I was actually diagnosed with ADHD when I was 4 back in 1991. I always thought it was bullshit. Im now 30, I can see all the symptoms and I have to be very conscious of them. My short term memory, distracted easily, and I felt chills when this guy described perfectly the shit that happens to me. My parents never put me on drugs. Back in the early 90's it was riddelin. I just had to learn to deal with it. Now i just carry a small notebook around with lists and notes. It helps a lot, as long as I rememebr to look at it.
Haha. I was going to say everyone suggests lists and notes to me but it's a miracle to get me to remember to look at them.
Similar-ish story. My teachers mentioned to my parents when I was around 4 or 5 that I had trouble paying attention and focusing in class but since I wasn't hyper it was nothing to worry about.
Struggled through every year of school, dropped out of college twice, blah blah blah but I could never figure out why I struggled so much. I just thought I was stupid and hated school because of it.
that has been the problem with me my whole life. in school? "Well didn't you write it down in your planner?" "yea..of course i did...but i forgot to look at it when i got home"
edit: since this comment is getting some traction from people in a similar spot as me, the most important tool you can ever have is a smartphone. Get an app like IFTTT or Tasker(strong learning curve) to display notifications and such when you get to where you need the notification. Use your reminder app to your advantage as well. need to do something by 1pm? set a reminder at 11, 12, 12:15, 12:30, 12:45 and finally 1pm.
It's how ive gotten better about this shit. the hard part is remembering to put it in your phone. What ive learned to do is not go "Okay, you need this by this time, il make a reminder on my phone when we get out of this meeting" and instead go "give me one second, i have to make a reminder" even if the meeting ends in 1 minute. i will forget when i leave the meeting.
know your strengths, know your weaknesses. Know what works for you!
I have a pen that can write on skin pretty well and I've made up a simple system of pictures to draw reminders on the back of my left hand with enough detail that I remember what the thing was but not too much that I don't have space for anything else. Drawing small pictures also helps a lot with fading and illegibility as opposed to words where 2 hours later you may have no idea what you wrote down.
Yep. I finally had the sense to set a biweekly reminder to change my contacts. It's set to pop up on my screen in time for me to wake up and works like a dream.
I was never very far off so I wasn't entering infection-prone territory. It was more "shit, did I change them last week or the week before?" Or "I know I changed them the week before last but was it Monday or Friday of that week?"
This way, I wake up every other Monday with a notification on my phone that I need to change them and I don't have to spend any energy worrying about trying to remember.
I use Google Keep for notes (including the 3 item lists for when I go to the store and forget why I'm there, ffs), and my phone alarm for reminders that are absolutely crucial (like the 3 days in a row I forgot to pick up my sister-in-law's dog on the way home after work, ffs)
I got into the moleskine weekly planners when I was in school 10 or so years ago. I wrote down every assignment and due date and colour coded each class with highlighters. The left side has a spot for each day of the week and the right side has a ruled page for notes.
When I went back and started an online program in 2013 we were given the entire 4 month course schedule of assignments and due dates each semester so I did the same, but added "hey this is coming up!" notes a week or two before if the assignments were big.
I'm lucky I have a purse to lug it around in. I could easily do all of that on my phone but there's something about writing it down and seeing each week as a whole that makes it easier for me.
Definitely. It added a significant amount of weight to my purse so it got taken out for some reason or another. Sat untouched on my night stand for what I can only think to be 2 or 3 weeks. Doesn't do much sitting there, that's for sore!
I had kind of hit a breaking point at work. I also have social anxiety and the two of them together are a nightmare combination.
When my performance got brought up at my year end review, at the height of my latest "episode", I came clean to them and said I was suspicious of ADHD so they asked for a doctors note.
I thought diagnosis was going to be some drawn out process but I was diagnosed after a 10 min chat & quiz with my doctor. Due to the fact that I have anxiety he wants me to sort that out before starting me on meds for ADHD.
Social anxiety + ADHD is a murderously toxic combination. Social anxiety is a machine for converting small problems into big problems. ADHD is a machine for creating small problems.
