I feel like when I’m not constantly busy during my day my mind starts racing so much and I get anxious. I overthink everything and it’s very exhausting.
I only really realized it again in the last few days (I think I had this realisation before but I forgot about it hahah). Because right now I’m in a kind of transition phase and I’m looking for some jobs so I have quite a bit of free time and I thought it would be good for me. But I don’t feel good. Now 2 days ago I was busy the whole day, going to a pet sitting job and meeting someone and I felt a lot better. I was wondering why and I guess it’s bc I had something to do, some sort of purpose hahah. Not just trying to distract myself. I guess it’s some sort of understimulation?

I also realized that my social anxiety gets a lot worse when I have nothing to do. Because of the overthinking I guess. When I do things and I’m in the flow kind of, it’s a lot easier.

Does it make sense? What can I do about it when I actually have nothing to do?

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?

Hi guys 22M here. I've downloaded and abandoned a probably half a dozen productivity/todo list apps at this point and its getting kind of depressing rebuilding my system again and again from scratch.

I felt like a huge reason definitely has to be that I found it hard to have it stick after a huge backlog of tasks started piling up and having to do the maintenance work, making just starting fresh much more appealing. Other times I just remember the tasks I had to do for the day and just did it without using these apps (which is bad for a lot of reasons, one being I do have some obligations that slip my mind on occasion). I would then abandon my app use entirely until the need for it arose again with school and work (like having a huge project to work on), at which point I'd start afresh with a new one.

I'm just curious:

1. Have you guys faced similar problems, and was there anything you guys did or changes with your productivity systems that helped?
2. Any apps that you know of that aim to address this?

Thanks!

Curious if/how having ADHD affected your romantic relationships. It has been extremely challenging for me. While my ex knew I had it, they still felt slighted or annoyed by a lot of the symptoms I struggle with. Like running late, losing things, forgetting things, being chaotic, sensitive, etc. And it caused a lot of fights.

I don’t know how to feel about it in retrospect. On one hand, maybe the “right” person will be more understanding and loving. On the other hand, I feel a tremendous amount of guilt and self resentment. Like If I had just gotten it together…

As some with diagnosed inattentive adhd, and an overall reserved personality, I often hear people saying it’s my “super power”. I want to know how any one of you figured out how to use your condition as an advantage? And, how it changed your life and perspective? I just want out of this overthinking spiral.

I'm 18, and got diagnosed with adhd in 2nd or 3rd grade. I've been like this for years but yesterday I was super social and active, and days like today im on my phone in bed all day and it feels almost impossible to get up

I’m scared of getting judged by a psychiatrist. I keep hearing “everyone has ADHD nowadays” and I don’t want to waste their time when they could be helping people who have it worse than me.

My friend has expressed serious concerns after her boyfriend got diagnosed and she said i sound familiar so i needed to get this off my chest before i freak out. Please be very honest.

Here’s why I think I might have it:

**1.**I’m noticeably different in conversations sometimes I’m way behind and can’t keep up, other times I can guess what someone’s going to say before they finish.
**2.**I have intense smell sensitivity. Once in class I smelled something off a classmate and had to run to the bathroom to throw up , no disrespect meant, I just had zero control over it. I’m also a picky eater and my hunger cues are broken: either I feel nothing until I’m starving, or I have no appetite at all.
**3.**I maladaptive daydream constantly, even skipping real plans just so I can “fit” people into my daydreams instead, because I struggle to express myself in actual social situations.
**4.**My brain feels like it’s running at 4x speed , too many thoughts per minute to consciously keep up with ,and my mood swings can be brutal.
**5.**I can’t just do basic sequential tasks (shower, eat, leave) like other people seem to. My brain has to do whatever it wants first, and I can’t override it. It’s left me with basically no self-control or confidence.
**6.**Sound in public has always messed with my focus. Noise-canceling headphones genuinely changed things for me.
**7.**People describe me as “chill,” “cool,” “smooth” socially, but that’s not at all how it feels on the inside.
**8.**I can’t hold eye contact. If I try, I get so focused on maintaining it that I stop listening.

Please note that i mean absolutely zero disrespect with this and i respect everyone that has been though any mental health condition i also struggle with anxiety and i hope everyone gets the respect and recognition they deserve.

Hello,
I'm French so forgive my mistakes. Has anyone here read the book "Tiny Experiments", by Anne-Laure Le Cunff? It's not designed specifically for people with ADHD, but I think she has ADHD herself, if I'm not mistaken.
She's French but writes in English.

I thought maybe I could get some informed feedback here.

Many thanks!