ADD/ADHD Tropers, Unite!

I thought so dude. I can get behind managing to work around it, but loosing it entirely sounds awfully fishy to me.

I shall unite! :D

Ha. I forgot my Concerta today. I was wondering why I was feeling so disoriented.

Hi folks. I'm late to the game, as usual.

I was diagnosed at the age of 29. It was strange: my dad was diagnosed a couple years earlier (to the shock of everyone except him), and at first I just laughed with everyone else (in my family, teasing is how we show affection), and then later I thought, "You know, I'm a lot like him..."

Out of his extended family, five of us have now been formally diagnosed, IIRC, and we're pretty sure his mother had it too. (It would explain the massive coffee addiction.) Having now observed a family reunion with this knowledge, I'm positive there are many, many more. Many of whom, I should point out, have successfully married, raised children, held down jobs, and some have even earned advanced degrees.

Not that it doesn't cause problems. Lost scholarships, lost opportunities, lost friends, major depression... and that's just me. It takes work to live with.

But yeah, it has its perks. I'm good at pattern recognition. I'm good at spotting stuff that breaks a pattern. I'm a lateral thinker. Teach me a process and I can figure out how to speed it up and make it better. But please, please, please don't ask me to multitask.

Listening to music definitely helps. Figured that one out in college! Bach fugues, for some reason, work better than anything. Apparently they scratch the itch just right.

That ADHD feel when you can't sit through Cringe Comedy in movies without getting really fidgety, so you just kind of pause it when it happens, and it takes you 3 hours to watch a movie because of it.

edited 13th Nov '15 11:00:47 PM by trashconverters

Is that ADHD, though? I put that down to "high empathy".

(And I just let the movie play while I leave the room, and check in every minute or so until the scene's over.)

(I hate cringe comedy.)

Hey y'all.

Well, not diagnosed yet, but I went to see a counselor few days ago and the counselor said that there's a possibility that I have ADHD. I did have a concentration problem since I was a kid, that's for sure.

Oh hey, there's one of these.

I was diagnosed pretty early with ADHD. Took drugs for it from age, oh, around 11-ish to around 17. I'm 25 now. I seem to have grown out of it, or more realistically developed better coping mechanisms to use it to my advantage. It helps that my symptoms were always less "can't pay attention to anything" and more the hyperactivity and hyperfocus. I've done my best to use that hyperfocus to my advantage. (By "hyperfocus", for anyone who doesn't know, I mean the tendency to get so totally engrossed in one thing that everything else gets neglected—not so great when you have other things to do, but wonderfully useful in today's work environment. It's not rare for me to just work through an entire day and realize at the end of the day that I haven't taken a break or lunch. My boss thinks I'm just a really hard worker. :p)

Also, my boyfriend has ADD as well. With him though, it definitely manifests more as "can't pay attention to anything". I have no trouble focusing on shows that I like, so it's really irritating to me when we're watching a show and he's doing a million things on his phone and then asking me what happened on the screen.

But it is what it is.

I'm glad I found at least something, even if the thread has little activity. I've been diagnosed at the age of 25 (and am female), and this is after months of suspecting that it may be my problem. And this is looking back over years of various life issues from my adolescence. I don't remember my childhood so much, I did fine in school until I was about 14. I'm still unsure about the whole thing though. I've read plenty and I match the inattentive type very, very well but it still feels like I'm just trying to find an excuse for my own failures- while feeling at the same time that I can't help it and never have been able to. And my issues *have* utterly screwed up my life thus far. I'm tired of it.

I described my problems to the psychiatrist as I know them, and she is the one who suggested the add so I'm happy that I'm not the only one to think it. And I realize that a week is a very short time to get discouraged but the adderall she prescribed is doing approximately nothing, but making me drowsy. Incidentally, caffeine does the same. I drank a monster energy last night and I felt heavily drowsy within half an hour.

I am feeling very conflicted about everything. What have you guys experienced with medications? I always got the impression that they aren't the sort that take weeks/months to take effect, that you see it pretty quickly.

When they've worked for me, I've seen results very quickly, but another thing to consider is that not every ADD/ADHD drug works for everyone. I took Ritalin and Adderol (or however you spell it) before we finally found one that worked, Concerta.

If you feel Adderol isn't working, just tell the doctor who prescribed it about your concerns and see what they say. They may suggest giving it more time, or they may just say "Oh, well, maybe this drug isn't right for you, let's try something different."

