ADHD

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A casual community for people with ADHD

Values:

Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.

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Respectful venting, including dealing with oppressive neurotypical culture, is okay.
Discussing other neurological problems like autism, anxiety, ptsd, and brain injury are allowed.
Discussions regarding medication are allowed as long as you are describing your own situation and not telling others what to do (only qualified medical practitioners can prescribe medication).

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Questions on confusing situations.
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Relevant Lemmy communities:

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.

founded 1 year ago

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The penny has finally dropped. What do I do now? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/adhd

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Today I had a work call with a colleague who has been mentoring me for a few months now (nothing serious, just someone to ask now and then if I need advice). Around half way through this call, once they had answered my original question, out of the blue and unprompted they asked "wasp, have you considered that you might be neurodivergent?"

From the short conversation I then had, they have noticed that I hyperfocus, I can't organise for shit, I regularly stop mid sentence and change the subject, and that I bounce between trains of thought rapidly which makes it hard for people to keep up. I was a bit surprised as I don't work particularly closely with this colleague and while I'm aware that I do these things they have never really been mentioned before, and certainly not attributed to anything other than me being a bit overenthusiastic.

I won't delve too deeply here, but today has certainly been a day of self reflection. Regardless of whether I am or am not neurodivergent, I have always felt able to pass as neurotypical and today has been the first time I have had anyone question this. Suddenly I'm thinking that maybe I should be taking the possibility of me having ADHD a lot more seriously. The penny has finally dropped that I need to get this checked out.

Any advice on what I should do next? I've booked in to see my doctor, but what would you all recommend to a potential ADHD newcomer?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

FWIW it mostly depends on if you have anything else going on behind the scenes besides the ADHD.

The biggest thing you can do is be completely honest with your GP and get a referral to a psychiatrist. I've always had great actual coping mechanisms for when shit really hits the fan. CBT was something I had already looked into myself and worked on. I've always been the person to have my life and shit together, but it took waaaay more effort than anyone realized since I mask -relatively- easily.

It was pretty much immediately start medicine and go from there. Yeah, the antidepressants (SNRI/SSRIs) sucked ass and I'm no longer on 1st lines which is honestly the biggest issue people have with meds. I actually asked for Ritalin first since I heard about Adderall abuse, but Adderall >>>> Ritalin.

I've pretty much always known I had it, my mom said teachers and my school said I had it, she refused to medicate anyway due to the 80/90s OVERMEDICATING CHILDREN hysteria. Wonders why I always had issues finishing stuff that wasn't games. Oh hey, executive dysfunction is a thing!

Got diagnosed as an adult @ ~30. Took about 2 years to get a decent medicine regiment since we were also treating some panic disorder due to being a functional alcoholic too. Mild-Moderate depression mostly manifesting in numb/stoicism with some GAD. FWIW Naltrexone OP for the booze. It's cut my habit down by an extra $100/mo.

No joke though, amphetamines are like day and night for me. Similar to Leilys above, the tiredness I used to feel from morning to night basically vanishes. While I do take ~6 pills, the only real ones I take for ADHD is a pretty high dose of Adderall or Vyvanse (generic please hurry the fuck up) and Clonidine for fidgeting and offlabel to help sleep. A huge part of the high dose was due to the alcoholism and a regular cocaine habit so I process it pretty quickly compared to most lol. Oh yeah, Naltrexone helped for that too. Haven't had white in like a year?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm sorry to hear about a lot of this. There are other things going on in the background, yes (who doesn't have baggage, right?). All I can say is long term therapy does wonders and fortunately I'm in the best place that I've ever been in.

I'll have the conversation with my GP, but at the moment I don't think I want to be on medication if I can avoid it. I've just shaken the SSRIs and I'm not super keen for any more weird side effects!

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