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GAD, Depression, or ADD?

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GAD, Depression, or ADD?

Postby kcducttaper » Wed May 21, 2014 7:59 pm

This post will be a copy/paste to the depression and ADD sections of the forum, so not everything may be as specific or relevant as it could be. Now then, on to business. I'll try to stay as to-the-point as possible.

Symptoms:
- General lack of energy. Not necessarily lethargic, just kinda floating through the day I guess.
- Not a fan of social events especially when I know I'll have to interact with a lot of people.
- Classic foggy brain symptoms although sometimes I describe it as a rubber band strapped around my brain.
- Difficult time holding a conversation
- Not a whole lot of confidence even when I know I'm right
- Second guessing myself all the time
- Difficulty explaining myself verbally as I skip around and find it rather difficult to produce a clean verbal explanation.
- Often nervous that I may be wrong during a discussion of some sort
- Simply cannot produce any sort of witty comebacks with people that I am not very comfortable with and even then, I rarely actually "win" and jesting wars.
- A bit of mood swinging/irritability. Nothing too crazy or extreme, but enough to notice and be obnoxious.
- Motivation problems and procrastination isn't uncommon.
- Just generally don't feel as sharp, confident, intelligent, savvy, and interactive as I feel that I should be.

History:
- My dad got his PhD in engineering when I was little (somewhere around 7 I think...?), which translates into him analyzing everything. He still tries to tell me what to do with my money, job, vehicles, etc. Growing up was almost like living in a dictatorship. There was no debating, persuading, or reasoning with dad. Once he made up his mind, you were screwed. He decided everything from where I went to school to what church we went to (even though I didn't fit in the youth crowd at all) to what friends I could hang out with (friends from church, mind you) to what vehicle I could take to a "party" (group of youth group kids going to the lake or whatever - nothing bad). Once I got home from said party, it was always the million question game. He takes charge of things that don't affect him what-so-ever such as whether or not mom should pick up grandma for my graduation or let the cousins do it if they wanted to.
- Things I often heard were "get down", "think before you do", "stop being obstinate", etc...
- I often found myself trying to get out of the house for pretty much any reason
- Participated in a highschool robotics team that won the national championship several years in a row
- Was the team leader for a new startup team that has since split into at least 2 successful competitive teams
- I graduated from highschool as a sophomore in college
- I worked at a machine shop for several years as a highschool and college summer job. I always got hired back if they had enough business for me. I even survived a pretty large layoff (about 50% cut) in the midst of one summer when they knew I would head back to school within the next month or two.
- I transferred colleges a bit until I finally settled on one.
- The first few semesters at this college were pretty awful. I ended up dropping classes with relative frequency for fear of being kicked out due to an inability to think clearly and perform appropriately.

Current life position:
- 24 years old and graduated with an engineering degree this past semester with above a 3.0 GPA
- I've got a solid job lined up that starts next week and pays quite well with good benefits and job security
- Absolutely zero debt as I've worked all throughout college
- I've got a retirement account going that I shall be switching around shortly
- Planning to grab an MBA part-time within the next 5 years or so while working full-time.
- Still a bit of a hermit, though I try to push myself to get out and socialize a bit.
- Dad is still trying to tell me what to do with my money (specifically my retirement account), when and where to start an MBA program, etc, but I'm not having any of it. I often felt limited at how much I could tell him to stuff it because I was still on his insurance and what not. Now that I'm on my own insurance (or will be once I sign the paperwork when my job starts), with my own vehicle and completely self-supported, I have a lot more confidence in telling him that it's none of his business because he can't retaliate.

Attempted treatments over the years:
- Forced counseling when I was still at home. What I had learned at that point was to not tell anyone anything personal or it would just be used as leverage against me somehow, so I didn't tell anyone anything.
- Apparently I had been diagnosed with mild ADD and it was ignored. My older brother had actually been diagnosed and medicated for ADHD when he was 4 or 5, but was taken off "because he seemed like a robot".
- I tried a couple meds while at college (Celexa, Wellbutrin, and Lexapro) with no effects. When I quit, I quit each of them cold-turkey (with full knowledge of the potential effects) and didn't get a single side effect from any of them. I don't know how well this plays into the equation, but I've got a killer immune system. I don't ever recall being too sick to go to work or school and whenever I did have some form of bug, it would be over with within a day.

It almost seems like I have some ADD characteristics, but also that I might have some anxiety stuff going on because of my dad's dictatorship and refusal to allow me "normal" childhood interaction. I was hoping that if that were the case, the meds might help a bit. Apparently I thought wellbutrin might have been slightly working (according the the doc's records), but for some reason, I dropped it instead of boosting the dose - I might try it again at a higher dose and see what happens. Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated!
kcducttaper
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