Maybe I should spew some of my vitriol on my blog?

was talking adhd and autism with a friend today, and well, I launched
into full rant mode. figured I'd splash it here.

first, she sent this link:
http://health.msn.com/health-topics/adhd/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100214185&page=1
which very well could apply to both Lola and I. Only I've been tested
recently and those tests say I'm not ADHD, but I'm depressed. Only my
antidepressant hasn't eliminated the distraction issues, or even
reduced them much. Motivation is better though, as I'm not feeling
grotesquely depressed as often.

so here's my rant (as I was reading the article and bits of it applied
to me) Anything in Brackets I've added since the rant for clarity:

ya, like I'd spend forever on homework, not because I couldn't do it,
but because it took me so long to get it done. but I'm not ADHD ;) I'd
have teachers that compensated for my issues that they figured I had
without needing an IEP because I did so well, though.
I'd have to lock myself in my mom's truck just so I could concentrate
enough to read my chemistry homework in 9th grade

friend: well, this article mentions that it is harder to diagnose in women

Navi: ya.
I'm reading it.
I'm just being snarky too
like my antidepressant takes care of the depression
but it's not doing crap for the distraction issues or the anxiety
even though it's supposed to treat anxiety
I'm just being off the walls more and acting hyper because I'm not depressed.
(neal keeps commenting on it)

friend: maybe you should discuss ADHD with your doctor

Navi: I've been evaluated though
but then I think the evaluation was crap.

friend: they may have new methods now

Navi: It's like quiz me at what I'm best at and then tell me I'm not adhd.
I was just evaluated last year.

friend: oh, well, then I don't know

Navi: basically I got the same old, you're not ADHD, you're really
smart and depressed.

friend: too bad you don't have someone that you can talk about coping
mechanisms throwing the tests off

Navi: ya.
and the problem is, they way they test adults, is like standardized tests.
you're talking to someone who got a 1480 on her SAT, a 29 on the ACT.
I'm going to pass a standardized test with flying colors
and they didn't note the 'can you tell those ladies to quiet down, I
really can't concentrate with them talking'
'oh, I didn't even notice them'
the only thing that wasn't something I excel at was that computer
program that they use that you have to hit the spacebar except when
you see an x.
but that said I wasn't adhd, as well.
Of course maybe I'm not.
Maybe I'm one of those people that isn't quite anything so there isn't
a diagnosis for me.
but everytime I go to therapy,
they get so shocked at what I go through
that they decide it's just depression
and they don't really do anything for coping mechanisms.

friend: well, I don't know
I just saw that and thought you might find it interesting

Navi: oh, ya, I do.
I just need to find someone that will maybe take something like that
into consideration.
"ADHD and its treatments can be very differently for women and men"
[quote from article]
I think they mean they can vary differently
or they can be very different.
the way they wrote it isn't quite right.
"In fact, Quinn and Littman say that women with ADHD are frequently
misdiagnosed with depression. And while it's true that many of them
are depressed, that's usually a related symptom of the ADHD and the
way it wreaks havoc in their life." [another quote from article] but
that quote there is a little interesting
but maybe now I can go back in and say. Okay, I'm taking an antidepressant.
and it works excellently on the depression. However, I'm still
distracted, disorganized and have high anxiety.
and maybe now I've been taking it long enough that they won't say I
need to take it for longer.
On an unrelated note: "have a very endearing personality. They have a
unique strength in their expressive language skills, and are extremely
polite. They are typically unafraid of strangers and show a greater
interest in contact with adults than with their peers."
that sound like someone [I'm implying Lola] (well minus the 'extremely polite')

friend: well, I was thinking that this could apply to Lola as well

Navi: ya.
that last bit is an excerpt on Williams Syndrome [I'd come across a
mention of Williams Syndrome on an autism blog. I keep joking that
Lola is the opposite of Autism. Apparently so is Williams Syndrome,
only I don't think she has it reading the symptoms, well hers and my
facial features, maybe, and her overly social personality match it,
but nothing else].
except she doesn't have any of the health related issues.
but the overly friendly personality, ya.
but ya that women and adhd thing could apply to lola as well, if it
could apply to me.

friend: I meant, that could be why she's never been officially diagnosed

Navi: I've always said she seems to have the issues I have, only they
are far more severe.
rather than her having the issues her dad has.
I have two parents that were never formally diagnosed, however my mom
most definitely is. I don't think my dad shows any signs of it.
Lola on the other hand, has a mother could could be misdiagnosed and a
severely adhd father.
plus her home life is rockier than mine was.
plus she doesn't have that perfect older sister that I had to keep her
in line like I did.

friend: yeah

Navi: basically I got through school because I had coping mechanisms.
My older sister was the biggest one.
the fact that I did so well, that teachers let me turn things in late,
etc, was another.
My handwriting was illegible, so they gave me more time to make it
legible, etc, etc.
(Lola's handwriting is actually tons better than mine was but she
doesn't think it's good enough)

Navi: though I really think they tend to not want to give an adhd
diagnosis to someone who does well.
like [x-deleted info for privacy], he's now looking more like he might
be on the autism spectrum, but when they were first looking at him, he
looked like an adhd kid, but when they tested him and found out he was
smarter than they thought they said aspergers.
it's like, um, adhd does not affect intelligence.

friend: well, these disorders are so wide, they can overlap and how to
do you pick the one that is more contributing?

