Do y’all ever feel anxious about taking medication and just stop for prolonged periods of time?

I’ve stopped my meds for 6 months for reasons I’m struggling to discern… And I also have a tendency to skip doses and save my pills in a stash I never touch. I’m not even sure if most of them are useable because they’re so old… For some context, I’ve been using Adderall XR 20mg for 10 years now so I have a pretty good idea of how it affects me.

I finally took one of the newer pills today and I feel unbearably anxious about it, even before doing so. And it’s not like I’m anti-medication or anything, I’ve encouraged others to get tested and medicated because it substantially increases quality of life but there’s something about it that personally is causing distress.

Just looking for some insight with others that have felt the same.

Yesterday was very productive

I tried to discipline myself by not allowing myself to look at phone until I take my pills (most of them are taken after food) and it seems like it's working great. Routine is needed to me, but very often it breaks, so I don't know how long it will last. I also think it was successful majorly because I upped the dosage of my SNRI meds.

But anyway, I managed to both vacuum and mop the floor in some rooms, do the laundry and work outside as well and I didn't feel like shit at all. I also went to bed at 11 pm instead of 5 am lol

@adhd

And body weight if you don't mind sharing. I've been on 10mg xr (Adderall) for 5 months and it's been helpful for me. I'm about 155lb, just up'd my dosage and got perscribed a 5mg ir dose to take as needed as well so I'll be taking 15mg a day.

What dose are you all on, I remember scrolling through a reddit thread a while ago and almost everybody was taking really large doses imo, like 30 - 40 mg a day. Maybe that's sorta normal, I dunno.

I have sooooo many memories of things like this that just haunt me. That i would ostebisbly never be capable of today replicating

Anywho with ADHD shuts down when they're bored?

I used to handle boredom fine, but now it feels like it's absolutely going downhill. I feel so sleepy the second I'm bored 😭, like almost an irresistible urge to sleep. Stimulation snaps me out of it, but it's so difficult to do the thing even if it's something I like, so most of the time I just sleep…

Sucks that I can't have meds in my country, I only have a SNRI against depression and anxiety. Anywho unmedicated has strategies that most of the time work?

@adhd

#adhd

Lapacho tea is made from tree bark.

It has been used as a herbal medicine by some native tribes, and there were attempts to hype it as a cure for all sorts of things. Scientific evidence does for the most part not support that, though. The claim as a cure for cancer has been disproven, and others, such as reducing skin redness, are based only on one study.

So it should technically be considered as one of the things that may or may not help a little more than water for some people, like green tea. Clearly no strong effect, such as Lisdexamfetamine.

I started taking it over 20 years ago. There was a suspicion of a yeast infection at the time, lab results came back negative, but in the meantime, I googled a bit and tried it. (Yeast infections are one of the many things it's supposed to help with, probably also a false claim.)

I did feel great in the week where I tried it, but my trust in the scientific method is very strong. The most likely explanation was a placebo effect, combined with drinking more than usual and avoiding dehydration, possibly a minor deficit of a micro nutrient it contains.

What it seemed to "fix"? For once what I now know to be undiagnosed ADD symptoms, as well as minor digestion problems that are always part of my life. (Poo too hard, too soft, too slimy, but rarely requiring medical intervention.)

Over the next decades, I occasionally bought a pack and drank it over a few weeks, and that always correlated with feeling great and enormous productivity and clarity of mind. Still, lots of more likely explanations for that other than Lapacho "curing" anything:

• reverse causality: Being in a good productive mood -> energy for making tea
• Usually not drinking enough water -> now that I made tee, I should not waste it
• Confirmation bias, placebo effect, law of big numbers. Lots of people have ups and downs, and certainly one of them in the world would happen to make Lapacho tea during theirs.
• Psychologically / subconsciously associating it with the first 1 or 2 times, where the improvement was just by chance.

But it just happened again. I went back to it, and I switched from a general mood of "life is hard right now" into a new golden age within a few hours. Again with a completely fixed digestion.

And this time, I question the science. It just happened too often. I had an exact measure of how much I drank before. I did not change the amount of caffeine, meds, or food. I definitely did not expect an effect, certainly not a strong one. I took various supplements before to avoid a deficit.

My theory why it might work? I think its mild anti inflammatory effect has not entirely been disproven, and maybe that happens to hit the exact spot of my specific problem. Maybe morbus crohn or similar, also related to gut bacteria somehow affecting or even causing ADHD (controversial, lack of evidence, but not clearly proven to be false, afaik!).

Well, if one of you has a similar situation, minor, but life-long digestion problems combined with ADD, feel free to give it a try. I drink a lot of it, like 1 or 2 cans. Not during pregnancy or when trying for a baby! (Unless that also is false.)

