ADHD

Hi channel,

Few days ago I made a post sighting my concerns around feeling lonely and craving insane dopamine. I got a lot of interesting suggestions while I am trying a lot of things: one at a time (hopefully).

I found this discord channel with multiple threads for body doubling, noice, general chat etc.. Just felt it would be interesting to share such a thing.

I have a pile of papers from my last Pathfinder character sheets, earlier DnD character level sheets, and some old bank mail sheets that I've jotted down notes and doodled on. It lives on the left edge of my computer desk. And of course, it lives atop other things I intended to take care of, over a month ago. Hahaha.

edit: Just found another piece of paper that had a bunch of things going on. A section where I was working out a framework and wording for a birthday message. A hell of a lot of practice cursive signatures so I can have "a cool stylized yet simple" signature. Doodles of all sorts of things. Most are playing with space (or volume if you may) and layout. Some are works on semitry. Then I spent time looking and crafting two names for a fantasy setting story I'm "working on."

edit2: grammar

Hey! i recently checked for adhd after i got kicked out of uni, and was in a horribol state of depression. Was insanly hard to fucos and honestly nothing felt worth to live for.

I always had issue being motivated and fucos for anything in life, and tryed to talk to my parents about it when i was around 14-16. It went like this "why is it so hard to be motivated for school and how do people able to fucos all the time", my parents just said "its becuse you dont have any motivated for school, dear". Then sometimes i dint wanna do stuff any my parents said "why dont you wanna do this", and i answared "i cant fucos and this is so booring". meanwhile most people dont have any issue with it. my parents just said "its becuse you game to much, thats why its harder to want to do stuff".

so my whole life i just said to myself that im not motivated and gaming was a problem. Even gaming i had a hard time to do, but as long as something keept my brain busy, it was alright. and my parents just blamed motivation. speed tro some few years, and i hoped motivation would come back into my life, boom, it never did :P, and i blamed depression when i was 19-20, and tryed to get away from it, news flash, it dint :P.

so then i just kinda dint do anything for 4 years, and see if anything would improve, it dint. my parents fought i was going to univeristy, so i kinda had to lie for a long time, but i know i would probly get the same answar as always "your just lazy, or you have no discipline". so, i kinda had no one to talk to, and i bet theres tons of people out there.

finally when i was 24 years old, i got the newletter that i was kicked out of uni after failing 3 times on same exam, and as everything, i couldnt care less :P. i just hoped to die peacefully away in some corner not doing anything, so last thing i was going to do before sue-side, was contacting psycolog. I had like a small thinking i had ADD, and maybe depression made it much worse. but i dint really chase to find out, instead of just doing the lazy strat and think the same as my parents "its just motivation". but ye, if its that hard, better off just trying next life.

so ye, i went to my psychologist about my depression and ADHD, and boom, mid to high ADD, +depression :p. atleast it explains everything, and i felt stupid why i dint chase it earlyer, maybe becuse i fought adhd was mostly just hyperactive problems, and ADD was a minor issue that can easly live with (which you proboly can no problem). but idk, maybe i have to little motivation ahah. There was also a letter i got in my mailbox about my insurance, and what it covers, and it stood, "doesnt cover any problems with Auditory memory problem". and honestly it gave me tons of insight what went wrong in my life, and auditory memory problem can often be misdiagnosed with ADD. BTW, i was 24 when i first saw that diagnose! my parents knew it all along.

Getting my medecine very soon! so exicted to try it, hopefully life is tolerateable after!

Hi y'all. Wanted to share my experiences getting help to show some of the ups and downs for anyone on the fence.

-- Currently I am on 20mg Citalopram, 60mg Atomoxitine, and 160mg Bupropion XL. While none of these are for ADHD in particular they are often used for ADHD treatment regardless. Bupropion specifically helps with Norepinephrine and Dopamine. Which are both critical in helping the prefrontal cortex do it's job.