Is it ever. He prescribed Exposure Therapy which is a sub-type of CBT. Except he left the onus on me to find a therapist. Small problem, right?
It's something I've been "working on" for 3 months. What's worse is in my initial attempts of a) figuring out what exposure therapy is and b) trying to find a well suited therapist, I found out that ET is one of those sub types of CBT that no one will touch because it can do more harm than good if done improperly.
Ever try ssri's? did the doctor bring it up? i had to try a few dif ones over the years but finally have my social anxiety basically conquered. The side effects are kinda crappy tbh tho.. One of the shitty things about having ADHD and anxiety is that amphetamines contribute to anxiety sometimes.
No I haven't tried anything. He won't put me on ADHD meds until follow ups lead him to believe the anxiety is under control / resolved. He mentioned the possibility of meds for the anxiety but ultimately decided Therapy was the best course of action for now. I've just been putting off finding a therapist cause y'know.. anxiety and ADHD.
That's how I got diagnosed with GAD. Well, that, and months of therapy before meeting a psychiatrist. I always felt like it was a little quick, but maybe not.
Talked to a psychiatrist about it. We started different coping habits at first and after second session, we started trying different meds/doses. Found what worked for me, been taking that med/dose ever since. Now I follow up once every three months to make sure my dosage is still working and that I'm doing alright.
Very very happy that I stopped trying to deal with it myself and talked with a doctor.
Tell the doctor that your having trouble concentrating. Tell him you've read up on cooking "methamphetamine" but believe there's a safer, less drastic alternative out there. Most doctors worth their salt will see that you've made a responsible choice and will give you a prescription for adderal.
haha i think cooking up meth may be a little bit extreme! Also, before trying adderall i'd recommend vyvanse. alternatively Modafinil is pretty good as well. I've been on addy for ~6 years and it for sure is good stuff but dangerous
I am 32 now and am much more efficient at most things. I do try to make lists and notes, as suggested. But if I put my notebook down and re-read through it all, I noticed I have duplicated the exact same note several times in the course of a week, even mentioning in the note; "I am sure I have mentioned this before, but here it is..."
I hate that "well they're not hyper so they can't be so bad off" bullshit. I have ADHD-PI and my brother has ADHD-C, so he's hyper and I'm not. My whole life I was told his was "worse" than mine. But guess who ended up failing and dropping out of everything?
I lean more towards the fact that it was the early 90s so their understanding of the disorder and diagnostic process was way different than what's in place now.
I'm also my parents' first kid, and the first grand kid on both sides so they literally didn't know better. They heard the advice of my teachers and thought "well they say it's not a problem!" And because I also didn't know better I just thought that's how it was going to be. I got very good at pretending to be engaged and was disciplined in the sense that I sat and "listened" and did as I was told. Except I was never ACTUALLY listening.
Just like with any other mental illness, awareness and resources to become aware are far more prevalent and accessible in today's society than they were 30 years ago. It's unfortunate for those of us who grew up during that time but all we can do is try to prevent it from happening to younger generations.
I'm in Canada so it's a bit different. I booked an appointment with my GP thinking I would get a referral to a psychologist to be tested.
Instead he asked me about why I thought I had it, and we went through one of the diagnostic questionnaires they had in their resources. Based on my "score" on the questionnaire he felt confident that it is in fact ADHD - Inattentive type and would have prescribed me with medication but didn't due to the fact that I have unresolved anxiety issues. Ones that's in check we'll start on the ADHD meds.
Similar story here. College was extremely difficult for me. Never dropped out, but I had virtually no time for social stuff because I was working twice as hard to keep up with workload. I had to go to every single professor office hour, etc. I was a wreck.
Finally diagnosed at 30 with ADHD after getting pressured by my wife to look into it. Now with medication I'm a whole new me. I'm 100% better organized, better memory, better focus and overall less constant feeling of "scatterbrain".
