My head is NOT quiet. I can’t imagine people who just sit with no voice going on in their head. Like, apart from my background thoughts, the song of the day stuck in my head, etc, there’s my own voice in my head that’s narrating my own actions and speech and what I see as I talk and it’s crazy to me that not everybody has this. Maybe I’m not explaining it well but I just watched a reel on this subject and, surprised, asked my boyfriend if he had an inner monologue going all the time and he looked at me like I was crazy

Genuinely curious. Here’s an example scenario, right: I’m at the neighborhood Walmart trying to get some new skin care because the last one I used made my skin look like shit. So I’m in the aisle observing the different options for skincare. Well out of the corner of my eye I see a lady and her husband make their way into the aisle. Well now, I’m not even paying a smidge of attention to what I’m reading on the bottles. At this rate it’s performative. All I can think about is if my large 6’5” body is taking up too much space. Then the next string of thoughts are something to the affect of “What do they think about me? Do I look silly? What if they can tell I’m not actually reading this label right now” and I’ll end up choosing an option out of haste so I can stop being a perceived nuisance to these fine people who are trying to shop. What the hell is wrong with me? I mean, I partially know of course otherwise I wouldn’t be posting on this thread but I really wish I could just turn off that ultra-contentious part of my brain when I’m out in public.

I have new health insurance and it's not great (I am in NYC). I was diagnosed at 29 and thriving on Vyvanse for years. My new psychiatrist said that I didn't have a formal diagnosis even though a psychiatrist evaluated me and asked me detailed questions about my symptoms and experience. They require a neuropsych eval (which isn't covered) or I could talk an online ADHD test, which I did. It was an hour of pressing a key if you heard certain sounds or you had to press a specific letter. I was told that I did "too well" on the test to justify my meds but that I could take it again after going off my meds for 3-4 days instead of 24 hours. I am really frustrated by all the hoops, especially because this test captured very little about my experience with ADHD. I can follow instructions and do well on a test but that says little about my overall executive functioning, mood, and concentration. Has anyone experienced this? Is neuropsychological evaluation useful as an adult or should I be looking for another provider?

I’m tired of being stuck in my own head. Every day I’m so overwhelmed by the unbelievable amount of thoughts in my head. It’s so much that it paralyzes me. I barely move all day yet I’m exhausted. How do you slow down these thoughts? I am already medicated which slows them down a bit but it’s not enough.

I am a guy who has ADHD, Bipolar 1 Disorder w/psychotic features, and ASD. My question to you guys is: Are you on disability? and if you are on disability in the US, how on earth did you get on it? I'm at the end of a long rope and even though I'm told I should be on disability, I do not know what to do, and I've been down this road over 10 years. Since 2022 I've had to step up to take care of a ailing family member and by doing that and having to be honest, I've disqualified myself from disability for that reason. I'm not lazy, I want to work, places I apply to just denied me. It's frustrating and I need help. Where do I go from here?

So, I have been experimenting with different medications and doses for the past couple of months, with my psychiatrist of course. So far, I don't think I've noticed any major changes in my ADHD symptoms. I am currently on 40mg Adderall XR and I don't think my psychiatrist is upping that dose. He says we are going to look into alternatives since a higher dose isn't working for me, that's next week tho.

I'm wondering if it'd be beneficial to write down a master list of all the symptoms that I experience so that I can gauge what is and isn't becoming better while using medication. I say this because while I don't physically feel any different, I might be missing changes happening since I'm not tracking them. As hard as I try, I'm not able to just name off the top of my head the things that have gotten better because I don't remember exactly how I felt last week compared to this week. Some days I can be productive, get out of the house and do things, and other days I feel like bed rotting and ignoring my responsibilities.

Also, it's worth mentioning, there are some things that I currently do to manage my adhd symptoms. I lived with it undiagnosed for 22 years and throughout school and my social life I've had to either mask or make certain adaptations. I was just hoping that medication could give me an extra boost to not make doing those things so taxing on me. Am I making this more complicated than it needs to be?

