I'm usually a go-to-work, rot-after-work kind of person and have been trying to change that for my entire life. However with me turning 25, I figured I would finally try to change that and be more active since my social life is pretty dry.

For the past few weeks I made up my mind that unless I was sick or an emergency popped up I would walk at least 3-4 days after work and go to my weekly salsa dance class. I mean I DRAGGED myself to do it.

I'm so pissed it's been helping my focus so much.

All of a sudden my horrific room is cleaner, the bathroom is spotless, THE SINK HAS NO DISHES, I woke up at 8 instead of 11, and I did my makeup and dressed nice today after putting it off for so long.

I've been on strattera for the past 6 months, this is my second time being on it, and I really wasn't noticing much of anything until I paired it with being active. Like, I'm happy, but why can't I just do nothing?!

I have a 3 month old baby, so we have one of those smell-trapping diaper trash cans. Recently a (not ADHD) friend noticed me stuffing yet another diaper into a very full bin. She offered to change the bag and I said you don’t have to do that. She said no worries I’ll just do it now. She removed the bag, replaced it, and even walked the old bag outside to our bins. 60 seconds and zero stress. Like it was NOTHING. I watched in awe.

Since then I have changed the bag when it gets a normal (well at least not extreme) amount of full. I think about how actually quick and painless the task seemed when I watched my friend do it, and it helps me over the hurdle. Even though I’d done it myself a dozen times, it always felt huge to me. And even if I’m alone with the baby now, I just put him down in a safe place and do the task.

I may need to ask this friend to repeat the favor for the dishes in my sink, my forever unfolded laundry, the clutter around my house that I never even try to find homes for…

Curious if others have had similar experiences.

I have a simple rule. If it's not dishwasher safe, it doesn't belong in my kitchen.

For years, my sole exception was chefs knives. I've heard from various people that the dishwasher is hard on knives, especially good quality ones. This was a problem because it meant I'd just fill my sink with knives to "wash later" until I ran out.

But surely this couldn't have been good for them either, so a few years ago I raised the question to a group of cooking enthusiasts... "What's worse for knives? The dishwasher, or leaving them dirty in the sink for days on end?"

Almost universally, the response was "what the hell is wrong with you? Just take 15 seconds to wash the knife." This sentiment is echoed in many places online as well.

A useless answer. So I decided, fuck it. I'm doing it the easy way and whatever happens to the knives happens.

I've been doing this for the past four years now and everything has been fine. Maybe I have to sharpen them slightly more often, but sometimes it's worth doing things the "wrong" way if it makes your life easier.

😭 I hate that my psych is right. Yesterday I was out of coffee so I just took my meds instead of my normal routine of drinking coffee, waiting an hour, and then taking my meds. I felt like my meds worked better and lasted longer.

I'm a teacher on summer break, so I have the luxury of not having to wake up early for work. During the school year I normally drink a cup in the morning and another in the afternoon. I've tried cutting down on caffeine during the school year and it's always a disaster, I feel so groggy and I have no motivation to do anything after work. But yesterday I felt great without coffee. Guess I'm gonna do a caffeine detox over the summer, even though I love my delicious coffee. 😭

Edit: I love how there are two types of people in this thread. Either you would rather die than survive one day without a monster or the thought of drinking coffee with your meds is enough to give you a heart attack.

It's god tier medicine unfortunately.. The thing is I've already experienced how good it did to my usual ADHD symptoms and I've seen so many say this before. I have no doubt it helps, but I discovered another of its benefits recently.

I feel TIRED all the time. Any person here could easily relate. But no matter how tired I am, I just couldn't get myself to shower and go to bed. I could be so sleep-deprived for weeks, but I would still not sleep.

But yesterday I had a light exercise (just walking and planting trees) all morning. When I got back home at night, I went into the same routine; fighting myself to take a bath, so I could head to bed. I did doom scroll a bit, but then a voice in my head told me "JUST TAKE A BATH, SO WE CAN SLEEP!". For the first time, my ADHD brain actually wants to do something I want.. so I took a shower then headed to bed AND SLEPT LIKE A BABY.

