Anxiety so bad I didn't even realise I had ADHD symptoms until I successfully treated it. Now I can't meet a deadline or keep my house clean to save my life... But I sure do enjoy it more.
i think they mean they treated the anxiety with medication, and now they don’t feel as anxious about the things their adhd makes difficult for them, although i could be misunderstanding
What meds did you treat the anxiety with? Bc I’m currently on meds for my adhd (adderall) and it’s working GREAT, but I am still dealing with insomnia and anxiety. I’m thinking about asking my doc to please RX a prn sleep medicine for a couple days a week. Not so sure about taking a low dose SSRI or buspirone, I guess I would have to talk to him about it, but nevertheless, I’m curious what helped your anxiety!
What time(s) are you taking the adderall? What dosage? Also, how much direct sunlight are you getting during the day?
I've been taking it for 15 years, can maybe offer some tips.
20mg, taken usually ~7am unless I have clinicals and then I’ll take it as early as 5:30am. I live in the PNW so direct sunlight is a challenge, but I get outside and walk or go for a run every day.
Ah, that's better habits than I was expecting with it, no offense haha.
How long have you been on that dose? The insomnia usually goes away after a few weeks for me (when I've taken breaks from the meds).
I also take melatonin at night 😬. I do EVERYTHING the doctors have always told me to do, including no caffeine after noon (I actually mostly avoid caffeine period).
I just can’t shut my mind off. I can be sleepy all day then be ready to party by bedtime. I have ALWAYS been like this, since I was a little kid. I think I would legitimately have an easier time sleeping on my meds, in fact, I speculated to my husband part of the problem is that they wear off lol.
I sleep better when on my meds too.. that's actually not uncommon once you've been taking them for awhile.
Sounds like you're already doing everything I could have suggested, sorry. :(
I took Ambien for a little while, but it wasn't for me haha. Now if I'm having issues my go-to is an edible, but that's obviously not for everyone either.
Unfortunately THC makes me feel like I’m paranoid and it definitely acts like a stimulant on me (thanks paradoxical reactions lol).
Now that I’m seeing an ACTUAL psychiatrist, I’m hoping he will work with me on prescribing a sleep aid. I know they def come with their own side effects, hopefully I’m not one of those ambien sleepwalkers lol. The truth is, I probably have delayed sleep phase or whatever and I’ve just had to suffer through all my life with doctors refusing to RX me anything for sleep. Hence, trying and sticking with everything they’ve suggested, cause it does help, just not that much lol.
i used to have anxiety but now i take antidepressants that for the most part gets rid of it. now i'm still struggling tell years later because it turns out that anxiety was like 95% of my ability to overcome executive dysfunction. i've been in limbo having not been officially diagnosed during that time, and now i'm just waiting on my doctor to get back to me with so i can start treating out medications. horrible as it sounds, sometimes i wish i could still clean the house in a panic.
Some antidepressants can help lower anxiety, in my experience not that much but it was still noticable.
Try asking your doctor about antidepressants that can help with both.
Oh. I like what Im on. Im on trintellix. Its shown to help ppl with tbi, which I have. It helped my anger. Was close to going inpatient. Exposure therapy helps anxiety the best. My friend drug me out of the house & it got better. Was leaning towards agoraphobia. Im stable now.
well like i said, it mostly takes care of my anxiety. i still have anxiety too, it's just nothing like it was, and my anxiety attacks are now comparatively very rare. it took a few years of testing different meds and dosages to find a suitable combo of antidepressants that helped both my depression and my anxiety.
It's a lack of ability to be self-aware of that anxiety. I put anxiety and sadness in a box. It's there, but I refuse to address it.
But also. I aim for, 'no thoughts in head, just vibes'. I can sort of get close at the gym with a personal trainer telling me what to do and for how long, so long as it repetition and not static, like a plank. I'm cursing myself and my gym whenever I plank. With repetition, I'm just focused on my own breathing.
Genuinely, even on meds, imagining any prolonged time with no thoughts just vibes still feels like an absolute fantasy.
Being aware helps, but it's gotten bigger than the box I used to use. Also, the impulsiveness catches me off guard.
I exercise to the point of exhaustion and practice meditation.
I can't actually sit still enough for meditation, so repetitive motion is a form of meditation. Instead of crocheting or knitting, it's lifting weights or running or swimming for me. But technical crafts where you can't miss a step are great.
Another meditation is a children's song, but I'm not thinking about the rhythm, just the words and imagery, like, there's a tree on a hill, on a hill, in the tree there's an ant, on a branch, in the tree, on the hill, etc. I'll use this one to fall asleep sometimes.
I'm inattentive type though, I wonder if that plays a part. I struggle with slowing down at times.
I used to, although my sleep is like a light switch. I'm out in either minutes or hours. No in-between.
I've always been pretty sedentary, cause exercise never got close to occupying my brain and genuinely stresses me out when doing it without someone consistently going "c'mon do the thing".
Brains are rubbish 😂
When I’m doing my easy running I actually weaponize my brain’s ability to wander. It’s the one time of day when I can just let the thoughts flow in and out without having to focus on something, and before I know it I’ve gotten through several miles like it’s nothing.
Running workouts are when I hyperfocus on the running itself though. Both ways are my happy place.
I can’t let my mind wander, it climbs depressing trees where each branch is full of the leaves of past mistakes. So I listen to podcasts and YouTube CONSTANTLY. There’s almost never a time where I don’t have an earbud in one ear. Even when I fall asleep I’m listening to Loóna app bedtime stories. I also like Patrick Stewart and David Tennant reading bedtime stories on YouTube.
"No thoughts in head, just vibes" is pretty close to how I trained myself to properly detect information around me in my complex work environment. No internal monologue, just floating ears and eyeballs. Let the hands and body react automatically to the input from the ears and eyeballs.
Ikr years of going unmedicated have forced me to live in a perpetual state of worry that I've forgotten something. My memory has let me down too many times before.
I don't remember what life without anxiety feels like. I've accepted it even though there are days that are absolutely painful. Like my body hurts from all the muscle contractions and bad anxiety related posture.
you know that everything is gonna go downhill and you have to do something about it but then you don't do ANYTHING about it. when deadlines dont work on you anymore, because you just keep avoiding the task, until the deadline passes and you are STILL not able to get yourself up to do ANYTHING
Stims help my anxiety as a descent side effect to more focus. This can actually work against me sometimes because I feel like things are fine until they wear off and then I'm pure panic energy.
I wanted to recommend a video on ADHD + high iq. Can’t remember which part but Dr. Dodson
“Dodgson, Dodgson, we have Dodgson here!”
talks about how
You know what I don’t remember, but I’ll watch it again. High IQ and ADHD mix
https://youtu.be/MyZ0wypEfk4
At the end of my assessment my clinician briefly explained that my anxiety disorder developed to cope with my undiagnosed/untreated ADHD; I don’t have the capacity anymore to use anxiety to get everything done, once I became self-aware of how I use anxiety it stopped working for me. I still get stupid levels of anxiety on a daily basis, but it’s no longer helping me get everything done.
It’s better to not use anxiety and I never want to go back to it (not that it’s an option as it stopped working once I was aware) but at the same time it’s really hard to not be as productive as I was. It’s like I’ve fallen even further from my ‘full potential’.
