thank you!
I hear you! I was put on so many different medications for depression and anxiety that I am absolutely not going to try new one at this point.
I am not (currently) helped by the youtube channel How to ADHD but you might be. It’s overwhelming to me for some reason
As far as I know, I don’t have ADHD. But I have some symptoms of it. I think everyone does.
Bolding mine.
No conflict at home, but I miss things because I’m half deaf. I’m trying to wear my hearing aids whenever I’m around people, but the don’t help that much. And it can be absolutely startling when a loud noise happens. It’s a bit frustrating for both my wife and I. My wife understands though. It is probably harder on her, than on me.
When I don’t hear my wife, and indicate that, she triples her volume. All she needs to do is not mumble and enunciate. Don’t yell. And please don’t talk to me when you are walking away. I depend on facial cues quite a bit.
I work from home (thank god) and attend meetings through Teams. I have to use hearing aids, headphones and CC. It’s amazing how many people mumble through life. And I swear others are on coke they talk so fast.
I’m glad you did. I understand better now.
I switched from Concerta (extended release stimulant) to Qelbree (non stimulant) about a year ago. No side effects. Attention seems fine. But I’m more irritable and have more anxiety.
I recommend Thom Hartman’s Hunters In A Farmer’s World.
My meds recently switched from the brand name Vyvanse to the generic lisdexamphetamine. It’s cheaper, so that’s cool.
I just have been assuming the crash in the afternoons was related to long-COVID. Lately I am wondering if it has to do with the meds wearing off. I am greatly affected by stimulant withdrawal and I guess the sudden onset of symptoms is basically the same. So in the spirit of experimentation, I have shifted to taking my meds a little later, 10am as opposed to 7am, in hopes I don’t “crash” until 6 or 7pm at night. We’ll see how it goes.
I second this, Thom is a very sucessful ADHDer and has a lot of interesting things to say.
That’s exactly me, and I’m a man. Never have had the hyperactivity axis - I’m a lazy couch potato by choice - but the dreamy, head-in-the-clouds, forgetful stereotype is all me. (That’s why I prefer to call what I have ADD, rather than ADHD).
I’ve used different meds like Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta, Vyvanse, with varying success; my P.A. now has me on a time-released amphetamine patch called Xelsym, which seems to work well enough. Problem is, what I’ve discovered is that medication by itself is not enough - I also need coaching/therapy, to learn strategies to cope. And I’m usually too scatterbrained to arrange that (or afraid of the cost).
I’m going to have to get over it, though, since my ADD is getting worse; now I need stimulation throughout the day. I’ll quietly work at my job for 30 minutes or an hour, then have to pick up my phone and skim SDMB, or play a game of backgammon. Impulse control is bad, too.
I’ve recently in the past few months discovered a New Zealand comedy troupe that makes funny videos about video games, Dungeons and Dragons, and retail work. Two of the women, both ADD sufferers, have started a series called “ADD and Me”, which I’m enjoying, and which hits close to home.
Luckily, I work in a virtual call center. I can surf the web between calls or when playing legally required recordings for callers. I’m playing a recording for a caller right now. If only I could get some time off to see doctors and dentists this would be nearly the perfect job.
That’s basically how I was diagnosed originally, when I was sixteen. My mother is a clinical social worker, and was describing me to one of the psychiatrists in her practice. He wrote me a scrip for Ritalin, and said, “If he has ADD, this will calm him down and make him be able to concentrate. If he doesn’t, it’ll act like a giant caffeine pill”.
Later, when I was going on a different med, I had to have an official diagnosis, but the psychiatrist had been right - I was definitely ADD.
I feel the need to clarify, I was first diagnosed with ADHD back in second grade. I had all the classic symptoms. I’m not noticably hyperactive anymore. I was off ADHD meds for a few years in college but found I needed them.
this is where I am at: I want/need coaching but also have been unemployed too long and really need to focus (ha!) on getting a job.
I did sign up for a workshop/class at a site suggested upthread but honestly can’t tell if I am doing it to avoid looking for work or not.
and then the cost, YES.
So for coaching… I did a group thing with The ADHD Coach, Kristen Carder. It was not cheap but we didn’t have a kid at the time so we could swing it. It was still probably cheaper than hiring an individual coach.
Carder works a lot with mindset/self-image, some basic cognitive therapy skills and addressing specific techniques people can use. I love her quote: “B minus work can change the world.” I really feel her course helped me. The group calls were useful too, to see what other people were struggling with.
She has a podcast called I Have ADHD which some may find helpful. The only thing is, recently she’s jumped on board the Everything is Trauma train and this is where I feel coaches do the overreach of becoming therapists when they don’t have that training.
Trauma is such a buzzword these days, I had PTSD before it was cool, but at this stage of my life I don’t really want to think about it much. I don’t think understanding your past trauma is a magical window into healing ADHD. They don’t appear to be related except insofar as people with ADHD are more likely to be abused as children… probably because our parents didn’t know how to handle it. I know my Mom couldn’t figure out what the hell was wrong with me, and in those days nobody was going to diagnose a straight-A student, a girl, a quiet, non hyperactive girl, with ADHD. So I can’t even be really mad at her for not getting me help, but she took it out on me and personalized it.
It’s the reason I jumped the moment I realized my son was autistic. Other people didn’t see it but we pushed anyway. Because I didn’t want him to be diagnosed as an adult and wondering what if he got help sooner? Or blaming himself for things that were a part of his disorder. I was so hard on myself for so long because I just couldn’t Do the Things.
I had no help even from the guy who diagnosed my ADHD. His expertise is ADHD across the lifespan. He did this careful differential diagnosis and diagnosed me and then started to see me as a client. I wanted concrete things to help with my ADHD and he wanted to talk about my childhood. It was very frustrating.
Most of what I figured out is just trial and error. And it’s unique to each person what’s really going to help them. I have a friend with ADHD and we share some similar issues but his magic thing is making lists and I’d like to fire lists out of a cannon. I hate them.
I’ve found that it helps me to think of lists not as to-do lists, but, things I can do in the future if I am in the mood. Otherwise I forget things that I want to get done (like the new towel bar in the bathroom) when I am in a productive mood.
Maybe you should put that on your list *flees*