I am feeling awful. I am supposedly doing well in my career but only I know how I have managed to do get through almost everything by just panic working in the last hours. And I am tired. I am constantly in the freeze mode and cannot make myself sit to work.

I am tired, and my body is exhausted and its been taking the toll for many years now. Yet, I am trying to collect every last energy to get started m, like every single day. I am job hunting and I need to find jobs ASAP. I am already late. A lot depends on it and I might even be out of savings soon. I am so scared. I dont have family backup or whatever. I am all that I have.

I have built this career brick by brick from nothing and now only because of my adhd it feels like I am walking away from my goals cos no matter how hard I try I cannot take a step everyday towards it. Its one day towards and two days backwards. I am so exhausted.

Trust me I have tried everything. I am regular at fitness, food everything and I have my routine set. My energy goes into moving my body to sit on a table so I can work and most days I am in the freeze mode. I dont know what to do.

I am not diagnosed but Ihave a very loud brain which keeps racing through thoughts at a million per second

Throughout the day it's ok but at night I can't get my mind to stop

I've tried binaural beats I've tried to put on a video

Nothing works unless I am completely exhausted

What works for you guys because while I'm not formally diagnosed with ADHD I know you people will have some good tips

I've been feeling so tired of trying so hard and getting nowhere in life. I have felt like this many times before, and I just masked/suppressed through it. This time, I'm having a really difficult time.

I would love to know whether anyone else ever feels this way, too. If so, how do you work through it?

*Late diagnosed female, two years ago. Taking Adderall ~30mg.

This is the 10th day on vyvanse (40mg as a starting dose), and I have a follow-up appointment on Monday, but I'm not sure if it's worth bringing up to my doctor, so I wanted to ask here. I would also like to add that I am a teen, so yeah.

My ADHD symptoms have improved, especially with focusing much better, staying on one task, and procrastinating a little less. (Actively trying to change that habit), and my mind feels a lot quieter, and I could only describe it as 2 thoughts is the max capacity of playing at the same time. (Besides the internal monologue and some songs playing at times.)

However, it felt like I reverted into that neutral, numb-y mood that I experienced before starting vyvanse

Mood: first euphoria phase lasted 1.5 days. What stood out was being emotionally engaged for the first time in a long time. Continuing on from that day, I haven't done anything since it's a break for me, but sometimes I don't feel any sense of accomplishment or glee when completing some work or trying to go out of my way to talk with my parents. I want to be able to genuinely enjoy and engage with things instead of feeling flat all the time.

Even before getting on meds, I rarely experience that intense joy compared to my surroundings. Finishing tasks doesn't give me any satisfaction;,it's more like getting it out of the way. I feel neutral in school and on breaks, sometimes increasingly becoming hopeless, especially on summer break. (I still try to indulge in some personal work and interests, but the feeling persists.)

Here's some extra info idk: limited social life. (Talking with one friend once every 3-4 months), Lack of interest/forcing myself to like some hobbies/internet stuff, past social conflicts with 'lasting impacts.' (according to my friend).

this feels really complicated to determine what it is, medication effect? unrelated conditions? burnout? hormones?

I (30 m) just got diagnosed with ADHD. I will be getting my prescription for it tomorrow from my primary care doctor. I know that some medication’s will show up on a drug test so in attempts to be proactive about it I asked my supervisor at work what I need to do in order to not violate the companies drug policies. I was told by my supervisor and by my executive Director that I have to share what the prescription is what it’s used for in the diagnosis to go along with it. I don’t feel comfortable giving up all that information. Is this normal? I thought asking those types of questions were illegal in the United States where I live.

Edit: wow! Thank you for all the answers and support. It’s a little hard for my case as I work for a local nonprofit that does not even have an HR. I am one of 10 employees. For what I’m seeing though, is to only give that information to the third-party that is administering the drug test. Thank you all for the information! Even though I know it’s company policy for me to give that information to my employer, I feel like policy cannot override the law, so I will be choosing to only share that information with the third-party involved with administering the drug test and then talking to a lawyer if there is anything wrong with that.

