As a child i was diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder) but as i grew older i refused to accept the fact that i was deficient in any area. Furthermore, I never saw that i was having a problem. So i told my doctor he was full of crap and that the whole ADD thing was a scam designed to make drug manufactures wealthy. Well i still believe that the paramedical companies create drugs then look for a something for it to cure. Be that as I may, now in mid twenties I can’t seem to keep my mind focused.
For the last three days I have attempted to read three chapters in my accounting novel. I have a test next week and no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to read an entire page without my mind wandering. I am not worried about passing the test. I have always managed to do well on test and get through the most boring of crap.
That being said, ill get to the point. I am looking for an herb that my assist my studying capabilities. Since I no longer have insurance (even if i did have insurance my doctor’s still pissed at me) I’m looking for an herbal remedy.
Any suggestions?

I would suggest a herb called St. Johns Wort. It also seems to mildly work for depression.

Sean in NC

yeah, i read the same thing, but im not depressed

I was also diagnosed with ADD in the 3rd grade, but I took medication for it until I got a little independance in college. I was never a fan of it. I felt that it had side effects I couldn't quite describe, but it just didn't make me feel like myself. I think it helped from time to time, and I know people whom it definitely helps, but I just didn't like being on it. Now I don't take any medicine (except for the really necessary things from the doctor, like penecillin for severe instances).

I like not having to rely on Advil, Tylenol, or any of those things. Besides, I've tried them in the past and they have no effect on me.

Telling off your doctor is not particularly helpful to solving your problem.

I'm not a medical doctor, but I have a bunch of friends who are. They tell me that the world of psycho-active medications has changed radically in the past few years. Newer drugs have fewer side effects and presumably work better than the old ones. Your best bet (assuming you could afford it) would probably be working with a good psychiatrist, that is, a shrink who can prescribe drugs. For all I know, there may be exercises or other forms of training you can do to help with your focus issues, particularly in combination with the right drug regimen.

Medicinal herbs, on the other hand, are effectively unregulated (they're treated as "food supplements", not "drugs", so they're not held to the same standards). Potency can vary from one bottle to the next and from one brand to the other. For whatever else you dislike about the drug industry, at least their products have well-understood effects on the body.

If you're insistent on self-medicating, you would do well to start off with other things besides medicinal herbs. Try tweaking your sleep schedule. Try increasing your athletic activity. Try changing the carbo/protein balance (or the real food / junk food balance) in your diet. All of these things can change your mental state; a healthy mind needs a healthy body, after all. Whether or not such changes will help you is a long-term question that you can answer through self-experimentation. Neither herbs nor any other thing you can change will be a short-term fix to help you with your accounting test. Psycho-active drugs (at least, the non-recreational varieties) don't kick in immediately.

(Obligatory side story: I had some kind of bacterial infection a few years ago, and they gave me one of these new high-tech antibiotics. One night, I got seriously hyper: elevated heart rate, the works, and for no apparent reason. I went to the drug's web site and read the full doctor's information brief on it. Sure 'nuff, it was listed as a rare side-effect of the drug. Try doing that for yee olde herbal remedy.)

Your best bet (assuming you could afford it) would probably be working with a good psychiatrist, that is, a shrink who can prescribe drugs

Excellent suggestion. Towards the end, that's what my parents had me do, and it helped a lot. She prescribed the name brand ritalin, whereas before I was taking the generic stuff but nobody even tells you that, not even your doctor. It makes a lot of difference.

For the last three days I have attempted to read three chapters in my accounting novel. I have a test next week and no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to read an entire page without my mind wandering.

I don't think one needs to have ADD to get bored with an accounting textbook. You're essentially describing my last experience with college before I finally just gave up and stopped going. Same class, too.

Ritalin has helped me in the past when studying for exams on subjects as boring as accounting or sadistics. I did, however, find the the side effects of ritalin were unacceptable to me under normal circumstances. As such, I only used it when I felt I needed it. As to making the drug makers rich, my last bottle of ritalin (that lasted me 6 months) was $5.00. I hardly feel like I was being raked over the coals. Something that helped me greatly was simply reading and understanding Driven to Distraction. A very good book on the subject with many tips on overcoming ADD without using medication. For me, the side effects were sleeplessness, fast heart beat, and a complete loss of appetite. Plus a strong desire to chain smoke.

