Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional ADHD evolution

This was me. I am/was GT as well. I found out about ADD in college, but didn't do anything about it until after having kids. I still have issues, even on meds, but they are extremely helpful. They at least decrease the anxiety I had over not being able to get things accomplished, etc.

I would not be surprised if either of my two have it. I'm glad that I have been diagnosed because now I know what to look for in them.

I read that girls tend to be more accommodating in class/flexible in general - and therefore their ADHD or ADD often goes undiagnosed. DS6 was just curious and the type to climb up to look in the fish tank you know - when he was nearly 3 and in Montessori . The other kids some of them younger - were content to put their hands in the un-cooked pasta, and just weren't as lively!! I think its important to check for ADHD - but being the world's biggest skeptic due to all the "epidemic" of it - I still say find someone that monitors brainwaves QEEG I think it is - don't just go by observation. Even now, DS6 displays characteristics of ADHD and ODD that are so similar to gifted that without QEEG I'd really wonder about misdiangosis and to some degree I still do. You can find comparative lists on About.com.

We are going to try and use Biofeedback if we can figure out how to afford it. Ultimately, I don't think our insurance covers ADHD drugs anyway, and then again, insurance assumes you will always have a job and insurance - which in these hard times -isn't certain. Biofeedback can improve it/cure it almost I think. Drugs are going to mask it, and possibly lead to permanent damage in other areas - which I just think for a potentially gifted kid is really not a great route to go - though really for even a non-gifted kid - it's not a greate route to go.

To answer the earlier question about has there been a decline as child got older in attention? Hard to say. I think the biggest change was the manifesting ODD behavior in school situations and the harder line he takes back talking at home when unhappy. He is able to focus on anything that interests him for hours (but there is such a thing as over focused ADHD if you read Daniel Amen's book). His impatience level of wanting everything "now" has always been there.

This is how my own ADD went undiagnosed for years... couple that with being bright and/or GT, and everything seemed great on the outside. I was diagnosed in college with it, but it wasn't until I was a mother that it became an issue for me. The one thing that I'm thankful for DS5 (and DD3) is that he is able to concentrate for hours on one single thing. I can play on the computer for hours, but not play the same game over and over again, etc... but DS5 does have other characteristics that are very similar to those with ADHD, but those same characteristics are common in gifted children his age.

Boys tend to be more hyper by nature anyway, but even as someone with ADD, who encourages women to get help if they think they have ADD, I really think that ADD/ADHD (I personally think they are separate) is overly diagnosed these days, especially in young kids. And like you, IronMom, I cannot buy into the ADD/ADHD epidemic, even as someone labeled as such.

PS. it helps to figure out if I commented in this thread before repeating my answer again (ADD trait or GT trait???? )

"If I understand correctly, they've changed the label to just AD/HD with a slash. There is no ADD anymore. Then, whoever is doing the diagnosis selects the subtype of which there are something like eleven." - Tried to quote from above - it didn't work -sorry.

Yes - the label was changed to ADHD to encompass both disorders in 1994. They actually include the word "disorder" at the end - though this is causing controversy - because a lot of people just think that the brains of people with ADHD work differently. This is also how many people with Asperger's see themselves - as different / extremely left brained - not disabled. I think its very annoying that so many books describe all these people with words such as disabled, disorder, problem - very negative terms to use. Pay atetention when you next read a book for description about these conditions that terms it that way. It makse me feel totally depressed. So guard your mind!!

I'm sure if I followed Daniel Amen's advice - that one parent nearly always has ADHD too - I would be the parent that has it. I was a hyper kid, and even if I were diganosed now, I wouldn't "buy into it". But, I can see that maybe drugs would help some people. Then again - a change of attitude also helps! And there's the really extreme lines of research that are perhaps too "out there" for some - like that book Biology of Belief - that claims DNA is a blueprint and can be changed and we can co-create changes in ourselves. So ....I would never just accept I had a condition and take drugs without thinking that through some more.

I'm with you. And with the evolution of something like ADD now having 11 subcategories, it's looking more like a *spectrum*.

I expect to see much more of this as currently brain research seems to be exploding. ADD is excutive funciton and there are so many fine areas in which *differences* can cause various symptoms.

I sometimes wonder if the term "mental illness" is fast becoming as offensive and archaic as the term "retarded". Okay, a little OT but hope you see where I'm going here.

Oh, I will say that I don't necessarily disagree with medication. Just because we know more about how the brain works doesn't mean we should throw out medication totally, baby with the bathwater.

((currently medicating myself with caffeine)) Also, anxiety can cause many of the same syptoms that ADD does....okay, I think I'm done now.

Yes, I've posted elsewhere that I respect people's decision to use it. I think maybe lose doses really are helping a lot of people. I'd be wary of doctors trying ot up the dosage unnecessarily. Mostly, I'm curious to see what new research brings. It's it a spectrum disorder (I think it has to be - because we all at some time suffer from inattentives, forgetfulness etc to varying degrees - but maybe not the point at which it "handicaps" our life.) I'm curious to see if they ever make a link between gifted and ADHD and why they present with such similar symptoms and why GT is so often a part of a condition that is also ADHD, or Aspergers. I don't kow if the 11 subcategories are official. I got the impression from Daniel Amen's book that there is no official sub-category list - and he lists 6 subtypes I believe. If anyone has an update on that - I'd like to hear about it.

It would also be interesting to see how they ae going about reserach ADHD, and who is funding it. I'm thinking here of the whole Michael J. Fox - how they fund Parkinson's research argument. Are the funding it from a political perspective, from a perspective that benefits the drug companies or other etc?

So would I. The number 11 is what I've been hearing from the pscyhs in my community but I can't find anything online that supports it. I was hoping someone here would know. LOL.