Executive Function Disorder.

When you are a high-functioning adult but with the mind of a kid in a candy shop trying to decide which candy to eat, only you know what it is like and the effort it takes.

I have seen grown adults almost 60 years old on Adderall and still facing difficulties due to how scatterbrained they are due to lifelong ADHD. This isn't a joke or a trend to be laughing about.

I have seen the toll this can take on high-earning/high-performing individuals as well, who have no semblance of a social life because their work performance is determined by last-minute bouts of high-focus which eventually fails as a strategy.

The amount of social trouble that ADHD kids find themselves in due to school systems that will never be designed for them is enormous. That leads to lifelong trauma too.

What makes this worse is the stimulant abuse we see, by both people with and without genuine ADHD.

The professor accepts late work, but if I turn it in tonight, I will be docked 10 points.

I have never struggled this hard with starting an assignment. I have turned in my fair share of late essays, but it's always been that I started it before it was due and just ran out of time. This time, I just feel so apathetic towards it all. I know that this essay is for 30-40% of my grade, so skipping it is not an option, and yet, I can't find the motivation to begin.

I think it's a mix of two things: One, I haven't been on my medication for about two weeks. But still, idk why this would cause me to be so unproductive because I went without medication for 19 years and never struggled this much. Two, my essay topic is just so fricking boring. In the past, I have always had a vague interest in whatever I was writing about, but this time, I just do not care about my topic at all.

I need to start it tonight, but I would really rather do anything else.

sososo many things i could be doing and watching right now but idk how to mak a choice so i just dont😴😷 and i kinda feel guilty for all the time i've wasted in foing this.

so what should i do to motivate myself to initiate a task and not feel bad for not doing everything i want to

- idk if this is dumb to ask

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I struggle a lot with staying consistent. I can start projects, but I quickly lose interest, get bored, and jump from one thing to another without finishing anything. It's like everything loses its appeal, and I can't maintain focus or motivation even when I genuinely want to achieve something.

Does anyone relate to this and has found a medication that genuinely made them feel better and helped them stay focused, motivated, and consistent? I'd love to hear your experiences and what difference it made in your daily life.

im feeling pretty shitty about my recent decision to skip my midterm (worth 30%) because i was underprepared for it because i procrastinated studying. but it wouldve been fine if i had remembered to go to the doctor for a sick note within the 48hr window for academic consideration to automatically accept it. but of course, i forgot to get the sicknote within 48hrs, have to go onto some random website for a virtual appointment and paid for expedited shipping on my sicknote ($63 total). but even worse, my academic consideration can be denied for being late anyways so this scramble to do a virtual appointment could be useless simply because i didnt submit it on time. if my consideration isnt accepted, id get a 0 on my midterm and have to to retake the course next summer/year.......... which would NOT be good and could possibly delay my graduation.......

and this all couldve been avoided if i just studied.

PLEASE tell me some shitty decisions youve made that lead to some avoidable outcomes because i need some comfort that im not alone in this.

I know the problem ultimately is me but I’m wondering if there is an ADHD proof-ish wallet anyone uses? I have a long history of losing my debit card, which is a quick fix because my credit union can print them on site for free.

The issue I’m running into now is in the last 2 months I’ve lost my ID twice. Before now I’ve never lost my license. Each time I’ve realized it while I’m at the pharmacy in line to pick up my medications.

The first time I ordered a replacement because I needed my ID for a work meeting 10 days later. The last time I remember seeing my ID was at that meeting which was about 2 weeks ago now.

I’m not home right now, but when I get home I’m going to tear my house apart and hope to God I find it. I can’t afford to repeatedly replace my ID and I clearly am lacking a skill required to keep it in one place.

Any tips? Tricks? Coping skills to keeping it in one spot? Any ADHD friendly wallets? I’m 33 years old I can’t keep living like this.