Navi: right
typically autism is the more contributing one when it's both of them, though.

friend: they may have thought he would have gotten better treatment
with an autism diagnosis than an adhd one

Navi: But I'm still not entirely sure how much [x] really is on the
spectrum, since all these symptoms just started cropping up [he's
school aged - symptoms of autism usually show by age 3].
I almost am inclined to still go with severely adhd and depressed, and
his coping mechanisms look like autism.[of course it could also be a
case of he was comfortable in his environment before so the symptoms
often attributed to autism didn't show]
my thing was when she first told me about it, it sounded like they
were going to use the aspergers dx to say he was unteachable.
instead of to get him services.

Okay, so there's my ADHD rant. I don't necessarily go in full rant
mode on ADHD. But I did this morning.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's my autism rant (if you want me to rant, mention vaccines and
autism. Investigating vaccines and autism takes away from research
that really could help people. so it pisses me off):

Friend: my mom asked me what you thought immunizations and autism
yesterday - so I let her know

Navi: hehe.

friend: her co-worker's son is trying to decide if there is a risk

Navi: that I think people that don't vaccinate because they're afraid
of autism are idiots that are putting people that really can't get
vaccinated at risk?
that' I'd rather an autistic kid then a died from measles one?
lol

friend: apparently someone told him if you get the
measles/mumps/rubella seperately, then there is a lower risk

Navi: nope.
but that is out there.
let me see if I can locate the most recent study on that one.
by people that were originally anti mmr
really if any one caused it I might say dtap.
that's the one tristan got a double dose of.

friend: you had told me that that if the kid is predisposed so that an
immunization would make him autistic, then getting the disease would
make them autistic and then they woudl also have to deal with the
repurcussions of the disease

Navi: http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/09/03/2008-09-03T213128Z_01_N03276037_RTRIDST_0_AUTISM-MMR-EMBARGOED.html
exactly
that hannah poling thing for example.

friend: I did let her know that Tristan had already been diagnosed
when Lily was born, and you had her immunized

Navi: the concession was that the vaccines caused a fever that
exacerbated her mitochondial disease, which caused the autism
but, if she got measles, she'd a got a fever that could have
exacerbated her mitochondrial disease

friend: my mom said that [x] only [x] old, but he's starting to
investigate this now so he's prepared

Navi: so really it wasn't the vaccines
it was the fever
but anyway, the latest on mmr:
http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/09/03/2008-09-03T213128Z_01_N03276037_RTRIDST_0_AUTISM-MMR-EMBARGOED.html
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003140

friend: I think he's doing his own research, my mom was just curious

Navi: ya
it's just the major news outlets are plugging the vaccines cause
autism b/c it's a money maker (and at least one reporter has autistic
family that she believes was caused by vaccines)
so like they completely ignored that study I just linked to.
I get a lot of my information from some blogs, one of which is run by
a librarian turned stay at home mom.
which means the people I tend to read know how to research
that mmr study is nice, too, because it attempts to recreate the
original flawed study from 1998 that demonized the mmr.
and one of the researchers and one of the labs was originally part of
the antivaxx crew.
so if they are now saying mmr doesn't cause autism...
but if that [x] old gets sick a lot, or is really sensitive, etc, etc,
then I might think splitting up the vaccines (maybe not he mmr, but
the shots) might be worth it.
Lola and tristan's dr splits them up now.
but I think that has more to do with not wanting to poke a kid 5 times
and the fact that that one time lola was freaking out tristan got a
double dose of dtap.
so it makes sense to not have a whole lot when I have both T and Lola
in the room.
(that was way way way before he ever showed any signs of autism though
- that's one thing, a lot of the neurodiverse group likes to say
regression doesn't happen, there were earlier signs, etc, etc. nope.
not with my little guy)
but regression doesn't bug me.
[unneccessary list of all the geneticaly linked conditions in our
family history that are not present or detectable at birth]
so all these things, that arent' necessarily caused by the
environment, don't show at birth. wtf does autism have to?
but I"m not afraid of vaccines because I'm not afraid to realize that
between my son's father's history and my history, it's most likely
genetic in our case.
a lot of the people who are antivaxx don't have a wide family history
of other genetic disorders, or diagnosed add, or anything else.
so since they can't see that um, ya, this is genetic, they want to
blame something
and the vaccine is the closest.
and then they read that story of the kid that got a fever after a
vaccine and never talked
and then they say ya! it was the vaccine!
(which I think the few that do have kids that had violent reactions
maybe were the vaccines, but those are extremely rare).
Like the mmr info I got, it listed a moderate reaction as 1/30000.

friend: alright, well, I'm going to shut down my computer [honestly,
she's a gem for sitting through this much of my rant, that's she's
already heard a trillion times. That's a real friend.]

Navi: now if they can locate something related that is 1/30000, but
they can't pinpoint a reaction to a vaccine causing autism, I'm
guessing it's less than 1/30000

friend: I need to clean my apt

Navi: okay, ttyl

friend: I had just turned it on to check a couple e-mails
ttyle

[sent after she's offline]
Navi: okay, so here's my concern about your mom's friend doing his own
research. You google mmr autism, you get gov't websites and then Age
Of Autism, mmr and the simple truth about autism.