Quote:
Originally Posted by bindersbee
In the last year I had a little epithany. The biggest obstacle for me in losing weight is my ADD. I have done a little research and found there is a HUGE connection between ADD and weight gain.
As I've been trying to lose it's so hard because I just don't have the attention span to track my calories. That falls into the category of niggling detail my brain doesn't deal with well. I just finisshed reading an online article about it and it all made so much sense. And left me feeling pretty hopeless about being able to overcome it all to lose. I also have mild PCOS which increases the challenge further.
I've slowly lost weight since September (a whopping 20 lbs.) and I am proud of that. I'm proud that I'm still trying to lose as I've never been able to pay attention and stick with something for the longer than 6-8 weeks before. But I'm frustrated too. Other people can do this and I just flounder. Lots of self-esteem crap from the ADD beyond the weight. I'm considering going back to work and I'm worried about how my performance with work might be affected by this. I've struggled a little in the past with work because of it.
I find that for the first time in my life, I am seriously considering being medicated for it. I'm scared to do that because of the potential of abuse associated with the meds. I don't have any sort of history of that (I don't drink at all, never smoked and have never done drugs) but it's serious medication and not to be taken lightly. The fear of developing a problem has kept me from being medicated in the past.
Does anyone else struggle with ADD and weight issues? What has helped you overcome the challenges?
First off, congratulations on losing 20 pounds!
If your doctor has already suggested that you try medication, then I think you should give it due consideration. Taking medication is a big step, and one that deserves a lot of thought, which you're clearly giving it. Have you talked with your doctor about this?
From what I understand, the risk of addiction to stimulant ADHD medications
when they're used as prescribed isn't actually that high. Obviously, if there's a particular reason that you might be at increased risk (e.g., family history of substance abuse), you would want to let your doctor know about it.
If you do decide to take a stimulant medication to treat ADHD, your doctor should be monitoring its effects on you at the check-up you should have every time you need to get a new written prescription (Schedule II drugs like methylphenidate can't be refilled or phoned in). If he doesn't, then you need to find a better doctor. Because you're already aware of the potential for addiction, monitor yourself if you're started on a stimulant med. If you take a stimulant medication and think you might be on the path to addiction, then you should tell your doctor. There are people who stop taking a wide variety of Schedule II drugs because they're aware of the risks and do think that they're becoming addicted.
Of course, there are also non-stimulant medications available for ADD/ADHD. They might be worth researching and asking your doctor about.
What are you doing to manage your ADD, self-esteem, and weight loss issues now?
I was only diagnosed a little over a year ago, and medication has made all the difference in the world for me in pretty much every area of my life. I've written about it below in case it's useful for you. Basically, medication was the key for me, maybe it's the key for you too.
Like you, I would be able to start a weight loss plan (nothing crazy, we're talking WW) and do well, but not be able to maintain it. It just took all my energy to stay focused enough to handle minimum self-care tasks and one "normal" but completely draining activity that was expected of me. I could go to school OR work OR lose weight, but I could barely handle trying to do two of those at the same time, and school and work always had to get priority (otherwise I was wasting money or being a lazy bum). The couple periods where I wasn't in school and was unemployed and actively trying to lose weight were the most successful, but it didn't last as soon as I had to do anything else. A couple different times I managed to lose about 25 lbs on my own or with WW and maintain it in my early 20s, but it always went back up.
A few months after I started taking medication for the ADHD, I had noticed enough of a change in myself to think that maybe the doc was right, and having an ADHD brain might be the main reason that my life (and weight loss) had been so puzzlingly overwhelming and difficult despite me being a reasonably intelligent and hardworking person, and despite having unknowingly developed coping and compensation skills to deal with several of the difficulties I experienced. So at the end of last year, when I had reached my highest ever weight, I decided to give it another try by making simple changes to my diet - cooking more food from scratch (more or less), eating less junk, and eating out less.
As you can see from my stats, it's been working. Not breaking any speed records here
, but this is the first time in my life that I've been able to stick with any weight loss attempt for so long. And I'm in GRAD SCHOOL - it's amazing to me that I have been able to lose weight while in an academic program. In the past school completely overwhelmed
everything else in my life. Every other time I just got too overwhelmed or too busy trying to keep up with everything else I had to do to work on changing my bad eating and activity habits.
I have never experienced appetite suppression as a side effect of the stimulant medication I'm on. I've never felt "high" from my medication. It just makes life not overwhelming and incomprehensible anymore. My doctor told me that the medication will get an ADHD person about 40% of the way, and the rest depends on our effective use of other tools and therapies (e.g., time management tools, CBT (another thing my doc introduced me to that has been tremendously helpful), meditation, exercise, diet, working on social awareness/skills, memory training or using memory aids, making ourselves conform to a structure that works for us, avoiding or eliminating distractions, building a life that works with us instead of against us).
I think he's right. I'm not any more intelligent, any less capable of working hard, or any less hungry than I was before I started the medication. I still have a lot of behaviors and habits to work on to make my life better. I still get stressed-out and upset about things, but they're relatively normal levels of stress for relatively normal problems or occurrences. I'm not paralyzed, having a near-meltdown, or distracting myself by eating or sleeping because of a measly five page paper on something that I'm knowledgeable about and know how to write.
All that's changed is that I can now stay focused enough (without hyperfocusing on school or a job) to adopt and practice all those other tools, many of which I already knew about, with a greater degree of consistency. That makes it possible to balance a major lifestyle change like trying to lose over half my body weight with school, work, and (for the first time since the preschool years) a real social life.
Am I perfect? No. I've been busy this week trying to get my coursework wrapped up, and even though I don't feel overwhelmed like I used to and even feel okay enough to take intentional breaks (as opposed to just getting distracted), I've still made some relatively poor food choices out of stress and habit. But even my poor choices haven't been nearly as bad as the poor choices I've made in similar situations in the past. I'm sure I'll be up at my next weigh-in, but these days I know it won't be too bad and I know I'll get it back down. And at the end of next semester I'll probably do even better.
Everybody is different. Some people are able to manage their ADD or ADHD superbly without medication, and some find that correctly using their medication really helps. I'd like to stop taking medication, but until I know enough, have enough other tools in place, and have a much more settled life, I think the medication is really important. There's nothing wrong with either of those options. Proper diagnosis is like a key to a house. All the tools and therapies that are used to treat ADHD "symptoms" are like keys to parts of the house, and everybody's house is different. For me, and I think for many other responsible, hardworking adults, using a medication as it is prescribed (not abusing it, not only taking it once in a while-that does next to no good) has been the key that unlocked the main hallway and made effectively using everything else I already knew or have learned since diagnosis possible.