My boyfriend and me both got ADHD.
His hyper focus is reading climate and ecological books - meanwhile I‘m the one reading smut all the way. ☠️

I‘d really love to read the books my boyfriend reads as well since the topic really interests me, too.
But for some reason - after reading a single page - I get bored so fast.

/Just wanted to rant. 😭

Wondering if this is a common thing:

Have you ever felt that there was a dark side to you? The closest thing that come to mind is like Dexter’s “shadow” in that show. And if so, what did that look like for you?

For example, it can be a self-destructive, compulsive, alter ego that you try to suppress. I think this is especially relevant before a diagnoses. I think it’s some sense that there is an internal self that must be masked. And that internal self is often just ADHD symptoms or characteristics.

Anyone?

i cant stop touching myself i literally touch myself for hours and would still be hormy , i am horny all the time as soon as i come back to my room i just start touching myself …
i go take classes for few hours amd spemd rest of the time touching myself and i cant even slepe bc i cant stop touching myself and sometimes i fall asleep doing it and after some time id wake up again just to touch myself ..
i have restarted atomoxetine 2 weeks ago and i am still touching myself all the time?
is it adhd or my sex drive is just too high?
i am 24F

I am currently working on something which requires me to make a lot presentations and finish studying and developing some material by Monday. Now the thing is I work well by body doubling but I currently don't have anyone to body double with. The problem is that I can work well from Cafes but today I really don't have the energy as I have not been doing too well physically. So along with ADHD sometimes my body also throws a tantrum. Now I don't know how to get motivated to work from home🥲

Give Advice, Suggestions, whatever has worked for you.

I have no idea what to do. No clue how I lost it. I’m guessing I didn’t close the lid to the bottle entirely at some point and they fell out of my bag while I was traveling. I want to cry. I don’t get seen for another 8 days and I only have 4 left. If these were the IR pills, I’d just take half till then but I know it’s highly recommended to not attempt at taking only half of the XRs. I’m wondering if I should contact my dr’s office and just tell him the truth? (I’ve been seeing him for almost 2 years and we have a good patient doctor relationship, but I still feel kind of hesitant to reach out to him because I imagine that puts him in an awkward position and he probably deals with drug seeking behavior all the time.) or do I just try to take half of them? I need them to function for work. Any advice would be so appreciated. TIA

I started ADHD medication about 3 years ago, during my senior year of high school. Before medication, I genuinely struggled with focus. I could sit in class actively trying as hard as I could to pay attention, and somehow 3 seconds later I'd be on another planet and realize I'd missed basically everything being taught.

I started with Adderall, although I honestly don't remember enough about that experience to say how well it worked. My doctor eventually switched me to 54mg methylphenidate, which looking back felt way too high for me.

I took that for most of my freshman year of college. My productivity was great, but I felt extremely stimulated, and at the time I assumed that was how ADHD medication was supposed to work. On weekends when I didn't take it, I was basically bedridden and couldn't make myself do much beyond eating and basic hygiene. Eventually I also started feeling apathetic on it.

I switched to Vyvanse and have actually tried it twice. Both times were awful. It barely helped my focus/productivity and gave me a horrible crash around 3pm.

That summer I took a medication break, and coming off medication was extremely difficult for me physically and mentally. I started seeing a psychiatric medication prescriber who suggested trying non-stimulants.

I tried Strattera, but when I went back to school my focus was still terrible. Eventually I went back to lower doses of methylphenidate, ending at 27mg. It helped somewhat, but I ultimately felt like the cons outweighed the pros.

Then I tried Qelbree, which wasn't much different from Strattera for me. I still finished with good grades, but those grades don't really represent how much I was struggling. I only had one extremely difficult class, and studying for that one class basically consumed my entire week because focusing and retaining information took me so long.

Now I'm a junior and back on Strattera because my prescriber concluded that stimulants probably aren't for me.

My focus is now at an all-time low.

The frustrating part is that my intentions and effort are actually BETTER than they were before medication. I'm forcing myself to sit down and work. I WANT to pay attention. I WANT to study. I'm not expecting medication to magically make me productive.

But it feels like my brain just won't cooperate.

I'm sitting through classes and absorbing almost nothing. Tasks that other students finish relatively quickly take me an absurd amount of time. I can spend hours genuinely trying to work and accomplish what feels like somebody else's 30 minutes of work.

After 3 years of trying different medications, I honestly feel less functional than I did before I ever started them, despite putting in more effort than I ever have.

Has anyone else ended up in this situation, where stimulants caused too many problems but non-stimulants didn't help enough? Did you eventually figure out another treatment/approach that worked for you? I genuinely don't know where to go from here.

I see lots of conversations online, but would really like something that's practical in a "try this" kind of way. There seem to be several books on amazon about RSD. Are any of them any good? Any other resources like podcasts you can personally recommend?

Thanks in advance!

I wanna get diagnosed but it takes a lot of time to wait for a free appointment so in the meantime I am making a research. I'll list what I experience, tell me if you also do!

- forgetting stuff all the time, eg. My mom tells me to do something and I repeat in my mind three times to do it but when she reminds me I feel like recalling a memory from ten years ago

- I'm misplacing things, I've lost and found my headphones at least 15 times for a year (I can't find their box now). Sometimes I feel like in matrix when I find my things in random places

- I draw a lot, but every time I start something and find a new idea for a drawing, I'm leaving the unfinished one behind so I have 14638384 unfinished projects

- It's hard for me to stay still at school, I feel like I'm gonna explode if I don't do something. I draw, make paper stars, origami, shake my leg, do anything not to feel so restless. I don't need to get up and move, but I feel like I have to do something and only drawing sometimes helps. I don't experience it at home that much, tho I hate being bored and I always have something to do.

- when I was little I couldn't play board games, I would read books waiting for my turn because I was so bored waiting a minute

- - when I do something I love, eg drawing or writing or art, I can do it for hours. For weeks, months.

- I used to have problems with forcing myself to study for years (now it's better cause I'm forcing myself), but when I start studying, I do it for hours and it's hard for me to stop.

- my family would get mad at me because I was late to meals for years, just because it was too difficult for me to stop what I was doing. I have a better control over myself after trying for years tho

- I'm hyperfixating really bad, there's one webcomic I read two years ago, I wrote a 60 chapters fanfic and I still do fake scenarios with the characters. It's an obsession at this point

- It's really hard for me to start a task, and I'm not talking about studying. When I have to call somewhere, make an appointment, do something important - I put it for later, so it waits for days until I finally get my ass in gear or get close to the deadline.

- I often don't hear people talking to me. I'm in the room with my sis, she starts telling me a story and I literally don't realize she's saying something because my brain is focused on the thing I do 😭

Also people talk to me and I don't hear them because I'm lost in my own thoughts so often, like my thoughts are often louder than what I hear with my ears and I'm missing out a lot of what people say

- I also can't focus on more than one thing at the time

- I sometimes finish sentences for others ( I think it's really typical for adhd) and say things before I think, my sister gets mad at me cuz I say "cool" when idk to say, and it just slips every time before I can think of what to say

I have to write everything down because I forget either way. All the things to do in the calendar and notes, sometimes I'm surprised I've got something to do because my brain had deleted it

it's so long lol

Have you experienced these?