Posted by SuperADDMom on April 22, 2010
SOURCE LINK: http://www.publicnewsarchive.com/rewards-work-like-drugs-in-adhd/
The brains of children with attention-deficit disorders respond to on-the-spot rewards in the same way as they do to medication, say scientists.
A Nottingham University team measured brain activity as children played a computer game, offering extra points for less impulsive behaviour.
Their findings, published in Biological Psychiatry, could mean lower doses of drugs such as Ritalin in severe cases.
But they warn teachers and parents may often struggle to give instant rewards.
Estimates vary, but it is believed that up to 5% of children in the UK have some form of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
This can lead to behavioural problems including impulsive actions, fidgeting and poor attention span, and can affect a child’s academic and social progress.
In severe cases, stimulant drugs such as Ritalin, which act on parts of the brain associated with attention and behaviour, can be given.
In addition, parents are often asked to try to influence the child’s actions directly by rewarding positive behaviour and making sure that there are negative consequences if a child behaves badly.
Research has suggested that, unlike in non-ADHD children, these incentives and disincentives only work well if delivered on the spot, as opposed to later in the day or week.
The Nottingham team wanted to look at the effects of this “behaviour therapy” in the brain of the child.
They devised a computer game in which children had to “catch” aliens of a certain colour, while avoiding aliens of a different colour.
The game was designed to test the children’s ability to resist the impulse to grab the wrong sort of alien.
To test whether incentives made a difference, in one variant of the game the reward for catching the right alien was increased fivefold, as was the penalty for catching the wrong one.
Lower doses
Activity in different parts of the brain was monitored using an electroencephalogram (EEG).
They found that the incentives helped the children perform better at the game, although not to the same extent as the child’s normal dose of Ritalin.
However, the EEG revealed that both were “normalising” brain activity in the same regions.
Professor Chris Hollis, who led the research, said that the combination of drugs and incentives produced the best results, and might mean children with ADHD could take lower doses of drugs while maintaining control of their behaviour.
He said: “Although medication and behaviour therapy appear to be two very different approaches of treating ADHD, our study suggests that both types of intervention may have much in common in terms of their effect on the brain.
“Both help normalise similar components of brain function and improve performance.”
However, he conceded that it might not always be practical to use behavioural therapy.
“We know that children with ADHD respond disproportionately less well to delayed rewards – this could mean that in the ‘real world’ of the classroom or home, the neural effects of behavioural approaches using reinforcement and rewards may be less effective.”
Andrea Bilbow, from the National Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service (Addiss), echoed this: “It means you have to be in front of that child 24/7, and you just can’t do that – teachers and schools would have to totally change the way they deal with this.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Published by BBC on April 19th, 2010.
Posted by SuperADDMom on April 19, 2010
The stigma of living with ADHD is pretty negative at times. The negative impact it has on our day to day lives, and the people we live with can get pretty stressful. So stressful in fact that without help from medications to regulate brain chemistry, and being on top of RIGID routines to make life easier, we can end up being sucked down the big black ADHD holes of depression and inability to cope.
I grew up not knowing I had ADHD. I was just told I was lazy, and stupid, and bad, a daydreamer, etc. I didn’t learn to cope with my ADHD well, and now in my 30′s I’m basically teaching myself stuff i should have learned when i was younger. Kids today have advantages in the life skills with ADHD arena.But it is still not easy.
Some people think living with ADHD is a walk in the park because we get prescription drugs that are basically cousins in chemical make up to drugs that people take to get high, like Meth. ( drugs that have been around since 1955 BTW)
People see celebrities like Richard Branson, or Robin Williams ( with suspected ADHD) and think it must be a blast to have ADHD.
People make comments about being on medications for it, like we’ve somehow cheated a system to be granted legal narcotics, so we can get high.
As representatives of ADHD, you see these celebs as jovial, and friendly, and chatty. They are daredevils in racecars, or actors or comediens, business people, teachers, even doctors.
But you don’t see us ADDers among you scramble to keep a house clean, make dinner on time,get our kids out the door in a presentable fashion, With everything they need. You don’t see us struggle to make appointments on time, and the stress it causes us internally.You don’t see us struggle to keep a job, struggle to pay for these medications that are far more expensive then any street drug.
You don’t see us search for the 10th time this week for our missing car keys because we got side tracked or interrupted in the middle of putting them away, and we laid them down someplace, and we only realize it when we are already 5 minutes late to an appointment, or lunch with you. You don’t see that we are late because we also didn’t have any clean socks.
ADDers live a life of secret embarrassment for these kinds of things. We blame the traffic, or roll our eyes and say “kids! what are ya gonna do?” or we say ” hey I thought you said <insert what ever time is cloest to us not being late but just on time>, I’m sorry about that.”
We have to do things like set our clocks a half hour earlier and get everywhere a half hour before, just to ensure a “saftey zone” in our schedules to allow for ADHD blunders and mixups.
