Adhd in women, meds

[Yumchips]

Hi,
Has anyone been diagnosed as an adult and did medication help? Currently 20 weeks pregnant so not considering taking it now but am keen to see how it can help, especially as I return to work after mat leave. Thank you!

My friend did but he's male. His performance in life went up a thousand percent. To such an extent that he was able to start his own drama school and run it successfully. Previous to that he had a hard time waking up for an appointment!

That's great to know! Makes me want to take th meds right now!!

Yes they help so much! I started a degree, got a good job and completed so many projects I'd never have done before.

I'm off my meds now as I'm also pregnant. I feel so zoned out, it's nice in a way but studying and working is much, much harder. Good luck if you do go for a consultation x

I'm awaiting an assessment. Watching this thread with interest.

Thanks for the responses, very heartening. I get private medical through work and have just put in a request to find out how to get an assessment for ADHD (fingers crossed it's included). I hope it's not a long process but I'll update once I get further with it.

@Givemepickles thanks for your response. I just wondered what you are taking and if you have stopped because it's unsafe to take whilst pregnant or you just had a preference not to? Did you also have any therapy or CBT to learn new coping mechanisms etc? Hope you didn't mind the questions.

It’s absolutely life changing. I can’t explain how different things are.

I was diagnosed in May 2021 and after 12 weeks' titration I have settled on 90mg Xaggitin XL which I take mostly on work days. It's the strangest feeling - I couldn't tell you that I feel better/worse in any particular way, but I'm just so much more effective without feeling like I'm doing much differently. I think it's enabled me to just get on with life without the constant time-paralysis and circular thinking. It's been great.

[quote Yumchips]@Givemepickles thanks for your response. I just wondered what you are taking and if you have stopped because it's unsafe to take whilst pregnant or you just had a preference not to? Did you also have any therapy or CBT to learn new coping mechanisms etc? Hope you didn't mind the questions.[/quote]
I take Medikinet which is the off-brand version of Ritalin. I like the instant release ones and take it 3x throughout the day.

I read quite a lot of the current research into it before stopping. It's likely safe in pregnancy, especially at a low dose but there haven't been any specific trials involving pregnant women. Most research has come from women who abuse the medication as drugs or who just didn't stop taking their meds but there's no control group for that. For me, I decided to try without for the first trimester and go back on it if I really need to after that.

Not had any therapy (I mean NHS, so obviously it's not available!) but I watch YouTube videos and listened to a bunch of podcasts that helped. But the medicine really makes the difference to be honest. Bullet journalling is the other main thing that's helped massively and the guy who invented it has ADHD. it's really simplified my life.

Thanks everyone, super helpful responses! I've had therapy now for 18 months and I think it's given me enough coping mechanisms but still feel low energy/low motivation which is sapping. Really interested to explore if meds can make any difference for me. Fingers crossed!

Going to look into bullet journalling today!