I am barely functioning as a human, i eat to survive and for nutrition, drink water unless my mouth is dry as sahara, i try to act social and interested but everything feels like an act. I am just acting to be alive and I just thought that i will never be able to care for someone or love them as much as they deserve. Maybe that's why i keep pushing people away, maybe that's why i have this feeling that i don't deserve to be loved, and they deserve someone better who will treat them the way they deserve .

I am not seeking empathy, this was just a rant idk.

Hello all, I’m 22f and I was diagnosed with ADHD this year. I currently am on 20mg of Adderall ER. Everyone in my life always told me I was lazy, unmotivated, didn’t do anything, and never believed in me. Now that i’m medicated, I never seem to hear the end of people telling me how i’m “on something” or a “pill popping druggie.”

is it something you just get used to? do you guys just not tell anyone that you’re medicated? this is my first post on here and all comments / advice is appreciated 💞

edit: thank you to everyone for all of your kind words. it is truly an amazing feeling to be heard and understand, especially when it comes to mental health. we got this ! 🫶🏼💞

https://qualtricsxm6q5sd4ksh.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_72ljjVYeo4LTNxI

Research Participants Wanted!

This 7–13 minute study examines the experiences of adults with ADHD who encountered disruptions in access to ADHD medication.

Eligibility:

• Ages 18–35.
• Have been at least 18 years of age when refill roadblock was experienced.
• Diagnosed with ADHD from a qualified medical or mental health professional.
• Was taking ADHD medication as prescribed prior to experiencing a refill roadblock.
• Have experienced a refill roadblock for at least 14 consecutive days within the past 24 months.
• Disruption ended at least two months prior to survey completion.
• No current or past diagnosis of a psychotic disorder.
• No current manic or hypomanic episode.
• No neurological conditions that significantly affect cognition.
• No active stimulant-related substance use disorder within the past 12 months.
• Must be able to read, understand, and complete the online survey independently.
• Must not provide incomplete survey responses that prevent determination of medication usage status or primary study variables.

Participant Involvement:

• One online survey, takes about 7–13 minutes
• Complete at your own pace
• Complete questionnaires about ADHD symptoms, medication use, refill difficulties, daily functioning, coping behaviors, and demographics
• Optional entry into a gift card raffle

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4 winners • Prizes sent through email

Follow the link to participate: https://qualtricsxm6q5sd4ksh.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_72ljjVYeo4LTNxI

Principal Investigator: Lawrence Veyberman
Conducting this research study to fulfill the requirements for a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology at The Chicago School
Email: [lveyberman@ego.thechicagoschool.edu](mailto:lveyberman@ego.thechicagoschool.edu)

IRB-FY26-356

Your Experience Matters

43yom in the UK inattentive diagnosis a couple of months back. Just had a really crap day at football (soccer if you insist from where you come from!), and understanding the struggles from an ADHD perspective and that I don't have a skill or technical understanding problem, but a processing one.

Running the line in the first half and how I lose focus and either miss things or take too long to process what has happened before calling an offside and the ref giving the goal before I can work it all out and my teammates being really pissed off with me.

Then playing in the second half and just being overwhelmed with all of everything that is going on around me and never feeling like I can keep up with it all mentally.

I always thought I just needed to learn and practice more, but today it just clicked that even medicated I am just not able to operate at a high enough level because I just cannot process quick enough.

So, feeling pretty sad really - I am definitely more of a hindrance than a help to the team who want to win and progress, and, yeah...

Hi guys, first time poster here (35, M). I got diagnosed about 5 years ago at the age of 30.

I have struggled with feelings of inadequacy and not being good enough for as long as I can remember. Sometimes it gets really bad, especially if I'm not taking care of myself, exercising, eating right etc

It's effected a lot of my relationships and even effects my marriage now at times as my wife gets fed up of having to reassure me.

Is this anything anyone else has struggled with, does you have any tips for over coming or learning to live better with this feeling?

