Does anyone have ADD/ADHD?

[Josh]

I've been reading another forum, and looking at information, and I feel strongly that a lot of the problems that brought me to looking at diet are to do with an attention deficit disorder. The list of problems fits like a glove.

At the moment I'm thinking of going the medication route as if I self-medicate with coffee it's like night and day as to how I can function, but I can't sustain using coffee.

I guess that some of us are anti-medication, and I am cautious in a lot of ways but on the other hand it's a case of being able to function well enough to keep earning to pay for good food, and being together enough to sustain consistently being on the diet so there's that.

I'm very interested to hear if anyone has this condition, knows about it and experiences/stories with raw paleo and other treatments.

If you don't post much, feel free to pm me if you want.

[TylerDurden]

Pre-RPD diet, I used to think that I had some severe form of ADD because some of my symptoms were the same. I would go in for coffee all the time as it was the only way for me to stay awake at times. By the time I went rawpalaeo, I had realised that I had  something even worse, namely adrenal burnout disorder, which meant my glands were completely f*cked as a result so that drinking coffee way back when actually made things much worse over time, even if it seemed to give me a really nice short-term boost in those days.

[CHK91]

Looking back, I have probably had it since I was born along with some mild OCD and Asperger's syndrome. I think these conditions are linked to each other.

I have been on this diet for a little over 3 months now. There have been improvements in:

Forgetfulness: I used to forget where I had put something all the time even if it was only a few minutes ago. I also have had less of those moments when I would forget what I was talking about during conversations.
Distractibility: I am not as bothered by background noises. I used to have problems falling asleep because of this.
Procrastination: This has plagued my entire life. I used to not want to anything that required too much work or something that I deemed pointless. I feel more goal oriented now. I can't wait to go back to college to test my improvements in this. However, if I have an interest in something, I do it obsessively and don't procrastinate.

Veganism made my conditions worse. It was probably all that sugar.

I don't know if I can ever really be "cured" of these conditions. My biological father had these conditions and he was also bipolar which was really bad since he was also an alcoholic. My sister eats a ton of garbage (Breads, processed foods, load of sugar) and she does not have these tendencies. Shes is drained of energy because of this but socially she is very capable and doesn't have peculiar preferences. These conditions are known to be more common in males. Maybe there is some male sex-linked gene that can lead to a brain like this. Poor diet probably makes it worse.

On the other hand my physical health is great now! My face doesn't look zombie-like, I can digest my food, I have more muscle mass, and I'm not physically tired constantly. Maybe my brain does not really have disease and is just wired differently from most other people. 

[goodsamaritan]

Our theory with ADD/ADHD is that the big cause is TV.
We don't let our kids watch TV or videos, especially growing up, formative years.
It's school policy.
The teacher knows and can see children with short attention spans, call parents, implore parents to stop TV.
TV shifts scenes every 3 seconds.
Kids whose brains haven't formed yet will be damaged.

[TylerDurden]

I do think that ADD doesn't really exist, or at least that most people who are diagnosed or self-diagnose with ADD are actually suffering from something else(or, in some cases, nothing at all - I've heard of normal, naughty schoolboys being drugged with ritalin for just running around and not paying attention, nothing more).


Same with Asperger's. One utter moron of a relative suggested to me ages ago that I had Asperger's simply on the basis that he had read some dodgy rubbish online which suggested that nerdy types were likely all Asperger's sufferers. I did some actual research, unlike him, and it turned out that Asperger's sufferers are far worse off than just being nerds.

[Josh]

Thanks for the answers. It might have had something to do with tv, as I was glued to it for hours as a kid. Either a symptom or a cause.

Tyler, I've had a look at some of your old posts on adrenal issues but not found too much. Mind giving me your brief recommendations? Do you still believe a freeze dried glandular supplement is helpful?

I don't know what the root cause is, but I think it definitely does exist in some fashion for me. The symptoms/problems were spot on, and it's not just a case of vague things which anyone could interpret, there are some more unusual and specific things that seem to be associated with it...and I believe I have got the predisposition from my father, whether it comes from another cause or not.

[Josh]

I don't know if I can ever really be "cured" of these conditions. My biological father had these conditions and he was also bipolar which was really bad since he was also an alcoholic.

That's what I'm thinking. My dad liked a drink too..self medicating. So thinking maybe get on the meds and try coming off later when I've been raw paleo for longer.

[TylerDurden]

Tyler, I've had a look at some of your old posts on adrenal issues but not found too much. Mind giving me your brief recommendations? Do you still believe a freeze dried glandular supplement is helpful?

I don't know what the root cause is, but I think it definitely does exist in some fashion for me. The symptoms/problems were spot on, and it's not just a case of vague things which anyone could interpret, there are some more unusual and specific things that seem to be associated with it...and I believe I have got the predisposition from my father, whether it comes from another cause or not.

  Well, I only tried those glandulars once I'd fully healed, so didn't notice anything but that was not surprising to me , obviously.


The standard recommendations for curing adrenal burnout online, incidentally, recommend much the same things as our diet involves:- ie reduce processing of foods as much as possible, get rid of all dairy products and grains. they also mention a common symptom which is that people with adrenal burnout increasingly end up not tolerating (cooked) animal foods so increasingly turn vegan, which is exactly what happened to me.  Recovering from adrenal burnout appears to take years no matter what one does, also what happened in my case, re needing another 2 or 3 years.

I reckon that if I had had "high-meat" years when I first went rawpalaeo, that my recovery would have been much faster, though.

[Josh]

Thanks. Well cooked food doesn't seem to do anything in particular either way so far. High meat feels good so no reason not to continue with that.

I suppose I might as well get the glandulars and see what that does long term as they're missing in the diet.

[Dima]

I have ADD and it is definitely real. Whether or not it's curable via diet or lifestyle changes is another question. I've self medicated with caffeine and nicotine and obviously that's not the answer. I've also taken prescription stimulants (Adderall), which turned me into a completely different person - crazy productivity and focus, optimism, lots of ENERGY, etc. I did end up completely burnt out after a few weeks on Adderall, so I stopped taking it. Adderall might be a short term solution, but be aware that it is addictive and you build up tolerance to it rather quickly; it can also produce insomnia and poor appetite, meaning raw paleo eating becomes very challenging.

I can't say yet if RPD relieves any of the attention deficit symptoms. I have a feeling that the health of the digestive system is crucial to proper cognitive functioning. The Fiber Menace and Gut And Psychology Diet are good books on the subject. Also, check out the articles by Ray Peat.

[Josh]

Thanks. I heard Dexedrine was what the kids were taking these days.

[Dima]

Medication has its place in the management of ADD; you gotta consider the trade-offs.