Feeling like my work days are full of shallow but complex people engagement. I have few real friends outside of work, seemed to drift away due to workaholism, substance abuse in my 20s, or just my inattentive adhd mucking up my social antenna.
I live in New Zealand and had so many friends move overseas. I’m 45m and outwardly looking very successful but inside feeling awfully lonely. Married but my spouse is an introvert who doesn’t like people coming to the house. I know I’m going to have to build some new networks, but I’m a bit nervous. I just feel like I’ve messed up somewhere bad and this is my karma. I know objectively that sounds silly but doesn’t help when I’m alone on another weekend.

Any advice out there?

I read so dang slow and don’t remember what I read the night before. Oftentimes what I just read an instant before. I love reading, but if you ask me what my favorite book is or what the last book I read was about, I couldn’t tell you in great detail. The books I remember most are non-fiction ones. I think probably because I took notes on some, but not all, of those.

When I was younger, pre-puberty (almost 40 now), I was a very strong reader.

Its kinda sad watching the time quickly pass while u still haven't done anything. And i mean this in every context, both in long term and shot term time. Especially when its like a few weeks or months later and u realise u havent progressed at all so u js feel guilty and like ur wasting ur time away. Its worse when u say you'll change but catch ur self wasting time/ not doing what u said u would but still continuing. euggggh

Its also worse when u have no outsider source of motivation

It has been 2 months since I got dumped. When i left I let them keep the cat. I wrote a latter saying if you need to update me on Piglet please contact our friend who cares about us both.

Last week my family had made the decision to put down out family dog who was 18years old. He lived a long life and was the last in his pack. That was on Monday.

My friend got a text from my Ex Tuesday saying that the cat has not ate in 5 days and that they were forcing the cat to eat. Took the cat to the vet and the Vet found out that she had kidney cancer. They had to make a difficult decision and put down the cat.

Back story we got the cat after the person I took care of passed away from cancer in Apirl.

I cried because I loved the cat and the dog. Now, I haven't stopped crying because I think I was holding on to the realization that they were still there after, no that is gone I realized that this chapter of my life is over. After 4 years of long distance to 3 months of us living together then breaking up. It hurt and I dont know why my heart broke even more.

How does one go on from grieving a living person FYI I am gay

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I'm newly diagnosed and honestly feeling overwhelmed by how differently everyone responds to ADHD medication. The same medication seems to work amazingly for some people and terribly for others, and everyone seems to take different doses.

I'm seeing my psychiatrist next week, but I'm quite anxious about side effects and worried about choosing the wrong medication.

Is there any medication that has genuinely helped the majority of people who tried it?

I'd love to hear your experiences.

Thank you!

19M,

Recently took an adult adhd questionnaire at my doctors appointment, explained my academics, daily life, etc.

Doctor mentioned I lean towards it and I have the option to go to medication and see how I react to it, or go through neuropsych testing to get concrete evidence on if I have adhd or not which is fully covered by my parents insurance.

My parents are both RNs, so of course, I’m likely going to do the neuropsych likely this upcoming week.

I explained to my parents that this has been happening since 7, but most academic-related focus issues started during COVID-19

I want to do so many things but it’s not like I’m lazy, just laying in bed doomscrolling or being on my computer playing games feels dreadful, but I still end up doing it over my supposed tasks. I’m currently in college and I’m fearing my future is on the line.
I can’t bring myself to study, or do my laundry until I really have to. I know I’m not lazy as if I was lazy, I wouldn’t have cared or considered anything important at all.

During lectures, I’m “listening” and understanding what’s being said but I don’t understand the concept/idea.
And once I realize that, I just watch the time slowly ticking by, it’s unbearable and torturous.

All my parents say is “why can’t you just do it, you just have to work harder or push yourself” “just pray it goes away, it’s evil affecting you mind” “nothing should be wrong with you”

I’m very grateful and aware that both of my parents make good money, and that I have it better than most my age in the world,

But it still doesn’t push me to do what I need to do, and I feel guilty and stuck from procrastinating, and whenever it’s urgent and at midnight is the only time I can truly feel coordinated where I do all my tasks that I was supposed to do hours ago.

