(no subject)

[cybermathwitch]

::hugs LJ for their Christmas present to us::

I have some of my pics back!

Added an entry to thingsofstring about christmas crafts and holiday guilt, btw.

So this afternoon I did something kinda amazing.

I sat and read a (rather complex) fantasy novel for over a chapter and followed it, without having to reread (much). Now I'm actually posting in my LJ.

I think I know what caused this: I had not one but *two* kinds of caffeinated tea at lunch today. (My mom and my cousin and aunt and I went to the Tea Room for lunch. There was a yummy complementary Orange/Cranberry spice iced-tea and I tried a Rose Earl Grey tea (hot).)

It makes sense, really. IF I do in fact have ADD, which has long been suspected, then stimulants would cause clearer thinking/concentration, etc. It seems like an easy fix - if you want to think and function better, have caffeine. But the thing is, that I have acid reflux, and I also have anxiety disorder. I know from previous experience that my system DOES NOT like stimulants. They can make me physically and mentally ill.

Conundrum, huh?

Maybe I should try having a few cups of tea a day?

Comments

ADD and caffeine

[nman-in-black.livejournal.com]

Oh my! I'm going to have to try some of that Orange-Carnberray spiced iced-tea. Sounds celestially awesome. For the tastebuds....

I had symptoms of ADD (the diagnosis hadn't been invented yet) when I was in my teens-twenties. Then I got put on a combo of benzodiazepines (Valium-Librium related meds) which now has been filled with Klonopin (generic version), and an anticonvulsant.

My ADD symptoms went away. I think age had something to do with it, plus I somehow stumbled across some mental/spiritual disciplines that reprogrammed my brain functions. That is something I have no idea how to share or describe. I don't even know what was done differently. I just knew I stepped back, way back!, in my inner self away from the "front" and operated from there with spiritual help from transcendant beings. I later recognized (now St.) Padre Pio (of Pietrocina, Italy) as the main one of these. He was still alive at the time, as he and John Paul II had contact a couple of times.

He was tremendous help.

When I read his biography about seven or eight years ago I about fell off my chair. "So THAT'S who you are!" I had known him most of my life.

That is the sort of thing I *can* recommend to you. If you don't already have a companion/guide of that nature, ask for one. It can't hurt (unless you accidentally fail to recognize an evil one. I doubt that, from what I sense in you!) and my be a lot of help.

Taking a deep (psychic) breath, so to speak, and stepping back makes a lot of difference. My ADD symptoms were awful until I learned to do this. Anxiety disorder, a bit bipolar, a lot of "weird" (being a natural witch and not realizing it, even though I'd lived the "man in black" life from childhood) and chronically depressed as well.

I spent years with acid reflux, made the mistake of self-medicating with tons of Maalox and the Wal-Mart generic potentest parallel.

I paid for that with Barrett's Syndrome which turned into adeno-carcinoma which wasn't discovere/diagnosed correctly until the tumor was the size of a walnut, right just above my stomach. A bite of a lttle bit dry stuffing stuck there at dinner one evening in June 2001, and I thought (Oh, oh. Trouble)

The stats on survival of a cancer that far advanced are pretty graphic. Survival is near zilch.

I survived--at a price I wouldn't recommend. Three "mojo" surgeries and twelve more modest medical "procedures" over the next four years have made my survival a "miracle." Recently a surgeon said to me, "...with what you have been through these last four year...very few people would have survived all that."

Apparently the Boss isn't done with me yet.

That purple pill (that us ordinary folks can't afford!) so freqently advertized on TV is designed to prevent reflux progressing to what I had. No such existed when I began the process, however. That's new technology. I can say, however, DON'T do what I did--throw Maalox Heavy Duty at it for year after year. There are alternatives. Such as learning effective anxiety buffers...which is easier said than done. Caffeine, even though it does do a lot of genuinely beneficial things in neurochemistry (for folks like us especially), it also makes reflux causes more active or potent, I think. Depends on our individual chemistry. We're not ALL exactly alike. Brian's mother, for example, has had a history from infancy of reacting in "paradoxical" (opposite the intended effect) ways to many meds. Valium/Librium (I forget which, but same difference) made her climb the walls instead of calming down.

I wish we could talk in person. That "korenspuppy" finds you a worthy and desirable companion is all the recommendation his grandfather needs. I trust you pet your "puppy" and scratch behind his ears (so to speak) often and a lot.

Boy! Am I being verbose this morning. I guess all the "excitement" if you could call it that or our ice-storm yesterday and all the power outages with it has left me hyper. The world glittered yesterday--coated with a half-inch of diamond-bright crystal. It melted and fell off, somewhat, yesterday afternoon and evening the the temps dropped below freezing again. It's not light enough yet to see whether the world is still glittering.

Love you both!

[nman-in-black.livejournal.com]

The Wal-Mart prices on those are better than most if not all. Sam's Choice are awfully sweet to my taste. Cheeper, but I like the Ocean-Spray especially.