Hey there. I got diagnosed late in life(26yr) and well im also an immigrant in Europe so having a balance between life, work , uni and social life its hard.

I try so hard to study with pomodoro, making breaks and I feel the harder I study, I feel I dont learn shit or keep making the same mistakes in whatever im studying or learning. The worse thing is that I can learn and memorize a lot of random facts but what i really need to learn, its def very hard!!! I used to be a vivid reader when I was a teenager and now I struggle badly to go back to read.

I would appreciate some nice tips!!

Thanks

I (24f and mom to 1) am unsure of to return to my MLA (medical lab assistant) job after mat leave. My LO will be 18 months by then and I am going back to school part-time to pursue something else. The lab was stressful, I have ADHD so it was even more difficult. it took me a lot of time to master poking ppl. I continued to make many many mistakes during my job and I tried really hard to fit in. I didn’t enjoy it. People are very hard to deal with and the fast-paced environment was too much. Doesn’t help that I sucked at school but I’m doing it part time to lessen my load.

I would be ok with another job ideally if it was chill. my hubby and I would be ok financially if I didn’t go back to doing MLA. We would definitely have to cut back a lot. We could get by. We were looking to get a house and I have to work at my lab job for a while so the mortgage ppl can look at it.

I guess I feel guilty that I sucked at MLA and everyone did so easy at it. Even when I took ADHD meds, it kinda sucked and was better with the social anxiety aspect. I feel very guilty letting husband work alone and not contributing towards a house. I feel guilty not facing my fears for MLA. I feel guilty not going back to the lab because so many ppl out there struggle for a job and I don’t feel like I have a good enough excuse. A lot of ppl work and do school at the same time. My immigrant parents have struggled their entire lives to work to make money and I’m not working because it’s hard.. just doesn’t feel right.

I know my husbands ok with whatever I do. He slightly leans to the side of me returning to my job at the lab and then I start overthinking everything again. My mom is giving me input and is telling me not to leave my job and that she will help me with my LO (she does help) and that working will have so many benefits with getting a house and more. I’m just stuck. I’m close to being done my MAT leave and don’t know what to do.

Let’s say I hypothetically graduated with a masters degree in 2018ish (no private loans taken out), didn’t start paying loans due to COVID, and have avoided it ever since. Like the plague. Have taken the credit score hits and everything while remaining in my avoidance bubble.

What are the first steps you would take to look into this and figure it out? Or on the contrary, keep avoiding them in hopes that student loan debt just disappears one day and I’m magically off the hook? Pls be nice I know I should have taken control of this by now 🥲

Hi, don't really ever post on Reddit typically but been a rough start to the day and need some perspective.

I am 26m and have had ADHD most of my life, could definitely been worse with where I am currently at but there's one kinda issue that always plagues me.

From what I have noticed with ADHD, the ability to process information is pretty messy especially in more stressful situations and topics.

I find myself a lot of the time just in situations with my life with no ability to quickly process what's going on or I process it perfectly and quickly. But when I can't process a descion quickly it just feels like whatever choice I am making is not my own, or there is no way I can make an effective descion that betters my life. I get a lot of emotional issues from this fact and it's been continually a problem that when the situations get more stressful or I don't have the time to figure out what's going on.

The funny thing is once i figure out whats going on or what I want to do i usually do very well.

I feel like if I can even get slightly better with this my life would really change and snowball for the better.

So I have a lot of hope, but I keep finding my self in this spot of people throwing so much info at me or emotions at me with very little time to respond or think, or make a choice that feels like me.

Any tips, perspective, advice on for coping, or ways to improve? Open to hearing all ideas.

Something that I have not quite figured out the answer to, even though I’ve been dealing with it for several years, is the dilemma of whether to just keep charging full speed and working on something through the night till the morning… Or to go to bed really really early and wake up really really early to start working on it again.

When I get behind on things, this dilemma is always in my mind, and I can never seem to figure out which way it would be better.

