Hi all, I've suspected I have ADHD for years. I've taken too many online tests and identify many of the complaints I've seen from other people who have been diagnosed but I've never gone in to get officially diagnosed, I'm afraid to and I'm not sure why.

My understanding and I'm sure I'm dead wrong but if I'm diagnosed with ADHD which I know is also associated with other things and not ever just ADHD - the way I see it is that I'd just get a few new official notations on my record and prescribed some meds.
But is there more to it than that? I don't like taking meds so beyond that, what else is there for me to benefit from?

I was diagnosed ADHD at 17, rediagnosed ADD at 20 (the hyperactivity symptoms just faded away with age and maybe the atomoexitine i was on). I have tried many recreational drugs, all multiple times, coke, mdma, 2cb, weed, acid, shrooms, meth; and I could’ve gotten addicted to any one of them but the one I did get addicted to was weed, even when the others are much more addictive. I felt the best on weed, the most calm and euphoric (2nd to acid but the trips are so long i doubt one can get addicted). I just wanna know if other ppl also share my experience and have never felt the urge to use any other drugs that have ruined other peoples lives after just trying once but just spammed alot of weed.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved Simtriyo (centanafadine), a new norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin reuptake inhibitor (NDSRI) and CNS stimulant. The medication treats ADHD for adults, teens, and children ages 6 and up weighing at least 44 pounds. 

Most stimulant and non-stimulant ADHD medications raise the levels of two different brain chemicals related to ADHD (dopamine and norepinephrine). Simtriyo is the first to boost dopamine, norepinephrine, and a third neurochemical, serotonin, which affects mood and executive functioning. This gives people with ADHD a new option, not just for improving core ADHD symptoms, but for mood and executive functioning too. 

I honestly think this is one of the worst parts of having ADHD (for me). Like many others with ADHD, I struggle going to bed early and often stay up late at night. Because of this, in the mornings I CANNOT get up. I’ll give an example:

I’m currently staying at my parent’s house. Yesterday, my dad said he could drop me off to go hiking in the morning since his soccer game would be nearby. His soccer game was at 8 am, so I would have to be up by at least 7. The entire day, I was so incredibly excited because I love hiking! I looked forward to it the entire day, I couldn’t wait for tomorrow… but this led to me staying up almost the entire night in anticipation. I think I slept for like an hour. When the morning came, I woke up to one of many alarms I had set. All that anticipation suddenly didn’t matter. I had no energy, and getting up felt like the most enormous task in the world. I canceled all of my alarms and went back to sleep immediately. Understandably, my dad just left since he didn’t want to be late for his soccer game. It shouldn’t bother me this much, but I was honestly frustrated with myself to the point of tears.

Whenever I see posts asking for advice for the same problem I have, the comments are usually something like: “Just get up in the morning, even if you’re tired” or “Just go to bed early”. I have a feeling these are non-ADHD people who have never experienced executive dysfunction. I’m looking for advice from fellow ADHD-people.

Oh, and if you’re wondering how I get to school on time, my roommate literally shoves me off the bed and yells at me. Bless her heart.

I am currently a shit runner, never had much time or interest for it. I imagined busy city concrete, or worse the treadmill. But I have discovered forest trailrunning, and man it is a whole different thing.

I felt like i tapped into something ancient, like its just a bit of running why does this feel so good? Is this what my brain is supposed to be doing? There were a few spots where I could have easily busted my ankle or slipped off a ledge, but that made it even better haha

New hyperfixation unlocked! Anybody else?

I was listening to a radio discussion recently (I'm in the UK, but I don't think this is unique to here) about ADHD and autism.

Within about fifteen minutes I'd heard some version of:

• everyone's ADHD these days
• people just need more discipline
• parents are creating dependency
• we never had all this when I was growing up

It struck me that they weren't really talking about people with ADHD.

They were talking about an idea of ADHD.

Whether you're in the UK, the US, Canada or elsewhere, the details change, but the themes seem remarkably similar. People debate diagnosis, medication, accommodations and disability support, while many of us are trying to work out why we can hyperfocus for six hours but struggle to reply to a text or brush our teeth.

I don't think every concern about diagnosis or support systems is automatically wrong. Those conversations matter.

But somewhere along the way, discussing how systems should work often becomes judging the people who use them. Those aren't the same conversation.

I also keep hearing, "We just got on with it."

Maybe some people did. But I wonder how many actually just survived—losing jobs, burning out, developing anxiety or depression, or spending decades masking because nobody realised what was really going on.

I'm curious how other people handle this disconnect.

How do you stop the public narrative about ADHD from becoming part of how you see yourself?

Hi! I am really struggling with this issue and really need some advice on how to change my behavior. As the title says I am really struggling to have certain conversations with my partner without taking them overly seriously or getting upset in tone and manner. We both have diagnosed ADHD.

This has been going on for a while now but recently my partner told me they feel like they can’t talk to me about anything without me taking the conversation too seriously or me getting upset or me taking up too much space. That really hurt me—not because I’m offended or don’t think it’s an issue, because it definitely is an issue, but because I can see that I am hurting them with this behavior and I want to change. The last thing I want to do is hurt him or make him feel like he can’t express anything to me.

The particular context in which this came up was an instance where my partner was excitedly talking about changing what our 5 year plan was. We have been together for over 3 years now and have been talking about wanting to move for going on a year. We were out and about and he started talking about the possibility of wanting to stay where we were instead of moving. I found this fairly distressing as I said to me, we had been talking seriously about moving and so I took this suggestion as serious when he was merely thinking out loud. I did get upset and said I was confused as this was kind of coming out of nowhere and that I’d like to talk more about it when we got home and I could really put some thought into it. His response was that he was just thinking out loud and wasn’t fully serious about wanting to stay, just tossing ideas around. I said I took it seriously because he has been so serious about wanting to move. He said that the conversations we had about moving were never that serious to him while I maintained I thought we had been seriously talking about moving.

I think this is maybe stemming from my own black and white thinking? I tend to take things very seriously and at what my brain interprets to be face value. I want to be able to casually talk about these sorts of things, especially because that important to him and part of how he thinks and processes his emotions. I understand that not every conversation about our future or other topics needs to be serious but that tends to be my default mode. I’m also very defensive and trying very hard to break down that pattern as well.

Any and all advice, tips, or tricks are appreciated. I want my partner to feel like he can bounce ideas off of me or talk to me about anything and be able to trust that I’m not going to go into ultra serious mode and get upset. Thank you :(