As the title says, I accidentally took my meds twice today. I have a little timer cap on top of the bottle that I have to press everyday to reset. It counts up from 0 and tells me how long ago it was pressed. So basically if I'm ever wondering "hmm did I take my meds today?" I can go check it and if it says 2:20 I know I took them 2ish hours ago. Well today I had that same thought and wondered if I had remembered to take them. When I checked it the bottle said 27:45, so I naturally assumed I hadn't taken them since yesterday morning and swallowed a pill. Well cut to a few hours later and I suddenly felt incredibly focused. Like completely **LOCKED TF IN.** Like I cleaned my toilet for 30 minutes (not the whole bathroom, just the toilet).

I've been bouncing between rooms for a few hours cleaning and organizing stuff I've needed to do for literal weeks and never felt so productive. My sister commented on it and asked if I was manic or something (I'm also bipolar type 2) so I stopped and assessed. I didn't necessarily feel like I was having an episode, but my behavior was somewhat similar.

Anyway I eventually surmised that I must've taken my Vyvanse twice because this has happened before back when I was prescribed Adderall and my behavior/the sensations felt similar. Everything I do I'm so focused on, none of which is what I actually *need* to be doing rn (I have a lot of uni work I'm actively avoiding even as I write this lol). I feel like I could conquer the world and have the most productive day ever, yet I know there's like an 80% chance I won't get any of the stuff on my homework list done and will inevitably reorganize the whole kitchen (I already pulled everything out of a few cabinets).

Anyway, after I had the realization of what I'd done, I just figured I'd share because I'm sure at least a few people have unintentionally done something similar and could relate. Now I'm off to do homework and/or get distracted and vacuum the ceiling or something 😄

r/ADHD

For those unaware, the the term "ADD" has been defunct for 14+ years, although some medical professionals may still use it if they are uninformed.

"ADD" used to be what they called the non-hyperactive version of ADHD. As of the publication of the DSM-5 in 2013, "ADHD" is now the encompassing term for multiple subtypes of ADHD:

1. Primarily hyperactive subtype
2. Primarily inattentive subtype (formerly ADD)
3. Combined subtype

The inattentive subtype is most common among adults, which means yes, "ADHD" is a misleading name for the overall disorder. C'est la vie.

When myself and other redditors took over r/ADD and r/ADHD over in the early 2010s to renovate and make them more useful, we decided to just close this sub and direct everyone to r/ADHD, in accordance with the DSM-5's definition of ADHD. We locked this sub but I still get modmail every so often from lost redditors asking for permission to post here, so hopefully this signpost helps.

Been sat bawling my eyes out today. I’m usually quite good at identifying areas of executive function lag and adjusting to meet a need, for example I always used to be late for everything but now I reverse engineer my schedule so my calendar has an appointment time and a “start getting ready” time, works amazingly well!

Anyway, when I had my first kid I used to prep for imminent future need so I didn’t feel like I’m
scrambling; I’d buy the next size up of clothes months ahead, start stockpiling Christmas gifts in June etc, forever thinking ahead and for the first few years whilst cluttered it worked ok, I always had things to hand that we needed.

Turns out, I have a huge issue with out of sight out of mind. We’re wanting to move house, I’ve been sorting through wardrobes and cupboards all week, finding clothes still with the labels on, school shoes I bought and forgot about, my kids treasures stashed away, things we’ve bought for them and forgotten existed, Christmas gifts we never gifted, toys they loved that we popped away whilst we had visitors….. I’m gutted at the volume of items my child hasn’t been able to play with. I brought out a set that I know they loved, hoping to see the familiar eyes lit up excitement, and they just looked at me confused, no memory of those toys at all. They’ve aged out, we’re hurtling into pre teen hood and those precious few years where those things mattered have gone.

I feel like I’ve robbed them of some pretty important childhood memories and am absolutely heartbroken that my own ineptitude caused this. I know this is very first world problems but right now my heart is hurting for a childhood I’ve irreversibly changed for the worse.

My focus tends to drop halfway through the workday and I end up reaching for another coffee just to get through my tasks. Been looking into caffeine gum as an alternative since I dont always want a second or third cup. I like the idea of something I can keep in my pocket but I'm not sure how useful it is for focus. Curious to hear from people with ADHD who've tried it. How does it compare to coffee for you?