I personally feel that ADD is used too often as an excuse to medicate children that are simply being children, loud, hyper, excitable children. For me, however, the meds did exactly what I wanted them to. Allowed me to read, comprehend, and regurgitate information with ease.

Unfortunately, ADD seems to affect people with higher than normal intelligence much more often than people of average intelligence. This can be particularly maddening to the person suffering with it. In my personal case, I graduated from high school with a 4.27. Whithout EVER having to crack a book. This was never a problem until college. All of a sudden, I was expected to actually READ the text, not just absorb in class. I soon found out the hard way that I simply couldn't do it. It didn't matter how many hours I sat there with the book in front of me, I just flat out couldn't get it to sink in. This only really applied in subjects that I wasn't interested in. I would ace something like physics, only to fail accounting. No problem in calc, but I couldn't handle english lit. To make it more of a problem for me, growing up I was never interested in sports, was rather short, extremely thin, not terribly good looking or popular. The only thing that I felt I had over people was my intelligence. In college, this crumbled. Imagine going from a 4.27 to a 1.80 in one year. I couldn't handle it. As such I lost interest in ALL school. This, of course, led to even lower grades as I stopped caring whether or not I passed. After 4 years of college, in which I only passed 2 years worth of classes, I was diagnosed ADD. From that point forward, I made nothing lower than a B. Too bad it was too late to bring my GPA up much more than a C-. I dropped school after 6 years, never did graduate, and got a job in the computer field as a sysadmin. Been doing it nigh on 8.5 years now, and with that kind of experience, companies don't really care if you have a degree or not.

Then again, if I knew then what I know now, I'd be a fireman getting ready to retire at 44. Ceste la vie.

A shrink is not an option. My college fund has been drained by tuition. I know that i need more sleep, but there is little to be done about it for the short term. My situation is as you perceive it. I can no longer absorb information in class and now I am forced to read outside of class. I think the right mental attitude has helped a lot. I just have to get my mind interested in what I'm doing. Thanks for the help.

You're essentially describing my last experience with college before I finally just gave up and stopped going. Same class, too.

success is my only option, failure is not.

I know around here at UC Berkeley there's quite an undergeround market for rittalin and other similar drugs. Many people view them as a study aid. I suspect it's the same at any other competitive university.

I know exactly the feeling that you're talking about though. I can know I have a test in a week, and carefully count down the days as it grows closer, but I can't make myself study for it until it's the next day. I've always procrastinated, so this is nothing different. I've tried plenty of things, but never managed to actually change my study habbits. One of the things that I have learned is that if I really want to get reading done, I leave and do it in a coffee shop or library. Also, dividing things up into tiny fractions and taking short breaks in between. If I've got a problem set with ten problems to do, I'll read an article in the campus paper in between each one to take a break. Really though, when it comes down to it, the clock is the only thing that really motivates me.

I won't go into my skepticism about herbal remedys, but I personally don't put any faith in any of them.

Matthew

You could try using Valerian root extract (usually supplied as a gel capsule) which reduces anxiety and stress (this sounds like what might be your problem). I find it makes me calm and allows me to concentrate on the issues at hand.

One thing that also helps is to simply put down the book, find a quiet corner where you won't be disturbed. Sit quietly, and concentrate ONLY on slow, shallow breathing for a few minutes. Try to avoid thinking about "everything", just think only about each breath as it comes in, hold for a few seconds, and then the breath going out (hold and repeat). The idea is to try and increase the amount of carbon dioxide in your lungs, not reduce it (this happens with rapid, panicky deep breathing). Just think only about he breathing "I'm breathing in now, breathing in, holding it, holding, breathing out,..." etc. Sounds cheesy - but it works.

Alternatively, and this sounds silly, get hold of a thick brown paper bag and breath in and out of it for a few minutes which will help calm breathing and help you focus.

Unless I'm mistaken, it isn't anxiety at all. It's kinda the opposite. I have the same problems. I can't seem to be bothered to get anything done until it's too late. It's the one thing that makes me a worse sysadmin than I ought to be.

The clock definitely motivates me, but i hate that feeling. Also i am trying to change some of my habits. I think I was looking for suggestions more as a placebo than anything else. I figured that if I could trick myself into think that i should be more focused than naturally i would be more focused, sort of like planting the idea within the subconscious.