Pros: I am able to read without too much stress or distraction. I can hold conversations with minimal day dreaming. I dont get angry when people interrupt my thoughts, even when I'm fully locked in. Finally, and most importantly, I wake up at the same time every day. This last one is a huge shock for anyone who knows me on a personal level. Previously I had structured my entire life around the idea that I couldn't be reliable with starting my day consistently.

Cons: I sweat, like a lot. I have to drink water and electrolyte replacements near constantly. This may not sound like a big downside but I live in a very walkable area and now I have to have lots of water on me at all times. Not to mention the additional cost of the electrolyte supplements (while relatively minor) is still yet another thing to manage.

--

Anyway, I first thought I might have ADHD when I found this video on youtube . The big TLDW is that he goes over the basics and the current research (at the time) with parents so they are better informed. While listening to the video on my walks I ended up rather shocked because his examples matched 1:1 to my life growing up. All the troubles he mentioned I had. All the attempts to improve only to falter he mentioned. All the coping mechanisms he suggests I'd already developed in my early twenties when attempting college.

I spent months re-listening to the video and showing it to everyone in my life. I'd resolved to seek an official diagnosis. However, the hardest part for me was getting started which might be an all too familiar experience for you readers as well. Finally, after much trouble with my insurance swapping and getting around to finally finding a primary I was able to see my doc. I scheduled an appointment where I mentioned my concerns. The doc said they get a lot of people asking about ADHD and there are a number of potential factors that can look like ADHD (meaning other things also cause executive dysfunction). Hearing this was extremely stressful. I'd spend my entire life with these troubles, I knew what I knew what I knew. Thankfully I tend to not blow up in public social settings too often so I went along with the docs suggestions.

First, they started me on the Citalopram due to my high scores (high is bad in this case) on the mental health assessment. Second, the doc wanted to get me tested for a number of things, many of which I've long since forgotten but one of them was sleep apnea. She scheduled followups for the meds to monitor progress and tried to get me on a sleep study. In addition to this she did refer me to their local psych for an eval.

--

The evaluation was simultaneously cathartic and exhausting. I had to meet with the Psych three times to discuss my history, do a written assessment about my childhood, and also have a family member speak with the doc to get a different perspective on my childhood. Part of why the process is so involved is that Adults with undiagnosed ADHD are harder to diagnose than a child. Many of the tests were designed and tested on children. Not only that, but adults often develop coping mechanisms without realizing it. (Not to mention some people just lie)

Finally, after another couple of months pass I get my results. On the WURS assessment I scored a 76... which may not sound very high but for those who dont know the scale anything above a 46 is highly correlated with patients who have ADHD and/or depression. My ASRS-11 was similar with something like twice as many problems as defined by the threshold.

At the end of describing all this to me the Psych said that yes he does recommend medication, but that it was important to tackle ADHD holistically. Specifically he gave me resources for therapists in the area.

Obviously at this point I was over the moon. I'd finally gotten my answers. Now all I needed was a solution....

--

Unfortunately for me my primary wanted to continue doing the additional testing. I'd failed to show up to my appointments for any of the tests other than the mental health assessments with the pysh. Again, this frustrated me to no end. I knew, the psych knew, what was this doctor getting at. Why do I need more tests?? So I did what anyone with ADHD would do, I followed my impulse and stopped speaking with the doctor.

Months pass and I turn into a ball of depression and stress. I feel locked in, I lack the willpower or drive to make it through anymore testing, any more poking and prodding. This goes on for longer than I can really recall but I know that at some point it had been nearly a year since I first stepped into the docs office. Eventually, one my friends who was also diagnosed with ADHD as an adult mentions they see an online clinic that is primarily made of up Nurses who are certified to prescribe medication. I think, great! that sounds like the path of least resistance (an always alluring thing in my dopamine deprived mind). However, my drive was still gone. I spent weeks and months thinking about how great it would be to speak with someone who can help me find a solution. All the while sitting at home and doing nothing.