People with ADHD make mistakes, A LOT. Daily. hourly. We struggle to keep up in a world with standards and time tables set by people who don’t have ADHD.
So, as a person with ADHD it really pisses me off when people make jokes about my medication, or imply that I must be a “happy mommy” because I take amamphetamines to “get through the day”. Or they joke and ask me how I pulled off an ADHD diagnoasis just to “score”. They say things like ” nice deal if you can get it”
So…
Just to clarify…
An Amphetamine is a psychostimulant drug that is known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite. Amphetamine is related to drugs such as methamphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which are a group of potent drugs that act by increasing levels of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine in the brain. All chemicals, if you bothered to look into it further,that you’d know ADDers have lower levels of.
We chose to put these chemicals in our systems, because it alters our brain chemistry to try and put us on a par level with people who don’t struggle through life with a sleepy brain, and so we can live better among a society who sees us as “broken, annoying, and beneath the rest” that need to be fixed.
FYI the hyper activity of ADHD is CAUSED by LACK of the chemicals those drugs help our bodies produce at more “normal” levels in order to STOP the hyperactivity. To bring us UP to a level of “normal” functioning like you have the ability to do just by breathing. We don’t take them to make us high. Bt they’d likely make YOU high.
I personally struggle in the morning to wake up because those chemicals are so low in my system. I could just sleep all the time without my ADHD medication. Did you know there are scientifically proven links between ADHD and narcolepsy
In order to be able to just walk to the bathroom upright in the morning, due to the morning haze my ADHD brain has, I have to set two alarms, one to take my meds and snooze back asleep until they start to wake me up more due to the chemicals in my brain rising from the help of the meds, and then I wake up to the second alarm, and even then STILL, it takes my brain at least an hour to feel functional. When my meds wear off toward the end of their effectivenes in the day, as a mother and wife I still have a lot of “work ” to do to keep a family with special needs functioning, and prepared for tomorrow.
If I don’t remember my meds one day, we fall out of routines and things get way out of sync, and we all must struggle to get back on track, because I go around in a scatterbrained haze unable to accomplish much of anything.
If I take my meds too late in the day, my brain is wide awake, and I can’t get to sleep and I’ll find myself awake at 4 am, planning a menu for the month, or tweeting, or watching movie, because my brain then won’t shut down until the chemicals dwindle down to a lower level to bring on sleep.
And, just so you understand the cycle… once my brain is FINALLY sleepy from the lack of chemicals again needed to stay awake… my brain will just want to stay sleepy, and we start the cycle the next morning all over again.
ADHD medication make us not want to eat as much and people struggle to get in the proper daily intake to remain healthy. This is especially a concern with children who are still growing.
I’m not sure what the Non ADHD world thinks, but having ADHD is not all fun and games. People with ADHD come from higher rates of divorced homes due to the chaos and stress ADHD traits cause in everyday living. Adults with ADHD, struggle in relationships to find a balance that works, and also have a higher rate of divorce.
People with ADHD have increased risk of drug and alcohol abuse ( trying to self medicate a constant sleepy brain), have higher rates of severe low self esteem and depression than the general population, as well as debilitating anxiety problems, and higher suicide rates.
Ya! pretending to have ADHD when I was 6 months pregnant and depressed to get a diagnosis finally, just to not be able to get any help with my brain chemistry for over a year, due to breastfeeding my son was a SURE sign I was looking for a quick cheap legal high.
HAHA YOU R FUNNY!
Oh? it is just a joke? oh. my bad…I’m such a stiff!
People with ADHD have higher rates of being in lower income levels due to struggling through school with learning difficulties, keeping jobs due to ADHD interrupting their ability to do their job to expected standards ( late for work, poor performance on bad days, forgetting projects due etc)
People with ADHD try to be upbeat and positive because we have SO MUCH negative stuff in our lives to deal with. Prescription drugs for ADHD is not a COPING thing. We are not getting high. Shit, smoking pot in highschool didn’t make me high, it made me normal! YA that was fun! Everyone else was giddy and high as a kite, and I was able to finally focus enough to go home and do my homework for the first time in my highschool career.
Our meds are helpers to the chemicals our brain cannot produce well enough on their own.PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
You’re stigma, prejudice and “jokes” are offensive. PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
So if you are gonna look in my face and say to me that my drugs make me hyper, or happy, or that ADHD can just be “cured or solved” with some basketball… well, sorry to be so blunt, but I’m gonna have to say…
FUCK YOU!
Plain and Simple.
YMCA Vancouver Paid Ad in a local paper. Charlene Giovannetti-King, the YMCA Vice President of Funds Development directly linked to the Advertisement said “We don’t see this really as a mistake” on a CBC radio interview with Rick Cluff.
Posted by SuperADDMom on August 18, 2009
Yes, you read that right, and let me be the first to admit that I let my kids play with dangerous things.