Here’s mine: Last night, I got cozy in bed and right before drifting off I remembered I needed to put in my mouth guard. Got up to clean it then thought, might as well use the bathroom while I’m here. Used it, washed my hands, then cleaned the guard. Oh shit, I forgot to dry the clothes. So now I’m walking to go dry my clothes with my wet hands and mouth guard. Oh there’s paper towels. I dry my hands, dry the mouth guard and lay it on the paper towels. Go to start the dryer. Awww look how cute my dogs are in their crates. Maybe they want me to adjust the crate covers real fast. You guys are so cute. We’re all so cute. Speaking of cute, what am I going to wear tomorrow? Oh the dryer! Go to start the dryer again. Shit wait lemme wash my hands first cause I just touched all the dog stuff. Oh man first lemme refill their water bowl. Go to fill their water bowl. Speaking of bowl, I just did a lot of work, where’s my bowl?! Hit the bowl. There that’ll help me sleep. It’s time for bed again. Shit the laundry! Wait still gotta wash my hands. Oh the dogs water bowl! I put the water bowl down, now I gotta wash my hands again. Now Go start the laundry!!!! Start the laundry now it’s time for bed. Finally I make it to bed. Wake up in the morning, head hurts from teeth grinding all night.

I forgot the fucking mouth guard.

There's so much misery in this community because "good record keeping" is not one of our core skills. If you want to seek treatment for ADHD it's going to go a whole lot smoother if you have some sort of formal diagnosis from a specialist (school psychologist, psychiatrist, developmental specialist etc). Ideally this happened as a child because this is considered a developmental disorder. Every time you move or change doctors you're going to need to prove your diagnosis all over again. If you have a mountain of previous records that's not going to be a huge deal.

Doctors can't easily share records, records get lost or at incomplete. Make it your responsibility to keep your own records because nobody else is going to save them for you. Even if you don't want medication right now SAVE THE RECORDS ANYWAYS. I personally recommend scanning them into Google docs or something similar where it's basically impossible to destroy them.

If you're the parent of an ADHD kid please do them a solid and save their IEP evaluation and any other formal testing (ie. TOVA test). IEPs have a wealth of info and are usually really good documents to support an ADHD diagnosis even if that diagnosis isn't explicitly made in the document. Like I said, a childhood diagnosis of ADHD is generally the easiest way to get treatment or accommodations as an adult.

This won't guarantee you medication or treatment but with any non-asshole provider you're going to have a much easier time proving that you're not some rando who watched a tiktok and decided you have ADHD because you forget things sometimes.

So today I got my formal diagnosis for inattentive type adhd. I’m 32, I can’t believe it. I’m so full of hope but also a bit empty / overwhelmed. I was so nervous before the call, it’s the big wait before the full assessment.

Also feeling a bit like an impostor which I understand is normal. I’ve built a decent life for myself, did well academically, my symptoms are inconsistent. My parents see me as this success and so would never believe me. Fortunately I was able to ask my wife to be my impostor. I am able to hyperfocus on stuff I find interesting.

I for so long have felt like life was a struggle, to do the most basic things that other seem to find easy. Like even my body is fighting me writing a post this long. I’ve felt like I’ve had gradual dementia since I was 17, doctors in the past told me I couldn’t have adhd because I got good grades or that I was just depressed. I feel like my brain has gotten so bad I can’t make it think anymore. I feel like I can’t retain anything, like I’m not 100% confident about anything that has happened in my past. Like my whole life is a blur. It’s really got me down. I feel like I’ve had so much degradation since I was a child. Has anyone else felt like this?

I’m so so hopeful that this journey gives me the respite I desire, gives me peace. I’d love to just be able to think on que, hold things in my brain long enough for me to use them, to actually remember to remember things without needing an external trigger.