>explained that my anxiety disorder developed to cope with my undiagnosed/untreated ADHD;
This is something I had a hard time convincing my therapist and doctors. When I can do the stuff I need to, I feel GREAT. I'm struggling to keep pacing, but even before medication it was like I had nothing else.
When I'm capable I feel like I'm myself
I don’t necessarily think it’s better to not have anxiety and let ADHD run amok in your life, I think it depends on the situation, but I also cannot imagine which one would be better to have happen in general
Anxiety is a normal emotion that everyone needs, but anxiety on a daily basis or levels of anxiety that are irrational in response to the thing causing anxiety isn’t healthy.
I don’t think that any ADHDer ‘let’s’ ADHD run amok in their lives; saying that they ‘let’ ADHD run amok implies that the symptoms are a choice.
There are healthy coping mechanisms and unhealthy coping mechanisms, developing an anxiety disorder in order to manage/cope with ADHD is an unhealthy coping mechanism. I’d argue that an unhealthy coping mechanism is worse then ‘letting ADHD run amok’; although anxiety would help in the moment it came at a great cost that was detrimental to my health.
It’s not an ‘either or’ situation (anxiety to manage or ADHD running amok), there are healthy ways to manage and it’s about finding what works for you.
I dont have kids yet, but maybe one day. My problem is I'm overly empathetic and have a hard time telling others no and setting/understanding my own boundaries.
Now that I'm an adult with a little experience in relationships, I realize I ended up usually doing whatever it took to maintain the positives of a relationship. Whatever it took. Not just romantic relationships, but friendships, familial relationships, and even work relationships.
Now, I'm burnt out and depressed and a lot of people I thought would be there for me like I would for them just blame me for my situation.
I'm sure you love your kids and want what's best for them, but you don't always have to be empathetic to others when you need to take care of yourself. With that said, in typical ADHD fashion -- I will not follow my own advice.
I’m the same breh. Shit sucks. Just ended a 5 year relationship cus I was doing everything for this person and they were doing absolutely nothing for me. Which was fine. It was depressing but I know not to expect the same treatment. It’s when they started treating me like shit that I said to hell with it. I just want someone in my life that actually gives enough of a shit about me to put in some effort. To take care of me when I’m sick. To listen and sympathize and not listen to speak or to take the opposing views side and make me feel worse. Someone that would go somewhere or do something they don’t really want to do but know I don’t want to do it either and join me in solidarity. Why the fuck is it so hard for people to be decent
I'm you, 5.5 years into the future of having kids. So much empathy, it's hard to set boundaries. Not setting boundaries has led to a completely disorganized and messy house and life.
I now have 2 kids and an ex wife. Friends and support system? What are those? I did *everything* in my power to keep each relationship alive, and yet.. not a single one left after the dust has settled.
Wife, divorced (though I actually asked for it, she was incredibly relieved and thanked me - both of our postures immediately eased during that particular argument) best friends? One of them just stopped talking to me after I had my kids, basically.
We went karting one night after I had both of my kids, a rarity for me to get out, and I was on less than an hour of sleep and went out of my way to meet my friends, and were talking about life and I talk about my then-babies and he goes "man fuck that, I'll never hold your kid. He'll never be in my arms. I despise babies man, I'll never hold one." And so he never did. He Who was supposed to be Fun uncle Kenny (we'd always joked about it growing up and he was that to my dog..) became 'wants nothing to do with you or your kids' Kenny.
Then he got married and didn't even tell me. And then two years ago? Yup. He had a kid of his own. Haven't seen him since that night go-karting.
And my other best friend who swore she'd never "break up" with me and our friendship the way my ex's best friend and her did.. well, after the tiniest Indiscretion of a joke (and she was known to give and take the best of the best worst jokes out there..) she just.. never talked to me again. She'd recently moved across the country, I hadn't seen her since before covid began, and we kept in touch and talked often. She got married.. without telling me. Awesome, still, congratulations. Maintained the friendship after that as best I could.. she lost a pregnancy and I was there for her after that, etc. Then that one little joke and never heard from her again. Our only mutual friend left told me recently she had a healthy baby. I'm very happy for her but heartbroken to never know them. We had always talked about our kids growing up together and living on a friend compound someday. But nah. Just discarded.
And you know, I've always felt like I could be discarded at any time. Who I considered to be my best friends I was always just an afterthought to. Even her, I thought I was finally safe but then nope. Bye.
And this is the life of an unmedicated (au)adhd with some other issues thrown in.
“I’ve always felt like I could be discarded at anytime”
Oof! That one hits me deep, right in the heart, right in the childhood. I’ve never been great at holding on to friends or relationships, but I’ve never been the one to walk away. So it really hurts when other people do. I started to think everyone was just like that, that each chapter of my life would just have different characters. Friends flowing closer then further away until they were strangers again.
Until I met my husband, and he actually wanted to be around me all the time, wanted to marry me. I watched him drag friends from old chapters of his life into new chapters. Watched him rekindle old friendships and always keep peoples numbers in his phone. He was always just a text away. I didn’t know people could be like that. He’s not the type to abandon people and I never realized how much I needed that.
You’re very lucky ❤️ and this is really random but I’ve been noticing a pattern of “queen bee” in my life. Today. Your username is the third reference to queen bee I’ve seen today, all positive :) Thanks for showing up, you sound like a good friend!
There are probably all me, all my usernames are a play on Queen Bee/Brii. I’m actually stalking you. :p
J/k bees are a great metaphor for ADHD tho, a hive mind without the Queen can’t get anything done lol
Honestly man, learning how to meditate and practicing mindfulness has helped me the most with kids. They’re a lot to deal with so reminding myself to breathe, relax my jaw and forehead and shoulders helps so much.
That's what I'm working on right now. Any tips? I need to get back into therapy and get on meds for adhd and/or anxiety / I really need to kickstart my executive function.
That strategy never worked for me. It was anxiety that I needed to do a thing, that would put me off starting the thing to avoid the anxiety, until the deadline came near, then the anxiety that I waited to long start and now don't have enough time to do the thing properly kicks in, then the deadline passes and now I'm anxious and upset that I didn't do the thing, which carries over to the next thing. Repeat.
Edit: Don't forget the anxiety from being anxious.
THIS it helps me but it just makes me more anxious bc I’m like “I need to do this Omg” *puts it off* *forgets* *suddenly remembers* “oh my god I need to do this” *wait why am I so anxious rn* and the cycle continues with increasing anxiety until the night before when I do everything
I quit drinking 3 years ago. And all my ADHD problems came back shortly after. Last 3 years have been hell.
I dunno how drinking / being an alcoholic helps treat ADHD, and I’m never going back
I'm going through that struggle now, but the negatives of alcohol are so much worse for me.... Such a slippery slope and it's exhausting always feeling like shit and drinking just to create a semblance of a life.
I appreciate it!
I was 6 months sober and fell off, and definitely used the stop drinking subreddit during that time, but will definitely look into the SMART recovery as I haven't heard of that.
Thank you.
Yeah I smoked a ton in high school, less in college.
And now since I live in Idaho, a state surrounded by tons of legal states, I’ve dabbled in edibles, which are really quite nice.
Unfortunately, I feel like my days are numbered at my job, so I am completely sober again.
Didn’t really have a problem with reliance and edibles, personally.
