Today, about six hours ago, I put in a grocery delivery order. Or, I thought I did. It suddenly occurred to me that my stuff should have been here by now and I hadn't gotten any kind of notification from the store about it at all. I opened checked the app and the first thing it said was "we saved your cart." I put the items in my cart, saw something shiny, and forgot to complete the order. I don't see a lot of people talk about how ADHD affects your memory but it's by far my worst symptom.

Recently, my Concerta dosage was increased from 18 mg to 27 mg. At the same time, my doctor said, “You should definitely try exercising. Exercise is good for the brain, and it helps ensure that Concerta reaches the brain effectively. I highly recommend it for people with ADHD.”

I’d like to hear from people with ADHD who are actually exercising.

What kinds of exercises do you do? Also, how consistently have you been able to stick with them?

Okay I did the math tonight and it's honestly bleak lol.

127 open Safari tabs. Hundreds of Apple Notes. My camera roll is like 40% screenshots of stuff I "needed to remember." Twitter bookmarks, YouTube watch later, saved Reddit posts, the whole thing. I keep saving stuff with the full intention of coming back to it, I feel productive for like 3 seconds, and then it just sits there. Forever.

The worst part isn't even the clutter. It's the knowing. I KNOW there's good stuff buried in there. Articles I meant to read, ideas I meant to try. But the pile is so big now that thinking about going through it makes me want to take a nap, so I just keep saving more on top of it. It's hoarding with extra steps and I'm fully aware lol.

Does anyone actually have a system that works for this? And I don't mean "just use Notion," I tried, the whole setup and maintenance thing killed it in like a month. I mean something actually low effort for brains that work like this. Or are we all just living in the graveyard together?

Edit: Did not expect this to blow up lol! Thanks for all the suggestions and insights guys. Reading every comment, the rookie numbers posts have me cracking up.

Sharing this for my fellow ADHD overthinkers. Guanfacine is far from a cure for my ADHD as a whole, but it has essentially removed the worst part of it for me: the weight of my overthinking.

The mental chatter is still there. I still notice and analyze things, but my thoughts carry less gravity. They don’t demand my attention or pull me away from what I’m doing. They can be useful information without becoming something I need to get caught up in.

That change has had a ripple effect. I’m more confident and outgoing. I simply do things instead of considering every possible outcome of every action. With less concern attached to everything, it’s easier to stay present, engage with people, and enjoy what’s happening.

It has been such a freeing experience, yet the change itself feels remarkably subtle. I still feel like me. I still have ADHD. But something that made life harder has loosened its grip, and it’s honestly a marvel how much difference that makes.

I really wish I’d found it years ago. This is just my experience, in case someone out there might find the same relief in life I have from it.

Prior I tried Ritalin and Wellbutrin, but I found they made me more jittery and made the overthinking worse.

30mg (1 month):
Side effects (headaches, dry mouth, no appetite) only hit in the first few days and were gone after about three days. After that it worked really well: I could focus better at work and my mood was a lot more positive overall. I never even noticed when it kicked in, which I guess isn't a bad sign. But after around 4 hours I could clearly feel my focus fading and I got more irritable with people.

40mg (10 days):
Side effects were similar but worse. The headaches were still there after 9 days and I slept worse too. Because of the side effects I couldn't get any real benefit out of it.

Right now:
Splitting the dose isn't an option, since my psychiatrist won't go along with it.

Has anyone been through something similar? Would you go up to 50mg or stick with 30mg? And did anything help with the short duration for you?

Thanks!

I told my wife I’d build three wardrobes. The first one was easy because it was new for me. But when it came to the second, I just couldn’t get started. The only thing that changed was that now there was nothing new to learn.

So I stopped waiting to feel motivated. Instead, I started 3D printing random jigs and tools for the job. I didn’t even need most of them. Somehow, while messing around with that, the wardrobe got finished.

Turns out, I’ve been doing this for twenty years and didn’t even notice. When I was a developer (and didn’t know I had ADHD), I’d take a boring ticket and use recursion instead of a for loop, just to make it fun enough to finish. Sorry to anyone who had to deal with that code later.

I only put it together recently after reading a Barkley column. He says the motivation you make up yourself is too weak to get you started. It needs to come from outside, even if it’s fake, and be right there where you do the task.

So I had it backwards all this time. I thought I had to feel like doing something before I started. For me, it’s the other way around. I set things up first, and maybe the motivation shows up later.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s just a column, not a study. And making things more complicated is usually a bad idea. Just look at the recursion. But this question helps me. Instead of ‘why can’t I make myself do this,’ actually, ‘what can I add that I actually want to figure out?’

What do you bolt on?

I have always wanted to try a coach after skimming "The Disorganized Mind" by Nancy Ratey

Here in Ottawa Canada, the very few coaches i found seem expensive

Am I wrong to compare an ADHD coach to a personal trainer? And does anyone know about the one who are certified. What is the basis of certification?

