I've been doing a lot more research on adult ADD these days. I learned some new things. hahaa. Like for eg, the diagnostic criteria, as well as how diagnosis is done. I've been wondering why Dr Lee never gave me diagnostic tests to do.. found this on the add resource website:
That is, a back-and-forth conversation with a live specialist allows for further clarification and exploration which are processes that are extremely important to making a correct diagnosis.
--> which is exactly what he did with me. haha. he also correctly pointed out certain scenarios which I faced.

So basically, a shortage of Norepinephrine and Dopamine causes ADD. haha. See this:
"behaviorally, you can raise dopamine and norepinephrine levels by participating in risky behavior or constant high stress situations (video games, extreme sports, risky driving, criminal activities, police, fire, security, war, emergency services, etc.), but the side effects of such behaviors is generally burn-out, injuries or legal problems."
--> i'm not actually sure if this is a bad thing? cos it does allow me to take risks more easily. i guess it's bad when i used to play games for hours and hours at end in secondary school without doing my homework cos homework was boring and not particularly enticing. learning was pretty interesting though :D i guess that also explains for why interesting things will definitely captivate me, and why i struggle so badly with boring paperwork and why listening to SNSD helps me to concentrate (like now). it's like there must be enough interesting stimulus for the brain to work properly. other conditions include an aircon environment and bright lights. or the night and bright lights. i'm not apologetic about loving exciting theme park rides though. hoho.

The following section is with regards to sleep and people with ADHD/ADD:
Adults with ADHD went to bed later than control subjects and had a wider range of bedtimes (mean +/- SD = 18 +/- 92 min vs 54 +/- 69 min before midnight; P < .001), were more likely to take over an hour to fall asleep (OR = 5.22, P = .001), and were more likely (P < .003) to experience difficulty going to bed, going to sleep, sleeping restfully, or waking in the morning. Adults with ADHD experienced daytime sleepiness more often (OR = 2.23, P = .003) and reported more sleep problems (mean +/- SD = 6.7 +/- 2.5 vs 4.3 +/- 2.2; P < .001) than controls. All sleep impairments were significantly associated with ADHD independent of contributions to sleep disruption from ADHD pharmacotherapy, comorbidities likely to contribute to sleep disturbance, and age at ADHD onset.
from another site: Somewhere in the vicinity of 80% of adults with ADD have sleep onset insomnia -- difficulty getting to sleep -- often at both bedtime and later in the night when they wake up.

A large number of people with untreated ADD develop certain "sleep habits." They may use a strategy of going to bed really late when they are clearly tired because they know that they have difficulty getting to sleep if they lay down earlier. Or, they may use "white noise" (television or music on in background) to distract them from thinking and to create "boredom" and sleep.
--> Basically, it just means that people with ADHD have poorer sleep quality. again, it doesn't really bother me since I ensure I'm really tired before going to sleep , and because of my nice work place, I have a staff lounge which I can rest in. and i take lots of short naps whenever i'm on the bus/mrt... i guess the flexibility at my work place helps me in managing this. though the sleep issues affect my punctuality :P


The site also addresses the myth that ADD is a myth diagnosis. I don't know how to explain how frustrating it was to try to explain to people that you may have ADD and have your own friends (well meaning nevertheless, but frustrating all the same) tell you the following:
1) ohhh. extroverts are like that, they usually flit from one thing to another
2) are you sure? maybe you're just hyper
3) i think you were just lazy...

so i really appreciated the other few who : a) accepted that i may have it, but loved me anyway; b) just acknowledged without making comments

"Often, people who fit the criteria for the ADD diagnosis who have higher IQs can find work-arounds for processing information faster, but compared to someone else with the same IQ, the ADD brain cannot outperform the non-ADD brain."
--> i generally don't like to touch on the topic of intelligence, because truth be told, other than the fact that i scored top in class for 5 years in primary school, and that i was placed in the gifted education programme in secondary school, i didn't feel very smart, especially in secondary school when i started failing subjects in Sec 1. It's always a mis-match between what I know I know, and what my results will tell me. For example, I will understand all concepts perfectly well, I memorize things well (and I can still remember lots of details from what I've learned , especially in biology, till now). I think I'm very blessed. In that,I have a good memory from young, and I do believe that my intelligence is above average (note that I'm not boasting here. It's just that I am thankful for how my IQ may have buffered a lot of the disadvantages that my lack of attention has caused.) I remember that the interviewers at SMU asked me before as to why there's such a discrepancy between my SAT score (i've only done my SAT once) and my A level results.