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Eventually after a year and a half after starting the process my partner gives me the push I need. She helps me sign up online and helps me pick the nurse I want to speak with. Within a month I've had my first conversation with the new care provider and had sent them copies of all my records. The nurse was actually really chill and had no problem exploring all options. He mentioned that includes stimulants but his one rule is that I get drug tested (which ya know, fair enough). However, I didn't want stimulants. I have many friends who are on stimulants and they can really only operate in a small window before crashing. I hate the idea that anything can constrain me let alone a tiny little pill. That in addition to growing up in a family of addicts had me very uncomfortable with the idea of trying Adderall or Ritalin. Instead, I told the nurse, I wanted to explore non-stimulant options.

Now thankfully the Nurse had a lot of experience with patients who have ADHD and non-stimulant solutions. So first we tried Atomoxetine, which showed only mild improvement. About a month or so after starting that we added in the Bupropion XL to the rotation. While the side-effects showed up within the first week or so. The improvements did not start showing until after two weeks or more. The changes were very subtle at first. I'd be more engaged in conversations without realizing it. I was smiling more. I was doing more chores around the house. It wasn't until my partner interrupted me while I was deep in a project that I realized the meds were working. Not only did I not get frustrated by the interruption I was happy to see her before she took off for the day. Not only did I remember where I left off in the project before she spoke, but later that day I even remembered what we spoke about. It felt weird to feel normal

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Okay so that was a long story. For anyone who made it this far clearly it was a rather involved process. However, something to notice is that the biggest hurdle was myself. All of the "blocks" and "distractions" were people just doing their job. Healthcare providers have to deal with a lot of weird people who have not so great motives. And even beyond that, a lot of people who do go into a clinic with honest intentions are often misinformed and less educated than the doctor. Obviously I realize this in retrospect. I've since gone back to my primary and updated her on my progress. She was honestly just happy I found something that worked for me. She also mentioned that had I told her I was uncomfortable with the tests she suggested all I had to do was let her know. It's my body after all.

So idk, hopefully this helps some of y'all decide what to do. Non-stimulants happened to work for me, and they are 24-7 which is great. If you can manage to stay motivated long enough to get through the process I'd say it's worth it. My life has drastically improved.

Good luck out there.

Hi Community,

As the title suggests, I feel like I am craving insane amounts of dopamine and looking for some sort of a human connection.

A bit of context, I have never lived by myself for most of my life: My school days were spent in hostel, further during my bacholers days I was always surrounded by my friends and we used to go out almost all days of the week. The first time I ever sort of lived by myself was during my first job, during which I started observing similar kind of feeling (I wasn't diagnosed then) and to subside this feeling I used to smoke weed, it made me calm.

Fast forward to now, I have realised weed is a bad cope up mechanism (don't smoke weed now) but I am going insane and unable to function at my best. I kind of get hyperfixated on my dating app matches, or go insane if my friends don't pick up my call etc.

I am trying to distract myself with things I like such as movies, or finding new novelty, trying to meditate etc. I do weekly therapy as well. But despite all the efforts, I feel like I am going insane and thus reaching out to the community for any help.

Edit: I take Ritalin LA - 30mg, used to take SSRI (Lexapro) and stopped it few days back as I feel very dud when I take those.

Edit 2: Added information about smoking weed: I dont smoke weed now.

Thanks in advance.

I often struggle with rushing out the door in the morning without grabbing something to eat. I have had this problem as long as I can remember. This changed when I started taking medication to treat my ADHD symptoms. Without a full meal, the duration and effectiveness of my morning dose would vary. I needed a solution.

I started doing meal prep once a week. Sometimes I make 4-5 days worth of breakfast burritos or a big batch of hash browns with veggies I had on hand. Healthy trail mix as a meal replacement is a good option if I'm in a rush (I like Power Up High Energy). It is ready to eat, doesn't require cooking or utensils, and is shelf stable at room temperature. I keep some in my work backpack and at my desk in case I miss lunch. What hacks work best for you?

I want to take daily notes to keep track of my tasks, achievements, thoughts and appointments.

The problem is that every time I start journaling, I'm initially very motivated.