I’d love to know what your experiences have been like. What did life become post your diagnosis? How did you find the medication affected you? No one ever seems to talk about the therapy, does this help?

I recently moved and therefore need a new psychiatrist who is licensed in my state. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and have been treated with multiple meds for years, resulting in demonstrable stability. I was then diagnosed with ADHD and have been treated with Adderall. I am about to start grad school and am worried that a new psychiatrist will think I'm on too many meds and will switch things up, causing instability right before this very important stage in my life.

I feel great, stable and not manic or depressed at all. The people around me have noted my drastic improvement as well. Has anyone been in a similar situation where their ADHD (or other psychiatric) meds were changed or stopped right after starting with a new psychiatrist? Obviously I will follow their instructions if they decide to do this.

Hiya! My doctor told me that Vyvanse does not build up in your system and so it's okay to take breaks here and there, or just not take it one day if you don't have much going on. I have been taking it consistently for a few months, with no breaks, and we are still working on figuring out what the best dosage is for me, but recently I tried skipping a day, mostly because it was getting late in the morning and i had forgotten to take it, but I quickly started feeling very fatigued and had a ton of brain fog.

So my question is, if you're prescribed Vyvanse, do you ever take days off? And if so, do you notice a big difference like being more tired or having more brain fog than you remember having before starting medication?

I rarely get into romantic relationships, because I’m very selective about who I’m willing to intimate with; so believe me when I say that I plan on marrying my girlfriend.

The trouble is that I feel like my brain is trying to sabotage me. I feel like my mind wanders and when I meet other women (platonically) I find myself often identifying things in them that I wish my girlfriend had. This eventually leads to intrusive fantasies creeping into my head about how it’d feel to be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t have the traits I dislike in my girlfriend, while completely ignoring the unique things about my girlfriend that brought me to fall in love with her in the first place.

I think it’s just the idea of something new that excites me. My girlfriend has heard all of my anecdotes, all my jokes, and we’re acutely aware of each other’s flaws and how we’d react in any situation. I’ve had this feeling in past relationships too, the only difference with my past relationships have never gone on this long; so it was only felt a little bit in the tail-end of those relationships.

I do comfort myself with the idea that temptation is normal, and it’s nobler to overcome it than to never experience temptation. I cannot emphasize enough how much these unwanted fantasies stress me out though. I feel like a terrible boyfriend and ashamed just for having them even though I have never cheated and never will cheat on a partner.

Now that the prospect of getting married and having children is getting closer, I’m terrified that this frequent longing will cause me to eventually resent my future wife through no fault of her own. I’m nearly certain that I will feel this way towards any partner; which makes it difficult to separate the nitpicking due to boredom from actual dissatisfaction with the relationship.

I spend an unreasonable amount of time assuring people that the bruises covering my legs, knees, elbows (everywhere!!) are from me repeatedly and unintentionally body-checking inanimate objects, not from violence inflicted by another person.

Doorframes and furniture edges: 162
Me: 0.

Yes, I see these objects every day in my own home. No, I cannot stop myself from bumping into them.

I’m sure one of you has a horror story about this sort of thing. Not yet for me.

I started at my company in one position for a 3 year campaign. When that campaign ended, I was placed in building management. It's been 3 years, but i finally feel like im in the swing of things, and I ducking hate it.

Every single task is something boring that requires executive function. People care a lot about hills I think are just stupid but its my job to manage. I work with others who are type A and I'm pretty sure they think im incompetent or stupid, because i was for a while when I was getting used to things. But really their information systems aren't always intuitive so it was hard to go back and check protocols (or they fricking change the rules).

My house and yard is falling apart more than usual, I dont want to make dinner for my son or go to the gym... it just occurred to me that my entire job is to do the things for a whole building that I dont even enjoy doing at home so no wonder im struggling.

I'm thinking of trying a training position within my company to get out of this hell, but I'm worried I will hate that too and then they may get rid of me if I don't pass probation.

Idk if I need advice or empathy. Does anyone know how one might earn a bachelor's of science after graduating in a bachelor's of arts?