OMGZ!! I’m a terrible mother! But wait! Why not read the rest before you go calling the appropriate authorities on me. I let them do it for their own good. If you are still worried when I’ve said my peice, I’ll give you the “evidence” you need to know just how terrible a mother I really am!
Looking back, I think sometimes that people didn’t see my learning disabilities/ADHD and audio processing issues as a kid because I was outside a lot playing, doing the things of my own accord, just being a kid.
You know, doing the things, that we as parents now with kids with these same kinds of issues pay people who call themselves occupational therapists a LOT of money to schedule into their daily routine as therapy.
We pay them to first figure out what kind of PLAY will best help our kids issues, and then we pay them more to get our kids to play on padded mats in rooms with trained spotters and safety equipment, and guess what…our kids usually HATE it, because it is associated with their “issues that need to be fixed”
It is sad, that it has come to us paying to practically force our kids to finger paint and stick their hands in beans, tumble and roll, and jump and climb up plastic fake rock walls and listen to music.
When I was a kid that was free, how moms just knew what to do to keep kids busy and something I WANTED to do even if my mom DIDN’T want me to.
We live rural and we somehow manage to survive on a pretty low disability income due to my husband’s health. Affording occupational therapy for my kids numerous sensory issues is out of our financial reach and not covered by our government, as well as too far away physically to even afford to GET to, never mind pay for.
So, I do what worked for me when I was a kid. I just let my kids be kids.
Our back yard is our therapy room. I’m working on recreating a space in our workshop for the winter months when outdoors are too cold for daily events.
When my son starts spinning in the kitchen for vestibular stimulation, or stands on the furniture and sits on the rocking chair upside down to watch TV because his “brain can’t make him stop” I send him outside to jump and play, and be a kid. OR if i can’t send him outside,I have what I didn’t have as a kid to help him, a round of Wii Fit jogging, on the Wii.
I’m not a lisenced occupational therapist, but it is not rocket science folks. I’ve read dozens or more books on this stuff, I have two active kids with sensory issues, and my own issues to be my case studies. I have read dozens of websites on therapy related products and what they “accomplish” when used on kids with my kids sensory issues and can figure out for myself what I can do at home to accomplish the same thing for free or cheaper.
Being an occupational therapist means figuring out what things a person needs help with, and giving them exercises to benefit them and help them improve or maintain ability. I call it being an “Ability Growth Coach™” , and it is pretty simple.
As my kids Ability Coach, I let them play with rocks, and sticks. They take mud and cake it together with leaves and make pies. I let them play in the backyard with wood and rope, and build a teeter totter.
They swing on rope swings I’ve made them for nothing for sensory stimulation that calms their nervous systems and slows the hyperactivity down, and I even let them figure out gravity for themselves when they stand and balance on an old bike rim and topple off.
I let them climb trees without being duct taped in bubble wrap for protection. I even let them play on an old rusty metal play set at our local drive-in.
All in the name of Therapy… ahh who am I kidding, I let them do it because they love it, and it is fun, and it is what they want to do.
Kids generally know their limits and will safely test their limitations out…they won’t climb higher in the tree than they feel comfortable with. If they do, they’ll fear it for a bit, puzzle it out, and usually eventually figure out a way to get down on their own.
I’m tired of our society limiting my choices available to me as a parent by banning and/or by creating new laws and standards everyday we must adhere to, or fear the dreadful knock on the door from CAS/CPS because some busy body neighbor thinks we are allowing our kid to play unsafely or “unsupervised” (i.e. not having one eyeball glued to the kids butt)
I’m tired of our governments thinking we need to save us from ourselves. But I guess when you cannot ban stupidity or carelessness in humans, the next best thing is to protect them from themselves.
Yes, over the last 25 years since I was my own occupational therapist as a kid, other kids have been hurt badly or killed by things we no longer allow. I have my own battle scars and stories for each one of my own injuries.
Sure, it was likely unecessary for them to have been hurt/killed.I’m sure you probably know someone personally who was. I’m not heartless. It is sad when someone dies or gets hurtfor any reason. But, if I took the time to break them down for you here (I have done it before) the stats on such things is miniscule. The number of incidents are so minimal when you average out the population number in total, and the numbers hurt by any one thing, you’d have better chances of being killed on the way home tonight from work. So, why are we not banning cars?
My kids love to play. Ya, maybe they get a scrape or a bruise here or there, splinter, a thumb hammered accidently,but they are learning and they are not in real danger. They are also learning when they get a splinter, how NOT to do that again, and how to get out a splinter and treat the wound without running off to the ER like they’ve severed a limb.
IT amazes me how my kids fall down and bump themselves, check with me, get some hugs and a “you’re ok” first aid when I assess they are ok, and they pick up and keep going when some other kids cry for a half hour and the parent is off to the ER concerned about a concussion, while blaming the equipment the kid was on for being unsafe.
The equipment isn’t “unsafe”. It’s always a “risk” like everything in life. Their assessment of the situation, and handeling of the outcome just sucks. THOSE kinds of parents are who got merry go rounds, and slides that are “too high and dangerous” outlawed. Those are the kind of people that got baby walkers banned in Canada.
