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General Posting As A Carer And Sufferer - Healing My Son

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A Latecomer's Comment About AD(H)D And Medication

... PTSD is like taking my ADHD symptoms and taking them to the nth degree. I guess it's no wonder that it wasn't until my symptoms got so bad that they were out of control for me to realize that this was something out of the ordinary for me.
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Did you ask them if the meds they're putting him on are for, possibly, both sets of symptoms? I don't know if such a creature exist...but you never know.

This is quite out of date re: the original thread, but both Becvan's and Marlene's comments rang a bell. I agree fully with Marlene, that AD(H)D symptoms often have quite a few things in common with PTSD symptoms (what I know about PTSD - I'm still new to this).

Yet, speaking of medication, we need to remember that everyone is an individual with their own metabolism, so two people are not very likely to react in the exact same way to any medication.

For what it is worth: My experience of AHDH medication (in my case methylphenidate hydrochloride = Ritalin and Concerta) is weird in the sense that I had had a deep and persistent fear (my shrink prefers to use the word anxiety, which is also descriptive) ever since my childhood, 24/7. The most dramatic effect of Ritalin, and especially Concerta is taking away that "undercurrent" of "automatic" fear. If I go off meds or drop the dosage too much, the fear comes back.

When my "auto-fear" is switched off by medication, that's when I can work effectively on my healing. I can work consistently and goal-orientedly and deal with more real and relevant fear from memories. If the "auto-fear" is switched on, most of my energy will go to not scream and jump at sudden noises, to force myself to leave the house at all, to focus on anything but sudden scary thoughts, nightmares and the like. I could do that and work on my therapy before I had two kids - now I really need the stabilizing effect from the meds to be able to handle life's routines. So ADHD meds really are very strongly also post-trauma anxiety meds, for me.

I hope Becvan and Matt are doing well.

Athena
 
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