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".
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u/[deleted] May 30 '17
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