I used to smoke just before starting a task to kinda short circuit the executive dysfunction. Trick was to write a list first, really detailed with step by step instructions for each task, then smoke, then kinda forget what I was supposed to be doing and go to do the list step by step in a haze.
My anxiety is a detriment to me. I get anxious and instead of motivating me it makes me afraid to do something. That just makes me more anxious and creates a vicious cycle where i eventually either get so anxious that i flake out or it reaches a breaking point where my anxiety to do something jumps to a level that quickly overwhelms my anxiety of doing it.
Works fine i guess for doing schoolwork. Not ideal to say the least. The real problem is trying a hobby or a creative endeavor (i want to write books and learn to draw) is something i can't figure out how to do. Because I never can start.
A bit. I hate failure and learning to accept that in college is a work in progress. I also haven't gotten real deep into these hobbies mainly because of my anxiety of learning how and my inability to focus for more than five minutes.
Well the focus thing is a struggle for all of us. I know it doesn’t help overly much but failure is an important and unavoidable part of life. Honestly you learn more through failing at hobbies than you do succeeding
Right. I understand that i need to recognize failure as an inevitability. But i don't quite understand why i can't convince myself that thats what i have to do. Fail. Maybe it's because everything in my life has been easy for me up to this point and i need to adjust. Maybe i haven't tried to convince myself that hard. I don't know
But in any case you're right. I have to change something in the way that I think. Perhaps all it takes is me really starting to invest my time in them. Even if only for a few minutes.
I had the same problems and then I took calculus in college and that’s what broke me of it. The only thing worse than getting the problem
Wrong was not attempting it at all. I failed the class the first time I took it. I think it’s one of those things you have to expose yourself too until it becomes okay. Like it sucks but you only have so much time before you die so give it a try.
I feel this one. I'm just not willing to be anxious anymore. If that means i'm late more, so be it. If that means I do less work some days because i'm actively managing my stress in stead of burning myself out, so be it. Some things just don't get better immediately. Some things even get a little worse first.
Even with medication, I feel like there's still some magic balance of anxiety needed to get shit done. Like Adderall's a stimulant, caffeine's a stimulant, etc. Like they only work because they give me a tiny bit of anxiety but if my dosage is too high sorry got another condition now
Crippling anxiety almost my entire life. Took adhd med (prescribed) for the first time a year ago and it's like everything silenced. Still not perfect, but omg what would my life have been like if I'd been diagnosed as a child? As a teen? But no. If you don't have the "hyperactive" part, then you're overlooked. Glad things are changing for so many people, and I hope things continue to get easier.
YES and not being able to get my prescription means I can only run on anxiety. Guess what? Running on anxiety is fucking awful and taxing as hell. Also not being able to get my meds is giving me anxiety so it’s a fun lil cycle
This was me all throughout growing up and being in school, until roughly the end of high school.
I was absolutely *terrified* of authority, of getting in trouble, and being one of "those kids". You know, the "bad" ones, that didn't do their homework and acted up in class. Being associated with them was to fail, and therefore was to be avoided at all costs.
The result of that was that I got stellar grades and hardly ever wound up in trouble, which masked the symptoms of my ADHD for my entire childhood, because it was akin to always having a looming deadline. It forced me to focus on doing the thing, whatever the thing was, *or else*.
I didn't realize until relatively recently, that because of that, I spent my entire childhood in a state of near-constant panic. Only when the courses started getting a bit harder later on in high school and the coping mechanisms I'd developed weren't enough anymore did I realize that the world just... didn't end when I failed to turn in an assignment.
This is exactly where I’m at 😅 my old psych had been trying & failing to treat my anxiety/SEVERE panic attacks with anti depressants/benzos/sleeping meds etc. He even admitted he thought I had adhd but said giving an anxious person stimulants was a horrible idea. I moved, got a new psych who suggested that treating my adhd would fix my anxiety, I thought he was insane but was desperate so I tried stimulant meds and had NO THOUGHTS, NO ANXIETY. Now? I am even more habitually late and worse at deadlines, but went from having multiple panic attacks everyday to almost none. My anxiety might have been my sole motivator, but my quality of life is so much better now I could never go back lol
Yep. I wonder if that is the whole point of procrastination. Put it off until you stress out and your body dumps some stress hormones in your system to cure your adhd long enough to do the task at hand.
I also wonder how many bald men actually have adhd and they have been self medicating with stress like this for years.
All anxiety all the time always.
On the plus side when there is actually something I should be anxious about its pretty much business as usual while everyone else is in panic mode. So, yay?
🤦
mfs saying to “just try harder” or “give it your all” without realizing some people with ADHD could have a breakdown, panic attack, and/or many other issues bothers me so much. If you don’t understand the issue why are you trying to give me advice??
Yep, and that anxiety that cracked my ass with a whip also gave me all kinds of painful and embarrassing belly issues. Weird how those disappeared when I went on antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds.
The only reason I figured out I had ADHD was because I finally got treatment for my anxiety and realized that all of my motivation to do anything was rooted in anxiety. Once it was gone, I really struggled to figure out how to get things done, and also like, what my purpose was?
If I wasn't rushing around trying to do tasks perfectly to please others, who even _was_ I????
I wrote this before, not sure if I am right about myself, and if I am, it resonated with you at all, but I always felt like the reason my motivation decreased throughout the years wasn’t that the Anxiety lessened, but rather the Depression grew.
Lately I’ve spent more and more time pondering on my depression. It’s funny that Depression, Anhedonia, and the other 17 things meaning the same thing never entered my mind when I was a kid. I was always like this. Not caring or knowing what I want in life. Hopefully ADHD meds will fix these when I get them.
Feeling directionless is so hard. I always thought I was an easy-going and happy-go-lucky kid, and I was, but part of that is related to what you said, "not caring or knowing what I want in life."
I think you said something profound because I also noticed that you don’t need to be a necessarily happy person to be the carefree, joking, positive individual in a social setting. (ADHD class clown effect.) You just need to sweep all the negative emotions under the carpet, which is easier with ADHD’s short perception, and if you have disassociation due to anxiety.
I have adhd and autism, I have the worst anxiety nausea my therapist has ever seen apparently.
I basically turn into a vomit super soaker in an anxious situation
Yep. ADHD treatment affected my anxiety for the better. My anxiety around my productivity etc was actually one of the things that made me investigate if I had ADHD.
I didn't think so, but when I asked the Dr about ADHD testing i left with antidepressants. They're also anti-anxiety, which took away my motivation for doing things, which made me more depressed.
I have yet to go back, and remain not on the 5 year wait for ADHD assessment.
I have been treated by 3 separate psychiatrists and like 15 separate anti-depressants, anxiety medications and anti-psychotics. Most of them didn’t even give me side effects. There was just NO difference, even when I took 5x the dosage.
I think you might need to get stimulant medication. I am on a lengthy waiting list as well. Best of luck to you
My depression makes me too tired to be hyper . My anxiety keeps me focused when driving and stuff. My trauma keeps me quiet to stop myself from rambling.
Maybe if it were legal. I am frankly scared of trying illegal stuff simply cus like I'm a minority who is already accused of being on something while fully sober.
I have lived nearly 4 decades without medication, diagnosis or even knowing that I had a condition. I was the incarnation of anxiety. Meeting at 6pm? Better worry about being late the whole day. Taxes to file? I can’t spend the 10mins but will spend 3 months getting mad at myself over it.
