Mental Illness and Road Enthusiusts

[Max Rockatansky]

I was diagnosed with ADHD as well, and drugged heavily, for years and years. It's a scam by the psychiatric industry and school officials.

I wouldn't go as far as "conspiracy."  Really back in those days it was pretty clear that the parental units as a whole seemed to be believe the problem was real.  I can certainly say that I've met some folks that were in way worse shape in regards to ADHD and likely had some sort of higher level of mental impairment/learning disability than was probably diagnosed. 

Hell, I remember in those days you had to be really careful getting your kid diagnosed with even a learning disorder.  You could wind up on the short bus or the resource room pretty damn quick and be classified as a "slow kid." 

[kphoger]

Re:  ADHD...

Nowadays it's called "ADHD."  Thirty years ago, it was called "being a boy."

[ColossalBlocks]

I have a mild form of Autism. Really mild form.

[formulanone]

Nowadays it's called "ADHD."  Thirty years ago, it was called "being a boy."

I was diagnosed with ADHD as well, and drugged heavily, for years and years. It's a scam by the psychiatric industry and school officials.

There's a tiny handful of children who really do have it, to the point where new stimuli tosses aside any sort of behavioral pattern, or a sensory imbalance which constantly disrupts even the most basic activities (like eating and sleep). It's just that some parents are quick to label their children, and some do not understand that it's normal for kids to be (hyper)active on occasion, especially if they don't have enough time and place to make use of their growing bodies and metabolism.

Also, once a phrase enters the realm of popular psychology, it has a tendency to be over-used and under-scrutinized, even if in jest.

[US71]

Re:  ADHD...

Nowadays it's called "ADHD."  Thirty years ago, it was called "being a boy."

Madd Alex would beg to differ: she has ADHD

[Roadgeekteen]

Nowadays it's called "ADHD."  Thirty years ago, it was called "being a boy."

I was diagnosed with ADHD as well, and drugged heavily, for years and years. It's a scam by the psychiatric industry and school officials.

There's a tiny handful of children who really do have it, to the point where new stimuli tosses aside any sort of behavioral pattern, or a sensory imbalance which constantly disrupts even the most basic activities (like eating and sleep). It's just that some parents are quick to label their children, and some do not understand that it's normal for kids to be (hyper)active on occasion, especially if they don't have enough time and place to make use of their growing bodies and metabolism.

Also, once a phrase enters the realm of popular psychology, it has a tendency to be over-used and under-scrutinized, even if in jest.

Well I guess I don't have it.

[ColossalBlocks]

I was diagnosed with ADHD as well, and drugged heavily, for years and years. It's a scam by the psychiatric industry and school officials.

One of the school districts I went to pulled the same bullcrap. "Oh you don't like school? OH MY GOD!! YOU'RE MENTALLY INSANE!!!" - 99.99% of school districts.

[vtk]

A lot of people forget or are unaware that getting distracted very easily is a problem for people who actually have ADD, and some of the meds prescribed to treat the condition help with that issue considerably. And then there's the "hyperfocus" aspect of ADD, which can potentially be a strength in limited circumstances, but comes with its own downsides.

[inkyatari]

Seems there's a lot of misunderstanding and downplaying of ADD in this thread.

Sad.

[vdeane]

I would say that ADD is overdiagnosed as a result of kids being expected to sit still and act like adults through long school days combined with the practice of evaluating kids by grade rather than age (since kids in a grade can be nearly a whole year apart simply by an accident of what month they were born in; there's actually a correlation between increased ADD diagnoses and kids who were born towards the end of the school year), but it is also a legitimate condition that some people have.  The two are not mutually exclusive.

[bugo]

Despite what the Church of Scientology and batshit hippies might say, psych meds are the real deal. They can save your life. They don't help everybody but just because they don't help you, don't come to the conclusion that they help nobody.

[US71]

Despite what the Church of Scientology and batshit hippies might say, psych meds are the real deal. They can save your life. They don't help everybody but just because they don't help you, don't come to the conclusion that they help nobody.

I think to some degree they are over-prescribed. I've seen doctors simply write prescriptions without attempting to diagnose the problem. I knew someone about 30 years ago who got the wrong meds and killed himself in the hospital.

[hbelkins]

Despite what the Church of Scientology and batshit hippies might say, psych meds are the real deal. They can save your life. They don't help everybody but just because they don't help you, don't come to the conclusion that they help nobody.

A lot of it is dependent on getting the right medication and the right dose. 25 mg of "Pill A" may not help you, but 20 mg of "Pill B" may be just what you need.

[roadman65]

Speaking of meds, I have seen doctors and usually with them and depression meds its all trial and error.  TV gets it wrong when you go to a shrink, lay down and spill your guts while the doc answers probing questions to isolate where your bad feelings are coming from.  In real life you tell them your symptoms like loss of interest or eating too much and wham you have a prescription in your hand being told to return a week later to see if that is working.

I had trouble getting over rejection of a girl I asked out.  Had absolutely no romantic feelings for her and even prepared myself for her saying no, but became obsessed anyway.  Not toward her at all, but my mind kept focusing by itself and it was driving me crazy as I wanted to move on with my life and not be thinking about a petty situation.  I went to Raritan Bay Mental Health Center as I was unaware at the time Health Insurance covers that stuff and all I had to do was tell my primary care the issue and he could have recommended a shrink of his and the HMO's choice with no copay and deductable.   I told their interns (as because it was like a free clinic, you get fresh out of college therapists who are not able even to prescribe meds at all) my situation and all I got was to join a rap group with activities catered toward age regression adolescents or partially challenged individuals.  No concern at all for my obsession, and even tried to shame me into mentioning the petty turn down, not figuring out I could be having Aspergers or even Mild Autism and telling me to see my own family doctor for recommendation to see a specialist.