GROAN!
So, I’ll get off my soapbox now, but here’s the evidence if you want to call the local authorities on me…this is my kids this afternoon playing, I mean doing their therapy. Not ONLY did they do that, but it was a homeschooling lesson as well in math, physics, engineering, constructing/industrial arts, phys-ed, Leadership skills, team work skills, and they don’t even know it!
What they don’t realize they are doing will do them a lifetime of good.
Posted by SuperADDMom on June 18, 2009
For your reading pleasure today, since it’s raining and my kids are wii fitting to “get their sillies out”.
An old article I wrote for a parenting site about the Nintendo Wii & Wii Fit. Though it is over a year old, it still applies.
I thought with all the anti med talk for ADHDkids recently, it might be good to bring awareness to the benefits of the Wii Fit.
I use it with my kids a lot and notice they seek less hyper stimulation and argue with each other less for stimulation, as well as have better attention spans when they can Wii Fit for 20 minutes twice a day.
Even Doctor John Ratey advocated the Wii Fit’s balance training as beneficial on a free teleseminar at ADDclasses.com recently, before the official call began while talking with Tara McGillicuddyabout ADD and exercise.
But given the ability to do yoga, aerobics, strength training, foot eye coordination/balance games, and even quiet sitting meditation, there are a lot of people misunderstanding just how much the Wii Fit can do for you.
I even set my WiiFit to freestep while I listen to the teleseminars, to get in my exercise.
My 8 year old loves yoga and skijumping. She’s ADHD/PDD NOS and my 4 year old son enjoys the free jogging chasing the doggie “mii” he made of his favorite stuffed animal “vanilla puppy” and loves the soccer game, which is great for vestibular stimulation seeking kids with ADHD or CAPD. (spinning, sommersaults, watching tv upside down on the couch.)
My very hyper 4 year old son-"gummy bear", getting his sillies out.
Wii Hab
While everyone clamors for a Nintendo Wii this 2007 holiday season and can’t get one, they have hopes and are being told that after the holiday demand dies down they’ll be easier to get in spring of 2008 and onward, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up just yet!
It seems an unforeseen use for the Wii is starting a larger demand for them as the Wii has started to gain popularity among doctors and occupational therapist for what is now being called “Wii-Hab”.
A quick Google search will give you dozens of results for the Wii being recommended for weight loss in kids, teens, couch potato adults and even being purchased for seniors homes as part of their fitness regime for those who can’t get out anymore, but would like to stay active and out of a wheelchair as long as possible.
Injured soldiers, stroke victims, and brain injured patients across North America have been prescribed “Wii Therapy” as part of their rehabilitation and mass improvements in recovery time and general health are being noticed across the board.
No longer can society solely blame videogames for the demise of our youth!
The Wii is here to change that point of view forever.
Parents with children who have ADHD, Aspergers, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Dyspraxia and other neurological issues are noting the benefits to letting their kids play a session of Wii sports in the morning, and then again in the afternoon when they get home from school.
Less clumsiness overall, better attention span and less disruptive behaviour are being reported with the use of the Wii, when used in small time periods so hyperfocus won’t set in.
Parents are expressing their gratefulness at their purchase and joy at stumbling across an occupational therapy accidentally for their children that would otherwise cost them a fortune with therapists and rehab facilities.The best part is that it’s fun, the kids don’t know it’s “therapy” and the parents can do it with them for some family fun time.
The Wii could very well be THE greatest medical invention of this century! Helping to not only lower obesity percentages among our youth, or even overall population, and with that decreasing the odds of diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks!! But, also giving people with neuro based deficits some hope for a medication free therapy!!!
With a few gift card requests from family for presents to be able to purchase a Wii, even a low income family in need of the health and medical benefits of Wii Therapy could own one in no time (when the demand and supply issue is worked out by Nintendo, of course)
Given all that, when you factor in the cost of non insured occupational therapy for 6 weeks of rehabilitation, or a years gym membership, the costs of driving back and forth to the facility, it makes the Wii a very affordable and appealing purchase.
Wouldn’t you agwii!?
and no..Nintendo didn’t pay me to say this, but if they are reading…we would love a free mario cart game!! GummyBear broke ours by scratching it when he was 2 from twirling it in the case being excited to play.
Posted by SuperADDMom on June 14, 2009
Ok here.. read this!!!!!! Then read my rant.
Jeremy Mayfield tested positive for methamphetamine during a random
drug screening May 1 at Richmond International Raceway, ESPN The
Magazine has learned from two independent sources.
In court documents filed in the past two weeks (Mayfield sought a
temporary restraining order to return to the track; NASCAR
countersued), it was revealed that Mayfield had admitted ingesting a
double dosage of Claritin-D, an allergy medication, and the
prescription drug Adderall XR immediately prior to the Richmond drug
test conducted for NASCAR.