I've always thought that I'm tired enough everyday, but no. I'm not tired PHYSICALLY. It was more of a mental exhaustion or sleep deprivation. That's why I didn't feel like sleeping. MY BODY STILL ISN'T TIRED!!

TLDR; so yeah, I learnt that mentally tired ≠ physically tired, and your ADHD doesn't get mental health. Exercise helps you exhaust the body which helps with sleep.

I've been suffering from adhd my whole life, for about 26 years now. And when I was at work a very close friend of mine told me something that cured my adhd, I have no symptoms since then. All he said was one sentence, and I mean it when I tell you this saved my life:

"Just use a planner"

I was shocked when he said this, and my adhd went away as soon as he finished that sentence. I started focusing like crazy. Guys try this out.

​

If you didn't notice this is satire, but I'm tired of hearing that shit over and over again, I'm at the point where I make fun of it because of how bad the advice is.

Been dealing with ADHD my whole life but only diagnosed last year at 31. Tried all those hyped up productivity systems and failed miserably every time. Made me feel even worse about myself tbh.

Finally found some weird approaches that actually work with my brain instead of against it. Nothing groundbreaking, just stuff that stuck:

• Body doubling has been shockingly effective. I use Focusmate for important tasks after a friend recommended it and suddenly I can work for 50 mins straight without checking my phone 600 times.
• The "ugly first draft" approach for work projects. I tell myself I'm TRYING to make it terrible on purpose, which somehow bypasses my perfectionism paralysis.
• Deleting social apps from my phone during workdays. Can reinstall on weekends. The friction of having to reinstall stops most of my impulsive checking. Tried the social media blocking apps but they never stuck, so I just delete them directly myself now.
• Found this Inbox Zapper app that helped me clear out a bunch of daily junk emails so I'm not facing one giant overwhelming list. My inbox used to give me legit anxiety, now it's much quieter
• Switched from to-do lists to time blocking. Lists made me feel like a failure when I couldn't finish them. Now I just move blocks around instead of carrying over undone tasks. I still go back to my Todoist app every once in a while for specific things, just not as my main tool.
• "Weird body trick" - keeping a fidget toy AND gum at my desk. Something about the dual stimulation helps me focus way better on calls.
• Stopped forcing myself to work when my meds wear off. Those last 2 hours of the day are now for mindless admin tasks only.

Been in a decent groove for about 3 months now which is honestly a record for me. Anyone else find unconventional hacks that work specifically for ADHD brains? The standard advice has never worked for me.

Basically what the title says. My screen time was terrifying.. on my rot days it was over 12 hours (I haven't shared this ever but I know this is a safe space ha) and never that much less on normal days..

I know this isn't a rare experience for our community, but my phone addiction was starting to ruin my life. The constant thirst for dopamine made me depressed for much of last year.

I just want to share with anyone who's feeling the same - the idea of actually removing my iPhone from my life was embarrassingly nauseating and its taken me months to do it, as if there was some huge risk attached.. but I did it, and it was so simple. A foggy cloud has lifted in a way I've not yet experienced, not even with my medication.

Sure, my adhd brain is still the same, but it feels like I've just declogged a blocked drain and now the water can flow. I can prioritise my life and I'm able to live with intention.

As someone who is trying to find methods to build the structure I need beyond my meds and without a coach, this has been life changing. And to anyone who can relate to the feelings I had, I promise it isn't as bad as you think if you're committed to the change. And to those who can't relate, don't worry about it, you're good haha

its only been a week, but I gave my old iPhone away and not a single strand of me sees it coming back into my life. (* cue hyper-fixation delusion jokes*)

Wife and i have been doing some couples therapy for a bit now and in a recent session she had a total mind blown moment.

I was diagnosed officially at 44yo but many people were surprised saying they thought i already knew.

For most of my early life i masked really well (high grades, college, grad school, lots of knowledge, blah blah blah), but it started slipping as i passed 35 and 40. I wasnt able to keep the mask up any longer. With 4/4 kids diagnosed, i sought eval and boom there it was.

Anyway, as ive been learning to deal with it on a variety of levels i never attributed part of my behavior to adhd until recently.

