ParticleAcceleratorThe single most thing that improved your ADHD?
Vyvanse
Dave CoeA good smack upside the head.
snooggumsThe generic for Ritalin works wonders for me. Extended Release though, not regular or Sustained Release.
The second thing that most improved my ADHD was not trying to do anything complex or important in the evenings after focus is lost. Just let it be relaxation and gaming time so I don’t need to clean up my failure in the morning.
Interesting. I’m usually wired in the morning, crash late afternoon/evening, and then get wired again at around 11pm.
I used to before being diagnosed when I worked 10-6 or noon to 8nshifts. Working 8-5 really fucks with my sleep and causes the evening brain fog.
But 8-5 pays way better.
Straterra didn’t do shit other than make my libido nonexistent. Ritalin has worked well for me. I know people who felt like they were in hell while on Ritalin. A lot of it is trial and error since all bodies process them differently.
I will say, there are genetic tests you can take to see which medications are tolerated well by your body. I took one and surprise surprise, I had the markers for straterra not being well tolerated. Also if you have other family members who have ADHD and are on medication it’s a good idea to ask them since your genetics will be somewhat similar.
MelonYellowStraterra didn’t do shit other than make my libido nonexistent.
You can say that again! For me, irritability and nausea too.
Hah, that’s Cipralex for me. Works wonders for the anxiety for me, but it really kills sex drive.
Most SSRIs will. And don’t expect it to come back, either…
Yeah… I’m a total mess without, almost as dramatic a difference as the ADHD meds, but it’s just insane how much.
What else did you learn from it re:medication sensitivities?
Short release methylphenidate.
Sean TilleyAdderall. There are, of course, some trade-offs. Having gone so many years without any kind of medication, though, it’s a night and day difference.
I feel like my memory recall is so, so much better with it. When I’m off meds, I often find myself in a mental fog, struggling to remember details spoken to me moments ago. It’s like I’m constantly trying to hold onto a thought, as it’s rapidly slipping out of my grasp.
I still have to rely on the productivity methods that work for me. I obsessively take notes and make lists, because I would be totally lost without either. I’m slowly making lifestyle changes that are helping me overcome almost 20 years of clutter.
Adderal XR 20-30mg and realizing when its an off day dont commit to anything serious.
AzzuIgnore this if you’re only looking for medication advice.
I simply stopped going against my ADHD. I stopped trying to achieve things that ADHD was preventing me from achieving. “Achievement/success” is completely overrated.
don’t fight it, embrace it.
How did you achieve this? Did you change jobs or positions at your job? What do you do for a living?
I live in a country with social safety net. If I lose my job, I just live on that until I find a new one. I have a roof and warmth and food, that is enough for me.
Currently I work in a job with 20 hours a week, work from home, and flexible so I can work almost whenever I want. When I feel too bad about not having worked a while I start working, as is ADHD custom. I don’t do a lot, I’m not recognized as a hard worker, I don’t stand out, I just do enough.
That’s exactly my aim now. I overworked myself in past. Employers out here are living in the past, demanding 40h weeks. This really broke me several times with burnout depression.
Now, in the job interviews, I tell them all that I will not work more than 35h, better: 32.
how has that gone in interviews? are people ok with that, do they ask why? curious. & ty
They usually show me the door out. But this is still better than doing all they would demand.
Used to work where they liked people at <32h bc it meant they didn’t have to cover health insurance
Honestly, I would not be above complete and utter deception. Companies and many of the people working for them don’t have your wellbeing at heart. In a job interview, I always present as the best and hardest, most passionate worker going above and beyond all the time. I do not feel bad about it at all. Then I just do as much as I can/want and see if they fire me. I simply do not care to be good and honest in a system that’s the farthest away from goodness and honesty.
All the more confirmation that I need to leave America.
Interesting idea
𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘There’s some merit in that. But I wouldn’t really recommend always allowing it. Modern life requires doing some things that ADHD tries to prevent (like finishing that super important project or whatever), but if we give in to it, we can feel some repercussion (like losing our jobs).
Yeah but that’s exactly what I’m saying. If you live in a country with a good social safety net and are fine with living with little money, then losing your job because you didn’t finish that big project is not a problem.
