Were you diagnosed w/ADHD after your child was?

[Kbugsmom]

As a follow up to the does it run in the family post, I am curious as to how many of you looked into the possibility of having ADHD yourself once your child was diagnosed? We are having DD evaluated for what looks like a classic ADD dx and if it is confirmed, I may just suck it up and look into the probability that I am also affected.
I was the typical problem child and nightmare teenager. My parents were told that I had a high IQ but was simply not applying myself. Teachers said I was defiant, lazy or a daydreamer. In the classroom, I never knew what was going on and was extremely bored. I believe that ADHD was what ruined my relationship with my father and strained it with the rest of my family. I believe this very adversely affected my performance in school as well.
Now, at age 34, I am trying to get up the courage to do for myself what we are trying to do for our daughter. Any advice?

[songwriter]

kbugsmom-
I am 41. I heard a radio broadcast on the topic of ADHD about a year and a half ago.I said to myself,"So this is what's wrong with my boy. I ordered the book advertised at the end of the segment ,read it and said to myself as I cried,"so this is what's wrong with me". Niether of us are doing the meds. thing( yet) but I have started the 'Zone' diet and I think it is helping.
I wish I knew about ADHD before my mother passed away. We didn't always see eye to eye ,in fact sometimes it got pretty intense between us. Looking back, I see that my ADHD symptoms were a 'gift' from her. I don't know where I'm going with all this
but realizing there is a problem is the first step in correcting it.
Blessings to you- -songwriter

[anneke]

my brother and my where diagnosed when we where 11.

my mother was happy she could breath again.

my brother was happy there was something wrong with him. it was the prove that his bad behaviour was not his foult, it had a reason why he could not controle himselve. the more he learnt about ADHD the more he learnt to controle his behaviour.

I was just sad, I always wanted to write better I always wanted to read better and now I knew I would always have problems with it.

but it all turned ok

my father figured out he had ADHD too but he never did anything about it and never was interested in it.
our relationship is totaly gone and for us he is just a man who walks around in our house. I feel ashamed when I have to introduce him to one of my friends. its a sad situation.

anneke

ps: for the people who dont know me verry well yet I am now 22 and my brother is 23 and an airplane mechanic

[shardstar]

Hi, That's exactly what happened! My daughter was dx'd last summer, and while doing all the research that you do when you are discovering what ADHD is all about, I realised that this is what my problem has been all these years. What a relief to find out that I can do something about it!!!

Now both of us are on Strattera, and doing better. My husband was dx'd as a kid, but isn't on any meds now. I hope he sees how well we are doing and goes that route soon though. It would make all of our lives a little easier. We have some serious communication issues! That's another story though...

[Kbugsmom]

I just can't help but wonder what my doctor is going to think when I go into his office and tell him I think I probably have ADD.

[MomX2]

I'm kind of confused about the whole subject of how to diagnose someone with ADHD. I haven't been seen by a doctor to be diagnosed but from what I've read I would think I do have ADHD. Just for instance I know I was very inattentive in 1st grade and really from then on. I can remember my teacher telling my parents I was always daydreaming and remember them asking me to try to stop daydreaming. For that matter I remember daydreaming and clearly remember what I was daydreaming about in the 1st grade. I also remember that when they asked me to try to pay attention I did at first but then I got very bored with it and couldn't stop looking at the clock to see how close it was to recess, lunch or the end of the day. I remember I decided to compromise and sort of pay attention to the teacher part of the time but eventually I got frustrated with that and quit trying. Whenever she would asked us to get homework out I never heard the request so never knew what page to turn too. By the time I found it I was way behind so often didn't get my homework finished and therefore didn't get to go out for recess. My desk was a disaster area and we didn't have backpacks. I think I forgot to take my homework home most of the time.

In gradeschool I had a tendency to be very withdrawn and quiet until the 4th grade when I started playing with and interacting with the other kids a lot more. Outside of school I tended to be hyperactive and often got in trouble for running around out of control, laughing and sometimes climbing on things in public.

I could go on and on about the ADHD type of behaviors I have. And then again I've heard people with ADHD aren't good at reading but reading is one of my strengths. I've read many books about ADHD for that matter. Note taking is difficult for me though. I usually couldn't keep up with the lectures in highschool so my notes were always incomplete. I would expect that brought my grade down some.

[iansmom]

I am almost positive that I am ADHD. But I didn't figure this out until my son was dx 6 years ago. All my childhood I was constantly getting into trouble for digging into something and I always had to take things apart. This is my son's favorite thing to do!! I couldn't sit still in my classrooms and my grades drastically fell when I got in the 6th grade. Before that, they were straight A's. ALL my life, I've had severe tics but no barking or screaming out curse words, thank the Lord, so by the time I got into high school, I figured that I had Tourettes. Now I think the tics were/are a part of ADHD.

[rosyred45]

If you look down in the general adults sec, Douglas is putting some stuff together. If you have a good anecdote or something, I'm sure he would appreciate it. I did ask him if htere had to be a technical dx, and he said no, but to explain why I thought like I did.

Very interesting, as soon as I get done showing the house today, I'm getting something together. It can be annonomous if you like. Check it out.