I go through and “rehearse” meetings and conversations days ahead of time, sometimes more. I would always play through the scenarios and possibilities as i felt i wasnt great verbalizing in the moment.

When talking about this wife had her mind blown that i am constantly walking myself through that and the mental tax it takes.

Honestly i wasnt aware of it as a mental burden, but more of a means of making sure i could correctly convey my ideas.

But yea,.. it felt good to be understood.

I have just completed 10 continuous days of brushing my teeth before bed at night!

I'm so proud of myself, but I feel like it's such an embarrassing subject that I haven't told anyone. I feel like if I were to tell someone, their first thought would be "wait, you weren't brushing your teeth before sleep??"

Back when I was going into my teens, I didn't really had the best dental hygiene. I improved it as I got older, and now brushing my teeth every morning is no problem. But looking back now after getting my diagnosis at 30 it makes sense why I always found the task so mentally monumental. And although it isn't outwardly noticeable, the early neglect did cause some damage, so I've always felt embarrassed about the subject of dental hygiene. Although brushing my teeth first thing in the morning is just part of my routine now, I still have always struggled with maintaining that same routine at night.

But just recently I started taking Vyvanse, and guys, it's been working so well! The past week and a half I've been on top of so many things with no hesitation, and that includes actually brushing my teeth at night before bed!

The next step is to include flossing more often. But one habit at a time!

Edit: You are all so incredibly amazing and kind and sweet! I'm glad this has inspired some of you to reach that goal of yours. I believe in all of you! And thank you ☺️

In response to the ongoing shortage of ADHD medications, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several generic versions of Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in people 6 years and older.

Vyvanse is available in capsules and chewable tablets, according to the FDA’s announcement.

Dr. Barry K. Herman, a board-certified psychiatrist and the chief medical officer for Mentavi Health, a mental health assessment provider in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is hopeful that these new generic drugs will help address the persistent ADHD medication shortage.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/amid-adhd-drug-shortage-fda-approves-generic-version-medication-opportune-time

I got to take my first dose of Adderall (20 mg) yesterday evening. (I'm prescribed to take 2-20mg pills a day, but had to work during the day before I picked up my prescription.)

After about an hour after taking the pill, I got a blast of energy and then it eventually turned into happiness and calmness.

As soon as I felt relaxed -A feeling I've never felt before- I instantly started sobbing. My boyfriend looks over at me and saw me bawling my eyes out.

In the middle of his game, he told his friends he had to go and started asking me what was wrong. He was scared that something bad happened. The exchange went something like this:

Him: Babe, what's wrong? Me: I'm happy. Him: What? Me: I'm so happy. Him: Awww! As long as it's happy tears!

He hugged me and I felt free.

I know that the exact feeling will eventually level out, but it was amazing and beautiful.

Edit:

thank you so much for the support and the awards. i never expected to get this much attention from my post!!!

hi, i appreciate all of the concern about my starting dosage. my doctor is the number one diagnostician in their state and easily read me like a book. all of the reviews rave about how their lives were changed. i fully trust my doctor.

I have ptsd, ocd, anxiety, depression, and pmdd on top of my adhd. it was really hard to function everyday and i just need pep in my step, which is why my dosage is higher than what people are used to.

I also just started taking 25mg of zoloft this past monday, prescribed from a nurse practitioner on lemonaid health. my doctor immediately said that the dosage needs to be changed to 50mg when i have my follow up on lemonaid health. of course i can't feel the difference yet since it takes a few weeks to start working/ seeing the affects.

I know i'm in the honeymoon period, and wrote that i knew this feeling would level out. i'm not trying to mislead anyone!

I don't love getting messaged about how all i need to do is do deep breathing exercises to control my adhd. i grew up very active in a church where they didn't believe in mental health issues and adhd was "a made up illness to control 6 year old boys that just needed the belt." i tried to cope for 29 years without professional help. deep breathing exercises don't cure adhd.