Mayfield claims the Adderall XR had been prescribed by a physician to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
However, a third drug came up positive during the urine-based Richmond
test. The name of the drug in question has been redacted from court
documents and was not specified by either Mayfield or NASCAR because of
the conditions of a May 29 gag order issued in Mecklenburg County
Superior Court in North Carolina.
Mayfield had filed for a temporary restraining order on May 29, asking
to be allowed to compete while his case with NASCAR was ongoing. Judge
Forrest Bridges denied the request. In the filing, Mayfield’s attorney
claimed the suspension was for amphetamines. During the hearing, NASCAR
attorney Paul Hendrick described the unidentified drug as a “dangerous,
illegal banned substance.”
On May 15, NASCAR chairman Brian France used the words “serious
infraction” in describing the failed drug test and said that the third
drug came from within the categories of “performance-enhancing or
recreational.”
In a countersuit filed by NASCAR in U.S. District Court on June 5,
NASCAR cited the side effects of the redacted drug as “excessive
aggression or exaggerated self-confidence as well as numerous other
physical and mental side-effects detrimental to the health and safety
of a stock car driver.”
Monday, ESPN The Magazine learned from sources that the unidentified
drug was methamphetamine. Neither NASCAR nor Mayfield is allowed to
comment because of the gag order.
Mayfield’s attorneys contend that the failed test was a false positive
test reading, triggered by either a mixture of the two acknowledged
drugs ingested or by poorly executed testing procedures. In their
lawsuit filed May 29, Mayfield’s legal team pointed to Nashville-based
AEGIS Sciences, the corporation contracted by NASCAR to conduct the
league’s random drug screenings, which were implemented for the first
time this season.
AEGIS, which also is subject to the gag order, is not allowed to
comment on specifics of methamphetamine testing as it refers to the
Mayfield case, but its Web site does list two methamphetamine-specific
urine-based test procedures.
Following the May 1 drug test, Mayfield drove his Toyota Camry to a
31st-place finish at Richmond the following night, completing 371 of
the race’s 400 laps. As part of the drug-testing procedure, he was
asked to reveal any medications he was taking in order to avoid
confusion during the analysis.
Mayfield said he informed the on-site testing administrator that he had
taken two doses of Claritin-D within a short period of time prior to
the test.
On May 3, Mayfield talked with Dr. David Black of AEGIS to inform him
of the Adderall-XR prescription. According to the lawsuit filed by
Mayfield against NASCAR and AEGIS, Black “expressed doubt that someone
of Mayfield’s age and experience legitimately needed to take Adderall.”
Mayfield’s attorneys allege that Black’s reaction was unnecessary bias that could have tainted the testing procedure.
Because Adderall allows people to “hyperfocus” and continue to
participate and concentrate on heavy physical and mental activity for
long periods of time, it has been listed as a performance-enhancing
drug in much of the sports world, including the NCAA, MLB and the
Olympic governing bodies. NASCAR’s list of banned substances has not
been released publicly.
In 2004, Olympic sprint champion Justin Gatlin was suspended for what he claimed was Adderall use for ADHD.
Atlanta Braves pitcher Derek Lowe received special permission from Major League Baseball while he was with the Boston Red Sox to take the banned substance after doctors convinced the league that he suffered from attention deficit disorder (ADD).
According to his lawsuit, Mayfield and the program’s medical review
officer, Dr. Douglas Auckerman, spoke on multiple occasions May 8,
during which the racer admitted to becoming increasingly agitated about
having to provide more details of potential drug use. He said he
finally told Auckerman to do “whatever you feel like you need to do
because you have done nothing but confuse me.”
The following morning, Mayfield was informed of his indefinite
suspension for failing the drug test at Richmond. That afternoon, the
suspension was announced publicly at the Darlington Raceway infield
media center. Among the first questions asked of Jim Hunter, NASCAR
vice president for corporate communications, was what drugs came up
positive in Mayfield’s test.
Hunter refused to answer, stating that privacy concerns outweighed any
benefit or effect of making the substance public knowledge. The
following weekend, France cited those same reasons for not revealing
the name of the drug.
The two sides are waiting to learn their next date in court. Before
filing its June 5 countersuit, NASCAR successfully petitioned to have
the case moved from Mecklenburg County Superior Court to U.S. District
Court. Because the presiding judge is on vacation, the case is not
expected to be heard until late June.
Under the terms of NASCAR’s substance-abuse policy, Mayfield cannot
appeal his indefinite suspension, but can apply for reinstatement, a
lengthy road that includes drug rehabilitation and counseling.
“I don’t need to go to rehab,” Mayfield told a group of reporters at
Lowe’s Motor Speedway on May 16, a surprise track visit that violated
the terms of his suspension. “Because I don’t have a problem.”