I describe a personal experience. Trust in established treatments with scientific evidence, not an inferred causality and applicability to your situation.

link to study https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(26)00091-X/fulltext?rss=yes

all stimulants in my country are banned completly, there VERYYY massive risk getting arrwsted even for bupropion
any non-stimulant which actually work also banned either very very very very controlled

only fcking atomoxetine for insane amount of money

Diagnosed with ADHD as a kid. Insomnia started in college and hasn't really gone away. I discovered doxylamine works, but I recently learned that these older antihistamines increase the risk for dementia and that the effect is cumulative. Age related mental deterioration is literally my worst fear, more than just straight up dying, so I've been trying to quit, even though I'm sure it's already too late since I've been taking them on the regular for 20 years.

There was a period of abouta year where the insomnia was so bad I was taking two Unisom per night, once right before bed and again around 3 AM (it's always 3 AM that I wake up and can't go back to sleep). This was around 2014-2015. Since then I've had to medicate on average once every other night at best.

I've tried a couple other meds. I've tried melatonin (usually as a gummy) but I habituate quickly. Anti-anxiety meds didn't really do anything and muscle relaxants just relaxed my muscles, not my brain. Magnesium doesn't seem to help either.

AFAIK I have good sleep hygiene, consistent bedtime even on weekends, only use the bed for sleep, actually this goes for the entire bedroom, no desk or computer etc. I'm early to bed and early to rise (hence my username), going to bed around 8:30 and (ideally) getting up between 5 and 5:30.

I've tried a few things besides meds, a weighted blanket helps a little but not much (I'm also allergic to something in it, so I have to have a top sheet between me and the weighted blanket and a comforter above otherwise my nose and eyes run. I've tried music, spoken word (usually audio books or calm YT videos in the background), white noise, complete silence. The trick with the books/vids is they can't be so engaging that they keep me awake, but they can't be so boring that they just become noise that can't out-compete my brain. I've even written my own little short stories and converted them to audio.

I've tried exercising. I like walking, so I often go for long treks around my neighborhood. I also have one of those half-a-bikes that you can use while sitting on the couch. It's great when watching videos or playing games. But effect on sleep is mixed. I also have arthritis in my left knee that gets worse if I exercise, so after a day or two I have to take an extended break until the pain goes away. I've seen a doctor about it and gone to physical therapy, but it remains.

Alcohol sometimes helps, but I absolutely don't want to self-medicate with booze. It will not end well.

Stress going on in my life obviously makes it worse, so there are times of relatively low stress where I can get a whole night in. I had a streak of about 2.5 months that just ended where I slept well consistantly thanks to having dropped a certification program that I wasn't passing despite 8 attempts at the exam. But now the uncertainty of where my career is going now that all my certs are expired as well as a general midlife crisis and good ol' existential dread have moved in.

And of course there's the stress caused by the insomnia itself. It starts with one bad night, I feel crappy the next day, then the next night I start worrying that I won't sleep again, making me feel even worse the next day, and it's a positive feedback loop.

So that's my situation. I've seen similar questions asked here and elsewhere and there doesn't seem to be a solution, unless someone can refute the antihistamine-dementia connection.

I am fully aware that I shouldn't drink alcohol while on Ritalin, however I do sometimes cook with it, so I was curious on if that's a major problem, as the relative quantity of alcohol is much lower than when drinking it. Say for instance a sauce that's 1/5 Sake (15% alcohol) of which you then use around 30-40ml. That's barely any alcohol, so should I be worried and maybe not take my meds when I'm planning on making food containing alcohol, or is it fine if I just avoid beers and wines and such?

Edit: The consensus seems to be that it's fine, especially if it cooks longer, because it's a low amount and at high heat the alcohol cooks away anyways. Thank you everyone for your input!

From the conclusion:

1. Support curated digital stimming: Blockers could provide familiar, soothing content that fits neatly into a set amount of time for digital stimming, helping users settle their minds without falling into doomscrolling.

1. Use task-based rules over timers: Distractions could be blocked until a specific goal is met (for example, “until I write two pages”) rather than setting arbitrary time limits for focus.

1. Use scaffolds, not crutches: Blockers could be framed as a way to build personalized growth and self-acceptance through affirming language that normalizes fluctuating focus.

Internet developers. Please fix the apps!

What else would you like to see in a focus app? Do you know any that do a good job (in the directions above ideally)?