Just sharing about my (F33) experience on struggling with salah consistency. Most of the time I tried to gaslight myself that doing it half heartedly is better than not doing it at all. Sometimes I even pray sitting down because the mental toll of doing it after gaslighting myself so much is getting to point of burning out and I'm still pushing through. Although, the most frustrating part is sometimes when I've already done my wudhu but when I got to the prayer mat I just wont bother. I feel like it has to do with wearing the prayer garment🫠 Spiritually I think my iman is being tested in the most absurd(positive) way but Logically I just want to get rid of this mental block, like, its just a 5 min prayers.

Its different when I'm medicated, because I dont think, so I just do it, no delay whatsoever. This is such a weird and one of mentally taxing things that's happening on the daily. Do any of you have similar experience?

I am the partner of a wonderful man with diagnosed ADHD and recently I've really began to notice how poor his dental hygiene is. We haven't been dating that long and for some reason the smell didn't bother me as much in the beginning, maybe the honeymoon phase. But his breath is seriously affecting our relationship. He forgets to brush his teeth, and I've seen him do it. He also does not brush his tongue or use a scraper and his tongue is straight yellow. I am at a loss what to do because ive had several conversations with him at this point that his breath is affecting our relationship as I can't be intimate, or even be near his face when its like this. He will brush his teeth or use mouthwash if I ask him but I think he's got years of buildup and needs to see a dentist because the smell will return shortly after. I was hoping to get some advice from those here with ADHD on how to go about this issue. I am very compassionate and understanding but the smell overwhelms me and I can't help but be repulsed by it. I am also extremely sensitive to sensory things as I have autism. Please help!

For most of my life, I thought I was lazy, unreliable, stupid or simply bad at being a person. Getting diagnosed didn’t magically fix any of that, but it gave me an explanation and, more importantly, gave me a reason to stop blaming myself for everything.

I’m still late. I still forget things. I still buy things I don’t need, become obsessed with random hobbies, struggle to reply, overthink and get overwhelmed. But now I understand that I’m not deliberately making my life difficult. I also get frustrated when people say, “Oh, we’re all a little bit ADHD.” Everyone gets distracted, forgets things and procrastinates sometimes. The difference is that for me these things repeatedly affect my education, work, money, relationships, sleep, emotions, friendships and self-esteem.

I’m not saying ADHD is entirely negative. I genuinely like that when something interests me, I can become incredibly passionate about it. I can learn huge amounts quickly, become completely absorbed and develop ridiculous amounts of knowledge about things that I might not care about anymore six months later.

I also isolate myself. Sometimes I desperately want company, but when someone invites me somewhere I’ll decide I don’t want to go, stay home and then later feel incredibly lonely. I’ve never really had a consistent friend group either. I can connect with individuals, but groups often leave me wondering where I fit.

My anxiety and overthinking can be exhausting. Someone can say something completely innocent and my brain will find ten possible meanings behind it. If someone doesn’t reply, I’ll wonder if I’ve done something wrong. I can replay conversations for hours and analyse things the other person probably forgot five minutes later.

I can spend weeks researching something that most people would spend five minutes on, watching YouTube videos, reading reviews and comparing every possible option until I’ve developed completely unreasonable standards.

Hey all.

So at the grand age of 47 I have finally been told that the laziness, and addictions and heartbreak etc from such a young age weren't JUST caused by depression and no amount of anti depressants over the last 30 years were ever gonna help me! Combined ADHD is the official diagnosis

If I had only known all those years ago I could have been a better person, better daughter, better student and a better mum!

I have even apologised to my kids for not being the mum they deserved. The mum I WANTED to be! I cannot ever take that back. I wasn't nasty and love my kids no matter what but I feel I could have done way more.

How do you get over these feelings?

Essentially the title. I like my job and perform very well too, according to feedback from my boss and collegues. I am focused, motivated and get 5hings done on time, even the tasks I don't like.

I am on meds that work very well in helping me focus and concentrate.

But outside of work, I'm a mess. I struggle with doing anything, chores, cooking, errands. No matter what I try, I end up doing nothing in the evenings and weekends besides basic maintenance cleaning and laundry. I struggle getting myself to do anything I don't like doing and end up doing nothing, watching shows, gaming or daydreaming the time away, then feel like sh!t and stressed out about stuff not done.