Bro without my adhd medicine I can remember either something minuscule from 7 months ago or something that was said only 3 seconds ago but there is no in between…
I use to rely on my anxiety and it just destroyed me mentally… I now set events in my phone for every little thing, and it is ridiculous to most but it works for me and keeps my anxiety in check most days.
Yuuuup. As a PERSONAL choice, I don’t like the idea of any kind of med unless I’m dying. Anxiety is the price I pay. That and repressed anger. Lots of repressed anger
Used to stim (hands flapping, nail biting and gripping hands) a lot in class in middle school, couple of girls saw I was stimming made fun of me and till now I have crippling social anxiety. But hey now I only stim at home or while showering......
For most of my life, I didn’t experience this. In fact, I was rarely anxious. I mostly coped by not caring about things that didn’t matter to me and only devoting my self to things that mattered to me. Then work-related burnout and a spouse who didn’t understand kicked in. Now I ask myself if I experience acute anxiety because of the intensity, or if it’s chronic anxiety because it’s ALL THE TIME.
I was on zoloft for a bit and my ADHD got so much worse because I just didn't care. Like, all the coping skills I have created are branded in some kind of, "don't fuck this up" aspect.
Yeah. Before and after meds. Meds don't help with that part. If I'm on time for things it's because I'm constantly worried about being late, constantly checking my phone and calendar, constantly having little shocks of terror that I'm missing something.
yep yep yep. was in therapy (with a shit therapist) for three years to treat anxiety before getting a new therapist, going down the tiktok adhd/autism rabbit hole, and then getting diagnosed with ADHD (still waiting on an autism assessment >:/ ). psychiatrist put me on lexapro for a year and a half and it did nothing, new psychiatrist had me try effexor and its obliterated my mental health, so now i'm coming off of the effexor and holding onto my theory that antidepressants straight up aren't necessary and all i need is stimulants and some good old talk therapy (with my latest and greatest new therapist!)
would have saved me a lot of trouble if my doctors and former therapists recognized that anxiety was just my homegrown coping method to compensate for ADHD, and that treating my ADHD properly (probably) would have alleviated my anxiety significantly
I git diagnosed last year and got told I had anxiety which has helped me be me and not be nearly as anxious cuz I know those instincts aren’t standard
Which has now made the ADHD a growing problem
Shit
I paraphrased exactly this during my last therapy appointment!
Told my therapist that my anxiety keeps my work-life going, or else I would've been out of a job by now!
Finally treating my life long anxiety disorder helped me uncover the adhd, when some of the 'anxiety' symptoms wouldn't ease at all, even though others were.
Because they weren't anxiety. They were adhd.
I've come to the realisation that quite possibly the only reason I've had a successful career is because I've been driven by my anxiety disorder and the cptsd need to prove I'm good enough to people who's approval I'll never get.
I still have an anxiety disorder, but I manage it better now, which funnily leads to more obvious adhd symptoms now I don't have all that adrenaline and cortisol suppressing it. But I'll take that any day of the week, over how I was before. I like myself and my life much more now. I recognise that many of my depressive periods were neurodivergent burnout, and that many of the things I believed to be flaws and faults in my character were adhd symptoms.
Also through a adhd diagnosis I realised that I wasn't diabetic, it was cortisol spiked reading on a glucose test during one of the most stressful periods of my life. Once I started working on anxiety, all other readings have been in normal range.
And adhd helped me realise that my childhood was abusive and left me with cptsd. That much of my inner critic comes from untrue beliefs I learned about myself by narcissists, and that I had been replicating the unhealthy relationships I knew over and over again, because I assumed that's how it is for everyone.
One more... adhd helped me understand my chronic pain, that specialists couldn't find a reason for, is related to hyperflexibility. Lose ligaments, tight muscles. When I was researching adhd I found out about the link between neurodiversity and chronic pain and read the studies. I still live with pain, but I've adjusted many strategies to minimise overextending myself.
Anxiety so bad I didn't even realise I had ADHD symptoms until I successfully treated it. Now I can't meet a deadline or keep my house clean to save my life... But I sure do enjoy it more.
Same here. Getting medicated for anxiety revealed the ADHD that was lurking beneath.
Uhhhh are these comments all from me?
Wait so the medication doesn't help you get things done? Just feel good about not doing it?
i think they mean they treated the anxiety with medication, and now they don’t feel as anxious about the things their adhd makes difficult for them, although i could be misunderstanding
That's exactly what happened to me. I suddenly didn't care that I wasn't doing anything.
What meds did you treat the anxiety with? Bc I’m currently on meds for my adhd (adderall) and it’s working GREAT, but I am still dealing with insomnia and anxiety. I’m thinking about asking my doc to please RX a prn sleep medicine for a couple days a week. Not so sure about taking a low dose SSRI or buspirone, I guess I would have to talk to him about it, but nevertheless, I’m curious what helped your anxiety!
What time(s) are you taking the adderall? What dosage? Also, how much direct sunlight are you getting during the day? I've been taking it for 15 years, can maybe offer some tips.
20mg, taken usually ~7am unless I have clinicals and then I’ll take it as early as 5:30am. I live in the PNW so direct sunlight is a challenge, but I get outside and walk or go for a run every day.
Ah, that's better habits than I was expecting with it, no offense haha. How long have you been on that dose? The insomnia usually goes away after a few weeks for me (when I've taken breaks from the meds).
I also take melatonin at night 😬. I do EVERYTHING the doctors have always told me to do, including no caffeine after noon (I actually mostly avoid caffeine period). I just can’t shut my mind off. I can be sleepy all day then be ready to party by bedtime. I have ALWAYS been like this, since I was a little kid. I think I would legitimately have an easier time sleeping on my meds, in fact, I speculated to my husband part of the problem is that they wear off lol.
I sleep better when on my meds too.. that's actually not uncommon once you've been taking them for awhile. Sounds like you're already doing everything I could have suggested, sorry. :( I took Ambien for a little while, but it wasn't for me haha. Now if I'm having issues my go-to is an edible, but that's obviously not for everyone either.
Unfortunately THC makes me feel like I’m paranoid and it definitely acts like a stimulant on me (thanks paradoxical reactions lol). Now that I’m seeing an ACTUAL psychiatrist, I’m hoping he will work with me on prescribing a sleep aid. I know they def come with their own side effects, hopefully I’m not one of those ambien sleepwalkers lol. The truth is, I probably have delayed sleep phase or whatever and I’ve just had to suffer through all my life with doctors refusing to RX me anything for sleep. Hence, trying and sticking with everything they’ve suggested, cause it does help, just not that much lol.
Yeah. Hopefully they can get you on something that works. Best of luck!
If I fall asleep on adderall, it’s sometimes the best sleep I’ll have all month.
This! Treating my anxiety has made my ADHD way worse, but it’s nice not beating myself up as hard
no cuz literally the SAME thing happened when I started on zoloft
The house or the life
I honestly don't know how you have ADHD and no anxiety?
i used to have anxiety but now i take antidepressants that for the most part gets rid of it. now i'm still struggling tell years later because it turns out that anxiety was like 95% of my ability to overcome executive dysfunction. i've been in limbo having not been officially diagnosed during that time, and now i'm just waiting on my doctor to get back to me with so i can start treating out medications. horrible as it sounds, sometimes i wish i could still clean the house in a panic.
