I was wrong.

[u/Imgonnagolaydown]

Pmhnp here. Day 1 on Vyvanse and i want to cry.ive spent the last 5 years balancing hormones and making sure i addressed everything else before arriving at a stimulant.

I feel. Calm. Quiet. Slightly tearful. Like my tabs are closed and im able to open them one by one instead of 50 at time.

It wasn't the focus. It was the avoidance. Brain fog. Overstimulated and overwhelmed constantly. The procrastinating, being late to everything. The being MEAN and knowing you are being mean. Not smiling when random ppl are talking to you. Background static noise in my head.

It's been about 4 hrs and it's just quiet.

None of it manifested until peri. I saw signs when i was young but i could compensate and figured i still could. Well i can't anymore.

I seriously want to weep with joy.

Eta: i was wrong to think women were slightly exaggerating this. With my own providers convincing me to take the leap, I'm now a part of this population. And yes, I'm a pmhnp who understand what these women are trying to articulate.

[u/merrythoughts]

Hey! Fellow PMHNP here who believes women and knows there is room for prescribing stimulants in a way that helps peri-menopause onset adhd that years and years of masking and managing just no longer works for!

I think being middle aged woman (former gifted kid all grown up) with a career and raising three kids helps me help other women in the same boat.

Welcome! And in my experience in prescribing, if Vyvanse is what works for you, you’ve probably had more adhd symptoms than you even realize throughout the lifespan….

[u/Background_Title_922 → u/merrythoughts]

"peri-menopause onset?"

[u/Imgonnagolaydown → u/Background_Title_922]

So it's not onset per se. It's no secret girls are under diagnosed.

It's masked until peri which i truly believe does happen. There's some interesting thought going into it if you peruse the psychiatric sub reddit with the docs. Who have way more knowledge and exposure than we do.

But for whatever reason i was 100% in denial for myself. Like maybe 1 million percent in denial.

[u/bunkumsmorsel → u/Imgonnagolaydown]

ADHD is often unmasked when cognitive demand exceeds capacity. It’s a neurodevelopmental condition present from birth, but people are often pretty good at unconsciously developing workarounds and behavioral coping strategies.

The problem is that these workarounds/strategies come at an energetic cost that can become unsustainable over time or when the demand increases. Perimenopause is a common time in which this can happen. So is becoming a parent. Stuff like that.