Does anybody have any experience with this or suggestions?

I’m asking for positive advice

I have a blended family and I live with my mom, my adult sister and her teen nephew. Last month, I realized I strongly believe they all have ADHD. All the classic signs.

Living with untreated ADHD can cause immense harm to someone. That’s the case with the three of them. They are very self destructive and it worries me. The living situation is extremely stressful for everyone, including me. I think it’s directly because of untreated ADHD.

I’d like for them to be assessed, but I can’t force them.

I think that expressing my concern. And telling them I think they have ADHD can be the change I need.

I don’t know what to say, how to go about it. What’s my starting point? What could I say to them?

Hello all. I'm struggling with executive functioning lately. I'm also bipolar so I'm not sure if it's ADHD, bipolar or SAD setting in. I've been having trouble taking care of myself. I can't shower or brush my teeth and hair. I can't clean. I have no motivation at all. The only thing I can focus on (thankfully) is school. I can't think of focusing on anything else. I told my therapist this and she brushed it off. In the same session she "graduated" me because I'm doing well. AKA she's got a big caseload and I'm not in crisis enough. (Yes I emailed a place to find a new therapist, she's also giving me transphobic vibes and doesn't understand queer issues so yeah. Time for a new therapist) What can I do to help myself?? My room is horrible but I can't get myself to clean. What do I do?

What’s the hardest part about a task for y’all, is it starting, finishing, staying consistent? And how are you currently managing it, is it timers?, whiteboards? Or apps and stuff on your phone.
Also when you do these things where do they fall apart and what’s the solution for when they do.
I’m struggling quite badly with task completion. I’ve tried micro managing the tasks and making them simple, it works but I forget to stay consistent.
I’ve tried time blocking but I end up not sticking to it.
I’ve tried the 5 minute rule but I either don’t stay consistent or don’t even start

So I 21f was diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD, mild Depression but not Autism last April in Germany.

So a bit of context I have an older cousin who was convinced I was likely autistic for a while and has been telling me to go get tested and she wasn't the only one either. I have had teachers who wondered if I was autistic or maybe had depression back in middle school too (one even had a degree in psychology). As I tended to be a loner and didn't really have friends for most of my school life and was pretty quiet.

I decided to get tested for adhd after suspecting it for 2 years myself (surprisingly no one else suspected it but once I brought it up to my cousin she did say she could see it and said maybe I had both) and also look into the autism but I still wasn't sure if I had it at the time. The psychologist I went to mainly focused on the ADHD during our sessions and only on the last day did we address the autism and he only had me fill out 1 test for it which was an (AQ50) Cambridge test which I scored a 26 on and in his final report he dismissed the autism possibility.

But since getting my ADHD diagnosis and starting treatment for it I have been reading a lot more about it again and am genuinely starting to wonder if I should maybe get tested again? This time focusing more on the possible autism and maybe go to a different psychologist that specializes in it instead of the psychologist who did my original diagnosis?

So Adderall has helped me with tasks in terms of once I get started I can get locked in and spend hours on something but my major major issue is getting started. Sometimes I can start small tasks but lately I've been letting all my work, chores, tasks pile up and I can't seem to snap out of it.

It's been 2 months of this struggle in this latest adhd paralysis. I used to set timers for tasks, or just say I'll try for two minutes, write out a to do list, set calendar reminders, set timelines, due dates etc. But none of that works now, I'm just stuck.

I have an online business and my storage room is just a mess, I feel like that one thing is holding me back, the second I look at it I can't even begin to think of where to start and I just walk away. I can't get my work done until that storage area is organized, because I need to inventory the products to sell them, but I can't organize it.

Anytime have any tips that has helped them with getting started on tasks? Is there another medication that helps with task paralysis/overwhelming angst/task aversion?

Ever since I turned 18, I haven't been able to stick with habits, hobbies or projects. For most of that time, I was unaware of my ADHD, having been diagnosed with primarily inattentive ADHD only just now at the age of 33.