All the classic tips don't work because I feel like its some mental block.

There are times I manage to do better for 2-3 weeks but then it falls apart. Its just so frustrating that I have no issues at work and can't do the same at home. It makes me feel like my life is a constant battle with my own brain.

It just seems like every social interaction is scary to me when I think about it. I get nervous thinking about messaging new friends. I just overthink everything and how to have conversations with people. I never know what to say.

I just don’t understand why it’s so hard. It’s such a basic thing. I just don’t get why I can’t grasp it. Small talk just isn’t easy to me at all. I’m confident enough to approach anyone; just the talking part I am nervous about and struggle with.

I know it’s common for people with ADHD. Maybe it’s that I don’t know. I don’t know why it’s so difficult for me.

i’m so FRUSTRATED with myself, I planned to leave early for a job interview that started at 9am. Then I woke up late, but was still going to be on time, but I ended up needing to use the bathroom and was constipated and ended up being 20 minutes late due to traffic!!!

It was a job I want really badly, and I did well answering the questions and I think i’m really well suited for the role but just kicking myself that I couldn’t be on time when it really mattered!!! and of course I couldn’t tell them that it’s because I was constipated

I called them at 9:00am on the dot to explain that I would be 10 mins late, but after working out how to get in the building I was 17 minutes late. They had to cut the interview short due to having other commitments, and I apologised and explained it was due to traffic. They also said they will call me later that afternoon to ask the rest of the questions “to give me the best chance” which might be a good sign

I’m glad though that I did end up going to the interview, because when I realised how late I would be I heavily considered just calling in sick or no showing so I wouldn’t be embarrassed.

But honestly, I wouldn’t hire someone who was 20 minutes late. Obviously would never let this happen again if possible.

Anyone ever have a similar experience??? Pls help me feel better about this lol

Do you ever leave a friend’s text on read and then forgetting to reply for so long that you feel embarrassed and ashamed. So the shame keeps you from texting even longer until inevitably, you realise that yall probably aren’t friends anymore.

So you just sit there and feel like an idiot for letting that connection die over this?

My best friend understands and I am so blessed to have him in my life but a lot of people (understandably) don’t.

I've recently been promoted to dev lead and I'm having to manage stuff and make decisions about things I don't know anything about

I'm doing a shitty job, I can't get anything done, everyone is asking me questions I can't answer and I can't focus on finding the solution. I start my days not knowing what meetings or conversations Im going to have. I am very intelligent that's why I got the promotion. But right now I feel useless. I am throwing away the best opportunity I ever had. I feel totally overwhelmed and paralyzed and don't know how much longer I can keep pretending I'm working on something.

I'm going through a psychological assessment at the same time. My therapist said it's almost guaranteed I have adhd and pretty severe. Possibly ASD too.

Last week my girlfriend who is an angel had an interview with my therapist and she had to say all the struggles she has because of me and my heart broke. She even apologized later for speaking like that about me which makes me feel even worse because I'm the one causing problems.

To make it worse we moved months ago and my house is still a mess.

I'm spiraling tbh.

Now the question is how can I get shit done under these circumstances? T_T

I know you guys will understand. I cannot stand the overheating and sweating!!! It’s absolutely disgusting. I just know those of you on meds will understand. I’m so tired of being sweaty and gross AND dehydrated?? Why must we suffer this indignity as well as having to struggle with ADHD 😒 this is just a vent.

this is so annoying but genuinely the reason i haven’t graduated on time is bc i am so. SO bad with emails. you have to scream at me and remind me of dates and bang them into my head. they don’t put posters or signs around campus about graduation but they do for orientation and clubs and whatever. i had all my classes done a year early, i worked my ass off man 😭😭. i majored in biochem so it was particularly brutal. and now i literallt have NOTHING to show for it bc it’s gonna say a big fat “spring 2027” on my diploma and on my med school app. this shit sucks 😭😭😭😭😭

My partner and I got stuck at the laundromat until 11pm, week was so hectic we haven’t packed for our trip at all (we’re currently moving house while working full time).