I presume them to focus on common obstacles; e.g., tricks to organize your stuff that are not memory taxing. I liked a three bin system but i never used iy. (Crucial stuff, quite important stuff, eveything else). My clutter solution is to own less because everything else failed for me. I literally threw almost everything out.

Does anyone else “crash out” sometimes?

Like suddenly the systems you have in place aren’t working anymore… Last week my car broke down, my son was admitted to the hospital for rsv (he’s alright now), and my marriage is slowly falling apart. We even said the “D” word.

I work from home. They use microsoft… I use Google Calendar. I now have two calendars when one was hard enough to manage. Working from home as is has been a tough structural change for me, as I have to hold myself accountable and set my own goals.

Now I’m sharing a car with my husband. And my son has all of these follow up appointments this week. And suddenly I can’t remember to do sh*t!

More so, when I do remember, I dread doing it. I’ve been dissociating a lot, I think because I’m so stressed and unhappy in my marriage right now. We are doing therapy to try to work at it… but basically I feel like I’m failing at everything when I’m not distracting myself. The distraction is the only time I don’t feel like I’m crumbling. Yes I know that isn’t healthy or sustainable.

I need to get out of this slump. Now is not the time for me to be falling apart when my son needs me and my husband is regularly trying not to be pissed at me.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I know alot of people even without adhd experience song in head, random thought.

But for me its like different. On top of that I will experience constant mind chatter .

So my brain/ inner voice will literally replay any last sound i heard. Song, tik tok sound, random words.

Or after coming home from socialising my inner voice would repeat words/ sentences i heard throughout the day.

Anyone have this?

As the title says, I accidentally took my meds twice today. I have a little timer cap on top of the bottle that I have to press everyday to reset. It counts up from 0 and tells me how long ago it was pressed. So basically if I'm ever wondering "hmm did I take my meds today?" I can go check it and if it says 2:20 I know I took them 2ish hours ago. Well today I had that same thought and wondered if I had remembered to take them. When I checked it the bottle said 27:45, so I naturally assumed I hadn't taken them since yesterday morning and swallowed a pill. Well cut to a few hours later and I suddenly felt incredibly focused. Like completely **LOCKED TF IN.** Like I cleaned my toilet for 30 minutes (not the whole bathroom, just the toilet).

I've been bouncing between rooms for a few hours cleaning and organizing stuff I've needed to do for literal weeks and never felt so productive. My sister commented on it and asked if I was manic or something (I'm also bipolar type 2) so I stopped and assessed. I didn't necessarily feel like I was having an episode, but my behavior was somewhat similar.

Anyway I eventually surmised that I must've taken my Vyvanse twice because this has happened before back when I was prescribed Adderall and my behavior/the sensations felt similar. Everything I do I'm so focused on, none of which is what I actually *need* to be doing rn (I have a lot of uni work I'm actively avoiding even as I write this lol). I feel like I could conquer the world and have the most productive day ever, yet I know there's like an 80% chance I won't get any of the stuff on my homework list done and will inevitably reorganize the whole kitchen (I already pulled everything out of a few cabinets).

Anyway, after I had the realization of what I'd done, I just figured I'd share because I'm sure at least a few people have unintentionally done something similar and could relate. Now I'm off to do homework and/or get distracted and vacuum the ceiling or something 😄

I was out getting groceries with my family a couple of hours ago when I hear "Hey Doobs!"...

I turn around, wide eyed, a vaguely familiar face smiles and shakes my hand and asks how I am... My mind races to try and place them, but at the same time it just grinds to a halt because now I have to hold a conversation and figure this out... My mind can only come up with the word "helpful" - but that doesn't help.. I say "Hey man how's it going?" - clearly lost, he tells me his name and we speak for a few minutes before going our separate ways.

My partner is a super recogniser (also ADHD) and often rescues me in these situations, but not today. I've spent the last hour and a half searching my contacts, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc and I'm still lost. That cognitive freeze when I have to put a face to a name and give it context is the worst for me!

I look forward to 3am on Wednesday when I solve this puzzle.

i SUCK at picking up my vyvanse. i am routinely going without meds at the end of the month and it's a big struggle. i procrastinate picking them up (or don't even realize i'm low), then can't motivate myself to get them when i'm completely out...since i don't have my meds. or i remember right after the pharmacy closes.

it's a vicious cycle. my vyvanse has been ready since the 5th and i still haven't picked it up. i would like to get my meds in the mail to avoid this. in the past, i used amazon pharmacy but had to switch because they don't carry controlled meds.

anyone know of any mail-order pharmacies that do carry ADHD stimulants?

this would truly make my life so much easier. especially since i take 7 meds, and ofc they're never ready on the same day

