Do You Have a Sleep Disorder?
By: Christine Hammond LMHC At first glance, Megan appeared to have ADHD. She couldn’t sit still, struggled to focus, was easily distracted, and frequently forgot things. She even convinced a doctor that she had ADHD and took some medication which only made matters worse, not better. Frustrated and confused, she became worried that she had a more severe mental disorder and thought she was losing her mind. One of the commonly overlooked areas in mental health is sleep disorders. A person can appear to have depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD, thyroid problems, and chronic fatigue syndrome when actually they have a sleep disorder. This was true for Megan who actually had narcolepsy and not ADHD. When she took the stimulant medication, this made her sleep patterns worse resulting in an increase of her symptoms. To help sort through the possible sleep disorders, it is best to be evaluated by a sleep expert. Their analysis is far more thorough through use of a sleep study and...