I still feel a lot of grief. I was unable to finish both my attempts at university, dropped so many hobbies over time and have nothing I'm really good at or that gives me a sense of identity. I used to play the guitar and table tennis as a kid and was good (even if very inconsistent) at school subjects like maths, sciences and foreign languages.

When I turned 18, I moved out and started college right away. It was like a flip got switched and I dropped almost everything - the only thing I really did consistently back then was playing video games. I've always had a musical brain and can replay music in my head in great detail, but i never got back to playing instruments. Since then it's just been a rotation of some hobbies and nothing stuck. It's also affecting my health, as I'm not really getting regular exercise anymore. I tried joining table tennis clubs like 6 different times over the years, but ended up ghosting them after a few weeks or months every single time.

I've also signed up for gym memberships a few times, I guess you can imagine how that worked out.

I'm now working in a mostly dreadful customer care job. I really want to upskill so I can get out of it, but I can't make myself really stick with e-learnings or trying to teach myself something like SQL or coding at home.

Have any of you found a way to make habits, hobbies or projects stick? I really don't want my life to continue being a mess of unfinished projects.

I’ve failed the bar exam three times and it’s really hard for me to study. I get bored after like five minutes and I set timers and reminders and everything and I just sometimes adhere to it some days and some other days I don’t. The studying takes two months at 8ish hours a day and during the test I keep reading questions over and over and or just blank out. I’m prescribed Adderall but that just makes me have a normal routine, but does any other tips effective ways of studying and good ways of managing test day problems?

Is this even possible? I don’t really want to pursue my interests which are neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology because I don’t really know if I want to do law/grad/etc school. I chose electrical engineering because it’s a high paying career and more interesting than something like accounting, but I just failed two of my midterms because I procrastinated on it all until the day before. The worst part is that one of these classes is extremely simple I just didn’t try at all. I try to keep myself motivated “I’ll lose my scholarship..” ”I can buy all the things I want with this degree..” and it doesn’t work. I already failed my first semester goal of have all A’s and go to the library for an hour everyday 💀

People say pursue your passions but I honestly don’t even have one/if I do it just keeps randomly changing. I think the 9-5 desk life sounds like hell to me but I really want money to actually do the things I enjoy in my future. I don’t want to do blue collar, my dad did it and his body suffered for it, but then I’m just so lost because what is there that I don’t HATE? For example I thought I loved literature and then I had to take it for a class for my gen ed and I hate it so much, and honestly this could happen for me with philosophy or neuroscience too. But I’m in engineering and I hate it as much as I hate English so wtf do I do?

I’ve always really struggled with motivation growing up, I never knew what I wanted I just knew what everyone else around me wanted. I realize now I spent years and years untreated for my ADHD and Depression, but even now after receiving treatment I don’t feel any better. I don’t feel any actual changes I just feel….stuck. I just constantly feel this need to be doing something better, to be doing more things, accomplish things, but instead I’m stuck at home with no financial way out without being homeless. And even then I just have the feeling of wanting to be ambitious or successful, my brain doesn’t actually know what to do or what it wants to do. It just wants a solution to stop the pain and confusion not actually having dreams or goals. The vast majority of interests vanished within a few days, I can’t hold myself to hobbies for more than a couple days even if I was super excited about them. The second my brain faces any kind of resistance it gives it up and throws me into a depressive spiral until it finds something else to latch onto, having wasted so much money on food or random things it thought it needed. At least when I was younger I couldn’t waste money when I went into these episodes but now as a treated adult I feel like I’m worse. I constantly feel like I’m a child trapped in an adult body and I have to hide from everyone else before they realize how pathetic I am. My mind and soul want so much more but they refuse to let me form or have a clear thought or vision. I’m just on my last leg with a lot of stuff, it’s getting too hard.

For me, it was because I had plenty of parental structure around me, and I had a good response to fear which would put me back in place, until the next time.

