Adult ADHD support thread

[Completmentfille]

Hi,

I was diagnosed with combined type ADHD last year at the grand old age of 30 and am medicated. Medication very much helps but I still struggle with lots of things day to day, and lockdown has not helped.

I just wondered if there were any more of us about and if a support thread would be helpful?

[IamTomHanks]

I was diagnosed at 35 (5 years ago). Medication does help, but lockdown certainly doesn't. Too many other things in the house to distract myself with. I need to be in an office environment.

[BertieBotts]

Joining. Just to warn you though these threads never last very long because we all get distracted and forget to post after a while :o

I need to call my doctor and make an appointment for a medication review. I'm going to ask about trying a different one because everything seems to be going wrong for me at the moment.

[Completmentfille]

Just to warn you though these threads never last very long because we all get distracted and forget to post after a while

I literally thought of that as I pressed post

I need to be in an office environment.

I loathe offices. I've worked from home for 5 years. I still do everything at the last minute though.

[BeeFarseer]

Joining. Recently diagnosed with inattentive type. Currently unmedicated, but not through lack of trying.

[Completmentfille]

What meds are people on? I'm on elvanse.

[ReindeersAreBetterThanHumans]

Trying to get diagnosed as we speak.

[Completmentfille]

Currently unmedicated, but not through lack of trying.

I had to go private to get my meds. GP wasn't interested because I'd done well academically.

[Gingernaut]

Diagnosed at 49 with ADHD-PI (ADD) - 52 now and still trying to learn more about the condition and coping strategies.

Time blindness is a bummer.

[Completmentfille]

I struggle with lots of "typical" ADHD things but less so with others

EG I don't struggle with punctuality. I'm never late. If anything I have the opposite - if I know I've got to be somewhere at a certain time I hyperfocus on it and can't concentrate on anything else.

However I am terribly disorganised at work, leave everything til the last minute, miss deadlines, make stupid careless mistakes, lose everything (I'm on my fourth debit card this year).

I suffer terribly with impatience. I feel like the world moves too slowly for me.

[IamTomHanks]

@Completmentfille

What meds are people on? I'm on elvanse.

Concerta 30 MG for me.

[Completmentfille]

I tried concerta at first because it was cheaper and I pay for my meds privately, but it just didn't agree with me

[Completmentfille]

Bumping!

[Nosnogginginthekitchen]

My 8 year old was diagnosed early this year. Ever since I've started learning more about it I've been suspecting I have it. Probably the ADD rather than the combined he has. I daydream a lot, always have. Madly creative, about 14 different hobbies, do about a hundred different chores on the way to put a wash on, can only work to deadlines, will stay up until 4am to get something finished if I'm in hyperfocus mode and what a PP said about impatience and the world moving too slowly - omg YES! Plus organisation is a constant struggle and I am often late despite my very best efforts. Especially when also trying to organise the 8 year old.

I'm self employed and obvs wfh but I hate it. I get distracted and I'm an extrovert so I miss people so badly.

I am constantly seeking distraction and escape. It's been my main coping method through lockdown.

So no diagnosis, but can I join?

[Completmentfille]

Please join!! I def get the world moving too slowly. It drives me mad.

[Blibbyblobby]

Joining because I suspect I may have ADD.

When I read people with ADD or ADHD's stories I think "I do that! Wait - doesn't everyone do that?"

I'm hoping through lurking to get a sense for whether I'm projecting neurotypical frustrations onto a situation that's quite different or recognising ADD traits in myself.

[IamTomHanks]

@Completmentfille

I tried concerta at first because it was cheaper and I pay for my meds privately, but it just didn't agree with me

My only side effect is a stiff jaw. Otherwise it's good.

[Completmentfille]

Blibbyblobby

Many NT people will have one or two ADHD traits. It's all a spectrum. The diagnosis comes 1) when you have multiple ADHD traits and (2) how much they affect your day to day life. For an ADHD diagnosis to be made, you have to have had them since childhood (though they may have changed slightly in adulthood), and they must cause problems across more than one area of your life - so work, home, education etc.

[Completmentfille]

My main ADHD symptoms on the basis of which I was diagnosed are:

• Leaving absolutely everything til the last minute - eg my dissertation was started the day before it was due, I stayed up all night to finish it and handed it in at 10am exactly (the deadline)
• Not being able to focus on anything - can't sit through a film without doing something else at the same time
• I love to read but I "skim read" and consequently get through books at lightning speed. If I'm into a book I will ignore everything else to read it and try to get through it as quickly as possible to find out what happens.
• Extreme impatience and intolerance to waiting. As mentioned up thread, I feel like everything moves too slowly for me. I hate waiting in queues or just waiting in general, to the extent it makes me physically uncomfortable.
• A track record of starting hobbies and then dropping them abruptly when I get bored.
• Getting bored extremely easily
• making stupid mistakes at work because I'm not paying attention or rushing, particularly with numbers
• fidgeting - in my case, foot tapping, hand chewing, skin picking, legs jigging
• hyperactivity but in thought rather than movement - can't switch my brain off
• tendency to hyperfocus on TV shows, films, pieces of music and then lose interest abruptly. EG I'll obsessively watch the same TV series over and over again, seek out fan fiction, read all about it, before abruptly getting bored with it and basically never thinking about it again. This was once wrongly diagnosed as OCD.
• Not listening when spoken to directly - I always glaze over - and interrupting people because I hate waiting for them to finish.