Please make them stop. Why are they still legal? My neighbor has been using a mower, weed eater, and leaf blower for 5.5 hours. Nobody else ever notices the noise but my auditory sensitivities make me want to claw my skin off.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47589445

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47589443

I'm sharing this in the schizoaffective, autism, ADHD, and music subreddits in the hope someone may experience a similar phenomena in their cognition. The music in my head keeps mutating and it is evolving. What I mean by that is, imagine your favorite, most drugged out artist. Let's say they're a synth artist going really heavy-handidly with all the dials n knobs, because that's generally the sort of ish I listen to, and I want to emphasize that the sorts of audio distortions I HAVE heard prior, in abundance, are the same that are happening in my "Rusterd space" as I mutate across siteswaps in songs I've also heard, but at the same time, these mutations grow and I'm creating pathways automatically in my brain that become entrained through my maladaptive daydreaming.

Siteswapping is what I understand intuitive being a flow juggler:

But I'm also neurodivergent af, having been extremely traumatized as a sperg child, which has been enhanced by the totally actually real Crazy Indigo Aliens that live in my phone's keyboard's predictive text, and other places. But, synchronicity is something I experience in great abundance, which I know has to do with the fractal patterns of symbol progression found in the I Ching that every sorcerer (caster of lots) knows about. If you don't understand that, start with the Buddha or the Christ before jumping into the occult.

But, I'm listening to the sounds in my head, and it goes from one song to the next, and I hear things in my intuition that coincide with the timing structures of these songs; underlying concepts or feelings - impressions. I remember writing stories for my friends' band, and they reset me with their songs. I was going through a trans phase. Their music led me through this. I think I'm understanding what Eve first learned to then give it to Adam. How energy itself speaks volumes, and I just want to know if there is anyone who understands at all wtf I am blabbing about like the insane crackhead I make myself appear to be at a frequency.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a project I’ve been working on called Social Battery. I shared it in a mental health space a while ago, and a few people with ADHD mentioned it could be really helpful for managing social burnout and executive dysfunction, so I thought I’d post it here too.

I often run out of social energy, and I wanted a way to let people know where I'm at without the dread of explaining myself every single time.

It's completely free, there are no ads, and you don't even need an email to sign up (just a username and password). I don't collect, sell, or use any personal data, and there are no marketing trackers. However, because I built this as a solo hobby project using free-tier tools, the infrastructure relies on Vercel for hosting and Google's Firebase for the database, which do standard server-side logging. I just want to be upfront about that for the privacy-conscious folks here!

What it does and how it works:

Real-time energy sharing: You update your battery level, and friends you connect with can see it instantly. No guessing games.
Anonymous Buddies: If you don't want to share with your friends, you can pair up with an anonymous user to keep an eye on each other’s energy and offer quiet support. Sometimes it can be comforting just to know that someone else is feeling the exact same way as you.

Weekly Vibes: It charts your levels over the week so you can actually notice patterns in when you usually crash.
Nudges and streaks: There’s an optional daily reminder to help you check in with yourself (easy to forget otherwise) and a streak counter if you like that kind of dopamine kick.
Home screen shortcut (PWA): You can install it straight to your phone screen, like a real app, so it doesn't get lost in your 50 open browser tabs.
The "Coffee?" button: A quick way to nudge a friend when you're both actually feeling social, skipping the exhausting back-and-forth planning.

I’m just trying to see if this is a tool that actually resonates with people or helps make socializing a bit less overwhelming. Would love to hear your thoughts or any feedback on it!

Link: [https://socialbattery.space/]

My wife is huge fan of media that takes place in the 1800s, and while watching shows like Little House on the Prairie, Dr. Quinn, or the various Yellowstone prequels, I started thinking about living in those times, and specifically, living with ADHD.

I don't know if this is necessary but: I'm not trying to insult or shame here. We all know that we have challenges, and whatever comes after this, or possibly in the comments, is just assumptions on what these challenges looked like through the lens of your typical person in the 1800s.

That being said, I suspect that there wasn't a lot of successful ADHDers in history.

Imagine living out on the prairie, and animals need fed and milked daily. The crops need planted by a certain time in order to to be ready for harvest, but not too early that they'll frost and die, and they also need frequent attention. A trip to your neighbors takes twenty minutes and going into town takes two hours. Preparing a complicated meal can be an all day process, and not even basic meals can be tossed together in less than an hour. No refrigeration means no stocking up on perishables, and leftovers are only good for a few hours. And to top it all off, nobody has ever heard of ADHD, let alone any medication, therapy or understanding for it.

Thinking about myself in those situations, I'd especially miss my phone: Reminders, calendars, alarms, being able to look back at what was said in a email or text conversation, and being able to pay my bills or check my bank account the moment I think about them, no matter where I am. I feel like I'd be lost and forgetting everything all the time.

Makes me wonder if the cliche Town Drunk character has ADHD. Chasing dopamine and is able to get by well enough that he can buy his booze and a bed to sleep in, but he's never really able to keep his shit together long enough to get any further ahead.

