Hi. I'm married to a 30 year old man who has been diagnosed with depression and ADD. We live in Germany; he's a German citizen and I'm from the U.S. We've known each other three years and been married for two, and we have a really strong relationship, though of course the ADD makes things interesting at times.
Because adult ADD is pretty widely recognized and treated in the U.S., I was really appalled to find out that Germany simply doesn't recognize its existence. This means that the condition is neither diagnosed nor treated officially within the (otherwise remarkably good) state health care system. There are a few psychologists who recognize and diagnose the condition "under the table", but there isn't much one can do with the diagnosis except try medication under the cover of some other illness (like, for instance, depression, from which my husband actually suffers.) His psychologist (who diagnosed and believes in the condition) referred him to a psychiatrist (who seems dubious), but she did put him on 60 mg of Cymbalta (duloxetine) daily, and that has made an incredible improvement in his ability to concentrate, and in his overall happiness level over the last year. But he still feels there's a lot more room for improvement.
What would be really, really helpful would be if we could find a psychiatrist in Germany (preferably in Berlin) who is involved in treatment and research about adult ADD. So I'm wondeing if anyone has any German contacts. My husband is equally fluent in German, English and Russian, so a practitioner who operated in any of those languages would be fine.
My husband is extremely high-functioning, a brilliant computer programmer and project manager at work, but at home he has many of the same problems that so many people with ADD face -- inability to organize himself, inability to remember conversations even we if had them yesterday, incredibly distractibility, periodic hypersensititivity to sound and touch, moments of pahic when he can't find obvious anwers, instantaneous flip-flops between being very argumentative and very loving, low self-esteem, and so on. But we work very well as a couple and most of it is manageable. We just both see a lot of room for growth, especially if he can find an appropriate therapist/psychiatrist. So, any suggestions are welcome.
Kay
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Hi Kay, only just seen your
Hi Kay, only just seen your post. I, too, am an adult with ADHD, and I will be getting back to you a.s.a.p. with some details about where to find help in Germany. I'm married and have 4 kids, two of whom are definitely ADD (one of them also with H!), and the youngest may or may not have it he's only 4, so a bit young for diagnosis).
My wife founded a support group for parents of AD(H)D children a year ago, as we live in a rural area (near Kassel, North Hesse) with virtually no specialist doctors or therapists; we can confirm your impression that Germany is still a long way behind the US and the UK (my home country) when it comes to recognising, and let alone treating, ADHD.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
There is a national association, ADHS Deutschland e.V., you can visit them on www.adhs-deutschland.de
If you want to get in touch with us as fellow-sufferers, our e-mail address is [email protected], which is the support goup's address.
Best regards Stephen
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