I'm sure there are others!!!

[Nosnogginginthekitchen]

@Completmentfille

My main ADHD symptoms on the basis of which I was diagnosed are:

• Leaving absolutely everything til the last minute - eg my dissertation was started the day before it was due, I stayed up all night to finish it and handed it in at 10am exactly (the deadline)
• Not being able to focus on anything - can't sit through a film without doing something else at the same time
• I love to read but I "skim read" and consequently get through books at lightning speed. If I'm into a book I will ignore everything else to read it and try to get through it as quickly as possible to find out what happens.
• Extreme impatience and intolerance to waiting. As mentioned up thread, I feel like everything moves too slowly for me. I hate waiting in queues or just waiting in general, to the extent it makes me physically uncomfortable.
• A track record of starting hobbies and then dropping them abruptly when I get bored.
• Getting bored extremely easily
• making stupid mistakes at work because I'm not paying attention or rushing, particularly with numbers
• fidgeting - in my case, foot tapping, hand chewing, skin picking, legs jigging
• hyperactivity but in thought rather than movement - can't switch my brain off
• tendency to hyperfocus on TV shows, films, pieces of music and then lose interest abruptly. EG I'll obsessively watch the same TV series over and over again, seek out fan fiction, read all about it, before abruptly getting bored with it and basically never thinking about it again. This was once wrongly diagnosed as OCD.
• Not listening when spoken to directly - I always glaze over - and interrupting people because I hate waiting for them to finish.

I'm sure there are others!!!

I could have written this. Word for word.

[Nosnogginginthekitchen]

I can't watch TV without knitting, crochet, playing a game on my phone, stroking the cat, stroking a child's hair - something other than what I'm actually doing.

Is it worth me seeking diagnosis? What does it give you other than a sense of relief that it's not just everyone else being better at adult information and that it really is harder for you?

[Nosnogginginthekitchen]

*'adult information' should be 'adulting'

[Completmentfille]

What does it give you other than a sense of relief that it's not just everyone else being better at adult information and that it really is harder for you?

Can't speak for everyone but for me I felt like it validated my whole life and so many things just suddenly made sense to me.

And the medication was life changing.

[Completmentfille]

It also helped with my MH conditions as it basically turned out that the anxiety and depression I'd suffered my whole life were a byproduct of untreated, undiagnosed ADHD.

[explorerdog]

@Completmentfille

My main ADHD symptoms on the basis of which I was diagnosed are:

• Leaving absolutely everything til the last minute - eg my dissertation was started the day before it was due, I stayed up all night to finish it and handed it in at 10am exactly (the deadline)
• Not being able to focus on anything - can't sit through a film without doing something else at the same time
• I love to read but I "skim read" and consequently get through books at lightning speed. If I'm into a book I will ignore everything else to read it and try to get through it as quickly as possible to find out what happens.
• Extreme impatience and intolerance to waiting. As mentioned up thread, I feel like everything moves too slowly for me. I hate waiting in queues or just waiting in general, to the extent it makes me physically uncomfortable.
• A track record of starting hobbies and then dropping them abruptly when I get bored.
• Getting bored extremely easily
• making stupid mistakes at work because I'm not paying attention or rushing, particularly with numbers
• fidgeting - in my case, foot tapping, hand chewing, skin picking, legs jigging
• hyperactivity but in thought rather than movement - can't switch my brain off
• tendency to hyperfocus on TV shows, films, pieces of music and then lose interest abruptly. EG I'll obsessively watch the same TV series over and over again, seek out fan fiction, read all about it, before abruptly getting bored with it and basically never thinking about it again. This was once wrongly diagnosed as OCD.
• Not listening when spoken to directly - I always glaze over - and interrupting people because I hate waiting for them to finish.

I'm sure there are others!!!

Oh my god! This is me in a nutshell.

[Blibbyblobby]

@Completmentfille

My main ADHD symptoms on the basis of which I was diagnosed are:

Thank you, that's really helpful. I appreciate this isn't about me but I nodded to every single one! It's hard to say if the traits are significant enough to affect my life because I'm pretty successful and found a niche where context switching and bouts of hyperfocus are valued, but I have a sense of self-sabotage and making things harder for myself by making them complicated enough to hold my focus. (Plus on the personal side, interruption and inattention are not endearing qualities )

I will be lurking with interest.