However, after one or two months, I get bored with the app or system and either switch to another one or completely abandon it.

I appreciate any advice or insights.

After documenting the extensive issues (through email) that I've had getting my meds, my GP, after having already written me two extensions for my psychiatric meds, wrote me another. Gods bless her.

Hey everyone here 👋

I've been wondering: how do you handle cases, when you get overwhelmed with emotions to the state, that you simply cannot focus on anything but that emotion? I hate that feeling, because it really makes me to feel sick with just being emotional.

My take is that I usually just break from a situation, take an hour or two, and try to stim myself with something else: a game, a movie, something like that. Though, sometimes I don't have a time space to do it: I need to be gathered and focused here and now, with no space for wiggling.

I open a comm to post, and I forget what fucking comm I'm in and have to double check so I know what to look for - sometimes two or three times. Immensely irritating. This is how I've operated most of my life, but it's especially frustrating now that I know it's not how it has to fucking be. Flowers for Algernon over here.

Fucking American healthcare. "At least we're not Canada, you might have to wait for important care!" The fuck am I doing right now, then?

It happened to me this morning. I was feeling like everyone hated me and I was completely useless and a failure at everything and then I suddenly thought... "What would Worf do?" and things actually started to feel better 🤣 What's your strategy?

When I challenge something the other person said then they get upset and we start arguing. But then they change their position to agree with me. And claim to have held the same position as I do from the start.

So now I am the asshole for arguing when we agree on everything!!

Everybody has ADHD and I don't think it's on purpose. I just won the argument very thoroughly and this is what it looks like. I feel like I have to get a written record of what the other person is saying before I respond so they don't accuse me of starting an argument over literally nothing.

(And I have 3rd party witness who confirms my view of the situation is not skewed.)

It is exhausting running around circles and accomplishing nothing when shit gets real.

Recently moved from my little apartment to a house. I started out organizing and writing the contents of each box on the top. Very quickly I found myself just throwing random shit into boxes because I was taking too long. My landlord suggested the move because I have 4 kids and I needed more space. He was nice enough to put me in a much bigger place for only 20% more than I was paying.

I was already exhausted when I decided I needed to take my old toilet seat, which has two seats, a little one for little butts, and then lift that for the regular one for regular sized butts. I removed it from the toilet, put the small bits in a ziplock bag, and drove directly to the house. I walked a straight line from the car to the bathroom, took off the other seat, and then I couldn’t find the little square parts that mounted the screws. I didn’t have much backtracking to do. Walked back to the car, couldn’t find them. Searched from the entryway to the bathroom, nowhere to be found. Carefully checked the ground around the sidewalk. Nothing. Drove back to the apartment, nothing. I managed to keep my temper, but I was ready to blow my brains out on the emotional end of things.

After losing 2 hours searching frantically for the parts, I went back in to put the other seat back on and give up. There they were, just laying there beside the toilet in a spot I had checked a thousand fucking times.

And then guess what? Fucking lost the screws to the other seat and repeated the whole goddamn ordeal. Wanna guess where they were? In the SAME FUCKING SPOT as the other pieces I had lost.

I’m so fed up. My doctor won’t treat me because he’s old school and because I have a history of drug abuse (which is how he came to be my doctor in the first place). I can’t move to a new one because I don’t have the time to establish myself in the program. When you start a drug treatment program you begin by going daily, then weekly, then biweekly, and then finally, monthly. They all require you to do AA/NA/CR. It took me years to get out of all of that crap and I do not have the time to do it with all of these kids. I hate going to group, and after enough time passes with no failed drug tests you can get out of it. I haven’t been in 5 years. I don’t want to go now.

I’m going to beg my doctor at my next visit. I am exhausted living like this. I’m tired of being a burden to everyone around me because I can’t hold focus on anything for a minute. Entire days go by and I’m just in some void without even realizing it.

I just had to get it off my chest. I’d give anything to be like the people around me.