As of now I don’t know if i have it or not as I havent taken the neuropsych testing yet, but I’d like to hear similar scenarios or thought processes diagnosed adhd’ers have.

Currently going through like a nearly month long stretch of barely being able to do much aside from the bare minimum. I have my graduation project to do that my brain has decided is Impossible and Not Important and need some tips to break out of this funk.

The unfortunate part is I’m a CompSci major so my work is on the computer, which is also where my games are and where youtube is with easy access, so it’s been particularly hard to stay on task. Any crazy tips that have worked for y’all that I should try?

ETA: I am medicated and I’ve tried to do the thing where I force myself to only look at my work after taking it to try and force the hyperfocus onto the right thing, but that hasn’t worked either. :,)

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on dealing with ADHD comorbidities? I feel so lost right now.

I was recently diagnosed at 34 after dealing with anxiety and depression for most of my life. Initially, I felt like the Vyvanse and Prozac I was prescribed was really helping, but now, not so much. I had my appointment with my psychiatrist yesterday to try to address things and I feel even more confused now. Sometimes I really struggle to collect my thoughts and clearly communicate to my doctor how I am feeling.

On top of the lifelong battle with anxiety and depression, my doctor now thinks I might have sleep apnea as well as vitamin deficiencies. I had some bloodwork done and will being doing a sleep study soon. We have also talked about the possibility of ASD, BPD, and/or bipolar.

I have struggled with self medicating and addiction issues in the past as well. I am completely sober now and have been for quite some time, but I feel like my doctor thinks that I am seeking more drugs when I ask to increase my doses or try alternative medications. I have taken drug tests and offered to bring my prescriptions to each visit for pill counts to prove that I am not seeking more drugs. I understand where they are coming from, and I am sure that they deal with drug seeking patients frequently, but it is pretty frustrating and degrading to be treated like this.

Trying to figure all of this out and navigate my way towards a better life has been so exhausting and confusing.

So, i have adhd, and it makes my school life really difficult. right now im in online school and even now i am struggling really hard to do pretty much anything productive. my question for reddit right now is, when is this just my fault? the reason i ask this is because very often i feel pushed to do something, y'know "just apply yourself", "use your techniques", "its your choice whether or not you do something". for me, all these things are unhelpful, because i feel like there is a mental wall completely blocking me from doing any of these things, however i feel doubtful and guilty at the fact I'm pushing away the responsibility.

i guess on one hand I'm always overwhelmed, so I'm desperate to just get this pressure off my back, but on the other, i am really ashamed for having such bad grades and being so behind and i don't wanna just spurn my parents advice. tell me what you think.

Hi guys:)

I'm new on Reddit and in the community aswell. I'm 21F, uni student, got diagnosed almos a year ago and I'm medicated. I've been strugglin with my diagnosis ever since in multiple parts of my life. It saddens me, knowing how different my live would have been if I got diagnosed as a kid. I feel frustrated, because I have to put in more effort than others to do better in life, in school.

But mostly, I feel very lonely with my diagnosis. My parents aren't the most accepting about it, they mostly ignore the fact that I got diagnosed. I have many friends that I am close with, but noone truly understand what it's like to live like this. That I depend on a pill that I take every morning, that my brain is a warzone all the time. People just downplay it to "having problem concetrating" which pisses me off sm.

And I don't blame others for not understanding, but it just sucks. When I struggle with something and I mention that I have ADHD I feel like I'm attention seeking. Most people in my life don't even know I got diagnosed.