Whenever I need to start a new medication, I get convinced that it's a placebo. It'd be fine, but I spend weeks at a time paranoid on whether or not the pills are real or just all in my head, which defeats the purpose of focusing. It's funny to me, actually.

Blender: regarding the whole "I'm just making excuses" thing - I know that feel. It doesn't help that so many other people talk about how it isn't really a thing, it's just bad discipline or laziness. Incidentally, ADHD tends to run in families. It's possible you have a parent with ADHD who thinks "it's just normal & you need to try harder" and has taught that to you. (My dad has it. My grandma had it. Pretty sure it runs rampant in Grandma's family.) But it is a real thing. It's not all in your head, and you're not just lazy.

ADHD meds usually work right out of the gate, so if they aren't helping, you should bring that up with your psychiatrist. Psychoactive drugs are tricky things, and you might have to try a few before you find one that works.

I already know I'm prematurely getting upset. I have another appointment for checking up on how I'm doing, but as I said all it's done is make me drowsy on a higher dose and nothing otherwise.

I'm glad someone can commiserate on feeling like that. My schoolwork has suffered for years, partly because I don't do homework. I hated being constantly being scolded, but I couldn't ever remember to. I'd watch the lecturing teacher, and the words would go in one ear and out the other. I'd try so hard to concentrate that I was concentrating on concentrating, and defeating the purpose. My parents thought I just wasn't working hard enough, and I believed it because I had no way of figuring out why. It's not just school though... I have problems trying to do everyday tasks. cleaning, for one. I know this is the same brain problem because of the sort of fogginess that comes with trying to concentrate. Some cleaning is mindless and I can do that. dishes, toddler toys, clothing. I don't have to think about them. Locating cleaning tools... they get left everywhere. figuring out where to put all the random crap that the toddler brings out... I have to force the thoughts through my head. And motivating myself to even try to do these things is kind of a crapshoot. I can be mentally screaming at myself to get up and clean, but it only sometimes works. Just thinking... sometimes trying to follow a thought results in fogginess, sometimes in a feeling of the thought being slippery and pulling out of my grasp. Sometimes the thought just replays itself and refuses to move forward. A physical lack of clarity often happens when I'm trying to picture something. And always, always there is an undercurrent of indistinct thought going on. Like background noise.

I didn't really mean to come here and complain, but I know nobody who has any insight. I've been working for years to figure out how to basically fix myself, and it hasn't been easy. Not all my symptoms exactly match, but I've read a lot of descriptions and I am quite certain I'm on the right track. And I'm hoping so badly that the medication helps. This is why the first one not helping is so discouraging.

My mom is/was a straight A student, so I doubt it was her I got it from. My bio dad died over 20 years ago, so there's no way of knowing for sure. I can ask siblings, but that will take time.

Thank you for the support. I need it a lot.

What are your coping skills?

I write things down. Everything. Grocery lists, to-do lists, appointments, bills I have to pay, anything I'm trying to study or learn, etc. And it has to be longhand: typing it into a computer does not have the same effect. Writing somehow makes my brain process the information and thus it sticks better. I have two whiteboards and I keep a list pad and a pen on my fridge (Magnets!). My dad is the same way: he's got a smartphone, but writes a lot of stuff down in a little notebook he keeps in his pocket. It isn't perfect, but it works.

Routines are also very good for me. They take training - you have to do a thing for thirty days in a row before it becomes properly "mindless". But I know where I put things because "it's where I always put it." Also not perfect, but helpful.

A lot of people with ADHD swear by mindfulness techniques. Haven't done much of it myself, but it's worth a look. Exercise is supposed to help, even stuff as simple as taking a walk, especially if you can walk around in a natural environment. Walking definitely helps me. Helps clear my brain out.

So there's a few things to try. Coping skills are at least as important as meds, in my book.

A million +1s here

The day I stopped being a slave to depression and ADHD and god-knows-what-else-I-might-have-that-wasn't-diagnosed was the day I started incorporating habits and patterns that helped me cope with the symptoms.

I trick myself into good habits.