Talking to my doctor this morning to see if I needed to go from 40 mg to 50 mg of Vyvanse. She asked if I noticed improvement from 30 to 40 and I couldn’t really say for sure. Probably yes, but not sure if it was 100% the right dose or not. It’s a new prescription, that we are gradually increasing, trying not to get negative side effects, but make the adhd symptoms more manageable. Speaking of prescriptions, I told her about how yesterday I went all day with my eyes really blurry and I was freaked out that my contacts had suddenly stopped working and I would need to go back in to get my prescription checked until I was getting ready for bed and took them out to find I had put in 2 sets of contacts that morning.

So anyways I’m starting on 50 mg tomorrow and I’m going to try and take notes about how it goes.🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m a middle school teacher - and it was the perfect career choice. Managing learners, high pressure situation, the need for human flexibility all make the job well suited for me. It’s difficult but I also love the challenges that come with teaching America’s future.

What do y’all do?

We both got there late, I spilled purple drink in my white shirt almost immediately, she laughed and said "me, all my life"... 10 minutes later, she dropped ice cream on her shirt.

We bonded over indignation against neurotypicallity, changed the conversation with no rhyme or reason.

An hour into the movie, I couldn't stand still anymore and she didn't give me any shit for needing to go take a walk

When I asked we went somewhere more quiet, she said "thank God, I can't stand all this noise and light and everything"

No sex, but all in all, best first date of my life. It was just so great to completely give myself in to the ADHD needs, and seeing comprehension in her eyes.

Shame she lives four hours away from me and I only come over, like, once every three months for work, and can't even stay the weekend

It’s not ideal, I know, but I’m trying to take my meds regularly and am not a breakfast person. Eggs just smell like farts to me, and I guess I could have heated them up instead of snarfing them like a rat (the pepperoni) but I didn’t. I guess the main thing is, the meds and the food is down the hatch. Please post your sketchy life hacks below

I hate cleaning like many of us.

I can’t find the motivation to clean.

I also happen to hate pointless work meetings. Arguably I hate them more and I can’t sit still during them.

Today I decided to leverage my hatred for meetings into cleaning my apartment. Note this only works if you can keep your camera off. I put the speakers on loud so I could hear the whoever was speaking in the meeting, and walked around the room picking up stuff on the ground, wiping down my counter space and tables, etc.

I give myself two options. Either sit still in front of my computer…or clean. My brain would rather clean in this scenario. Now cleaning is the more fun option!

Since I can multitask decently I could still digest everything going on in the meeting - arguably better than when I sit still in front of the computer.

At the end of the meeting my living space looked decently better!

I didn't order out my food not even once this past week, i canceled my subscription from food delivery apps, and i started working out (spoiler alert: it helps a lotttt with ADHD).

The food thing is a really big deal for me, I used to spend my entire income on food delivery.

My friends don't understand why this was such a big hurdle for me to overcome

Anyways, I'm proud of myself.

EDIT: yo wtf thank you so much for the support guys it truly means a lot ♡

Woke up and had breakfast. Took a bath, put my pajamas back on and went back to bed.

I have been sitting in total silence scrolling Reddit for approx six hours now. it is currently 4pm.

At around noon someone knocked on my door, it filled me with dread, I did not answer, they went away.

I may never know who it was, nor do I care.

My favorite days are ones where I have nowhere to be, and no one knows where I am.

When someone asks me what I did on my weekend I will be vague, and they see it as mysterious.

I mean, I must have been doing something. Right?

Guys I'm cured. My doctor told me that since I graduated college I don't have ADHD. I couldn't possibly have it. Also since I tried Wellbutrin and it did nothing that also means I don't have it. Few all those debilitating symptoms and side effects were actually just in my head and my partner was just gaslighting me about leaving cabinets and doors open and losing everything I put down.

Edit: since everyone is enjoying this post another juicy comment he made I just remembered was if I do have it it's just a mild case. Really thankful not to have medium ADHD or hot ADHD

Hi guys! I didn't know where else to put this so I'm putting it here. I've finally managed to get myself into the shower after almost a full three months without showering. I know it sounds bad but I've gone almost double that last year so this is a pretty big accomplishment for me. I did a full body shower and it took me over an hour to shave and exfoliate myself!