I even told him I have no interest in things and that I have to live my life for others.  He said, you need to live for yourself, which is true and he pointed that out to me of course, but did not seem concerned at all and ask probing questions to diagnose a solution and maybe even realize that I could have a spectrum that is uncurable and needs a real doctor to treat.

[index]

Necro bump, just because I feel like sharing this.

I have schizoaffective, and I developed it in August of last year. I used to hallucinate all the time shortly after I developed it(now I only do a little bit). It happened a lot when driving - I would see police, flashing lights in the distance, billboards on fire, and signs telling me I was stupid. I have to wonder if this is my brain hijacking my interest in roads for those hallucinations.

[Roadgeekteen]

Necro bump, just because I feel like sharing this.

I have schizoaffective, and I developed it in August of last year. I used to hallucinate all the time shortly after I developed it(now I only do a little bit). It happened a lot when driving - I would see police, flashing lights in the distance, billboards on fire, and signs telling me I was stupid. I have to wonder if this is my brain hijacking my interest in roads for those hallucinations.

Yikes that's not good. Can you still drive or not? Hope it keeps getting better.

[SectorZ]

Necro bump, just because I feel like sharing this.

I have schizoaffective, and I developed it in August of last year. I used to hallucinate all the time shortly after I developed it(now I only do a little bit). It happened a lot when driving - I would see police, flashing lights in the distance, billboards on fire, and signs telling me I was stupid. I have to wonder if this is my brain hijacking my interest in roads for those hallucinations.

That sounds like a terrible thing to be going through. My condolences. I hope you're getting the care you need to help you through it.

[index]

Necro bump, just because I feel like sharing this.

I have schizoaffective, and I developed it in August of last year. I used to hallucinate all the time shortly after I developed it(now I only do a little bit). It happened a lot when driving - I would see police, flashing lights in the distance, billboards on fire, and signs telling me I was stupid. I have to wonder if this is my brain hijacking my interest in roads for those hallucinations.

Yikes that's not good. Can you still drive or not? Hope it keeps getting better.

Yeah, I can still drive. It definitely affected my driving, like I'd see fake police and slow down because I constantly speed, but it never got to the point of impairing it, and 99% of the time I'm able to tell when my hallucinations are fake.

Necro bump, just because I feel like sharing this.

I have schizoaffective, and I developed it in August of last year. I used to hallucinate all the time shortly after I developed it(now I only do a little bit). It happened a lot when driving - I would see police, flashing lights in the distance, billboards on fire, and signs telling me I was stupid. I have to wonder if this is my brain hijacking my interest in roads for those hallucinations.

That sounds like a terrible thing to be going through. My condolences. I hope you're getting the care you need to help you through it.

Yeah, I'm fortunately getting it taken care of. I was just in the hospital for it recently but I got out today. Honestly, the hallucinations, although sometimes frightening, aren't even the worst part of it, the affective part is - unstable mood. I have been in some horribly low lows that I'd count as some of the worst moments of my life.

I have bipolar type schizoaffective. What schizoaffective is is essentially a combination diagnosis when symptoms of bipolar disorder or depression + schizophrenia occur independently of each other. Fortunately I do not get the delusional part of schizophrenia (except when I would use weed, which would trigger my symptoms. So far I have quit, hopefully for good).

[Scott5114]

I have schizoaffective, and I developed it in August of last year. I used to hallucinate all the time shortly after I developed it(now I only do a little bit). It happened a lot when driving - I would see police, flashing lights in the distance, billboards on fire, and signs telling me I was stupid. I have to wonder if this is my brain hijacking my interest in roads for those hallucinations.

I don't mean to make light of this, because that sounds awful and I'm glad it's not happening so frequently. But since this is a roadgeek forum, I just gotta ask–were the signs you saw MUTCD-compliant?



I've mentioned in another thread that I think I may have inattentive-type ADHD. Several of my friends have it, and I can see the same symptoms they have in myself. What's worse, is I think it's getting worse with age. My brain often fuzzes over and I am becoming more and more forgetful. What really sucks is the executive dysfunction, though. Nothing's worse than wanting and needing to do something to make money or pay taxes or whatever and yet instead of getting it done I keep ending up browsing some stupid Wikipedia page or something. Sometimes I even end up in the Sports forum here. I don't even like sports, why am I reading the Sports forum?

[index]

I have schizoaffective, and I developed it in August of last year. I used to hallucinate all the time shortly after I developed it(now I only do a little bit). It happened a lot when driving - I would see police, flashing lights in the distance, billboards on fire, and signs telling me I was stupid. I have to wonder if this is my brain hijacking my interest in roads for those hallucinations.

I don't mean to make light of this, because that sounds awful and I'm glad it's not happening so frequently. But since this is a roadgeek forum, I just gotta ask—were the signs you saw MUTCD-compliant?

Yeeup. I remember, I read a real yellow diamond sign, except instead of saying what it was supposed to say it said

"YOU
DUMB
BITCH"

in crystal-clear series D.

[adventurernumber1]

I'm so sorry to hear you've been going through this, and I hope it continues to improve.

I have rarely had hallucinations, but I tend to deal most with delusions and paranoia. These seem to have become a permanent fixture after an incident back in Summer 2018 that made me extremely fearful and paranoid; however, thankfully, my psychosis has gradually been improving after a recent low in late 2020 (although there were even lower lows, separately in early 2015 and early 2017).