I've often rather bitterly joked that ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hypoactivity Disorder. He sleeps all the time!
A typical day for us:
Get up at 7:30. He goes to a men's event at his church, I go shopping. We only have one car, so I pick him up. He sleeps a couple hours, I'm working on the computer. When he gets up he wants to "go somewhere". The somewhere he picks involves a lot of walking, which is hard for me. We stop and eat supper at a fast food place. We get home, a favorite show of mine is on so I watch it while sorting boxes, he plays solitaire for 2 hours on the computer. We watch a show we both like. He goes to bed at 10. I am left to run a load of dishes or we won't be able to eat breakfast tomorrow. I also have work to do for my job and I have to run to the store. Why does he get to sleep and I don't? Why does he get to have fun and I don't?
He also lies. Our washer is broken and I had someone coming to fix it Friday. I asked him to move all the baskets of clean laundry he stores in the laundry room (He swears IT IS NOT POSSIBLE to put the clean laundry away.) so the guy could work. He assured me that he had. When I had to go in there because I needed something during his nap, I found out that he hadn't. Maybe the appliance guy's quick "your motor's blown" was just because he didn't want to move all the baskets so he could work.
When he woke up this morning, he said he doesn't want to go back to work, he wants to go get his masters degree. So he wants me to support him for 2 years off a part-time job while he brings in no money. ARGGHH!
RE: Tiredness
Submitted by BetterLife on
My husband gets really tired when he's depressed and feels like he has no control. From what I understand depression can be a problem for people who have ADHD and its often manifested by the sleepiness. His idea about his masters degree might also be him trying to motivate himself and gain some control over his life. My husband did this after graduate school, he worked for one year at a non-profit and realized that he hated the work he was doing and wanted to go back for a different degree. He is currently in law school and feels much better where he is now then were he was when he was working. We used to only have one car and created a lot of problems because my husband never thought that he would have enough time so he often put off tasks that he needed to get done which in turn gave me more work to do. We traded in our one vehicle for two "used" vehicles, yeah it is more expensive but he doesn't sleep as often and is able to take himself places and take care of his small errands rather than me doing it. This helped me with my resentment and feelings of "why do I always have to do everything?"
Still tired
Submitted by Sueann on
He finally got back on his ADD meds and anti-depressant. So why is he still sleeping all the time and still doing nothing? I am so frustrated.
The car we have is one I paid $500 for on eBay, so I don't see how I can get 2 cars for it. The car he had to do his job broke down and then he lost his job. I see no possibility of him getting another job. People don't call you out of the blue and give you a job you haven't applied for.
Anti-depressants made me VERY
Submitted by SherriW13 on
Anti-depressants made me VERY sleepy for about 2 weeks after I started them (and after a dosage increase). ADHD meds made my husband a zombie...Concerta did anyway. If, after a couple of weeks, he's still really sleepy, he might want to discuss this with his doctor.
He sleeps every time he eats
Submitted by Sueann on
He takes naps after breakfast and lunch. It's like the very act of eating tires him out. Has anyone else experienced this?
R
Submitted by ADD Husband on
I did and it ended up being a coincidence regarding two different issues. I was tired, lethargic, mentally cloudy and just couldn't motivate myself to do anything. When I was younger I was diagnosed with ADD and had been down the natural supplement route. My initial thought was they weren't cutting it anymore with the additional responsibilities of marriage, kids and job promotion. I signed up to see a psychatrist and my PCP in parallel because with ADD I never felt this tired before. Long story short I ended up having Low-T on top of ADD treatment route not effective.
The next 6 months were up and down it is very hard to find the right dose to address ADD alone and even harder to regulate Low T. I ended up having to get my Low-T regulated first took 3 months (blood test, injection adjustments, blood test, etc.). That alone was a massive change in energy, activity level, motivation level. I felt better than I had since I was a teenager from an energy level perspective. After regulating Low-T I started on Dexedrine ER for ADD and took about 3-4 months to get it down right.
I can say that being tired all the time went away with the Low-T treatment. The ADD treatment just provided clarity, focus and helped reduce the side effects of ADD. Together it helped me become a more responsible person.
I'm glad you found help
Submitted by Sueann on
I only work part-time and he doesn't work, so there is no insurance. In our state, non-disabled adults can't get Medicaid, so we have no way to get to the doctor. I can't afford to pay for it!
I don't understand all the referrences in Melissa's book and elsewhere to repeated changes in dosing and so forth. The doctors he was seeing when he had insurance hardly ever would actually see him. When you get a prescription it's for 30 days. So how are you doing these frequent adjustments? He was never given that chance.
Psychatrist
Submitted by ADD Husband on
I found a psychatrist that would see me on a schedule in support of getting it regulated. Originally it was every 2 weeks for 2 months. which moved to every 3 weeks and now its once a month.
With your insurance circumstance this will be more difficult but shouldn't be impossible. I searched on the web for the best fit and then scheduled interviews with them. Once I found the one that fit it was pretty easy.
Unless you find a psychatrist that is willing to see him often enough to make the adjustments in dose or script it is almost impossible. Long term given it's a schedule II your right you have to at least go once a month to get the medication.
I hope he finds a solution :)