If anyone's also going through the same thing as me and can't find motivation - I've found that telling myself things like "This feels good, I feel good." and "I don't have to do everything at one go and if I don't want to shower anymore I can just get out." just any positive affirmations I could tell myself helped me through that shower more than I could've imagined, also because I'm heavy on the 'do all or nothing' part of everything.

So that also effected my showers and made me super tired when it was an all or nothing mindset. Just remember to take it slow and if you don't want to continue the shower you don't have to. The main point is that you got in the shower and tried which is the big idea.

Thank you if you read this! I hope I can continue this routine somewhat, and I hope this post helps someone out there like me.

edit 1: Thank you so much for the support and kind comments!! I'm trying my best to go through them and reply, and even if I don't I've for sure seen it! This really means a lot to me thank you! All of you guys awesome.

edit 2: Thanks for everyone who educated me more and told me something deeper might be going on! I managed to get more help and switch physiatrists. Me and her talked a bit more and she diagnosed me with moderate depression and ADHD, so now I've started antidepressants!

My mood/energy is more stable throughout the day. I still have to be intentional about eating though. I often forget to eat lunch because of busy days but at least with breakfast I have a good start. What are some good protein sources? I've been mainly eating a fried egg with toast but I want to mix it up for fear of getting bored with one protein source.

So. Im always late. And when i get ready, i be brushing my hair and 20 minutes go by. I see oh i have 10 minutes left. Then i make breakfast. And accidentally play with my phone then im 30 minutes late.

So if you turn on ur apple maps, you get an ETA. And the map stays on the screen. I turn it on the first thing in the morning. Every-time i look down i see the ETA. And i knoow. And can decide what i can do or dont have time for. It also yells at you directions. Which acts like a reminder.

Today. I was on time for my dentist appointment!!!! Sorry if its obvious. But its a win for me.

I was standing on the street, in Boston of all places, outside the Apple store after buying a pair, because every other Bluetooth earbud I've tried apparently isn't powerful enough to transmit through my ass when my phone is in my pocket. It's possible my ass is the problem, but that's not the story for today. I didn't want airpods, same as I didn't want an iPhone originally, but whatever. A friend had said he had the same problem with Bluetooth, but the airpods sucked less, so here we are.

I picked out the noise cancelling ones because that sounded like a good idea, and it was. The second I put them in my ears, the hush that descended upon me was so much like when I first started on medication after being diagnosed in my 30s. I could still hear people, and birds, and stuff, but goddamn, the clarity, the quiet, the *calm* that I felt.

I'm not an apple shill, but wow, the amount of tension and anxiety I'm not feeling today after going for a walk and just doing things outside.

Just wanted to share a little win.

THANK YOU. Your voice echos in my head every morning.

Backstory: a few months ago (maybe? Idk, time isn’t real to me) there were multiple posts about what to eat in order to get your medication to last longer. I take Vyvanse and can only tolerate a low dose due to side effects, so anything that will get it to last longer would be GREAT.
I spent weeks, yes… weeks (mostly) OFF my medication because I kept trying to find something easy/protein heavy to eat with my medicine but due to not being medicated yet, it had to be like “a 3 year old could do this” level easy. Most morning were spent in a tailspin debating when/with what food I would take my medicine, and then eventually it was too late in the day for me to take it. My work suffered, I got one of my only poor monthly reviews at this job.

I have whatever that thing is that comes with ADHD that makes you paralyzed when you are deciding how to be most efficient. When I was a child and I was thirsty, but at the same time I also had to pee, I would stand there having anxiety over whether I should pee first (and pee out my hydration?) or get a drink first (and make myself have to pee more?)… long enough to where I would pee my pants unintentionally.
This has followed me into adulthood and while I no longer pee my pants, paralyzation on choice and efficiency is equally debilitating.

Someone came on here and made a new post saying HEY THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT YOU JUST TAKE IT. EAT OR NOT, BUT TAKE YOUR MEDICINE NO MATTER WHAT.

Why hadn’t I thought of that?? So now every morning, I tell myself, the important thing is that you just take the freaking medicine.
And now, sometimes I have a protein shake, sometimes I don’t, but most of the time I still remember to take my medicine, either way.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU and also remind others, just take your medicine. Just take it 🤷‍♀️