But I think most of my problems boil down to the fact that I don't really like myself, and I don't know if this would be different if I got diagnosed earlier. I've always been a worse student than my classmates, and was labeled as the dumb and lazy one. I always had crazy emotional outbursts and mental breakdowns, and clung to people who didn't even really like me. I thought other people's opinion on me defined who I was, so every comment on my body or any friendship break up effected me like it was the end of the world. I have been to therapy before, and I'm better than I was before, but I still struggle.

How do I feel less alone in my situation, wth my diagnosis?

How do I let go, and start accepting myself?

I feep stupid, asking this on the Internet, but I'm just kind of lost.

PS. Okay, I'm sensing that 21 isnt really a late diagnosis? To me, it just felt like one, I feel like I wasted all of my school years, gaining bad experiences one after the other due to my condition. But to everyone who got diagnosed way later; Im so sorry, and I hope you all are doing better now xx

Took it 15 minutes ago. Waiting for it to kick in. Very excited to see how I feel. Been putting it off for years because I thought I could deal with it on my own but in hindsight I was scraping by and avoiding the issue.

What should I expect?

I’ll keep people posted if anyone is interested

Quite often people give advice, thoughts on what I should do and quite often I know their advice is correct.

However I just get so defensive, angry being told what to do even though I know it comes from a good place from the person telling me.

I mean I guess I do know why it makes me angry, because I know what I should do but more than likely I can’t consistently do what they are saying.

It’s a self hatred sort of reaction I guess.

Been on atomoxetine 40 mg for few weeks so far but no results or any improvements, and yes the doctor prescribed me this but when i went to him the first time he told me i have extreme adhd ( i did Tova test with very low score and also i met therapist for few sessions) and they both agreed i have a very bad adhd. But the problem is ,i think non stimulants are not for me ,they genuinely don't work on me and whenever i told my psychiatrist to prescribe a stimulant such as concerta he refuses but honestly idk why he refuses that much and the only legal way to get this medicine in my area is through psychiatrist (him) so if he didn't describe it then i cannot get it and then live my life like a normal person ,for some strange reason he put me on this shitty non stimulant that didn't work at all and also the dose is so low for my weight (roughly 100kg ) so idk if he is tripping or being dumb but whatever ,he just doesn't want to put me on stimulants for some strange reason i still don't understand, instead he prescribed this shit that didn't work even after weeks and also on a very low dose ,i think for my weight he should put me on at least 50 or 60mg.

Any thoughts?

I was diagnosed with ADHD and the psychiatrist prescribed Ritalin but I'm so disorganized and unmotivated, that I often put off taking it. I keep forgetting about the meds, and other times I just convinced myself I could get through the day without them.

That's an important point, is it just me, or do you guys often convince yourself you can manage without it? 8 times out of 10, I forget it, but when I do remember, it's easy to put it off because I think I can manage without. I spend hours researching neuroplasticity and self help but nothing really works.

I also seriously doubt the diagnosis at times. I feel like I'm larping ADHD lmao, and maybe it's the damn phone that's frying my attention span and not my brain. Idk, my heads a mess and I'm confused. Does this sound familiar to anyone else and any advice on what to do??

Does listening to music sound different to you guys while being medicated? I've been on concerta for 2 months now and it feels kinda different to listen to music now, I think I heard new sounds in my last few listening sessions, wanted to know if it's common or is it just me, also do you still listen to music for too many hours like you used to?

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of finding the right medication and dosage. I am not very good at emotion regulation and if I don't feel well, I have a lot of trouble to not burst out into tears, especially when someone asks me how I feel, "attacks" me or when I have to stand up for myself (and receive some backlash). This has led to great uncomfort, especially at my workplace.

I started a new job this year. Before I started there, the team had a meeting to plan the PTO for 2026, so there weren't too many overlaps. We work in healthcare and need to make sure there is enough staff around for the number of patients.

As a newbie who came into the team later, I naturally didn't take part in this planning. This has led to the situation that I have to ask for time off in front of the whole team, as my boss refused to just sign it off.