I do this same exact thing, though if it's any consolation, I'm six years younger and was medicated most of my early childhood. Much like you, I thought it was bullshit and I didn't need these meds that I got teased for taking regularly. So I stopped. And holy shit, my life went to hell. I nearly didn't graduate college, and still have nightmares about it, because my ADHD derailed my life. I'm back on it now, and I can almost always remember to look at my notebook. I've noticed even since starting to carry it with me everywhere, my memory has at least gotten better. The follow-through, well, that's the bitch of the whole thing, ain't it?
The follow-through, well, that's the bitch of the whole thing, ain't it?
Yup. I graduated HS with a half a credit more then I needed. The first 9 years of school I spent at my moms for the majority, and my freshman year my GPA was .6! I move to my dad's in the country where i was less distracted and my dad was on my cases all the time(which i needed) and I graduated with a 2.9 GPA with a 3.5 in senior year. Having that guidance was huge. Not saying my mom was shitty or lazy, she just didn't know. My dad didn't take no shit. He let me do my thing, but if shit started slippin, he was on me. He was also military trained so that came into play.
Notes is so important! Taking notes on what to do tomorrow, and what you have done today is very helpful. If it wasn't for my notepad I would never have finished my Masters degree. And I was diagnosed during my final year of the MSc at the age of 26.
Written in many places, on many things; sticky pads, iCloud notes, note books, legal tabs, napkins, receipts. Often I'll take these scattered notes an compile them into one long list.
Something like:
Spray Paint (blue)
*GRE
*1RM Friday Bench
*Russia?
*If you're walking through fire do not expect to come out the other side looking pretty
*760**11
At the time I write them I'd have context but revisiting them doesn't always remind me of it. So I end up with a list of half useful notes. In the end it's more helpful than hurtful.
I've noticed a lot of people here are saying notes help them. When I take notes they become random ramblings usually not of much help. After making the list or taking notes I have to go through and revise them and make them coherent. I have found that note taking helps me focus. If I'm at work and my mind keeps wandering I'll take five minutes to write down whatever my mind keeps wandering to. I find that writing with pen and paper is better than using my phone or a tablet for note taking but is usually messier. I end up with 5-6 sticky notes of my thoughts by the end of the day.
Similarly here I was diagnosed back when I was like 7 and never really understood what it actually was. Recently stopped taking my meds because I was getting some side effects and really felt the difference in my ability to get work done. I went from having to force myself to my desk and eventually getting on with work to forcing myself to my desk and literally flitting about so much that I can't get any work done. I started reading up on some of the habits I have that I use to get work done and realised lots of people with ADHD have the same habits.
My dad after 34 years finally told me I had ADD when I told him I wanted to get checked. Because I always felt I had it and working in scouts with a kid that definitely has is made me think back and realize that we were similar at that age. Hell I just worked through it and it took me a long time to learn to study and well do anything. I still have short term memory problems and distraction is my middle name but in the last 2 years I've gotten a lot better thanks to a task app on my tablet. I set alarms and dates for almost every task I need to do. Without it I'm so lost.
I always thought its was an over hyped hyper issue. Some people are just more easily distracted, I thought. Around my early 20's is when I really felt like it was more then just being hyper and distracted easily. I just had to learn to deal with it. This video really put some perspective on it.
My dad is almost 60 and is just now realizing how ADHD has affected his life. He always disregarded the diagnosis after being told it was a fake disorder. It wasn't until I started pushing them to get me diagnosed at 16 that he realized it was a thing.
On a side note, if anyone in your family has been diagnosed with ADHD and you have children, if you see any signs of ADHD, get them tested. ADHD affects more than just a learning aspect. It can have a very negative affect on their ability to socialize. So even if they get good grades, if the teacher mentions issues with focus, get them tested.
I only push this because I've only recently started treatment, and now realize how much more I could have done. Adapting to the medicine along with reorganizing myself is taking a long time and would have been less stressful if I had been tested sooner.
TL;DR : Get your kid tested if they show any signs of ADHD, regardless of their performance in school. It could save them a lot of struggle in the future
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u/[deleted] May 30 '17
Little too late for a prediction