I have been getting your email newsletters for awhile. I am a 45 yr old ADHD female and always learned to cope with my 'hyperness' my whole life. We didn't know what ADHD was when we were young. Now that I'm going through perimenopause, I'm having major mood swings. Do you address this issue at all or is your site mostly for children with ADHD?
Name Withheld
It's true that at present the newideas.net site is about 99% for children and teens with ADHD. But I'd be willing to change that if I could get some quality content to help adults with ADHD. I know that
you are looking for articles to help you, but would you consider writing some articles that might help others?
Regarding the mood swings and perimenopause - my wife visits a nurse practioner (sp?) that has really helped a lot with hormone adjustments (Susie is 48). She also has been taking a lot of essential fatty acids (fish oils and primrose oils). I'm happy to say that she is doing much better!
Stay in touch
Doug Cowan
Doug,
Thank you for your response. It sounds like your wife found someone in the medical field who listens. I have worked with my doctors for several months and they keep wanting to blame all my symptoms on mental issues. They've prescribed an anti-anxiety medicine which helps take the edge off, but
doesn't really help the underlying problem. I rarely take it. They also prescribed an anti-depressant which made me even more shaky. It was like I was put on speed. Then, they gave me adhd medicine and it just didn't seem to do anything (good or bad). Then, she wanted me to take bi-polar medicine. That's when I stopped going to her and decided to figure this out on my own. I couldn't get her to understand that the underlying problem isn't a mental issue. My first guess was that this is either thyroid or hormonal.
For years, I slowly have been having a problem concentrating, like brain fog and forgetfulness' These I figure were just from getting older. Then in the last 6 months, my moods were getting worse, but I still wasn't finding any other symptoms. When I first wrote you, I was having real insomnia problems, so I think that attributed to my mood swings, etc. My other issues besides insomnia are my heart is pounding hard and I am very shaky. All of this is worse in the morning and gets better as the day goes buy, but is still there. They've tested my thyroid twice. Both times I was within range, but the numbers were quite a bit different from each other and that concerned me, but since it was in range, the doctor still thinks that it's all in my head and her only response was. Have I made an appointment with a counselor.
This is what I've found so far and may work for others with ADHD without adverse reactions. I tried Valerian root for anxiety and sleep. That was a mistake. It make me more shaky, anxious and did nothing for helping me sleep. I'm guessing, like anti-depressants, this is a bad choice for those
with ADHD.
Then, I finally bought a book on Perimenopause. I am still working on different things, but the book was very helpful. I was already taking vitamin C (1000 mg), vitamin E (400 iu), and fish oil. I was also taking Calcium, but have since stopped.
Based on the suggestions in the book, I added 1000 mg of flaxseed oil three times a day. I also added a 50mg B-complex. Then, at night, I take 500 mg of Magnesium. I tried a multi-vitamin for iron and iodine, but this just made me sick and I don't think was beneficial. Based on the book, I also
discovered I was low in iodine, which helps the thyroid function properly, so I am now applying iodine topically. I haven't looked into what foods I can eat to increase my iodine. I am also applying progesterone cream daily, but this being the first month, I really don't think this has done anything
(good or bad) for me. I also read how the calcium and magnesium work against each other and based on the symptoms, I started thinking I may be getting too much calcium and was deficient in magnesium. I stopped the calcium and added the magesium. This seems to really have helped my sleep problems. I still was not waking up in a good mood and I was still having some bad dreams, but I was at least getting more sleep.
In addition to taking the flaxseed oil twice a day, I started adding black root at the same time (morning and lunch). I'm not sure if the black root is really doing anything or not. Then, since I was sleeping better, but not happy in the morning and feeling better later in the day, I decided to try
taking the third flax seed oil and a black root pill at bed with the magnesium. Last night was my first time with that and I felt better this morning. I will have to continue this for a few more days to know if this really was the trick. I have always tried to eat right and exercise daily, which I already knew helped me with my ADHD.
The underlying symptoms is that my heart is pounding hard and I am shaky all the time. Depending on how strong these symptoms are, it can also make me feel tired, depressed, anxious, etc. I have to say that overall, I am feeling better, but I would still like to figure out why I'm shaky and my
heart is pounding. I can't imagine that this is normal, but at least, after one month on these supplements, I feel much better than I did when I kept going back to the doctor and trying all those stupid drugs.
If you know a good doctor or nurse practitioner who hopefully believes in nutrition/supplements over drugs that practices in the Dublin OH area, I'd love their contact information. :)
I'm not sure any of this is helpful, but feel free to contact me back if you have more questions. I'll let you know if I find other things that are helping.
I do have one question for you. I find almost any drug that says may cause drowsiness and, of course, alcohol all make me more hyper. I also took some strong pain medication when I fell down the stairs and it didn't even phase me when it came to the pain, so I stopped taking it. Other drugs just don't seem to do anything either. Is this just me or is this something that you found a pattern with for people with ADHD? This has always been a curiousity for me.
Thanks again for your time.
Name Withheld
Hi L
Your story is very similar to my wife's story. But I won't say that what she went through
is what is causing your situation. But here's what we found with her...
Her health has been fragile for years. Fifteen years ago she had chronic fatigue and was
found to have a systemic yeast infection. Doing everything we could we removed all metal
fillings, ate a bizarre diet, and successfully killed off all yeast. She got much better,
but was still up and down.
Fast forward 2 years...
She had two root canals.
Fast forward 10 years...
She had a wisdom tooth removed. The tooth in front of it was cracked during the difficult
process. It was patched with metal (mercury 50%) filling. Some of the metal also went
into the hole from the extracted tooth.
Three months later she began heart palps (from 70 to 120 in two seconds), anxiety, fear,
and insomnia. We thought it was hormonal. Then from the thyroid. Then we finally went to
a heart doc and she got meds for it to control it.
Fast forward 3 years...
She collapsed in Mexico and nearly died. We build houses in Mexico every summer for a
week, and she joined us this year. Heat exhaustion we thought. But she never got better.
In a wheelchair for two months. Finally we went to the nutritionist who fixed her 15
years ago in San Diego area and he referred us for a dental x-ray. It showed two abcessed
root canals, and the mercury filling in her jaw.
After a series of conversations with friends we flew to TX and saw a dentist who removed
the metal from her jaw and tooth, removed the abcesses (sp?) and cleaned up some other
messy infection stuff.
Results? Two weeks later out of the wheelchair. Three months later completely off the
heart meds. Today, she's the healthiest she's been in 20 years. No kidding.
I don't know if this might help you too, but I wanted you to know our story.
Doug Cowan