ADHD

Is it generally considered a bad idea to share with others that you have been diagnosed with ADHD? How have others handled sharing diagnosis information with friends, family, work, etc?

This is primarily talking about state dependence with ADHD medication (stimulants).

State dependence is when information that is learned while taking ADHD medication is difficult to recall when not in the same physiological state (when not on ADHD meds).

I started taking Vyvanse about 7.5 years ago, and at that time I started learning so much more than I ever have. I hyperfocused on computers, learned how to program in multiple programming languages, I learned a lot about Linux. During that time, I also learned a lot about 3D printing and mechanical engineering, and made a lot of cool things. About 2 years ago, my tolerance to the meds reached a certain threshold where I stopped being able to recall all the things I have learned.

When I take double my prescribed dose (which I am not advising you to do), I can reach that state of clarity and recall everything again, but only for a few hours, and then I crash lasting a few days. It's not healthy for me to continuously do this, and my dose is already too high for my doctor to raise it anymore (90mg concerta).

Today I read about state dependence in a wellness book that has a section about stimulants and ADHD, and it explains why I can't remember or do any of the computer-related things I used to do. I wish there was a way to recall all the information I've learned without having to raise my dose or use any sort of substance. It's really a pickle of a situation.

I've been on Focalin for about 2 months now and I've noticed over the last couple weeks I frequently have a weird internal tremor/vibration sensation inside my entire body when I first wake up. It's a sensation sort of like shivering but very subtle, without any actual physical tremor or muscle movement as far as I can tell. It will continue for several minutes if I just lay in that half-awake state, but as soon as I get out of bed it's gone. I'm wondering if this is related to ADHD medication. It goes away the instant I roll out of bed or sit up, so I'm not super worried about it, just wondered if anyone else had encountered anything similar.

I'm in tech and working with a guy on a very small project, but I'm definitely not able to make ends meet (thankfully family & friends have pulled me out several months lately). I've also been looking for a stop-gap job until I find a tech company that actually knows how to hire. But even that seems to be really difficult.

Like most ADHDers, I have a processing disorder. Grocery stores trigger panic attacks. Monotony also triggers it. I'm also not good with detail-oriented tasks (so that leaves something like electronics manufacturing off the table).

But I am a hard worker. No matter the pay, I will go above and beyond for my team to get a job done.

I'm scouring indeed and Craigslist trying to find something I can get in the interim.

For other ADHDers, what has your experience been doing a receptionist job? Is it ADHD hell? Or am I over-blowing the mistakes I'd probably make into major catastrophes? I realize it all depends on the employer. But what stories do people have (positive or negative) who have been receptionists?

drops in at local pharmacy

"I'm running out of my meds, can you refill them?"

"Sorry, you have to come closer to refill-day, so come back Saturday."

"Okay, I'll come back then."

...

"Okay, it's Saturday, here to refill my meds."

"... yeah, you're out of refills. We'll have to talk to your doctor."

"... but it's the weekend?"

"Oh, we'll sort it out on Monday."

...

"Okay, it's Monday, can you get in touch with my doc?"

"Sure! We'll fax that. Come back tomorrow and we'll have it sorted out."

"No, I'm on my last pill, it has to be refilled today."

"You know you're supposed to give us 48 hours notice, right?"

ಠ_ಠ

"Yes, I know. I tried."

"Okay, we'll fax them now. Come back this evening."

"Okay."

calls towards the end of the work day

"Hi, are my meds in yet?"

"What? We don't have any meds for you on file."

"No, my doctor faxed something?"

"No they didn't."

calls doctor

"We definitely faxed them. We'll fax them again."

phones pharmacy back

"Hi, are my meds in yet?"

"What? We don't have any meds for you on file."

"Can you check if you got faxed anything about my meds?"

"Oh, yes, we see that now, we got a fax. Can you come in Wednesday to pick them up?"

"No, I'm on my last pill."

sigh on phone

"You know you're supposed to give us 48 hours notice, right?"

"I tried."

"Okay, we'll get that ready for you, please hold."

...

"Sorry, we're all out of those. They've been all out for a while. It's on back-order, everybody's out."

stifles why-am-I-just-hearing-about-this-now-screaming-rage

"Uh, what do I do? I'm on my last pill."

"Okay, we've got a one week supply to give you. Can you come tomorrow?"

"I can come now."

"But we're closing in 15 minutes."

"I'm out walking the dog. I'm literally at your door."

".... Okay."

gets my one week supply

"Thanks. What do I do for next week? Will there be more then?"