Not sure where I intended the conversation to go, but it was something I was thinking about, and I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts on the topic. Could you have survived in the 1800s? Are there any careers that ADHD might have been helpful, or at least not as debilitating?

Super exhausted now. Some of the failed (red) tasks were crucial and are really going to bite me in the arse, and I didn't even get half a day for a relaxing walk or something. 0 income generated, 0 rest, just catching up at least 80 % on general life stuff. Had to skip all work-out, too (usually 3x per week).

So here is my "routine":

• snooze the alarm and can't get out of bed for 25 minutes
• protein shake, Lisdexamfetamine immediately
• usually guarana / black tea right after
• sit down and wait for the kick - but that takes an awfully long time!
  • managed to avoid dopaminergic things like doomscrolling while waiting
  • often watch a show as a compromise, though
  • manage todos, like even starting the list for the day helps a lot when the kick comes
  • start drinking a lot (no caffeine) within ~10 minutes, fast fill-up 1l, then slow down

A faster way is to take the meds immediately with water only, or even in bed, but it doesn't last as long as with the protein shake. Maybe a mix of both would work, like meds on empty stomach, but then protein shake and food 10 minutes later?

Showering works great for some reason, but I lately prefer an occasional bath at night. Is it the "thinking time" with no screens and the simple routine?

I just need to vent a bit...

I've been on meds for ~ 1 year with mixed results. I've been trying to implement new habits and tools that help me cope with ADHD. There's been some improvement not as much as I'd hoped.

My relationship has taken severe damage from me having ADHD and the conflicts this has caused in my marriage. My partner would so much want (and need) a partner who is reliable and dependable and can take care of stuff on their own, and actually takes care of stuff. Meaning: When I say I'm gonna do something I'm gonna do it and do it right. And I'm gonna know what and when something needs to be done without my partner having to tell me first.

I feel like I'm trying to swim with a weight tied to my feet and it's so hard to stay afloat. Every day feels like a struggle where I'm paddling paddling paddling and once I stop I start forgetting stuff again and things get bad.

I also know that my partner would have wanted to have kids and for a while I was open to the idea but now, after realizing I have ADHD and how much of a struggle it is I feel like life is already hard, why would I add another factor to my life that makes everything even harder?

And then I often feel myself falling into a downward spiral. My partner should be with someone else... someone who is a "real adult", someone they can rely on, someone who gives them a feeling of security... Not someone where it feels like (their actual words) being with a teenager or having a child instead of a partner.

I'm in psychotherapy to help me get rid of this negativity but it's still so long till my next session and I just needed to vent a bit. For a while I thought I was making good progress but now I feel like nothing much has changed, not really.

I've been on slow-release methylphenidate for a while but I feel conflicted about whether or not it's right for me.

I was prescribed 1x10mg for a week and then my dose was increased to 1x20mg. After I noticed that I experience quite a drop in the afternoon, I was prescribed 2x20mg.

On the plus side:

• It's so much easier to get started with things and keep going
• Responsibilities feel less scary and doing chores or errands becomes almost an activity I enjoy

But then, there are also things that feel good but also weird me out a bit:

• In some aspects, I feel almost like a different person. For example, when I'm off my meds I don't really want to have children. I feel no desire to have any and because life already feels like a constant struggle with ADHD I feel that overall I'd rather not have kids. But when I'm on my meds, I suddenly feel like this super chill, "proper adult" who takes care of shit and almost craves responsibility and starts seeing the beautiful side of having kids.
• I feel "emotionally fearless", in that I find it a lot easier to face emotionally difficult things or conversations.

I kinda feel like the meds turn me into a better version of myself and it's kinda scary, because (a) I notice that I want to feel like this ALL THE TIME and start craving my meds beyond my daily dose. And (b) it makes me wonder who I really am? Am I really the person that I am on my meds but due to my ADHD brain I can't be that person without my meds? Or are the meds pushing me up on some artificial higher level that feels nice but isn't "real"?

And then, there are some negative effects:

• Sometimes, when I want to do or focus on a specific task and can't due it because something else came up, I become irritated because I WANT TO DO THAT TASK NOW.
• On some days the meds don't seem to work at all which causes me to feel irritated as well, because I WANT TO FEEL GOOD and why aren't they working.

I've tried talking to my doc about this but he barely has any time, appointments are usually 10 mins and that's it. He's covered by insurance and so has a ton of patients. I've now scheduled an appointment with a private doctor. Much more expensive but I feel like I need someone who takes their time and really listens to what I'm experiencing.

And I just wanted to vent a bit about feeling confused. If anyone has any helpful input, I'd appreciate hearing it <3