To ask what happens if you take ADHD medication

[RestingandSmilingBFace]

...but you were misdiagnosed and actually it's trauma that makes you present in an ADHD way.

Anyway think they've had this experience?

I do believe ADHD is a thing but I also think it can be very tricky to work out if it's that your trauma.

Thank you

I am definitely not here to shoot you down :)

No not necessarily, she was very young. Lots of people have limited memories before the age of 7. Additionally, the main symptom that someone is traumatised is that the memory is constantly with them, they can't get away from it, it replays on repeat and guides most of their current behaviour. Not being able to remember stuff is a big part of being human and if she came to my clinic and shared she couldn't remember her mum thst wouldn't be alarming to me.

just to reiterate, there is no one* experience and sometimes people do bury traumatic experiences. However that is much more common in media depictions than it is in real life! I do a lot of trauma work and it is pretty rare to recover 'repressed memories'.

Psychiatrists are trained to understand the overlaps and differences between complex ptsd and ADHD.

Yep, loads of people can't remember stuff from that age, I am really weird in that I can remember a few snippets of things from around 18 months old, but until 6 or 7, thats all these are, tiny snapshots, not fully formed memories of events.

I remember the route from kitchen to garage in our old house, the colour of the cabinets and handle style, that my dad took out of our kitchen and put in the garage.

I remember visiting my grandma, telling her about a steam roller and not being allowed a pink wafer... (all one event)...

Both of those occurred before the birth of my sister, which was at home, with tons of family friends around - I remember NOTHING of this at all, I have photos to jog my memory, and I still remember nothing of it, i don't remember her as a baby, I don't remember her learning to walk, (so id have been two and a half ish by that point). I remember her mostly from the age of 4/5 upwards so id have been 5/6ish.

Is it the trauma of having an awful little sister arrive that has done this.. or... is it just how memories form, or don't?

My friends dad died when she was 6 - and I would have been 8. I remember him very well, but she barely remembers a thing. Some snippets of people being sad, her much much older brothers coming home for a bit, but really... nothing else and no, no trauma. As an adult obviously some grief and sadness that she never really knew him and hasn't many real memories of him.. but no trauma.

@RestingandSmilingBFace from your posts it sounds much more likely that she has adhd than trauma displaying as adhd. I imagine the likelihood of someone experiencing such significant trauma symptoms as an adult due to the death of a parent before they can remember it are very small. Whereas the likelihood of someone having adhd is much much higher

It's the exact opposite actually: calming

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1119748882000589?s=yWDuG2&fs=e

Quite an interesting reel from Helen Child Villiers/Liberation Therapy around the ADHD/Trauma overlap.

@Lindy2 adhd meds (stimulants) for an adhd patient don’t cause thoughts to speed up at all, there is no sensation of being high, not even mildly.

"I believe in the neurodiversity movement. Similarly people are Autistic they don't have autism."

As a person with autism, I'll refer to myself however I damn well please, thank you. Don't presume to speak for us all.

How much can you remember at 4? Because I only remember one or two things.

You seem rather fixated on her mums death for the way she is, rather than listening to her telling you she is unaffected. Stop digging and start supporting.

I don’t know the answer OP but might do soon. My DS(6) is starting meds this weekend. Is a heavily traumatised child but was diagnosed ASD/ADHD by a specialist trauma team so I’m fairly comfortable with the diagnosis.

Ds(now 16) has tried a lot of different brands. Severe ADHD but all medication has had terrible effects. Really horrible to see. Crazy like someone high on drugs and then very aggressive

I have a friend who has been diagnosed with adhd with past trauma as the cause.

I genuinely believe we're just at the beginning of our understanding of adhd. I think eventually we'll come to see it as a collection of behaviours that can have a range of cause's including trauma, genetics and brain chemistry.

At one point it was believed that if you were given adhd meds without actually having adhd they'd have the opposite effect of you however this has now been disproven.