"Oh no, it's really out-of-stock. But the half-dose pills aren't. We've got those, so you can just double-them. Call your doc and we'll get that sorted."

"Great."

...

frustrated and needing to get back to my life, I give it a few days. Bad mistake.

...

calling dr office

"Hi, they're out of my meds everywhere, can I get prescribed the halfsies instead?"

"Uh, your doctor has been prescribing those to a lot of people and nobody's complained yet."

"Well the pharmacy disagrees."

"The pharmacy is allowed to give you the halfsies sans scrip if they're out of the regular dose."

"I did not know that. Do they know that?"

"Whatever. They obviously don't want to without a scrip. Doc will be in tomorrow, we'll sort it out."

...

Calls pharmacy next day afternoon.

"So d'you have my meds?"

"What? We don't have any meds for you on file."

"No, I mean my doctor said they'd fax today."

"Yeah, they didn't. For what?"

"The halfsies. They also said you can do the substitution yourself when you're out-of-stock on something."

"Yeah, we can't do that, they're wrong."

"Fine. Okay, I'll call my doctor again about sending the fax."

calls doctor

"Did you send them that fax?"

"We sent them the fax again. We'll send it again again."

"Great, thanks."

at this point life intervenes, and I still have one pill for tomorrow morning - so wait until next day to call

"Hi, do you have my halfsies?"

"We can have them for you day after tomorrow."

"Day after tomorrow!? ... Sorry for raising my voice but I'm on my last pill, what happened?"

"Well, they're not in stock."

"What."

"But you can get them from other pharmacies."

"I was told they were in stock here."

"They're not."

"Fine. I'll call around."

thinks angrily about the last time this happened and scrip was lost in limbo between two pharmacies and had to get re-prescribed

Calls Other Pharmacy. On hold for 30 minutes.

"Hi, do you have these meds?"

"What? No, nobody has them."

"I mean the halfsies."

"Oh! Let me check."

on hold even longer

"Yep, we've got them. We'll call your pharmacy and get the scrip transferred."

"Great!"

gives this an hour to work out, calls my pharmacy

"Hi! Are my drugs transferred to Other Pharmacy?"

"We're just putting the scrip on hold and doing the paperwork, we'll get it sent to them in five, then call them."

"Great! I'll give them 20."

15 minutes later, call Other Pharmacy anticipating being stuck on hold for a long time.

phone picks up quickly! Yay!

"Hi! Have they transferred my scrip?"

"Let me check."

...

...

"Nope, they haven't. I'll give them a call right away. Can you call back in half an hour?"

"Okay."

(；￣д￣)

STAY TUNED FOR THE EXCITING CONCLUSION!

It's my 3rd attempt at writing this so forgive me for being disorganized. I'll try to keep it short.

Basically after long time of denying it, I have came to a conclusion that I have ADHD about 3-4 months ago. I consulted my psychiatrist about it and she says that I indeed have many ADHD symptoms (im 19m, parents pay for everything).

I live outside of US, so attending college is basically someone everyone does and so I picked Management as a field of study (you know where this is going). I had a massive hyperfixation for programming like 2 years ago but because It caused me to succumb to my interest instead of doing homework and studying, I developed a massive aversion towards it.

I have now been attending college for a few days and except for group exercises (they're very stimulating so I have no issues with focus) my focus is completely trash. Lectures being the worst, I found tapping the desk with both of my hands to temporarily help me focus, but after this I feel completely mentally exhausted. I come home and cannot do absolutely anything.

I now think of switching to computer science since maybe I'll renew my interest. Needless to say, Management is the worst fucking field of study I could've chosen since IT TOOK ME A 2 DAYS TO FINALLY GET MYSELF TO WRITE THIS. So basically when I told my parents about me wanting to switch field they replied by listining every adhd symptom i have and always had and complain about it. "you're always bored", "you keep changing your mind", "you always begin most difficult stuff then drop it."

So far my hyperfixation's had been (in order):

• programming
• stock market
• japanese language

And when I asked about getting official diagnosis they said I make shit up, then keep on complaining about every adhd personality trait i have. I told them to read about adhd on wikipedia, they didnt. They probably think im trying to get prescription for stimulants or something to get high idk. Just tell me itll be alright im shaking from anxiety. I couldnt focus on lectures because they were only a little interwsting. I also cant even watch tv series alone for the same reason and everything bad about my life has been about school. only a lecture from economics was interesting to me but i failed at exercises because 1. careless mistakes, 2. different than expected way of thinking that doesnt align with a key, although i could argue that its correct. shshdhdhcjaksjcb just tell me itll be fine. im already diagnosed with autism (by regular psychiatrist during normal meetings lol) but shell never diagnose me with adhd since its too risky, except that i dont even want stimulants just someyhing like guafancine or wellbutrin.tell mr itll be alright im losing my mind here

I've been using the free version of Cold Turkey blocker on my Mac for a while now, but it doesn't offer an iOS/iPad app, so there's nothing to stop me from just picking up my phone to fuck about online when I should be working, so I'm not keen on spending £30 on the full app.