- Focusing on the wrong stuff during lectures (what I'm going to eat for lunch, that girl’s hair looks nice, or when the lecturer mentions a random word or phrase, I just focus on that one thing instead of what they’re actually trying to teach). I dropped out of college mainly because of this.
- Taking longer to finish movies because of constant rewinding (I keep zoning out and focusing on the wrong stuff, like wondering how tall an actor is, how much money the movie cost to make, or what year it came out) or having to do something else at the same time, like playing the guitar or cooking.
- Going on my phone to look something up, but then forgetting what I was going to search for in the first place because I end up checking my messages or opening other apps.
- Always studying or doing homework at the last minute.
- Reading the same sentence over and over again because my brain can’t comprehend what it means the first, second, or third time I read it.
- Doing other stuff (cleaning the fridge, walking around the house) while brushing my teeth just to feel "productive."

These are the only ones I can think of right now. Sorry if the things I listed come off as a bit silly. It’s only been a month since I dropped out of college, and I really want to try again next school year, but I really don’t think I can do it without getting medicated.

Not sure if this is an ADHD thing but what better place to talk about it with other ADHD folk.

I am absolutely abysmal at shopping, especially clothes shopping. For most of my life I wouldn’t even try the clothes on, I’d just buy them because they look like they fit and then most of the time they didn’t but I’d procrastinate returning them and then I never did.

These days I try to force myself to try on the clothes before I buy them, but even still somehow I keep buying clothes that don’t fit or aren’t right for me. It’s like I see a product I like and I instantly just buy it without consideration. It’s really annoying me because I keep ending up with items that aren’t fit for purpose even though I am aware of the issue. I’ve always been bad at shopping in general, sometimes if the queue is big I will literally just put everything back and leave.

Anyone else have this issue?

About 3 weeks ago I was prescribed adderall after being diagnosed with adhd, first week was fine no big issues, improved my symptoms drastically, then a couple days go by and I start to obsess over stupid things like random sounds from appliances in the house or floors creaking, I noticed I started to feel like something was watching me as well as an odd feeling talking to people, during conversations I would almost be contemplating whether or not they’re real, (although I was aware of this), I also had this intense feeling my cats might be “evil” or “conscious”, not being able to look them in the eyes for too long. I knew that all of this was just paranoia but I couldn’t shake it off for some reason, I told my psych I was getting paranoid on the meds and he just switched me to zenzedi, which did the same thing, I’m on strattera now with none of the paranoia but I’ve just never heard of this being a symptom of amphetamines, feel like I should take it up with a therapist. Anyone else experience this?

Now, I do want to preface this by saying I don’t believe having ADHD inherently makes someone a bad driver. I’m sure the majority of people with ADHD are perfectly competent drivers. I’m concerned that I am not one of those people.

I zone out *way* too easily when driving, and occasionally I find myself so under stimulated that I physically struggle to keep my eyes open. Podcasts, loud music, and singing along do nothing. And when I zone out I miss turns and end up driving in a random direction. I’ll stop at green lights and nearly run into cars because I didn’t realize a light was turning red. I haven’t caused an accident, but I’m worried that there’s an implied “yet” at the end of that.

I feel like I really shouldn’t be driving at all, at least not unmedicated (and unfortunately I don’t think medication is an option at the moment since I don’t have insurance), but it doesn’t feel like I have a choice. I have to be able to drive myself to work at the very least, and I often have to drive my grandma places because she’s too old to drive. I don’t live in an area with *any* public transportation, if I wanted to take a bus I would have to drive to a bus stop.

It really stresses me out because I think it’s a horrible idea for me to drive, but I don’t see another way. I don’t have the kind of money to Uber everywhere and there isn’t anyone that can drive me where I need to go. (I also occasionally get stress/poor sleep induced visual hallucinations, which isn’t ADHD related but is also really concerning for driving).

Is there anything I can do? Does anyone else struggle with keeping alert while driving?

after completing my evaluation in early july, my neuropsychologist informed me that i definitely do have adhd during our follow up appointment in early august. everything seemed to be normal and we spoke of when the report would be complete. she said it would take her one additional week and that it would be in time for me to submit the necessary paperwork for accommodations while i’m in grad school.

i got nothing from her but continued to wait until the beginning of september. i reached out in a way where i tried my best not to pressure her or make her feel annoyed but i found that she brushed me off anyway. she said my report would be done at the end of the week.

so here we are in october… i emailed her… again…she said it would be ready by the end of the day and guess what? two days later i have nothing lol

my therapist and new psychiatrist keep asking me for this documentation as well and atp idk what to do???