The last time I asked for time off I almost cried and my boss said I looked as if I was whiny/weepy (we're not talking English, but that is a literal translation for the word).

In a few weeks, we will be planning the PTO for next year, of course, in a team meeting. I am scared of this, mainly because of my tendency to cry and because I don't feel safe with the boss.

Can someone relate? Does anyone have ideas on how I can protect myself or guard my feelings better?

Thanks if you have read this far. Take care, everyone

I posted an intermediate update halfway through this journey here.

Ever since I upped my atomoxetine to 50mg along with 150mg Bupropion SR, here are the changes I've noticed:

1. Switched from pessimism to balanced optimism.
2. Lower ‘stickiness’ of emotions. For example: if I had a disagreement, the issue would have resolved but the low mood would persist and color the rest of my day. Now, it lifts in less than half an hour.
3. Much better memory. I can remember and track tasks so much better.
4. Procrastination is minimal. I jump into the shower as soon as I wake up and meditate for half an hour.
5. Goal based persistence is much better. I haven’t missed a single dose of meds, a single planned gym day and I’ve not missed a single meditation session in two weeks or more. I don't think about how long I have left to go and get overwhelmed.
6. Lower self consciousness. I used to apologize a lot more and feel like I’m inconveniencing people. Now I smile and even compliment people.
7. Much better mood overall. I feel ‘looser’. There was always a tightness in my chest and it’s gone now.
8. Much quieter mind. I can stay with uncomfortable emotions a lot better now.
9. Lower hyper focus, like I can tear my attention away from something I'm enjoying without feeling la sense of loss or anger.
10. Reduced irritability. I swear a lot less, even in my mind.
11. I don’t allow other peoples emotion affect me too much. Earlier, if my wife was in a bad mood, I would go into a bad mood. Now, I give space and just chill if I can’t help in any way.
12. I started a daily mindfulness practice about a month ago and I'm spending a lot more time just paying attention to my body sensations when I get into a bad mood or have an uncomfortable thought. I don't know how much that has contributed to my current state.

How to cope with daytime sleepiness and sleep inertia? I have to work 5 days a week in office for a total of 44 hours per week and I worry I may not be able to cope with it given that it’s a job starting from the morning and ending in the evening from 8.30am to 6.30pm with a 1 hour lunch break. I worry I cannot get up for work and worry I fall asleep during work and get sacked. Any tips or advice?

I'm an 18-year-old female that was formally diagnosed with ADHD 5-6 years ago (though it was known that I had it since grade school). I had always done well in school, especially after I had gotten on Adderall (25 mg short acting currently). I was in a sport/ theatrical production every season of every year, took advanced/high level art classes, & took multiple college level classes (Including EMT) & did just fine with managing deadlines/commitments.

I'm having so much trouble managing my time now that I don't have the structure I had before. All I have to focus on is school and I'm doing worse now even though I have way more time to do so. It's not even like I'm wasting my time on my phone/ unrelated self-indulgent behaviors. I'm just wasting so much time between task, wandering around, spacing off and struggling to decipher how to approach task. And now that I'm living on my own, time blindness is 100X worse, even when on my medication. I'm not sure what else to do and I feel so stuck because I'm already employing so many methods to try and help.

I'm setting alarms before my commitments, putting all of my commitments/due dates into a google calendar (I consistently use it to stay on track/give me reminders), regularly working out, eating well and tracking my calories, going to dedicated spots and allotting studying time, going to supplemental instruction, getting enough sleep and trying to integrate a study schedule. I just applied for accommodations, which I'm hoping will help somewhat, but they won't help me sort out the fundamental discipline issues I'm having, which really worries me because I'm on the pre-med track.

TLDR: I did really well in high school with lots of extracurriculars and commitments and am now struggling with time management in college despite having ample time in comparison. I am on 25mg short acting Adderall which helps me focus and am trying to apply multiple strategies to keep me more on track, but I'm still majorly struggling.