Ryan McGee is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. He can be reached at mcgeespn@yahoo.com.
ok… I’ll try to refrain from cursing my ass butt off right now!!! But, I’m sitting here fuming right now, and as such, this is going to be jumbled a bit I can tell already!!! Sorry, my “performance enhancing” ADD drugs have worn off for the day! <grrr>
So, I never paid much attention at first, cause I’m not watching tv much anymore, but Jeremy Mayfield ( who I never really liked anyway cause he’s a bit of a hot heat, but now the whole ADHD thing totally explains that, and I’m over it) apparently tested positive for methamphetamine during a random drug test after a race on May 1st.
WOW! You think…that sucks…a sports car driver using illegal drugs to enhance his performance and cheat! what a #$%*&^. How unsafe! driving a car, in that traffic, at that speed! WOW
But the thing is, Jeremy has ADHD, officially diagnosed by a doctor and has been prescribed Adderall extended release as part of his Adult ADHD treatment/management.
On the day in question Jeremy says he also took two cold medication tablets in close succession, in which he declared prior to the test, besides his prescription medication, that he at first didn’t want to mention ( nor should he of had to).
So now, because of wording by NASCAR statements to the media and refusing to actually say what the results were, the media says a third drug is being claimed to have been found, and NASCAR is saying it is not on record anymore. why not? did you goof?
But ohh, the media…. you’re so smart….you all rushed to your google, and have decided that Jeremy must be taking, by descriptions given by NASCAR ( to make jeremy look bad IMO) meth.. ohhh the big bad street drug Meth!
OMGZ Jeremy is a junkie! Ya right!!
OMFG! ARE you all for real!!!??? If you bothered to do your research, you’d know that most all officially used and recognized medications to treat ADHD ARE derived from methanphetamine. (some SSRI’s have been helpful)
If you actually took the time to RESEARCH your article, you’d find out that ADDERAL, the drug that Jeremy has been prescribed for a legitimate medical condition IS “technically” meth, or well….meth’s cousin…. enough to have the same descriptions as what NASCAR claims as being dangerous for a driver to be using while driving.
Again, since you didn’t bother to do your homework… here is a cut and paste from wiki.. ( you’d also find it on webMD etc. since wiki, is not considered a reliable source for most reputable writers.)
Amphetamine is a psychostimulant drug that is known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite. Amphetamine is related to drugs such as methamphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which are a group of potent drugs that act by increasing levels of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine in the brain, all chemicals, if you bothered to look into it further, you’d known that ADDers tend to have lower levels of.
So I am left to wonder if there is confusion…Jeremy is saying all he took was prescription Adderal, and over the counter cold meds ( and at this point we have no reason to not believe him ). So did these morons over at NASCAR who don’t even have one brain cell to rub between them look at the paper results ( they didn’t even bother to give Jeremy a copy of) and see “anphetamine” as a chemical compound found in his system and then see that Jeremy is saying “adderal and cold meds” so everyone is just thinking there is a third drug? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in this. But it is not frickin’ rocket science people!
Now the issues I have with this whole thing is that Mayfield is being called a cheater, a druggie, and being told he cannot be reinstated as a driver until he essentially admits to a drug problem and undergoes extensive drug counseling and rehabilitation yet to be determined by how ever the “good ole boys” over at NASCAR see fit.
He can’t appeal the decision, and he has to bite his tongue and be calm ( sometimes hard for us ADDers when being wronged) and be rational while sayng ” I don’t need that, I don’t have a drug problem.” Because if he gets upset, and blows up publically, and damn right he SHOULD be upset. They’ll just say his behaviour is a direct result of the drug problem. They are destroying his reputation.
I want to scream right now.. I’m so pissed FOR Jeremy! NASCAR ( the organization, not the sport) sucks… and if you wanna know why…go read this after…http://prescottdailycourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&subsectionID=2&articleID=68903
If Jeremy is using prescribed ADHD medication AS prescribed to treat his officially diagnosed ADHD, then he has no problem with drugs at all, and forcing him to do counselling and drug treatment for a problem he doesn’t have is basically forcing him to lie and say he does, just so he can race again.
Might I point out to his lawyers ( not that you shouldn’t already know this but)… Jeremy is being discriminated against by NASCAR for a legitimate health issue. So Jeremy, I hope you sue NASCAR’s ass off, and end up owning it! Call Dr Ed Hallowell for expert witness on ADHD in adults.
And for the writer of this article I read who is malinformed about ADHD and medications, and too lazy to research his topic; Here’s some fast facts about Adult ADHD, for you and anyone else who thinks that because we take a medication for it that is a stimulant and is amphetamine, it must be a “boost” to us somehow, or allows us to perform “better” than others.
- People with ADHD have a neurolocial difference in their brain chemistry. Without ADHD medications they very often have to endure serious lack of focus, lack of attention to detail, getting side tracked easily, getting easily bored and falling alseep or gettind drowsy in repetitive situations.