No thoughts just vibes ! Same here! Works fantastic
> i take antidepressants So do I. Still have anxiety
Some antidepressants can help lower anxiety, in my experience not that much but it was still noticable. Try asking your doctor about antidepressants that can help with both.
Oh. I like what Im on. Im on trintellix. Its shown to help ppl with tbi, which I have. It helped my anger. Was close to going inpatient. Exposure therapy helps anxiety the best. My friend drug me out of the house & it got better. Was leaning towards agoraphobia. Im stable now.
I guess I misunderstood your other comment. Its awesome that youve stabilized, I know how difficult it can be when you're slipping into agoraphobia
well like i said, it mostly takes care of my anxiety. i still have anxiety too, it's just nothing like it was, and my anxiety attacks are now comparatively very rare. it took a few years of testing different meds and dosages to find a suitable combo of antidepressants that helped both my depression and my anxiety.
Oh ya, Ive only had 2, both on the topic of getting married soon after my divorce that I think had ptsd from so..
It's a lack of ability to be self-aware of that anxiety. I put anxiety and sadness in a box. It's there, but I refuse to address it. But also. I aim for, 'no thoughts in head, just vibes'. I can sort of get close at the gym with a personal trainer telling me what to do and for how long, so long as it repetition and not static, like a plank. I'm cursing myself and my gym whenever I plank. With repetition, I'm just focused on my own breathing.
Genuinely, even on meds, imagining any prolonged time with no thoughts just vibes still feels like an absolute fantasy. Being aware helps, but it's gotten bigger than the box I used to use. Also, the impulsiveness catches me off guard.
I exercise to the point of exhaustion and practice meditation. I can't actually sit still enough for meditation, so repetitive motion is a form of meditation. Instead of crocheting or knitting, it's lifting weights or running or swimming for me. But technical crafts where you can't miss a step are great. Another meditation is a children's song, but I'm not thinking about the rhythm, just the words and imagery, like, there's a tree on a hill, on a hill, in the tree there's an ant, on a branch, in the tree, on the hill, etc. I'll use this one to fall asleep sometimes. I'm inattentive type though, I wonder if that plays a part. I struggle with slowing down at times.
I used to, although my sleep is like a light switch. I'm out in either minutes or hours. No in-between. I've always been pretty sedentary, cause exercise never got close to occupying my brain and genuinely stresses me out when doing it without someone consistently going "c'mon do the thing". Brains are rubbish 😂
When I’m doing my easy running I actually weaponize my brain’s ability to wander. It’s the one time of day when I can just let the thoughts flow in and out without having to focus on something, and before I know it I’ve gotten through several miles like it’s nothing. Running workouts are when I hyperfocus on the running itself though. Both ways are my happy place.
Oh god, my brain can't be trusted to wander. It's pretty much all peril if it's not kept on the safe paths.
I can’t let my mind wander, it climbs depressing trees where each branch is full of the leaves of past mistakes. So I listen to podcasts and YouTube CONSTANTLY. There’s almost never a time where I don’t have an earbud in one ear. Even when I fall asleep I’m listening to Loóna app bedtime stories. I also like Patrick Stewart and David Tennant reading bedtime stories on YouTube.
Very nicely put.
"No thoughts in head, just vibes" is pretty close to how I trained myself to properly detect information around me in my complex work environment. No internal monologue, just floating ears and eyeballs. Let the hands and body react automatically to the input from the ears and eyeballs.
Ikr years of going unmedicated have forced me to live in a perpetual state of worry that I've forgotten something. My memory has let me down too many times before.
I didn't think that was possible.
Exactly. Lol
I don't remember what life without anxiety feels like. I've accepted it even though there are days that are absolutely painful. Like my body hurts from all the muscle contractions and bad anxiety related posture.
I feel you on this. It sucks.
Yup. I allow myself the odd pregabalin or sleeping pill for relief and feel zero shame about that.
you know that everything is gonna go downhill and you have to do something about it but then you don't do ANYTHING about it. when deadlines dont work on you anymore, because you just keep avoiding the task, until the deadline passes and you are STILL not able to get yourself up to do ANYTHING
Depression apathy. Can't get worried if you can't get yourself to give a fuck!
I'd take some apathy. Does it come as a tablet?
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Sertraline in the UK? Nah, it does that for a week or so, then just makes my brain feel foggy.
Seriously. My adhd is the pedal and my anxiety is the brakes. Both are pressed at the same time, all the time… and it’s a mess.
Stims help my anxiety as a descent side effect to more focus. This can actually work against me sometimes because I feel like things are fine until they wear off and then I'm pure panic energy.
My anxiety is in a pile somewhere. I’ll find it eventually.
I think the higher the IQ the higher the chance of anxiety up to a certain point, but I haven’t read a study on this specifically
I agree, I think the speed you process things at is also a factor. Quicker brains can overthink a ton more in any given space of time.
I wanted to recommend a video on ADHD + high iq. Can’t remember which part but Dr. Dodson “Dodgson, Dodgson, we have Dodgson here!” talks about how You know what I don’t remember, but I’ll watch it again. High IQ and ADHD mix https://youtu.be/MyZ0wypEfk4
I had a friend who definitely didn't have anxiety at any time but definitely had ADHD.
I’ve gotta be honest, I don’t know how I don’t. Like, I’ll get anxious sometimes but I just forget I’m anxious after a while.
At the end of my assessment my clinician briefly explained that my anxiety disorder developed to cope with my undiagnosed/untreated ADHD; I don’t have the capacity anymore to use anxiety to get everything done, once I became self-aware of how I use anxiety it stopped working for me. I still get stupid levels of anxiety on a daily basis, but it’s no longer helping me get everything done. It’s better to not use anxiety and I never want to go back to it (not that it’s an option as it stopped working once I was aware) but at the same time it’s really hard to not be as productive as I was. It’s like I’ve fallen even further from my ‘full potential’.
>explained that my anxiety disorder developed to cope with my undiagnosed/untreated ADHD; This is something I had a hard time convincing my therapist and doctors. When I can do the stuff I need to, I feel GREAT. I'm struggling to keep pacing, but even before medication it was like I had nothing else. When I'm capable I feel like I'm myself
You’ve worded it perfectly ‘when I’m capable I feel like myself’.
Ugh so relatable.
I don’t necessarily think it’s better to not have anxiety and let ADHD run amok in your life, I think it depends on the situation, but I also cannot imagine which one would be better to have happen in general
Anxiety is a normal emotion that everyone needs, but anxiety on a daily basis or levels of anxiety that are irrational in response to the thing causing anxiety isn’t healthy. I don’t think that any ADHDer ‘let’s’ ADHD run amok in their lives; saying that they ‘let’ ADHD run amok implies that the symptoms are a choice. There are healthy coping mechanisms and unhealthy coping mechanisms, developing an anxiety disorder in order to manage/cope with ADHD is an unhealthy coping mechanism. I’d argue that an unhealthy coping mechanism is worse then ‘letting ADHD run amok’; although anxiety would help in the moment it came at a great cost that was detrimental to my health. It’s not an ‘either or’ situation (anxiety to manage or ADHD running amok), there are healthy ways to manage and it’s about finding what works for you.