There are other alternatives like Freedom.to, but they want £3 a month / £25 a year, and there's a bit of me that rejects the idea of having to pay a recurring fee for the maintenance of what is essentially just a glorified IP block list. It feels kinda predatory, like those of us with ADHD have been fucked over by apps and sites being designed to be little dopamine boxes, and they have the only solution, but we have to pay for it.

So, do any of you use a similar app? If so, what, and how much does it cost?

I already go frequently to therapy and take SSRIs (for over 10 years now). I guess they kinda help as antidepressants, but anxiety wise I haven't had any luck if it's not Benzos or Weed (but weed creates money anxiety on the comedown)

Should I try to meditate? I'm thinking on reading anxiety books but am worried the usual tips (go exercise, eat healthier, sleep better, etc) won't exactly work out since we think differently. I know they are all good advice but they are extremely hard to stick to.

Stimulants help but I get extremely anxious on the comedown after they wear out, so I decided not to try them anymore.

Non stimulants ADHD meds were not helping, but I might have not given them enough time to work.

Idk, I'm confused right now. Too much bruxism lately, muscle cramps and trouble sleeping. Gabapentin helps to sleep but I don't take it daily, afraid I can get "addicted". I usually skip weekends.

Compared to other killers from a public health standpoint, ADHD is bad. Smoking, for example, reduces life expectancy by 2.4 years, and if you smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day you're down about 6.5 years. For diabetes and obesity it's a couple of years. For elevated blood cholesterol, it's 9 months. ADHD is worse than the top 5 killers in the U.S. combined.

Having ADHD costs a person nearly thirteen years of life, on average. Barkley adds, And that's on top of all the findings of a greater risk for accidental injury and suicide....About two-thirds of people with ADHD have a life expectancy reduced by up to 21 years.

This is from Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey in their book ADHD 2.0

Here is some more background on the research

I have been on ADHD meds for about 7.5 years now. I started with Vyvanse and my dose was at 70mg in the first year. I was having bad crashes at night, so I switched to Adderall 40mg with 10mg Dexidrine and stayed on it for a few years. Recently, I switched to Concerta 90mg because my tolerance was getting too high and it wasn't working anymore, hoping that by switching it will reset my tolerance. It didn't. In fact, my tolerance drops to being feeling depressed/unmotivated in about 3 days now. So that sucks.

Taking breaks is agony for me. I have the worst stimulat headaches, no motivation, and can't sleep. My doctor knows this but does nothing. He won't raise my dose.

How do you guys manage? Thanks.

I swear there's a sweet spot for going to bed after my meds have worn off otherwise my brain just runs off in some random direction like normal.

Sometimes (rarely) it's a productive direction, other times I'm bouncing through ideas too fast for any depth.

It's always the same pattern: After a few hours I decide to sort everything because it runs out of control but then I never do it again so it's getting worse than before.

When playing RuneScape like 10 years ago I sorted my bank by item color. Once I started pressing the button to deposit everything at once (because it felt soooo easy) it looked like it was sorted by color but it was significantly worse, since the items I used the most were always somewhere I didn't expect them.

Small chest size is literally the only reason why I don't like playing Valheim. Factorio was the worst game so far. My factory worked but it was a diabolic mess that relied on me, sometimes refilling some random chests manually.

I've been told by my provider that due to the worldwide shortage I have to try something else.

Currently on elvanse (vyvanse in the US). Opted to try Amfexa which is still dexamphetamine but not the "slow release" that lisdexamphetamine is.

Nervous about the switch after finding something that works on my first try.

Has anyone made the same or similar switch?

I read a lot of people on reddit's r/adhd were they suffer with ADHD (or something similar, as they aren't diagnosed) but can't afford it. I read one that said they spend over US$ 1000 and had to stop looking because of the price.

I'm Brazilian, on the Brazilian private care, I was paying around 60USD for 1h talking to a doctor. A doctor that is fluent in English will probably charge more to treat international patients.

