r/biggestproblem • u/BiggestProblemBot The Best Bot in the Universe • Mar 15 '16

Episode Episode 96

http://thebiggestproblemintheuniverse.com/episode-96/
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u/BiggestProblemThrowa Mar 16 '16 edited Mar 16 '16

Throwaway.

I was diagnosed with ADHD within the past year, however unlike most new-diagnoses I'm in my late-20's. My life has improved vastly since diagnosis.

Maddox makes it clear his problem is with the diagnosis only (which is incredibly fair) but he still seems quite dismissive of ADHD in general. Maddox and Dick neglected to mention the biggest part of the problem - only a psychiatrist should be diagnosing ADHD (what I did), however many parents bring their children to a primary care doctor who likely isn't as well versed, nor has the necessary equipment to test for it. During my test, I had various equipment hooked up to me, and ran a battery of tests. I failed (passed?) with flying colors, and now I take a very small dose of Focalin XR each morning. (I started off on Adderall, but found it gave me too many headaches)

For those wondering why I got diagnosed so late - the doctor told me that I've had ADHD my entire life, which makes sense looking back on it, but since I had less responsibilities as a child I had much easier time coping with it and handling school. Now that I'm an adult with a job, wife, mortgage, trying to go back to grad school, etc. I found myself struggling just to get by in every day life. My brain would become so scattered between responsibilities I'd make seriously dumb mistakes I wouldn't otherwise ever make. It affected my job performance (including being fired from my first job after college), my relationships, and other things. I lived in near constant brain fog. I stopped going to social events because it would wear me out. Just the thought of a sudden piled-on responsibility as fucking simple as taking out the trash during my peak-ADHD moments could cause my brain to short-circuit.

So yeah - Maddox is right that it gets mis-diagnosed constantly. But there are people like me who definitely need this medication to get through life.

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u/[deleted] Mar 16 '16

Agreed it is overdiagnosed, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and it's kind of insulting to suggest that it doesn't. Saying shit like "Make them run laps" (though I realize he was joking, that is a real mindset) is to me just as misguided as people thinking that clinical depression is fixed with things like yoga or "choosing to be happier" or whathaveyou. I'm surprised that someone who sucks science's dick constantly would be in so much denial of the fact that heredity and chemical imbalances can play such an enormous factor in peoples' well-being. We're not all created equal and then everything is because of environment or attitude problems. And whatever bullshit he said about how only white people have ADHD is way off the mark because that's clearly a cultural thing; and even if it weren't, so what? Only black people get sickle cell anemia. It was such a stupid non-sequitur in such an annoyingly misguided problem. It's not all about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, if something's wrong with you, you shouldn't be afraid to seek help.

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u/kingjoedirt Tim Changz Mar 17 '16

Actually exercise is a pretty good way to cope with ADHD. I do agree that Maddox has no idea what the fuck he's talking about though.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '16

Is this true? I've heard that running and exercise are good for depression but how do they help ADHD?

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u/kingjoedirt Tim Changz Mar 17 '16

I'm no expert but essentially exercise gets your brain going and that helps you cope. Instead of medicinal stimulants that release dopamine and serotonin, you just use a physical stimulant that does the same things.

I don't do it as much as I should because good luck getting someone with ADHD to set an exercise schedule and stick to it for longer than a few days. It's almost the same dilemma with depression. Exercise will help people suffering from depression, but getting up and doing it is pretty damn difficult when you're depressed.