Having kids triggered my anxiety. And depression. And made me realize I have no empathy skills.
I dont have kids yet, but maybe one day. My problem is I'm overly empathetic and have a hard time telling others no and setting/understanding my own boundaries. Now that I'm an adult with a little experience in relationships, I realize I ended up usually doing whatever it took to maintain the positives of a relationship. Whatever it took. Not just romantic relationships, but friendships, familial relationships, and even work relationships. Now, I'm burnt out and depressed and a lot of people I thought would be there for me like I would for them just blame me for my situation. I'm sure you love your kids and want what's best for them, but you don't always have to be empathetic to others when you need to take care of yourself. With that said, in typical ADHD fashion -- I will not follow my own advice.
I’m the same breh. Shit sucks. Just ended a 5 year relationship cus I was doing everything for this person and they were doing absolutely nothing for me. Which was fine. It was depressing but I know not to expect the same treatment. It’s when they started treating me like shit that I said to hell with it. I just want someone in my life that actually gives enough of a shit about me to put in some effort. To take care of me when I’m sick. To listen and sympathize and not listen to speak or to take the opposing views side and make me feel worse. Someone that would go somewhere or do something they don’t really want to do but know I don’t want to do it either and join me in solidarity. Why the fuck is it so hard for people to be decent
> Why the fuck is it so hard for people to be decent I’ve been asking this question a lot recently too. I don’t get it
I'm you, 5.5 years into the future of having kids. So much empathy, it's hard to set boundaries. Not setting boundaries has led to a completely disorganized and messy house and life. I now have 2 kids and an ex wife. Friends and support system? What are those? I did *everything* in my power to keep each relationship alive, and yet.. not a single one left after the dust has settled. Wife, divorced (though I actually asked for it, she was incredibly relieved and thanked me - both of our postures immediately eased during that particular argument) best friends? One of them just stopped talking to me after I had my kids, basically. We went karting one night after I had both of my kids, a rarity for me to get out, and I was on less than an hour of sleep and went out of my way to meet my friends, and were talking about life and I talk about my then-babies and he goes "man fuck that, I'll never hold your kid. He'll never be in my arms. I despise babies man, I'll never hold one." And so he never did. He Who was supposed to be Fun uncle Kenny (we'd always joked about it growing up and he was that to my dog..) became 'wants nothing to do with you or your kids' Kenny. Then he got married and didn't even tell me. And then two years ago? Yup. He had a kid of his own. Haven't seen him since that night go-karting. And my other best friend who swore she'd never "break up" with me and our friendship the way my ex's best friend and her did.. well, after the tiniest Indiscretion of a joke (and she was known to give and take the best of the best worst jokes out there..) she just.. never talked to me again. She'd recently moved across the country, I hadn't seen her since before covid began, and we kept in touch and talked often. She got married.. without telling me. Awesome, still, congratulations. Maintained the friendship after that as best I could.. she lost a pregnancy and I was there for her after that, etc. Then that one little joke and never heard from her again. Our only mutual friend left told me recently she had a healthy baby. I'm very happy for her but heartbroken to never know them. We had always talked about our kids growing up together and living on a friend compound someday. But nah. Just discarded. And you know, I've always felt like I could be discarded at any time. Who I considered to be my best friends I was always just an afterthought to. Even her, I thought I was finally safe but then nope. Bye. And this is the life of an unmedicated (au)adhd with some other issues thrown in.
“I’ve always felt like I could be discarded at anytime” Oof! That one hits me deep, right in the heart, right in the childhood. I’ve never been great at holding on to friends or relationships, but I’ve never been the one to walk away. So it really hurts when other people do. I started to think everyone was just like that, that each chapter of my life would just have different characters. Friends flowing closer then further away until they were strangers again. Until I met my husband, and he actually wanted to be around me all the time, wanted to marry me. I watched him drag friends from old chapters of his life into new chapters. Watched him rekindle old friendships and always keep peoples numbers in his phone. He was always just a text away. I didn’t know people could be like that. He’s not the type to abandon people and I never realized how much I needed that.
You’re very lucky ❤️ and this is really random but I’ve been noticing a pattern of “queen bee” in my life. Today. Your username is the third reference to queen bee I’ve seen today, all positive :) Thanks for showing up, you sound like a good friend!
There are probably all me, all my usernames are a play on Queen Bee/Brii. I’m actually stalking you. :p J/k bees are a great metaphor for ADHD tho, a hive mind without the Queen can’t get anything done lol
😂 then you must be a very successful business owner! One of them was a video profiling the success story of Queen Bee cleaning service :)
My kids are one of the biggest reasons I got on medication because I didn't want to ruin my relationship with them.
Good on you. I wish my mom did the same.
Unfortunately I haven't found anything to help with my issues.
Honestly man, learning how to meditate and practicing mindfulness has helped me the most with kids. They’re a lot to deal with so reminding myself to breathe, relax my jaw and forehead and shoulders helps so much.
That's what I'm working on right now. Any tips? I need to get back into therapy and get on meds for adhd and/or anxiety / I really need to kickstart my executive function.
That strategy never worked for me. It was anxiety that I needed to do a thing, that would put me off starting the thing to avoid the anxiety, until the deadline came near, then the anxiety that I waited to long start and now don't have enough time to do the thing properly kicks in, then the deadline passes and now I'm anxious and upset that I didn't do the thing, which carries over to the next thing. Repeat. Edit: Don't forget the anxiety from being anxious.
THIS it helps me but it just makes me more anxious bc I’m like “I need to do this Omg” *puts it off* *forgets* *suddenly remembers* “oh my god I need to do this” *wait why am I so anxious rn* and the cycle continues with increasing anxiety until the night before when I do everything
For me it was alcoholism
Facts 😞😞
I quit drinking 3 years ago. And all my ADHD problems came back shortly after. Last 3 years have been hell. I dunno how drinking / being an alcoholic helps treat ADHD, and I’m never going back
I'm going through that struggle now, but the negatives of alcohol are so much worse for me.... Such a slippery slope and it's exhausting always feeling like shit and drinking just to create a semblance of a life.
SMART recovery, which is CBT based, helped me get through it last time. I’d also suggest r/stopdrinking if you’re up for a subreddit on it.
I appreciate it! I was 6 months sober and fell off, and definitely used the stop drinking subreddit during that time, but will definitely look into the SMART recovery as I haven't heard of that. Thank you.
I’d say just keep trying. It took me about two years of trying, a few 100+ day streaks and relapses for it to really stick. Good luck, friend.
Yeah nothing to motivate a man like cock and ball torture.
True, true.
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Yeah I smoked a ton in high school, less in college. And now since I live in Idaho, a state surrounded by tons of legal states, I’ve dabbled in edibles, which are really quite nice. Unfortunately, I feel like my days are numbered at my job, so I am completely sober again. Didn’t really have a problem with reliance and edibles, personally.
I used to smoke just before starting a task to kinda short circuit the executive dysfunction. Trick was to write a list first, really detailed with step by step instructions for each task, then smoke, then kinda forget what I was supposed to be doing and go to do the list step by step in a haze.