- ADHD medication is NOT performance enhancing to a person who NEEDS it to function “normally”, like it would be to a person who is not ADHD and took it. Adderall for people with ADHD is no more performance enhancing than lithium for bipolar or insulin for diabetics. At BEST it allows a person with ADHD to perform on PAR with the others around them and even then it doesn’t “cure” ADHD traits, or make us equal in any way shape or form. Ask any Adult ADDer who struggles trying to balance what YOU handle easily in a day or week, how they’d do without their medication, and then tell them that with it, they would be better then you. Then prepare to be reemed out.
- People with ADHD are MISSING the essential brain chemicals that YOU NON ADDers have that keep your brain awake. So we take stimulant medications in order to compensate for that. The hyperness comes from the fact that WITHOUT the chemical that YOU have to function normally, our brain says ” WOAH.. something is wrong here, I can’t stay awake, quick, turn up this chemical and that one to compensate for the lack of that one, we need to keep this body awake and moving” and therefore the hyper, innatentivness and other classic traits of ADHD occur. When you put stimulant medication INTO that ADHD equation, and fine tune it with the right levels, the brain functions more closer to what a NON ADDer’s brain functions like and the hyper slows down. It’s not like you just gave rocket boosters to a jet engine for more power, or shot heroine into his arm! Get your facts straight and stop spreading crap!
- Dr Black…you astound me.. what can I say… You’re an ass! For more info on that go read this article, which better says what I am thinking.
- FYI: taking ADHD medication doesn’t allow people with ADHD to “hyperfocus”, nor would medication give Jeremy an “edge on his competition” or make it “dangerous for him to drive”. Hyper focus is generally what happens when we DON’T have ADHD medications to help us regulate the ability to tell the passage of time, and regulate our attention better in order to accomplish stuff and not be distracted by everything. We use hyperfocus to functon better when unmedicated, because basically without stimulants, it is harder f0r us to juggle our attention. Without ADHD meds many of us struggle with hyperfocus and all the other issues adults with ADHD struggle with ( you know the ones Dr Black thinks no one our age have, or need to be treated for.) HAVE ever heard of google Mr Ryan from ESPN?
With the words “ADHD Hyperfocus” the third result down on a google search gives you an article on About.com by Keath Low, with a pretty good definition by ADHD Doctor Kathleen Nadeau. She explains hyperfocus this way. “In actuality, ADD is not a ‘deficit’ of attention, but a disorder in which individuals have much less control over their responses to stimuli,” writes Nadeau. They are unable to regulate their attention. Though they may have extreme difficulty focusing, organizing, and completing certain mundane tasks, they are often able to focus intently on other activities that interest them. This tendency to become absorbed in tasks that are stimulating and rewarding is called hyperfocus. It is not unusual for these individuals to become so immersed in a task that they are oblivious to everything else going on around them.
- By the same standards you’ve applied here to Jeremy Mayfield, one could call the Children’s Protection Agency tomorrow on me and report that I take meth every day and I drive around with my kids in my car while doing so, since I take concertta every day for my Adult ADD and am the primary driver in our home. Before my ADHD medication, on a long drive on a route I am used to…I had a hard time staying awake, and have to often stop and get out of the car and take a break, to wake myself up, or drink large doses of caffeine to keep alert. If you asked my husband, he’d tell you he much prefers my driving while on “the meth” than not, as i get too distracted by other things when driving without it.
- When driving WITH my meds, I actually follow the speed limits and am not forced to use cruise control to keep from speeding. As many ADDers do TO focus when driving so they only focus on the driving.
So you see…ADHD medications for an ADHD NASCAR driver as performance enhancing is actually laughable…it would be like like saying a cigarette and a coffee for a non ADDer NASCAR driver would be performance enhancing.
ERRRRR….this just makes me mad….Jeremy, I’m rooting for you. Stay calm, stay strong, stay true.
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Filed Under: iRant
Posted by SuperADDMom on February 9, 2009
So, I mentioned in my last blog post that I’m reading some books on ADHD to refresh my memory, and to apply it to the kids and their hyper ways, scatterbrain issues, and the whole non compliance issues we are having with 2 adhd (plus) kids, and a ADD mommy who forgets to be consistent in the routine department and consequences to keep them in a routine ( which is how ADHD kids cope best)
Some of the techniques have been things we did before, but me and my ADD ways, I forget, stop doing them, and things go back to the chaos.But the last two days have been decent when I started the “1,2,3 magic” over again, and I’ve been able to nip unwanted behavior in the bud by usually the calm but firm count of two.
One of the biggest issues of ADHD kids is night insomnia…and their inability to “shut off their brain” and get to sleep, they just keep going and going and going, and even when they are totally exhausted and totally crabby and bawling in a puddle of thier own tears on the floor from frustration, they still have a hard time some days falling asleep. It is completely physically and mentally and emotionally exhausting for all involved, and everyone ends up short tempered when lack of decent sleep sets in.