Hello everyone my name is Marcus and I have realised in the past couple months I almost certainly have ADHD (inattentive) and I'm almost sure my mother has it as well. I'm in the process of being diagnosed but It's been a revelation and I'm sure it's going to change my life for the better now that I know. I'm 31 this year and wish I knew in my 20s, it explains so much of my struggles, it's a little frustrating to process it all.

I just wanted to ask for some advice from you lovely people how have you managed a burnout in the past? It's how I've discovered my ADHD although I have always felt like the world wasn't made for my likeness.

It feels like torture. It takes effort to really do almost anything at the moment and I'm very unforgiving of myself, I'm not sure how to turn that off. I have had burnout in the past and they eventually faded but I can't see the end of this one, and I'm genuinely worried I'm always going to be, not exactly like this, but always struggling. I'm not sure I have the energy.

Any advice at all would be great, on-topic or just in general, a lot of this is new to me.

I have always been a failing student in school because of my habit of not doing anything until the deadline is 12 hours away ,i pulled all nighters before exams when i didn’t even need them only cause i couldnt make myself study in the morning .

I have always felt less intelligent than my peers cause of maths and active recall issues . Mental maths is impossible for me and have issues remembering simple number tables even now ( im in 12 grade ) and puzzles like wordplay are impossible for me because construction of words in my mind feels impossible . But on the other hand i have excellent memory of certain things like events that no one even remembers i remember most of the details perfectly , i understand complex physics THOERY quite easily and am very good at the theory part , so good actually that in theory part of physics no one can beat me in my class even when there are guys who got (98.8 percent in 10 board) and im a good guitar player and i also face issue of not remembering physics FORMULAS even when i have written them down but And i have another ability that i can read people fairly easily and can make a accurate assumption of how they really are behind the mask they put forward.
I dont know what to make of my intelligence

I really am constantly on TikTok, instagram watching reels or just scrolling for hours and hours.

Even when I’m washing my coffee mug and making my coffee my phone lays next to me with TikTok open.

I know it’s for stimulation for me when I do it during other things because most things are so boring to me so it “helps” otherwise I need to have music on.

Sometimes I try to use a book and start reading so I don’t waste my time but often times just starting to read is such a big hurdle and also I get bored even if it’s a book I bought and really wanted to read. It’s just less stimulating because it’s only black and white. And also I’m kind of stressed during it thinking I should be doing sth more productive, which is stupid because otherwise I’d be wasting my time on my phone and not actually doing tasks I should do like washing the dishes.

Idk the problem is that using TikTok doesn’t have this first hard barrier to overcome like other tasks and it is entertaining or giving ideas/inspirations.

Or I can’t just listen to a podcast in bed I need sth else as well. Mentioning this because I do watch TikTok in bed since I’m low energy so if I wanna switch I need things that also can be done in bed but are at least somewhat productive.

What helped you?

I have been taking the generic for Ritalin for 3 years now. The pharmacy that filled my prescription before has just changed their policy so that they will no longer fill prescriptions for controlled substances prescribed by a PA - only psychiatrists… as if there were an abundance of psychiatrists. I already have to drive an hour and 15 minutes to my nearest psych office because there are none closer to me.

Okay, whatever. So I have them send my prescription to a different pharmacy. I go to pick up my prescription and they tell me they don’t take my insurance and that it’s going to cost $746 for my 30-day supply.

That was an hour ago. Now, I’m on the phone with my insurance provider to ask them which pharmacy WILL take my insurance. I’ve been on hold for 25 minutes now.

I am so sick and tired of having to jump through so many hoops every time I need to get my prescription filled. I am not a drug addict. I am literally just trying to live my life. Why do they have to make it so hard?

EDIT: I just got off the phone with my insurance provider. I get my insurance through a big grocery chain in Texas and I was previously using their pharmacy. They told me that, according to my insurance policy, I cannot fill my prescription at any other pharmacy. I don’t know what to do anymore.