Maybe for some, sure. But I don’t want to assume OP is one of those, and suggest this tactic. It might be a great way to deal with ADHD, I’m not arguing one way or the other, since it seems to work for you and that’s absolutely amazing. However, it could land some people in a lot of hurt.
80 mg of atamoxetine + 10 mg Adderall
That and I quit smoking weed.
agree & to an extent, when I was first starting this it was weed that helped melt some wall in my brain that was keeping me from seeing even THAT I was v different from other people
Later on tho, weed became bad for me. Irritable, always SO tired, caffeine totally stopped working. Total fckg drag. Used to be fun but now it’s not at all worth it
THCDentonJust accepting that it was really affecting my life. After that I went and got therapy and meds. Really helped me learn how to handle myself. I’m a better person because of it.
Swimming, I don’t know why it works or how it works. Regular swimming stimulates me, even though 100 things don’t go well in a day one small thing of swimming somehow works
infinitevalenceA good therapist using evidence based techniques.
The single most thing
Yes
Yes AND. First rule of comedy
TDCNTbh. While Ritalin is high on this list, the single most life improving thing was to get my shit together and finally go talk to my doctor about it and get help from a psychiatrist. I begged my doctor to not just send me home and leave it up to myself to call the psychiatrist and I begged for her to force me to call back and verify I booked a time. My ADHD gives me anxiety if I break a promise so that finally did it for me by promesing to my doctor that I’ll call back when I got the help. I safeguarded the hell out of the situation also with my girlfriend because I was so desperate for help and just could not get myself to do it alone. As I got started it got easier to keep going realy quickly because I got motivated, but oh boy was the beginning it all the hardest part of everything.
Yes! It feels like nobody ever considers ANY of this!
“Sure, we can help, just call these people, fill out these forms, fax your insurance card to these 4 numbers, and…” nevermind, I’m going to bed.
I sent my referral to the psychiatrist office and mostly forgot. Then I was talking to someone about looking at getting a diagnosis and went, “actually I sent a referral a couple months ago. I wonder what happened with that. I should probably follow that up”,narrator: He didn’t.
They called me though a couple weeks after that. But my thought on the subject was, maybe that’s the first part of the diagnosis process. If you can remember you have started organising it, you’re off to a bad start.
Omg 💯. MAKE people help you. But people hate that, so you gotta frame it right: “you must help me HELP MYSELF”. imho this works better
Completely serious? Psylocibin does an amazing job of neutralizing my ADHD for a few hours. The lingering effect makes it easier to self regulate for about two weeks after a trip. It’s a wonderful thing.
My theory is that it makes the world so interesting and stimulating that it amuses the squirrel brain enough to calm it down
Good solution
Avoiding situations that allow others to define me on their terms.
I’m curious what this means. Did you find a way to turn those situations into “your terms” or are you just avoiding everything uncomfortable?
No judgement if it’s the second, but that’s not going to work in my world.
Something I did wrong for many years, decades even, was to focus exclusively on trying to improve the areas where I struggle compared to normies. I always felt bad because I found it so hard to do simple things that were easy for most people.
Gradually, I realized there are things I can do that the normies can’t. So instead of constantly trying to redeem myself by improving the things I suck at, I focus on those things I’m really good at.
For example, if I do a job that is all delivery, where I’m just executing rote tasks that someone else has defined, I’ll struggle. If I do a job that is strategic and/or creative and involves very little rote delivery, I’ll excel.
The problem was that school is mostly rote delivery according to a fixed schedule, and early-career jobs tend to be the same. I really struggled during those times of my life. But once I got to the point where I could get more creative/strategic work, the way my brain works finally became an asset rather than a liability.
A loving and supporting partner that helps me when I need it and leans on me when they do.
Also, Concerta, a good sterile workplace, and exercise in the morning to get out the jitters.
Generic adderall.
Upvote^2. Try cheaper older stuff. (To “this day is bananas”): 👏 CHEAP MEDS ARE GENERIC / g e n e r i c 👏
It’s depressing to hear most people say medication helped them the most. I’m still on a waiting list. Failing my college, work and life.
tbh I wrote a long-ass post bc I saw yours; I also didn’t have meds when I started wrestling all this
I found out too late. I’ve unknowingly been battling for over a decade, and yet only now I understand just how insignificant my progress really is.
