system
Are difficulty with eye contact and constant fidgeting symptoms of ADHD?
human
Hi doctor, I m a freshman in college (just turned 19) and around November I was prescribed Strattera for Adhd but after some side effects and lack of help, I switched to adderall (15mg). I never really faced problems like this in high school because the classes I was taking, were in my opinion, very easy and I was able to manage without studying or doing homework outside of school. That has really changed in college because of the need to plan your own studying and because of the increase in difficulty and load of information given in each class. Now that I am taking adderall (i take 30mg in the morning rather than 2, 15mg throughout the day, found it works much better for me), it helps so much with reading, writing, and forgetting about small distractions going in class, it even helps with some social anxiety that i face. However I m still not 100% sure that I have adhd. When doing research, i found myself having a lot of similar symptoms to inattentive adhd. Some examples are difficulty with eye contact, constant doodling in class, moving from one uncompleted activity to another, fidgeting when seated (moving leg up and down, or repositioning myself in chair), having to reread passages many times, careless mistakes (such as forgetting to write a letter in a word), being forgetful about daily activities, and being easily distracted by things like trivial noises or events that are usually ignored by others. I also procrastinate a harmful amount. Nonetheless, I saw many symptoms that I don t face or am the complete opposite of. For example, I am very detail oriented, I don t talk much in class, I don t start conversations at inappropriate times. Furthermore, I once took ritalin (20mg, wansnt prescribed) as well, which made me talk a lot, would that effect mean i have Adhd and would the success of adderall also mean i have adhd? I was hoping that you could let me know if you truly think i have Adhd and if not, what else could be the cause of this? Mostly, i have doubts because I didnt notice this until I was 18. Thank You! Jose
gpt
Hello and Welcome to ‘Ask A Doctor’ service. I have reviewed your query and here is my advice. According to the information provided by you, it might mostly be a normal variant. ADHD is a long way to go yet. Change of a routine life (like school to college ) initially created enormous pressure to almost all students which some can handle and some not. You are for sure among the one who is are not able to cope up. This definitely goes on in due course of time...and one more concern of you being they Adderall is making a difference in you...definitely Adderall makes difference in almost every one who takes it. I mean just for example: even if a person not having any physical body pains, when taken paracetamol tablet feels better because it reduces the pain which is minimally present (which is not effecting the person) but still person feels better and above all, your symptoms are not devastating, so that u can give a trail with off the medications. Go for a morning walk daily, exercise for 2 to 3 days per week, spend time with your friends, spend significant time in Library, listen to music. watch movies, try to go through the lessons before attending the class and cross check whether you remember everything you have studied which improves your concentration in class...and do try for combined studies with like minded friends. I hope you will be fine very soon. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Achampet Vikas