The pre-frontal cortex is the executive center of the brain. It is where problem solving, emotion and complex thought takes place. Damage, or under functioning in the PFC is what most often causes inattention, distractibility and impulsiveness. It is the source of most ADD/ADHD.
The more I read the report from Amen the more it was obvious to me everyone simply had either missed or ignored this finding for some reason. I have my suspicions but I won’t get into that. But from the SPECT scan, it was very clear there was very little blood flow in my PFC.
So I went back to my doc and asked why nothing had ever been done about the main finding from Amen Clinic? He said, “what do you mean?” I showed him the report and he sort of just looked at it and said well that is interesting. I had told him many months before that since my accident, many years ago, I struggled with inattention, being easily distracted and very impulsive. I also experienced times of explosive anger where I could go off in a near rage but then 30 seconds be totally fine. Everyone else around me though would be a mess however!
He said these were all classic symptoms of ADD/ADHD and damage to the PFC. I asked why we had not done anything about this before? He replied, “well you seemed to be responding well to the things we were doing and it did not occur to me to do anything more.” I was not happy with him but what are you going to do? I had been helped but now I realized I could probably be helped a whole lot more.
He said that we could find out really quickly if I could be helped by an ADD stimulant. He said I would likely know in a few days if I could feel better. So he wrote a Rx for Vyvanse. Vyvanse is the son of Adderall. A new med that cannot be abused like other amphetamines. This is due to the fact that the Amphetamine is bound to Lysine and has to be metabolized to release the stimulant. And the stimulant is only released gradually based on how fast you metabolize it. The goal is to find a dose that lasts about 12 hours.
So the next morning I took the smallest dose, 30mg and went to work. About 45 minutes later I went “WOW”. An amazing quietness came over my brain. My thoughts slowed in a way that I could not remember ever feeling. My thoughts were not altered, they just came at me in a slower, more controled way. My head was quiet!! I had grown so accustomed to thoughts racing through my head that I thought it was normal!! 35 years of having a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) how did I know what normal was? I knew I had developed many compensatory skills to deal with the pace of my thoughts but now I did not need to work hard to pay attention or to stay calm.
Well, if this new brain speed was normal I wanted more of it! I almost cried. I felt so amazingly good. It was not a euphoric feeling. It was just a feeling of calm, quiet and control over what was going on in my head. I knew I had hit on a new answer for my health. More in the next post.