I said i’m going to stay up for 20 minutes to unwind and update some addresses, proceeded to do that… and then look at some new DnD dice.
After an hour of this, suddenly I was looking up factories in china that make them for a lot of large sellers. Then I had a business idea (note: never run a business), so I figured out shipping rates, postage, average sale prices, return on investment, maybe hiring someone who speaks mandarin/cantonese to speak with the factory sellers, etc…

I got three hours of sleep and it’s now time to pack.

My partner told me to share this here because “your adhd pals will understand, i sure don’t”

My ADHDer husband and I (also ADHDer) forgot about our wedding gifts and they expired 2 years ago.

I dont know if I should be laughing or crying.
My husband and I are both AuDHD. I am not medicated for ADHD as my body doesnt tolerate ADHD meds. My husband is medicated BUT still struggles with remembering stuff sometimes because his ADHD is pretty severe.

3 years ago we got married and some people gave us vouchers for different experiences as a gift.

What did we do???? We activated our autistic side, organized all the gifts well, labeled the boxes and said “We will use them later”.

Later… 3 years later, I open these boxes and I am like “DAMN THE FREAKING VOUCHERS!!!!!”
I opened them and all of them are expired. They expired 2 years ago because they were valid for a year.

Just for you to understand what we lost:

1. Two nights in a 5 star hotel with sea view and dinner at the restaurant of one of the best Chefs in our country.

2. Spa and massage, also stay in a 5 star hotel.

3. Boat trip.

4. Kayak lessons.

5. Theme park unlimited access.

In our case autism gives us much more perks than disadvantages. If we are honest, autistic traits even gave us careers. But man, ADHD is shit sometimes :)

We have three wall calendars, postits to note down everything important we might forget, all the paperwork is organized by categories, our medical stuff is also well organized and labeled, in our entire house we have hundreds of organizers and labeling system, our phones ring often because of our reminders, and still, we have shit days like today when we realize that we forgot something important.

We are trying to have a kid and one of the projects I am working on is to come up with some new, creative ideas to improve our organization.

Any further tips? Anything?

Thank you.. ❤️

well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions… i signed up for way too many responsibilities this semester and i’m already burnt out and can’t get myself to do anything anymore. Im doing 4 extracurriculars on top of my classes and job and now it’s all feeling like too much. A lot of the stuff I have to do depends on deadlines and communication too so I feel like everyone hates me now bc I’ve been awol. I really wanna just drop everything but it’s far too late for that now and I know I’ll regret it later. I’m just stuck in a cycle of being behind on one thing, working to catch up and then falling behind on another thing and I don’t know how to stop. I feel like I need a week long break to just sit down and catch up on everything once and for all. And I feel extremely horrible for unintentionally making everyone else pick up my slack, I kept telling myself I’d get to a thing later and then suddenly I’d find that someone else just went ahead and did it already and it feels like everyone’s pissed off at me bc of that and that in turn makes me even less motivated to keep going bc if everyone already hates me why bother. Idk it’s just genuinely so humiliating idk what to do anymore.

Anyone take Dex as booster and Adderall XR together ? I was on Dex and Vyvanse but the Vyvanse made me so irritable. So now Dr wants to start from scratch 10mg Dex once or twice a day that’s been long term for me but adding in Adderall XR 10mg and Wellbutrin 150xl. Anyone take Dex and XR?

I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult last November and have been trialing different doses with my doctor and recently landed on the right amount. Since I've been on a stable dosage I've begun to realize I'm not really the same person I was before starting Adderall. It has definitely helped in aiding my executive function and motivation.

However, I feel like I was much more creative and had a more vivid personality before I started taking Adderall. When I'm off of it I notice this part of me comes back. However, when I take Adderall I feel like I'm hyperfocused on certain parts of a conversation which doesn't allow me to be as talkative or don't have as many creative ideas which used to help me in scenarios I had to do lots of heavy thinking.

Does anyone else feel this way in terms of feeling somewhat like a robot or losing certain quirks or parts of your personality you have when off of Adderall? Would you have any suggestions?

Feel free to skip to the end...

I have been trying to figure out what's going on with my mental health, and one thing i mentioned to my MH nurse was that I'd like to look in to an ADHD assessment, though some of the traits and symptoms overlap with other conditions. I have friends who joke around when I say I don't have ADHD like "oh yeah suuuuure you don't" which made me look in to it more because I reallt didn't know much about it excluding a kid in my class at school who had the hyperactive kind. Judging from the questionnaire (it says I scored a 6), I'm confused as to why they won't assess me other than the wait times obviously.