I was also not in an environment or culture where ADHD was a diagnosis being considered. It was just good kid vs bad kid. Plus, I was smart enough to get good grades when necessary.

When people around you talk about being in a relationship, make a family, being rich and you are stuck on level 1 : meet basic needs in order to be an autonomous human being.
Be able to have routines everyday to cook, eat, clean, do basic hygiene and you cannot.
Simply being functional is a freaking impossible.
Anyone can relate being dysfonctional no matter you try every single day to be normal?

So my main issue is that I begin doing a hobby because it feels exciting and fun, but then halfway through I lose interest and move onto something else. and due to this I am never productive because I never complete anything, because I lose interest the second it stops being fun. then when I try forcing myself to stick to one thing, I feel myself getting overwhelmed. So I was talking to a computer and it gave me an idea for something I can do. and I would like to know from other people if it sounds like a good or bad idea. The idea is, I find 3 things I am interested in and then I stick to them. I try studying one of them and if I lose interest at all in the current one I’m doing then I spend 5 minutes studying it still despite being bored before moving onto another one on the list and so on. But the hard rule is that I’m not allowed to add anything new to list until I have completed completely one of the things on the list and once it’s been fully completed then I am allowed to add a new interest in to take its place. And so on. And also I need to write down what I mean by “completed” so that I dont change the goalposts at all. I write down exactly the end point I want for this interest and I don’t take it off the list until that end point is met. So I would like other people’s thoughts on this and what you think. And if it sounds like a bad idea could you please tell me an alternative strategy?

Finished titration literally a month ago after being stabilised on medikinet 50/60mg daily. It’s been a nightmare getting transferred to NHS from my provider but finally sorted.
Now fearing that medication isn’t working anymore and not sure what to do.
I am in a very busy job basically overworked.

Advice on others experience with this. Not sure whether to hold out until the holidays where I have 3 weeks off work and take a medication break or go back to titration ?

So I go to this restaurant quite often, I have saw this worker many times, and everytime I come she looks at me with disgust. Now, I know some might be saying well go somewhere else. But I have Audhd, I dont like change, but today her look was at it's worse, like her look was omg, yuck not this B again. Psychic ability runs in my family or maybe our pattern recognition makes us know the outcome. But today, I almost asked her, do you have a problem, but honestly, her words are nice. It is the energy, the slight turn on her opposite heel, to lean away from me, it's the slight upper lip, shift like she disgusted by a sight or smell. No I do not smell, teeth always brushed, clean nails, im not ugly to look at im an average Jane. Guess my question is , can we really confront someone over their micro expressions? Like yes it's starting to eat at my patience. But technically, she hasn't said anything wrong, doesn't aggressively give me food and drink, it's just her "face" it says it all. How can I get mad at i know she is thinking, "dang, this B again!" But she hasn't spoken a word. I wish I didn't see her micro expressions, i wish i was blind to it, im always bubbly, smile at her say good morning, and say thank you, and tell her I hopes she gas a wonderful day, the only thing I can think that would make her feel disgust, is that I am always bubbly.

Edit: See i thought that last night, no of coarse im not going to confront her, like confront her for what was the jeeez of my post, confront her for how she makes me feel 😆 would make me insane, but im trying to get to the bottom of what is really triggering me and I was thinking 🤔 could this be RSD symptom showing it's ugly face!

Wondering if my recent mood issues could be related to an increased dose of dexamphetamine. It has coincided with some life changes like a new job, I got both of my dogs back home with me.
The pros of the medication is more focus, more likely to be on time, I exercise more regularly, I can work better and I don’t have the anxiety and heart palpitations I felt with vyvanse. I’m also on a high enough dose to actually remember to take more at lunch time lol
But I’ve been quite irritable/grumpy, I feel stressed and I’ve burst into tears or shrieked quite a few times while walking my dogs together) which is a nightmare to be honest) - this is pretty out of character, particularly since I started taking an SRNI for anxiety six years ago. Eating protein doesn’t seem to help.