Adderall

    At one point in time, I was prescribed Adderall.  The doctor at Shepherd center prescribed it to me. It was supposed to help out, but it did not. Apparently, it is supposed to help out many brain injured patients. It supposed to help out with attention, concentration and focus which are several areas Brain Injured people find issues.

      I did it for work here, but got it before while I was just looking for a job. The reason why I got it so early, is because I wanted to give it a test run. I had the short acting kind so it made me super happy and wanting to do everything! That lasted for about 3 hours and then I crashed hard. I became super tired and depressed. I know you’re probably thinking try the long acting! I tried both and the long acting did not give me a “high” to start. Instead it made me kind of moody and sullen all day.

         I’m sure Adderall can do great things for many people. In fact, I’m sure some people swear by it! It just absolutely did not work for me and so now I don’t take it. Now I could have tried other drugs. However, different drugs give off weird reactions. I often will lose my balance on some drugs.. I did not want to do that. Walking is hard enough!

Driving

June 27 marks an ENORMOUS day for me. It’s the day when I take my drivers evaluation to get my license renewed.  I have tried three times already, but they always tell me the same thing. I need to work on my processing speed, which means you can’t do simple things quickly. It’s kind of related to reaction time, or “the, interval between stimulation and response.”

      The difference between this attempt and the others is, I have an excellent job which I have had for a year. I’m an Information Project Specialist at Parent to Parent of Georgia. Basically, I can handle more now! I have to be at work at a specific time and have assignments that are due. I also have to be a good multitasker or do multiple things at the same time. These are all good things in order to be a successful driver!

         It’s been 8 years since I’ve been unable to drive. I only had my license for 6 years before the privilege to drive vanished from my life!  My hope is that I will not have to spend hours waiting on Marta anymore or have to ask my kind and patient mother to take me to CVS. I don’t want to ask ANYONE to go out of their way for me.

Pathways

Pathways is the outpatient version of Shepherd Center. It is for those who made it past the intense therapy at Shepherd Center and for those who want more out of therapy. I went there for about 2 years and the therapists helped me out tremendously!!

The only difference between Shepherd Center and Pathways is that they don’t require you to sleep Pathways! Which is very nice because you don’t feel like you’re stuck there! It’s a great sense of independence, being able to live on your own! You start off with day program which is from 9-2. Then they slowly take you out of their program, by giving you fewer hours or less days of therapy.

They taught me numerous things. In physical therapy they showed me how to walk again! In speech therapy they taught me how to talk again and go from eating ground up food to normal food once again! In occupational therapy they did their best to try and make my right arm waken up, but the arm just did not want to budge.

  Pathways benefitted me in terms of my overall well-being and health!  It’s great because it gives you something to do while making some improvements in your body!