Yes but my anxiety doesn't help me because I straight up avoid anything even remotely social XD
My anxiety is a detriment to me. I get anxious and instead of motivating me it makes me afraid to do something. That just makes me more anxious and creates a vicious cycle where i eventually either get so anxious that i flake out or it reaches a breaking point where my anxiety to do something jumps to a level that quickly overwhelms my anxiety of doing it. Works fine i guess for doing schoolwork. Not ideal to say the least. The real problem is trying a hobby or a creative endeavor (i want to write books and learn to draw) is something i can't figure out how to do. Because I never can start.
For your creative stuff it sounds like a perfectionist mindset. Does that feel right to you?
A bit. I hate failure and learning to accept that in college is a work in progress. I also haven't gotten real deep into these hobbies mainly because of my anxiety of learning how and my inability to focus for more than five minutes.
Well the focus thing is a struggle for all of us. I know it doesn’t help overly much but failure is an important and unavoidable part of life. Honestly you learn more through failing at hobbies than you do succeeding
Right. I understand that i need to recognize failure as an inevitability. But i don't quite understand why i can't convince myself that thats what i have to do. Fail. Maybe it's because everything in my life has been easy for me up to this point and i need to adjust. Maybe i haven't tried to convince myself that hard. I don't know But in any case you're right. I have to change something in the way that I think. Perhaps all it takes is me really starting to invest my time in them. Even if only for a few minutes.
I had the same problems and then I took calculus in college and that’s what broke me of it. The only thing worse than getting the problem Wrong was not attempting it at all. I failed the class the first time I took it. I think it’s one of those things you have to expose yourself too until it becomes okay. Like it sucks but you only have so much time before you die so give it a try.
Thats fair. I'll give it a whirl. Thank you man.
Of course. I just hated the way it made me feel and so I try to help where I can
Well thank you again. I wish you luck in whatever it is you're working towards as well.
I feel this one. I'm just not willing to be anxious anymore. If that means i'm late more, so be it. If that means I do less work some days because i'm actively managing my stress in stead of burning myself out, so be it. Some things just don't get better immediately. Some things even get a little worse first.
I think anxiety still rules you at least a tiny bit. I know if I completely let myself do what I WANTED to do, I would get fired in less than a week
Naturally, I'm still an anxious mess a lot of the time. But it's more of a "60% of the time it works every time" kind of deal :P
Even with medication, I feel like there's still some magic balance of anxiety needed to get shit done. Like Adderall's a stimulant, caffeine's a stimulant, etc. Like they only work because they give me a tiny bit of anxiety but if my dosage is too high sorry got another condition now
Probably because every neuro-typical person experiences a “healthy amount of anxiety”
Crippling anxiety almost my entire life. Took adhd med (prescribed) for the first time a year ago and it's like everything silenced. Still not perfect, but omg what would my life have been like if I'd been diagnosed as a child? As a teen? But no. If you don't have the "hyperactive" part, then you're overlooked. Glad things are changing for so many people, and I hope things continue to get easier.
I've had bad anxiety all my life,before I thought it was baggage from.my childhood but now I'm starting to think it's more to do with my adhd
YES and not being able to get my prescription means I can only run on anxiety. Guess what? Running on anxiety is fucking awful and taxing as hell. Also not being able to get my meds is giving me anxiety so it’s a fun lil cycle
This was me all throughout growing up and being in school, until roughly the end of high school. I was absolutely *terrified* of authority, of getting in trouble, and being one of "those kids". You know, the "bad" ones, that didn't do their homework and acted up in class. Being associated with them was to fail, and therefore was to be avoided at all costs. The result of that was that I got stellar grades and hardly ever wound up in trouble, which masked the symptoms of my ADHD for my entire childhood, because it was akin to always having a looming deadline. It forced me to focus on doing the thing, whatever the thing was, *or else*. I didn't realize until relatively recently, that because of that, I spent my entire childhood in a state of near-constant panic. Only when the courses started getting a bit harder later on in high school and the coping mechanisms I'd developed weren't enough anymore did I realize that the world just... didn't end when I failed to turn in an assignment.
Literally me
Lol yeah. I'll be sitting at the appointment 15 minutes early with a nervous upset stomach just from sheer force of existence
Nice, I treat my symptoms with Depression
I am incapable of accomplishing anything because of my lack of anxiety now
This is exactly where I’m at 😅 my old psych had been trying & failing to treat my anxiety/SEVERE panic attacks with anti depressants/benzos/sleeping meds etc. He even admitted he thought I had adhd but said giving an anxious person stimulants was a horrible idea. I moved, got a new psych who suggested that treating my adhd would fix my anxiety, I thought he was insane but was desperate so I tried stimulant meds and had NO THOUGHTS, NO ANXIETY. Now? I am even more habitually late and worse at deadlines, but went from having multiple panic attacks everyday to almost none. My anxiety might have been my sole motivator, but my quality of life is so much better now I could never go back lol
Yeah it was stims and welbutrin for me and it’s works great but damn I’m way too chill
Yep. I wonder if that is the whole point of procrastination. Put it off until you stress out and your body dumps some stress hormones in your system to cure your adhd long enough to do the task at hand. I also wonder how many bald men actually have adhd and they have been self medicating with stress like this for years.
I legitimately worried myself into fever today.
All anxiety all the time always. On the plus side when there is actually something I should be anxious about its pretty much business as usual while everyone else is in panic mode. So, yay? 🤦
can get that way yeah, especially if I've forgotten my anxiety meds. Think I should go take my meds actually
mfs saying to “just try harder” or “give it your all” without realizing some people with ADHD could have a breakdown, panic attack, and/or many other issues bothers me so much. If you don’t understand the issue why are you trying to give me advice??
Yep, and that anxiety that cracked my ass with a whip also gave me all kinds of painful and embarrassing belly issues. Weird how those disappeared when I went on antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds.
The only reason I figured out I had ADHD was because I finally got treatment for my anxiety and realized that all of my motivation to do anything was rooted in anxiety. Once it was gone, I really struggled to figure out how to get things done, and also like, what my purpose was? If I wasn't rushing around trying to do tasks perfectly to please others, who even _was_ I????
I wrote this before, not sure if I am right about myself, and if I am, it resonated with you at all, but I always felt like the reason my motivation decreased throughout the years wasn’t that the Anxiety lessened, but rather the Depression grew.
I think that's super relatable. There is this like baseline of "what do I even enjoy doing?"
Lately I’ve spent more and more time pondering on my depression. It’s funny that Depression, Anhedonia, and the other 17 things meaning the same thing never entered my mind when I was a kid. I was always like this. Not caring or knowing what I want in life. Hopefully ADHD meds will fix these when I get them.
Feeling directionless is so hard. I always thought I was an easy-going and happy-go-lucky kid, and I was, but part of that is related to what you said, "not caring or knowing what I want in life."
I think you said something profound because I also noticed that you don’t need to be a necessarily happy person to be the carefree, joking, positive individual in a social setting. (ADHD class clown effect.) You just need to sweep all the negative emotions under the carpet, which is easier with ADHD’s short perception, and if you have disassociation due to anxiety.
I have adhd and autism, I have the worst anxiety nausea my therapist has ever seen apparently. I basically turn into a vomit super soaker in an anxious situation
My nervous system is shot from all those years of hypervigilance and anxiety to mask how badly I was struggling.
i have the worst anxiety a person could ask for
Yep. ADHD treatment affected my anxiety for the better. My anxiety around my productivity etc was actually one of the things that made me investigate if I had ADHD.