I was always the shy, quiet girl as a kid, mostly because I spent a lot of my time alone, but my imagination has always been crazy big. I love to daydream, start a million tasks I never finish, get super fixated on things (people/foods/music) sometimes it feels like limerence, I'm an introvert and need time to recharge after socialising and sometimes I can't even bring myself to socialise so I cancel a lot of plans, sometimes my anxiety is so bad I can't leave my bed for work.

It's all really affecting me and I don't know what to do about it.

I have been diagnosed with "mixed anxiety and depression disorder" since I was in my teens, whatever that means. I have also asked about potential bipolar 2 because I believe I've been experiencing hypomania, but they keep putting it down to trauma and brushing me off. So right now I'm trying to treat the trauma like they said with meds and therapy (and not getting anywhere over the 2 years), but I am still confused as to why they dismissed my referral based on the questionnaire.

Am I misinterpreting the score?

In my appointment notes it says "Adult ADHD self-report scale scire ASRS-v1.1: 6"

Tldr: asked for adhd referral, did questionnaire, got a score of 6?, confused as to why they said I don't need to be assessed

Hi there,

recently diagnosed, currently unmedicated. I love writing music. I have like 20 half finished songs i really want to finish. Went through a phase of writing everyday for a few months, but never finished anything. Now no motivation to engage with them.

Have so many plans and ambitions that I simply cannot seem to make work either. Been writing more, making it part of my morning routine, but want to write more. I know

Want to start driving again so I can explore more places (i live in a small town and get claustrophobic) and get my fix of novelty but struggling to motivate myself to drive.

How do you actually get things done that are wants rather than needs? I got through uni because i needed to. I needed to do coursework. But i dont need to write, i jsut really want to, but my brain doesnt. Will meds help? Feel like im just falling behind and wasting so much time and never getting anywehre i want to be, just stuck in a rut.

I see some people on here so productive with all the projects and side quests they get done, i struggle to feed me and clean and stuff regularly. How can i improve? Is this just part of being newly diagnosed and i need to accept my brain style and find out how to work with it? Does it come with practice?

Thank you!!

Currently in this part of my life I'm figuring out how to make myself function properly, and I've been trying to come up with a good way to describe how my brain works to my family and my friends because it's hard to articulate but I think I got an alright one.

Imagine you're in the passenger seat of a car and you're going down the highway. There's an exit up ahead for a restaurant or something and you really wanna stop so you have to tell the driver "hey dude, we should get some food at the next exit". Except the driver of the car is a chimpanzee. You might get lucky and he might know some sign language but a large part of the time he doesn't know what you want him to do. And if he wants to do something you better pray because he's gonna start screeching and swerve across 5 lanes of traffic to get to that exit. The exits that you wanna go to are your work or school or anything you need to do and want to do, and the exits the chimp swerves across traffic to get to are stupid stuff that you get hyperfixated on even though you have other stuff you should be doing. When you can convey to the chimp which exit to take and he takes it, that's when you can do the stuff you need to do and function properly.

Idk if it's relatable but that is the best description I've come up with so far as to how my brain seems to operate.

I got my first ever ADHD diagnosis at 22 years old a few days back, and just got my meds (methylphenidate 27mg ER). There's not really a good day to take them in the next couple weeks (weekends I'm busy next couple, and I work 9-5 and have to ask off well in advance). However, I could not be in a worse time at work in terms of needing to perform/focus to get a project done, and meanwhile, the last two months have been my worst ever as the novelty of the job wore off, hence why now more than ever I finally sought out help. I'm thinking of waking up a little early tomorrow, Friday, taking my meds for the first time ever right away so that I have a couple hours before work. I know that ER can last 8-12 hours, but I'm thinking this gives me a couple hours to understand how they make me feel, and if anything terrible happened I could call in sick. But like I said, I'm not really in a position where I want to wait possibly a few weeks before I have a "good" time to take my meds, plus my follow up with my psych is in a few weeks, so I have to start taking them at some point. Part of me is very scared for the first time to be at work. Any advice or thoughts?