Adult Attention Deficit Disorder and Chiari Anyone???

[Guest guest]

A few weeks ago I took my son to visit his counselor...while there she

was asking questions about ADD..LOL...FUnny thing is that while she

asked the questions he started laughing and had several fingers up as

though he was counting...when She asked what he was laughing about he

said Well..this hand is my symptoms, and this HAND IS THE ONES MY MOM

HAS BUT I HAVE JUST RUN OUT OF FINGERS TO COUNT MINE AND MY MOMS SO

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO COUNT NOW?? He had 2 fingers up for him and all

5 on one hand and 3 on the other for me regarding symptoms, funny thing

was that the more she spoke, the more I started thinking " HEY! I have

that or I do that... " So...my question here is How Many live with ADD

and what do you do? I used to just think of myself as a very active

energetic person, now I see myself as a very disorganized person...now

that I dont have the energy and strength I used to have...I cant keep

up with things because it physically hurts so I tend to be very angry

and irritated with myself quite often...any advice would definately be

appreciated because last I knew there was not a magic pill for someone

who is dealing with chiari, let alone added issues...

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Well, I don't know about ADD in relation to Chiari, but I know quite a

lot about it independently, professionally and because I have a child

with it. First of all, if there are symptoms of hyperactivity, it

would be ADHD, not just ADD. But be careful about assuming you have

it just because you are energetic and disorganized. Probably a large

percentage of the population is that way!

Regardless of age at " diagnosis " , a CRITERIA for diagnosis is that

symptoms required for diagnosis HAD to be present in early CHILDHOOD,

usually by age 3, and be present " across settings " (the same problems/

behavior in more than one environment). I wouldn't advise diagnosing

a three year old with it, but when looking at an older child (or

adult), in retrospect you can definitely see that symptoms were

present very early and beyond what is developmentally appropriate.

They generally persist/worsen over the lifetime.

Some people say individuals " outgrow " ADD/ADHD, but this typically is

not true, not naturally anyway. Surely people can be successful in

managing symptoms and learning coping skills, organizational skills,

study skills, relaxation, etc., but it doesn't " just happen " . These

are skills which must be taught and practiced regardless of the

decision to use medication or not. The medication just aids the

person's ability to utilize them, as it is a chemical problem.

It is my understanding (and again, it is something I don't know much

about), that in people with Chiari, they present more with symptoms of

classic ADD, not ADHD. It has been explained to me before that this

can be because of pain going on in their body or the CSF affecting

chemical balance. This could cause distractibility, problems with

organization, etc. I don't know how or if it would contribute to the

hyperactivity part.

That being said, and it's purely anecdotal, out of all six of my

children, only my 9 year old with confirmed Chiari (22mm) has ADHD,

and she has it significantly. Another child and myself who have

slight herniation do not have ADD. She first got diagnosed with ADHD

(and we chose to medicate) two months after she turned 5, in K. We

didn't know about her Chiari until she was 7. But she was probably

born with both, so to speak. We sometimes don't give her the med on

weekends and vacations, and she's like the Tazmanian Devil (a sweet

one, but you get the picture- lol). We have a son who they want to

label with ADHD, and he clearly is NOT, so I'm not a proponent of

slapping that label on every child who has a lot of energy. But when

someone has it, they have it, and they need help .

The medication helps the hyperactivity but not the distractibility and

organization. In fact, she's a brilliant student, scores in the

95-99%ile on state and " gifted testing " and classroom tests, yet she

did not make the honor roll all school year this year (4th grade)

because they grade her incomplete homework and classwork and average

that in her grades, which resulted in some C's. Talk about crushing

her spirit! So far we don't even have a 504; the normal song and

dance that school districts do. We tell them she has TWO

disabilities, and she's brilliant and loves school, and you make no

provisions for her.

I don't know if that helps you, but that's my experience. No, there's

no magic pill/cure for either condition. But if you think you have

ADD, there ARE medications that can help, just like there are

medications that can help the SYMPTOMS of Chiari. And there are life

skills things like I mentioned above that can help.

~Beth~

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