Last night hubby and I were laying in bed chatting and reading the books and comparing notes, and for like the 6th night in a row, our 8 year old daughter who has been having ever increasing issues falling asleep due to her general compulsive worrying and anxieties, comes in unable to sleep again, very frustrated with herself, and upset…I mention to hubby that the book I’m reading mentioned melatonin, and it was something I’d forgotten about. He reminded me that he had some he stopped using because the doctors recommended it for his CFS, but it gave him adverse side effects due to his strange and complex system functioning. So he took out the bottle, read it to see recommendations, weighed our daughter, determined a safe dose and gave it to her for a try. She took it after much convincing and crushing the small pill, and went back to bed, and nothing more was said. She seemed to fall asleep, but we were not sure how long she laid and read or watched a dvd to do so.
Then, she slept in until noon!!! And we had to get up and out the door for a party. she was SOOOO crabby…Yesterday we went to a birthday party for some friend’s youngest daughter ( first bday), and we were there for a good 4 hours since I was hired to do photography for the party for them, and since I was busy flitting about the room, my kids filled up on pop and chips and other hyper inducing foods with very little substance…we got home and once again our children were too hyper at even midnight to sleep ( usual bedtimes is 8:30 and 10 pm) they were fighting and jumping around, watching dvd’s trying to “settle” in the kid den, and I was so mentally exhausted i didn’t care if they did or did not sleep, I was just at LEAST hoping for a hyper focus on their parts of a movie they liked so I could have some silence and hear myself think after being at a party with over 35 people!
So, forward to today, they had finally fell asleep at like 3 ish AM, and we were heading to bed at like 4 am, because we NEED some no kid, alone time that doesn’t involve sleeping side by side….they slept until about 11 am, and got up, and were their usual busy, energetic selves, running all over the house and just going totally full throttle all day.
I was so not in any position today to hear their fighting and arguments, and trying to explain personal space to a wiggling 4 year old…I’m feeling like I am getting some stomach bug of some kind, and my plans to do anything productive to make up for my total lack of housework the last 3 days was foiled…i did a few dishes and cleaned up after the stuff they did today, so as not to have a COMPLETE disaster to clean up tomorrow or whenever I feel better, and I was mentally drained and in no mood to deal with kids again until 3 am!
Hubby reminded me to try them both on melatonin tonight, so I broke up the doses and put it in their drinks at the table for their evening lunch ( snack really, but in Cape Breton the food and tea consumed between the large evening meal and bedtime is called lunch)
Within 35 minutes, my son who ate his lunch licking his milk from a bowl to “play puppy” while he danced standing on the chair while eating his food, yelling and singing at the top of his lungs to annoy the pants off his sister, was laying over the computer chair in the living room, starting to look TIRED!!! and my daughter, who during her lunch at the table being pestered by her little brother and was whining in piercing tones to tell me to make him stop bugging her and SCREAMING at him while she swung her leg from the chair in a rhythmic motion to keep moving, was sitting easily without figitting beside hubby looking at the latest video going around on twitter ( david after the dentist!) and was giggling, not LAUGHING so loud that she was shreaking and getting wound up!!!!
I looked at them and almost wondered where my children were and who replaced them with these reasonable replicas!! I then said to hubby..”I gave them the melatonin at lunch eh?” and he said, ” you mean just now?” ( he still cannot understand why we east coasters call it lunch) and I said Ya.. he looked at Bupba and was in shock! ” he’s actually TIRED!!!” he mouthed to me…we’ve never really seen what tired looked like on our 4 year old son before!
Usually bedtime is an hour fight to get them upstairs and requires me to be with them for 4 to 5 story books, dark rooms, and whispering and keeping them in their rooms. Tonight I said ” time for bed I think” and told them to head on up, and they pretty much went without arguing with ME or each other!!!!!!!!!!!!
I went up to check on them and found them laying on the floor in the den camped out watching fox and the hound being very interested and quiet and NOT trying to climb the shelves, jumping off the desks etc….so I just left them….then I went back and checked again, paranoid, and because I so very often am NOT comfortable with silence from MY ADD children…. in less then 20 minutes of them tucking THEMSELVES in ( albeit on the floor in the den with fox and the hound playing on the TV but who am I to be a stickler at THIS point!), they were both asleep!!!!!!
I almost began to cry from relief on the way down the stairs. I was literally choking back tears and had a lump in my throat!!! it is ALMOST 2 am here, and hubby and I have had about an hour and a half of alone time already!!! I hope this is NOT an anomaly and that this will continue!!!!
Tomorrow night, I’ll give them the melatonin with a snack half hour before their respective set bedtimes and see where it takes us…lets hope we’ve hit on something to help them regulate their sleeping issues.
Now for the crappy part…..hubby is trying to convince ME to take melatonin too, so maybe I’ll get to bed before 5 am and sleep better in the night….and I’m resisted the urge to argue about it, because 2 am is when I do my best hyper focusing on stuff like getting my website updated, or chat with my friend on gmail, or tweeting, or blogging…. etc… LOL…