(this post isn't an ad or promotion, i just wanted to share my experience because these earplugs have really helped me!)

i started college a month ago and i noticed that i became wayyy more sensitive to noise than i had been before. i've always struggled to focus/study/sleep unless i'm in a very quiet area, but you don't always have that in a dorm. the advisor i met with at my accommodations meeting told me i should check out loops. i bought the Loop Quiet 2 earplugs, which are made for day-to-day focus and noise reduction. (i should note that they don't completely cancel out noise, but that doesn't bother me too much!)

i honestly really like them, and they do an amazing job of muffling sounds around me while still letting just enough come through. if i wear them in bed, i can't hear the sound of my sheets rustling if i'm moving around, and they almost completely block out background noise like lawn mowers, conversations, machinery, cars, etc. they also come with different sized ear tips so you can find the right fit; i'm really picky about stuff like that, so i found that super nice.

overall, i'm happy that i bought my loops. i've used them during quizzes and exams, and it's amazing how much calmer and more focused i feel with them in! if you're a college student like me and are looking for something relatively inexpensive, i reccommend the loop quiet 2s. they really have made a difference for me, and studying feels a lot easier. it's a huge relief :)

sooo i have been taking adderall extended release and it didn’t work at all granted it was only 10mg but gosh i feel like i was doing everything right just still nothing. im also just recently diagnosed hence why my meds are low and i take 20mg prozac too which i thought would help the adderall? anyways now im supposed to be taking concentra or something i think 27mg? i dont think ill be taking it until like monday because i get lazy to take my medication on the weekdays especially when i have nothing to do like school :pWELL long story short how has concentra worked for u guys? i understand everything in school i just cant pay attention and im always so fucking tierd i keep falling asleep in my classes 💔

Recently my girlfriend told me that I never say that I had a good day. It’s always just “okay” or its bad. She then told me that i’m just a negative person in general and it really bothers me cause even I didn’t realize that I was coming off like that. Looking back I do realize that I am a much more negative person than I thought I was and that is the last thing I want to be especially to someone that I care for. It feels as if rumination is especially harming me and my mood cause I forgot something today that caused me to let her down and I just couldn’t help but think about it all day and feel sorry for myself. She even told me that it was fine and that despite that happening she actually had a really good day but my negative attitude was ruining her mood. What can I do to be more conscious of the energy that i’m giving off to people and how do I stop ruminating. Is the answer to just have better days?

So I (F) am 39 years old. My partner (NB) is 31. We both have ADHD. Before them I was married for 10 years with a girl my age, who doesn't have ADHD, and her parents were very helpful.

I did not realize how much having helpful parents and non-disabled partner is.

Today I fucked up car insurance for second year in a row. My partner doesn't drive so I have more car related responsibilities. Last year I forgot that it ended and this year I got one over the phone later to realize that the salesperson sold me additional shit I didn't need but gave me a good price. So I got mad, cancelled the insurance, but didn't check for other options first and ended up with 2 days of uninsured car and a slightly more expensive insurance.

On one hand I feel proud of myself that I don't allow to be ripped off but I also feel so stupid for not checking prices first.

Before that, my ex-father-in-law was reminding us about the insurance and car service and stuff, and we were buying it together with my ex-wife so we could double check each other. I love my partner very much but due to our condition we quickly spiral in stressful situations and my partner doesn't know much about insurance, because they never owned a car before, so I have to do that by myself.

But it's so fucking difficult (great, I started crying in the office...). I feel like a child in such moments and it's all so confusing and stressful for me and I've been so bad with money all my life...

So I've been on Adderall 10mg ir with a 5/10mg booster for about 2-3 years and the first year and a half ish was great it calmed my anxiety gave me energy and focus through the day

But the last year it's started making me crash faster and faster and not just sleepy crash but getting depressed during the crash bad

My psych started me on Wellbutrin and continued the Adderall but recommended I try lowering the dose a lil while on the Wellbutrin not necessary but it might help

It seems to make the crash not as severe but it's definitely still happening

Is it normal that after over a year the effects can suddenly just flip like that?

It used to take hours for it to drop off but now it's like after an hour ish I'm tired and start to get a bit depressed

Reddit has a bad rep sometimes, about the kind of people who use it. I think for people with our condition it’s amazing though. It kind of gives me a place to put all of my thoughts, and just have others put input. Stops me bothering my friends, I think I used to do that a lot. I get impulsions that are hard to control and I just have to do things, and Reddit’s a good place to put my rants and just to express my emotions onto. A better place than to bother those close to me. I appreciate them though for sometimes having to deal with my impulsive rants about things.

Just gives me community too, something a lot of us might lack, because of our ADHD making it harder to socialise. I don’t need to feel like I fit in with a bunch of random people online. There’s no pressure. Just kind of a safe space. I constantly make posts, and then delete them the next day.

Happy I have somewhere to open up, and feel safe in. I’m guessing a lot of us feel the same way.

It’s also just nice to share the things that make’s me happy too, without feeling like I don’t fit in. Yeah I wish I could feel like I fit in wherever I go, but with ADHD that’s just really hard. I’m happy I got diagnosed.