My full diagnose took around 10 visits, so it wasn't super cheap in comparison, but it was very through. I can share a translated version of the report I got on private message if anyone is curious.

edit: I created the I created [email protected] as suggested by @[email protected]

When my stubble grows in, I just have to play with it. When I shave it off, I just have to feel how smooth it is.

It's maddening and I recognize that people must think I look ridiculous with my hand always stroking my chin.

I frequently find myself losing momentum at the end of things that I enjoy. For instance, I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 and loving it. I recently got into the last act (Act 3) of the game, and I'm finding myself a bit burned out on it and gravitating towards other games. I'm also in the last episode of Dimension 20's Neverafter (yes, I'm a geek haha) and finding myself not interested in finishing it.

Does this happen to anyone else? I started on medication earlier this year, and lots of other symptoms of my ADHD have gone away, but this one seems to be persisting.

The impulsivity is bad, wasted so much money and time. The hyperfocus, when on the wrong task, has cost me hours in that day. The poor planning / time management has landed me in a world of hurt more times than I care to admit. The low tolerance for distractions / hot temper has caused me to hurt those whom I love most in this world. The inability to properly direct my focus on a task has caused me to lose sight of, and therefore miss, deadlines.

That's all bad.

But the worst part for me? The part that doctors don't seem to even attempt to address (except for direct symptom management, which barely work)? Emotional mirroring. If you're depressed and I'm with you, guess what happens to me? Today sucked. Depression is an unrelenting bitch, and I hate her with every fiber of my being.

Straight up the last time this feedback loop happened to me was before I started the meds I'm on. Now it's easier to break the loop because I can focus on other things rather than find myself hyper fixating on hyper fixating.

Edit: Usually it was caused by me overthinking on a social situation that I was sure I messed up in some way, that I ended up messing up because I was thinking I was messing it up so I tried to be more not me.

I take notes and write up mini reviews on my laptop when I watch shows as its the only way I can follow what's happening. Even with no distractions I tend to drift off into my thoughts.

Once or a twice a year at work I'll go through the cycle of creating a new planning system, doing really well with it before it ultimately fails. It's better than nothing though. I'm using Microsoft Planner a lot now.

I have a Galaxy Watch which I use to help with my morning routine. It syncs with google calendar and I schedule in everything I need to do in minute detail (wake up, get up, make breakfast, eat breakfast etc....) it kinda works but not so much just recently. Again better than nothing.

How about you?

If you've heard of Headspace, Medito is more or less the same but run by a 501(c)(3) charity and is 100% free.

For anyone who finds guided meditation helps to manage their symptoms, or is curious to explore meditation, I can't recommend it highly enough.

I don't know where the purpose of my life is. I looked where I last saw it and it isn't there anymore. It's like losing your keychain. All I can do is hope I forgot it somewhere at home because I sure can't go outside without it. I wanna find joy in things again, and it is so difficult to get you shit together when everything feels so meaningless.

The more I look for the keys the more I fear I lost them for good. Which makes me not wanna search for them at all and just distract myself with random stuff. I think that describes my situation quite well.

Anyway I'm sad. But I hope you all are doing okay!

I find myself on my phone way more than I want to be. It is a distraction. However, for everything it does distract me from, it still is a useful tool.

I have tired usage blocking apps. But since I can just turn it off - it doesn't really work.

I take pictures to remember things, and I worry that the light phone not having a camera will be a problem... but I am also just thinking I could just write things down I guess.

Anyway I'm just wondering if any of you switched to a dumb phone and have noticed a positive impact on your life.

Almost every time I do laundry and the dryer stops after my meds have worn off this ends up being the case

The good news is it usually gets folded in the morning after that days meds kick in

I know I should be asking my doctor, but even though getting an appointment with a neurologist is free, it takes months where I live.

My problem is that I sometimes have severe pain in the stomach and abdomen. I have had acute Pancreatitis in the past and I fear it might become chronic (pancreas digesting itself).

Is this just a coincidence or does Methylphenidate damage my pancreas further?

Additional info:

• I was diagnosed with ADHD at age 6

• This is the first time I am taking medication

• Daily Dose is 30mg total (extended release 15mg and 15mg)

• I am not on any other medication

I will let go of all my normal home maintenance tasks, such as cleaning, laundry, taking out the trash, changing bed sheets, etc., until I have a deadline for work approaching. All of a sudden, I have all the energy in the world to focus on said tasks while I avoid the looming deadline that I must absolutely accomplish if I don't want to get fired. Why can't I just work on things without the pressure? 😩