I get how you feel that, but I can’t agree. Knowing who we are is real, tangible progress. Ages of people like us died never having the words we’re able to use now. You’re still alive, and you’re trying, and you’re getting somewhere.
It’s not too late.
Fuck off with that mindless positivity bullshit. I’ve tried my hardest and have gotten nowhere. I’ve failed college once and am failing it twice. I haven’t got any useful skills and I’m bad at the best job I’ve ever had. You are either lucky you’re not half as retarded as some of us, or simply ignorant of how debilitating ADHD can be.
Oof. Not a good look
Shou I get your point but I agree with beefbot Im sure you havnt tried everything…
When you know something doesnt work, the benefit is that you know to try somthing else.
Have you tried Religiously Swimming 5 times a week, combined with light-weight excersize at the gym? Add in solid 8 hours of sleep and noFap… For me its a huge boost in Mood and ADHD…
If not that what about Magic Mushrooms, LSD, Amphetamines?
You were given the gift of life and time for free… So long as you have it you can spend it to correct your problems.
Why assume I haven’t done so already?
I used to exercise 3 to 5 times a week depending on how much an old injury allowed me. I did boxing. I love it. It does nothing for my exc. Functioning, nor does it calm my mind after. It took me 3 months of forcing myself before I started to enjoy it. After that, it became easy to go fitness/do boxing. I struggle to keep up as my health detoriates amd energy levels fluctuate.
Chonic stress has taken its toll. I started to suffer from hallucinations and misinterpretations. Which have gotten serious in the past half year. Weed, and psylocibin can worsen this. Makeshift meds are a no go for me. I once bought 1 blunt (hasj), thinking I was stable enouhh to try it. It remains waiting in a drawer for god knows how long. I already have an addiction to gaming which is hard to beat. I don’t need a second one.
I sleep a lot more than the average person. If I can fit a nap during break, I savour every minute. I keep to 6-22 day rythmn. If I need more sleep, I go to bed earlier and stay in longer. The perks of being an early bird. I rarely stay up past 22.00.
I beat depression once. Properly so. Trying everything and accepting every bad and good change during remission. After two years, developed a “will” of my own after not having experienced it in 13-14 years or so.
Then I hit that ADHD wall again and lost my future. Having to give up on my aspirations once more. Because I am too retarded for society. For the work I wished to do. This is the 3rd time I have to face the facts.
My parents both considered abortion. But my mother, whom I got ADHD from, thought girls couldn’t get it. So she kept me. She didn’t want a child, she wanted a solution to her loneliness. Both my parents were neglectful and my mother was abusive and controlling.
I’ve been spending years not just fixing my own problems, but now of my infantile parents too. My sister and I raised ourselves.
So tell me. How is life a gift when you’re disabled? When your family is an assembly of autists? How does the path of healing look like, when whatever brain part needs to heal never properly developed to begin with? Have you tried navigating that yet?
Even after I became aware that I have ADHD in my 40s, additional years were still wasted after not getting treatment, with lost jobs, money etc.
Sitting on a referral from the GP for 18 months now, and they don’t even give me an appointment in a distant future.
The only thing that worked for me in my 20s: Set the bar low enough. Stop “planning” to study for 3 hours “tomorrow”, or half-assing 2 hours while a video plays, you are on the phone and get coffee 5 times. Instead, admit that you’ll only get 25 minutes in. But do them today, completely focussed, no distractions, not even getting water, no toilet break etc.
Think of it like squid game. The team that gets the best test score after 25 minutes studying lives. You’d rather pee in your pants than to get up and certainly wouldn’t check your phone.
Worked for me, can’t say if it will for you.
That’s what I’ve been doing. “Even if it’s just 10min, it’s 10minutes I’ve done what I wanted to.”
It’s unreliable, and works half the time. The harsh approach no longer works. The bar is on the ground. My focus is now on just learning to take care of myself, and that don’t go well either.
There are two things that really help(ed) me:
Starting to smoke weed daily, while moving to another city: It made me find out what has always beed wrong with me, and so I came to the diagnosis.
Writing everything down, in a way my brain understands. I use a project management app, called Logseq, for that.
What experiences or effects of the weed helped you?
With weed its not straight forward, because many diff strains produce diff outcomes, some can make ur ADHD worse, others better.
But buying it on the street will not give reproducible results.