to get upstairs. Previously, he would have taken the elevator. Now, he takes the stairs. He avoid the fearful situation, the elevator. 

They aren't always as clear cut as this.  You may not know what the stimulus is that triggers the fearful behaviors. It may be something that seems totally irrelevant in the environment, but somehow, it got paired with something, and is now a problem. 

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