My Experience With ADD Medication:
Now that I look back on taking ADD medication, I wish I was diagnosed with APD the first time because the medication affected me negatively 3rd-9th grade. Yes, maybe I was a little more focused in school and homework and what-not, but it didn't help me with how long I get things done or how I can verbalize things, or my social skills with people. It didn't help me what was really the issue. What I've been able to understand from my doctors as well as my personal experience with ADD medication is that the medication made me MORE anxious when I was taking it... ADD can be negative in the way as you’re TOO focused if you "don't have it" or have a higher anxiety level... I was too focused on the big test I had, or the words a boy said to me at lunch and the amount of homework that had to get done. The medication magnified and focused too much on things for me… BUT it is different for everyone's situation. ADD medication in my experience wasn't worth it. I KNOW my brother has ADD.. VERY obvious ADD when he is off of it, so it is worth it for him.
ADD:
ADD:
ADD as everyone knows… Is when kids have a hard time focusing and commonly have behavioral issues along with the focusing aspect. Kids will often fidget, and will keep their body (and especially their hands) busy as much as they can. Some kids keep their mouth busy, too (blurting things out in or speaking in inappropriate instances). Some doctors say everyone has ADD, and some doctors say the opposite. This is because ADD is a very hard thing to diagnose correctly. From my experience, I was about sick of going from pill to pill because “I had ADD” even though the pills never seemed to work. Yes, there’s more to ADD but that’s a quick little summary.
APD:
APD:
If you haven’t already found out what APD is from my blogs, it’s a disorder that also affects the brain, but affects the auditory. Our ears will hear fine and clear, but our brain will spit and jumble totally wrong messages back to us. APD also affects on how LONG correct information will be sent. Sometimes if I’m asked a question I pause for 3 and even 10 seconds sometimes. It can be that long because my brain is also trying to PROCESS what I want to say as well. Verbalizing is difficult. Our brains “hearing” is difficult, so PROCESSING information is difficult. That’s what APD is summed up.
ADD vs APD:
ADD vs APD:
Now seeing APD and ADD right next to one another, APD is TOTALLY different than ADD… Although, people would say “Oh Johnny wasn’t focused on what I was telling him to do so he forgot”. Well, that’s the case if you have ADD, but really what Johnny has is Auditory Processing Disorder because he did not UNDERSTAND what was just said to him. He was totally focused, but did not have the right message sent to him from his brain. ADD and APD are confused a lot especially in young children because little kids’ attention span’s aren’t very high to begin with. Also, ADD and APD are both very well hidden. Teachers and professionals don’t have as much knowledge on APD as they do ADD… (“Oh, he has ADD” – Or are you saying that because you have more knowledge on ADD? (Just sayin’!))
---------
Think about it… Trying to cure a disorder your child doesn’t have and not curing a disorder they ACTUALLY have is kind of a big deal. I thought I had ADD 3rd grade through 9th grade. Heck, I was very confused when I was told I had this one disorder called “Auditory Processing Disorder”. I didn't believe I had a different disorder because I was SO stuck on the idea that I had ADD. In fact, I was SO confused just a half a year ago I thought it was called “Audio Processing Disorder”. The more people can be educated on BOTH the disorders, the more advanced ideas people will generate to help BOTH of the disorders separately. But most importantly, parents and teachers will be able to start working with the children’s true needs earlier, and start curing the RIGHT one earlier. With me? :D