Like, I love to spend money. I love it. So to keep myself from overspending, I worked out an elaborate scheme of multiple bank accounts and what I can use each for, so that I always have multiple "buffer zones" in case I overspend with the money that I allow myself for frivolous purchases (which I try not to do, but, eh, it happens). That way, unless I deliberately try to fuck myself over, I can't possibly make myself go broke. There's no "Oops I'm accidentally broke this month and it's my own fault." At this point, only a serious medical emergency or car accident or something could make me go broke, and even then, insurance is a wonderful thing.

I do the same thing with attention/hyperfocus and depression. I find ways to use it to my advantage and/or trick myself into better behaviors than I would naturally default to. I work out schemes or even game-like things to get myself to do what I should be doing rather than what I might do out of instinct.

I've tried writing things down, but I lose the pad or whatever I'm using. Also, I forget about it pretty quickly anyway, so it doesn't matter. Student planners never worked well for the same reason, first I wouldn't use it then it would vanish. Money tends not to be so much of an issue. I don't have much, so I'm used to not spending it. And I'm always fairly aware of the amount of money I have, so I can figure out easily if I can say yes or no to something.

I do have a few systems where I put my wallet and stuff in certain places, so while I rarely remember where I put it I can check those spots. It's always an open counter.

I don't know that I really have hyperfocus going on. Although I can spend entire days on books that I find entertaining, so perhaps that's a form.

Walking... it does the opposite for me. It is mindless, so my mind starts racing without my direction. It goes on some serious tangents. Reading is what I do to clear my mind. Or gaming. I don't think of anything but the story then, or strategy when it's a game.

Do some Googling maybe? For ADHD coping skills? Everybody's different. I was just listing what works for me.

Thus far, my most useful coping skills are simply the practice I've gotten dealing with my brain. I'm most definitely a mental incubator. I can't think very well when I force it, but oftentimes if I actively ignore a school project or something it will build itself in the back of my head. If I'm online and decide to google something, I often forget what it is in the half a second it takes to click on a new tab. I've gotten pretty successful at retrieving these things by sort of blanking my mind in a very certain way. It usually comes back then, and if not I go to whatever tab I was on last and usually come to the same tangental thought that I wanted to google. As I mentioned earlier, although this isn't add related if I don't want to think about something, usually something upsetting, I read. I can't think and immerse myself at the same time. White noise type things can help drown out distracting things, like the rainy mood website. So my tricks are mostly mental.

Hi guys. I've been diagnostised with ADD recently, I'm a 26 years old male, with a lot of difficult paying attention on anything (my mind just drifts away) and a lot of daytime sleepness. First thing I tried was modafinil (Provigil, others) witch didn't help me much. Now I'm on Vynvanse, an anphetamine, this one feels awesome. The only problem is it only lasts 12 hours. What are you guys taking?

edited 16th Apr '16 10:53:53 AM by DarkLotus

I've been put on low dose concerta, but I can't tell the effects yet. I tried doubling to a safe dose today, but I spent all day out in the sun and being in the sun makes me feel sick, so I was kind of compromised today. The adderall I tried first only made me drowsy on the 30 mg I tried for one day (again, the single dose did nothing and I wanted to see the effects without wasting another two weeks on it).

You sound a lot like me. Mind drifts, daytime sleepiness, etc.

I'm on Adderall (amphetamine & dextroamphetamine salts). I'd really like to be on Adderall XR, which is the extended release that lasts 8-10 hours a pop, but I currently don't have health insurance, and the XR stuff is three times as expensive as the regular kind.

Are there ADHD meds that last longer than 12 hours? Without some kind of extended release mechanism, amphetamines clear out of a person's system in 4-6 hours. (Which I don't mind, since otherwise it'd keep me up at night. I don't know how my dad can sleep after taking a full dose.)

I'm not on anything anymore, but Concerta was the most effective ADHD medication I ever took. (Then again, I don't know if ADD and ADHD require different medications to treat.)

These days I rely more on coping mechanisms and strategies than on medication.

i have found my people

I'm on a higher dose of concerta now, but I'm not getting concentration out of it. I am getting some motivation, which is good. It hasn't made me sleepy but sometimes I get the zombie feeling. But I still can't focus on anything that doesn't naturally grab my attention. But then, I don't know if I should be able to. It seems like it should be possible, if not easy but it is not possible for me.

Hi. I'm haven't been to a psychologist, but I seem to belong he- hey, moth, get off my screen!

edited 26th May '16 6:48:57 AM by KatanaCat