I got diagnosed with ADHD when I was in my early 20s. My mom wanted to figure out why I had failed out of school twice despite being "the smartest person [she] has ever known" (you know how moms are) so she enrolled me in a study being done by McGill University to test previously undiagnosed adults for ADHD.
After around 4 hours of testing the verdict was in: I had the "Inattentive" sub-type of ADHD. In addition it was found that I scored through the roof on reading comprehension but that I had the math skills of a 5 year old. It was at that point that I was prescribed Adderall, but I only took it for maybe 4-6 months for the reasons stated above.
I participated in another study by McGill University a couple years later which was set up to test the hypothesis that ADHD was the result of an underactive dopamine system in the brain. The hypothesis was that people with ADHD aren't producing as much dopamine so they need constant stimulation to get the baseline amounts most others enjoy. For this study they took a PET scan and 2 MRIs of my brain. One MRI was of my brain in it's natural state, the other was of my brain hopped up on dextroamphetamines.
I'd like to see what the results were of that one.
These days I don't take any medication and I find that I am perfectly able to lead a normal life as long as I get plenty of free time and an open schedule. Also I have noticed that my focus has improved incredibly since I stopped eating so much junk food.
After around 4 hours of testing the verdict was in: I had the "Inattentive" sub-type of ADHD. In addition it was found that I scored through the roof on reading comprehension but that I had the math skills of a 5 year old. It was at that point that I was prescribed Adderall, but I only took it for maybe 4-6 months for the reasons stated above.
I participated in another study by McGill University a couple years later which was set up to test the hypothesis that ADHD was the result of an underactive dopamine system in the brain. The hypothesis was that people with ADHD aren't producing as much dopamine so they need constant stimulation to get the baseline amounts most others enjoy. For this study they took a PET scan and 2 MRIs of my brain. One MRI was of my brain in it's natural state, the other was of my brain hopped up on dextroamphetamines.
I'd like to see what the results were of that one.
These days I don't take any medication and I find that I am perfectly able to lead a normal life as long as I get plenty of free time and an open schedule. Also I have noticed that my focus has improved incredibly since I stopped eating so much junk food.