I'm condemned to a week-long meeting soon, and it makes me want to put a shotgun in my mouth to even think about it. What can I do to make it more bearable?

I find this really weird. My doc says it's normal for those who have ADHD... my caffeine intake is quite a lot. I can down 3 monster zero sugar energy drinks and just be awake and not buzzing.

This is with my Concerta in me too.

Is this weird or just the ADHD experience?

Had this issue for years now, meds nuke hunger and I'm terrible at eating breakfast by the time I get back from work they've worn off and I have zero motivation. Fallen into the diet of nearly always having ramen, energy drinks and a beer here and then with a muti vitami.

Tried planners, can never get them to work my job having constantly changing shift patterns probs contributes to that, even tried one of those meal recipe box thingies stopped due to it A: being expensive and B: still didn't really work.

I'm not even a bad cook either just cannot force my brain to bloody do it.

I forsee me spell checking my memes in the future

EDIT: It’s honestly hard to believe how intense and personal some of the hostility in this thread is. I understand objecting to something when there is a valid concern, especially about ethics or consent. But this is something else entirely. It feels less like people are engaging with the actual work and more like they are reacting to the mere presence of AI in any form, regardless of context.

I don’t think LLMs are universally good or bad. I think they are very very bad at a large number of things, especially when people try to use them as shortcuts in places where care, originality, or expertise (or human understanding and subsequent empathy) are required. But they are also extremely effective in other use cases when used with skill, intention, and thought. That is the position I hold. It is nuanced. It does not dismiss the criticisms people have raised, but it also does not treat every use of the technology as automatically unethical or invalid.

What I did was not a random one-line prompt into a generator. I gave deliberate, specific instructions about pose, anatomy, style, and tone. I gave feedback. I adjusted the inputs. I guided it through a process that produced something unique and original. The result is not a collage of stolen images. It is not a copy of anything that has ever existed. That is important context, and it is constantly ignored in these arguments.

There is a real difference between raising concerns in good faith and launching personal attacks at people who use a tool in a considered way. The people jumping into these threads with moral outrage are not engaging in objective analysis. They are repeating talking points as if AI art is some kind of singular personal enemy. It often feels like they are reacting based on something they heard someone else say, rather than thinking critically about what is in front of them.

And this is happening in a community that is supposed to be supportive of neurodivergent people. That is the part I find most maddening. There is room here for discussion and for disagreement. But instead of debate, we get judgment, condescension, rabid hostility, and attempts to shame people for trying something different. That is not the kind of environment anyone should want to foster.

I'm on 20mg slow-release Methylphenidate a day (taken in the mornings) and haven't had any alcohol since I started taking meds last fall. And even before that I could count on one hand the times I'd drink alcohol in a year.

But I used to be a big whisk(e)y afficionado and have started to really crave a glass of my favourite single malt scotch.

I asked my doctor if I could drink a little bit of alcohol in the evening every once in a blue moon and he said yes, but I'm still hesitant. Does anyone here have any experience in this regard?

I discovered I had ADHD about 18 months ago and since then I've noticed my personality has changed quite a bit. Just knowing the reason why the world always seemed such a confusing place and realising how much masking I did all my life, I've noticed the pendulum seems to be swinging in the other way now. I'm never masking again and if that means I seem strange to neurotypicals then so be it.

Have any of you who also discovered your neurospicyness in the last few years experienced anything like this as well? I'm just done pretending and I know it's probably making me more of a challenge to be around.

I wonder if this is normal and if the pendulum will swing back eventually to a more harmonious place.

Also when did it become ok for dentists to tell you off for not brushing up to their standards. I just noticed how they routinely use shaming as a form of control.

Hi community,

As the title suggests, I am struggling to stay functional in this weather. The air con makes the room feel weird and sweaty, I impulse purchased an oodie to stay warm and yet can't find a decent way to stay functional and get out of my bed unless I am expected to report to work.

Any tips/ideas? Thanks in advance.

PS: I take Ritalin LA (30 mg) and Escitalopram (10 mg)

This comic is me