"The fact is kids and adults with ADHD learn better while "fidgeting." Fidgeting is not perfect, but it does have arousal and priming effects on neural transmission in the prefrontal cortex, probably by increasing available dopamine and norepineprhine."

[sleepy. i'm getting bored. lol. how i tackle this at work is that i'd tackle a novel task whenever i start to lose focus.. which is around every 15 mins. in counselling sessions, it's different cos it's interesting, and i do LOTS of things to help myself concentrate ^^ generally, my love for people helps me to concentrate better.]

"Easy distractibility" manifests itself in several different behavioral and information processing ways. The signs that such easy ADD distractibility produce include (1) difficulty staying on task, (2) hypersensitivity to sound and touch, (3) difficulty reading, with a typical ADD scenario of read a couple of paragraphs, get distracted by some other thought (or noise), forget what was read, have to re-read a lot; (4) forgetfulness, poor follow-through, disorganization, (5) indecision, procrastination, (6) sleep-onset insomnia and difficulty returning to sleep when awakened, and (7) social "phobia" or anxiety, among other things.
--> i experience (1) and (2) vividly. i'm not so bothered by (3) because usually i'm reading things which are interesting to me. i actually can hyperfocus when i'm reading and spend hours just to finish the book (E.g. 3 hrs to finish Hunger Games, 13 hrs straight to finish each of Harry Potter's books...). something like that.

"ADDers will often interrupt others in conversations because they are not in control of their thoughts and images, and "can't put them on hold." If they attempt to put them on hold, they may lose the thought or image completely."
--> but no one understands. lol. one of the areas i was always getting scolded for. i'm able to control this much better now, cos my first shepherd, Jun Ting, taught me to just write down whateve it is I wanted to say (so that i won't forget it, and still hold on to it.). i can't explain how much pain it's caused me in the past. it came to a point that i started to doubt myself, and just refused to share anything.

the following is a section i really like, since it gives me a slight advantage over other people in certain things:
"To many people, "hyperfocus" is a very puzzling aspect of the behavior of the ADDer. How can it be that a supremely distractible person can all of a sudden be so focused on one thing that you can't get them to stop, slow-down, think of others, think of consequences, or change focus. Why do they make such good video game players who can sit and compete for hours at a time? The answer is in the serial single-tasking that takes place in the ADD brain.

If a thought or a pursuit shows up in the ADD brain that particularly captures its attention, it can become "locked on," not unlike a resource-demanding software program that eats up all the available RAM and makes it impossible to open up any other program at all. This is the most significant variable in creating the hyperfocus of the ADD brain -- the single-tasking locked on focus that allows almost nothing else to be noticed.
The other significant variable that leads to "hyperfocus" behavior is the need for structure and stability. So-called "simpler tasks" that may be more activity-oriented than a challenge to working memory may become a comfort zone of activity and a preferred activity due to our human need for less chaos (less distraction). In other words, it is a method of "zoning out." For the person who is being relatively "tortured" by streaming thoughts and images and those feelings of relative chaos and disorganization, an entertaining and engaging activity that helps screen out all that other stuff is a welcome relief. "
[i was just saying that i dont get distracted when reading, when i realized i couldn't read more than a few lines of the article cos i'm no longer absorbing]

[okay i'm back from doing other things]

"Getting the correct diagnosis can be a shock and can lead to a period of considerable bereavement. Such newly-diagnosed and properly treated adult ADDers often go through a mourning process related to past educational and training struggles, lost opportunities and relationships, substance abuse, financial troubles and criminality, and other significant troubles that took place while they were undiagnosed or misdiagnosed and not properly treated."
--> i'm okay. i guess it's cos i've long suspected it. but there's a lot of relief. and now it's not waffy, like i can finally go abt tackling it.

I wrote this 'article', as well as am openly sharing this information because, like all other things, i believe that it's important to educate and empower people. i don't believe in keeping what I know to myself, and there's no benefit in doing so anyway. so it's better to share the knowledge, and if you find yourself facing some of the same issues that I face, or know someone who does, feel free to talk to me about it :)