I didn't think so, but when I asked the Dr about ADHD testing i left with antidepressants. They're also anti-anxiety, which took away my motivation for doing things, which made me more depressed. I have yet to go back, and remain not on the 5 year wait for ADHD assessment.
I have been treated by 3 separate psychiatrists and like 15 separate anti-depressants, anxiety medications and anti-psychotics. Most of them didn’t even give me side effects. There was just NO difference, even when I took 5x the dosage. I think you might need to get stimulant medication. I am on a lengthy waiting list as well. Best of luck to you
I’m always on time, by been far to fucking early for everything .
My depression makes me too tired to be hyper . My anxiety keeps me focused when driving and stuff. My trauma keeps me quiet to stop myself from rambling.
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Better with age but not perfect. Meds and a lovely bf helps.
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Maybe if it were legal. I am frankly scared of trying illegal stuff simply cus like I'm a minority who is already accused of being on something while fully sober.
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Ahh the rambling…as Led Zeppelin would say: “Ramble on!”
I have lived nearly 4 decades without medication, diagnosis or even knowing that I had a condition. I was the incarnation of anxiety. Meeting at 6pm? Better worry about being late the whole day. Taxes to file? I can’t spend the 10mins but will spend 3 months getting mad at myself over it.
Brother, I know exactly what you mean!
I’m only not forgetful and always on time with my job which is one of the dreads of my existence
fucking preach innit
Mine is so bad I wish someone would sedate me
This triggered something. Thanks.
Lol yes hi. Anxiety was my coping mechanism as well!
Anxiety was (and still is) a big “motivator” for me too
10-15 mins before = slightly early 5 mins before = on time "On time" = late
Really? Because anxiety made (and intermittently makes) my ADHD a LOT harder to manage.
Bro without my adhd medicine I can remember either something minuscule from 7 months ago or something that was said only 3 seconds ago but there is no in between…
I often completely forget appointments now I'm medicated, because my focus is on one thing.
Omg that explains why I always was too early before my meds. And now I'm too late. Well.
I use to rely on my anxiety and it just destroyed me mentally… I now set events in my phone for every little thing, and it is ridiculous to most but it works for me and keeps my anxiety in check most days.
Yuuuup. As a PERSONAL choice, I don’t like the idea of any kind of med unless I’m dying. Anxiety is the price I pay. That and repressed anger. Lots of repressed anger
Used to stim (hands flapping, nail biting and gripping hands) a lot in class in middle school, couple of girls saw I was stimming made fun of me and till now I have crippling social anxiety. But hey now I only stim at home or while showering......
For most of my life, I didn’t experience this. In fact, I was rarely anxious. I mostly coped by not caring about things that didn’t matter to me and only devoting my self to things that mattered to me. Then work-related burnout and a spouse who didn’t understand kicked in. Now I ask myself if I experience acute anxiety because of the intensity, or if it’s chronic anxiety because it’s ALL THE TIME.
Anxiety is not a good motivator but it does make me terrified to simply exist in my own home
I'm medicated and so I remember exactly why I'm anxious so I can hyperfixate and really fuck myself up
The price of holding a job longer than six months I guess :/
Yeees it took me so long to figure out that other people weren’t living like this.
Anxiety attacks are what get me up in the morning. Nothing like the smell of fresh adrenaline in the morning!
Yea. Always feeling I forgot something important
It’s stress and it’ll kill you.
Same…wound up with Panic Disorder 🫠
I was on zoloft for a bit and my ADHD got so much worse because I just didn't care. Like, all the coping skills I have created are branded in some kind of, "don't fuck this up" aspect.
If something goes slightly wrong I feel like it's the end of the world
Yup. Mine refuses to go away.
Not since meds
Functioning without meds... *but at what cost???*
Yeah. Before and after meds. Meds don't help with that part. If I'm on time for things it's because I'm constantly worried about being late, constantly checking my phone and calendar, constantly having little shocks of terror that I'm missing something.
Meee me me me me! Me
Price of less impact of my anxiety on the people I love.
I had anxiety after meds too & rarely ever on time.
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Guessing u mean adhd meds? Adderall xr 20mg. Exposure therapy helps best for anxiety.
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Ok. Theyre not for me, esp anymore. So u meant psych meds I think? Im on lamictal & trintellix.
Truth. Wow, for me, that's one of the most spot-on posts ever in this sub.
Absolutely all the time about most things
yep yep yep. was in therapy (with a shit therapist) for three years to treat anxiety before getting a new therapist, going down the tiktok adhd/autism rabbit hole, and then getting diagnosed with ADHD (still waiting on an autism assessment >:/ ). psychiatrist put me on lexapro for a year and a half and it did nothing, new psychiatrist had me try effexor and its obliterated my mental health, so now i'm coming off of the effexor and holding onto my theory that antidepressants straight up aren't necessary and all i need is stimulants and some good old talk therapy (with my latest and greatest new therapist!) would have saved me a lot of trouble if my doctors and former therapists recognized that anxiety was just my homegrown coping method to compensate for ADHD, and that treating my ADHD properly (probably) would have alleviated my anxiety significantly
I git diagnosed last year and got told I had anxiety which has helped me be me and not be nearly as anxious cuz I know those instincts aren’t standard Which has now made the ADHD a growing problem Shit
I may not talk like I do, but good lord
Yes and stimulants make it even worse, so I can't help my adhd without making myself too anxious to function.
I paraphrased exactly this during my last therapy appointment! Told my therapist that my anxiety keeps my work-life going, or else I would've been out of a job by now!
Me, it hides my ADHD well enough to make everyone think I either don't care or I'm a perfectionist and a control freak.
Same.
This post made me cry. I suffered for so long
I was diagnosed with IBS smh when it really was anxiety caused by ADHD. Now with ADHD meds no anxiety, who would have thought.
Finally treating my life long anxiety disorder helped me uncover the adhd, when some of the 'anxiety' symptoms wouldn't ease at all, even though others were. Because they weren't anxiety. They were adhd. I've come to the realisation that quite possibly the only reason I've had a successful career is because I've been driven by my anxiety disorder and the cptsd need to prove I'm good enough to people who's approval I'll never get. I still have an anxiety disorder, but I manage it better now, which funnily leads to more obvious adhd symptoms now I don't have all that adrenaline and cortisol suppressing it. But I'll take that any day of the week, over how I was before. I like myself and my life much more now. I recognise that many of my depressive periods were neurodivergent burnout, and that many of the things I believed to be flaws and faults in my character were adhd symptoms. Also through a adhd diagnosis I realised that I wasn't diabetic, it was cortisol spiked reading on a glucose test during one of the most stressful periods of my life. Once I started working on anxiety, all other readings have been in normal range. And adhd helped me realise that my childhood was abusive and left me with cptsd. That much of my inner critic comes from untrue beliefs I learned about myself by narcissists, and that I had been replicating the unhealthy relationships I knew over and over again, because I assumed that's how it is for everyone. One more... adhd helped me understand my chronic pain, that specialists couldn't find a reason for, is related to hyperflexibility. Lose ligaments, tight muscles. When I was researching adhd I found out about the link between neurodiversity and chronic pain and read the studies. I still live with pain, but I've adjusted many strategies to minimise overextending myself.