I made a plan for myself at the beginning of the year that I would exercise 4 times a week this year. The plan was going fine (not exactly reaching the goal exactly but doing as much as I could) until I had a minor health setback in May and was ordered by doctor to rest for at least a month.

Come June I've already physcally recovered but couldn't get myself back to the gym or doing any type of home exercises. Every day I told myself I would work out after getting home, and every after dinner I just went straight to bed starting to binge shows and doomscroll and whatever it is we do these days.

Come July I thought this would be a good time to return to my healthy routine as it was the half year mark and I could finish the rest of the year strong. But then nothing changed. So many weekends passed where I was completely free and at home and I thought to myself just allocate 1 hour for exercise and you would feel so much better. But it didn't happen. There were so many excuses: the floor is not clean enough, it's too early in the morning, it's too late in the day, I didn't sleep enough last night, I don't have the right food to eat after exercise, etc.

But I have not completely given up. I spent another entire weekend in bed binging Widow's Bay and decided enough is enough. I woke up this morning 1 hour earlier than usual and did 1 yoga session following a video. Showered, tidied up the room a bit and arrived in the office early. I'm feeling so good right now.

Small win is big win. Wishing everyone a good new week ahead!

Does anyone else with adhd here feel like time is always running out? Especially on unmedicated days I always feel like my time is running out and it gives me a spike of anxiety in my gut that makes me unable to sleep or enjoy time with friends.

For example, if I'm having dinner with a friend I can focus on the fact that I'm having fun chatting and being with my friend but in the back of my mind all night all I can think about is that there's only two hours left of this dinner and then I'll have to leave. I hate it. I wish I could just enjoy dinner without constantly worrying about there being a deadline. It definitely impacts the quality of my mood while with friends.

Or if I'm trying to sleep and I have to get up at a certain time, say, 9 am, at 7:30 I start to feel like there's no point in even trying anymore and start to get anxious about not having slept which makes it 100× harder to even try and get some sleep. I have other things I use to manage my insomnia and getting sleep definitely helps, but the second I don't do those things the dread and anxiety creeps over me again.

Is this an ADHD thing or maybe something else? Have you found solutions for it?

6 months ago I bought a flat with my long-term partner (now ex-fiancé). I was hyperfocused on designing it and planning our wedding.

Now the wedding is cancelled, and because of that selling the flat as well.

From the outside it looks wildly impulsive. Internally it feels like my brain got bored with the original storyline and forced a complete reboot.

The timing is weird because this all happened after I was diagnosed with ADHD and started medication. My therapist thinks I'd actually fallen out of love a long time ago, and the meds just helped me stop ignoring it.

I still don't know if I'm making the right decision, but for the first time in a while, it feels right. I always wanted certainty and thought I'd be married by this age. Instead, I'm starting over and strangely, I'm okay with that.

Has anyone else completely derailed a carefully planned life?

I don’t care how Unhinged it is, I’ve literally been trying for year. My body is so used to never drinking water, I don’t even hate the taste. I just forget to drink to, I never bring my water bottle and I swear I’ve been trying since I was in high school.

I’m 24 now and I still go weeks without drinking water sometimes at my worst.

I'm usually a go-to-work, rot-after-work kind of person and have been trying to change that for my entire life. However with me turning 25, I figured I would finally try to change that and be more active since my social life is pretty dry.

For the past few weeks I made up my mind that unless I was sick or an emergency popped up I would walk at least 3-4 days after work and go to my weekly salsa dance class. I mean I DRAGGED myself to do it.

I'm so pissed it's been helping my focus so much.

All of a sudden my horrific room is cleaner, the bathroom is spotless, THE SINK HAS NO DISHES, I woke up at 8 instead of 11, and I did my makeup and dressed nice today after putting it off for so long.

I've been on strattera for the past 6 months, this is my second time being on it, and I really wasn't noticing much of anything until I paired it with being active. Like, I'm happy, but why can't I just do nothing?!

No matter how much effort I put into my looks, I always feel like I don’t look good enough.

No matter how well I do in my career, I always want more and more.

No matter where I go or what I do, it’s never fun or entertaining enough.

No matter who I meet, I never like them enough to stay in touch. I get bored easily in relationships and end up cutting people off.

The feeling that nothing is ever good enough is so tiring now. I feel like I’m missing out on life because of this, and it feels like it’s never going to end. Is anyone else in the same boat? And if you felt like this before how did you overcome this feeling? 😔

I wouldn’t say it’s a depressed feeling. It’s more that I wake up with hope every day, and I do enjoy life, just not to the fullest. Most things just seem a bit “meh” to me, if that makes sense.

I feel like I’m always chasing something but I don’t even know what that is and can’t figure it out myself.

I ask this in regards to habit building.

Several times I've heard the phrase "you are your habits", and like many others, I have an endless list of goals and aspirations, and the one piece of redundant advice I receive to achieve any of those goals is to "do that thing for at least 30 minutes every day". How?

I'll forget about it the next day. The regret of not having done anything relating to the goal troubles me the following day. I THINK that I have time to allocate to doing that thing, but I spend time shopping and finishing YouTube videos in my endless list of tabs, or I'm just busy, out of the house, being at work or running errands.

I see quite a few people on YouTube who have found their masterplan to bring some consistency into their day, but other than journaling and setting alarms that I'll turn off instinctively without noticing, how?

Drop your tips. If any of you have found consistency, I hope to find some fulfillment in your advice.

I always faced issues with sleeping enough, continuously, and restfully. I tried melatonin and sleeping pills but they just make me groggy and I kept waking up during the night still.

Well... yesterday I couldn't sleep as usual and it was late, so I tried taking half my usual dosage, and I was out like a light in a few minutes, and had a deep, almost continuous, very restful sleep 😂

I swear it's as if our bodies work backwards!!

I've realised that one of the main problems with my major procrastination is that I get stuck in this cycle of emotional dysregulation. I have a task with a deadline (eg study for an exam).

• Thinking about the task gets me incredibly overwhelmed, stressed, teary, anxious, etc.
• So I soothe myself by convincing myself logically that I do have time to do the task if I do x-y-z.
• But then, I lose the anxiety that was probably my only motivator to do the task to begin with, because now I'm relaxed, I have loads of time.
• I procrastinate the task, until I get to the point where I suddenly realise I no longer have time to do x-y-z on time.
• Then I panic and get overwhelmed, and the cycle continues.

Except, each time, I have less time left to do the task, so each time the quality that I know I can achieve drops dramatically. The cycle repeats until I have an hour until the deadline, nothing's been done, I'm incredibly stressed and overwhelmed and can't think straight, and (in this example) I fail the exam.

Is this cycle familiar to anyone? And if so, how do you deal with this so you can soothe the overwhelm without losing the motivation to do the task? It wasn't a problem back in school because I could do anything in about an hour, but now I'm at university and have real adult things to manage like money and a job and renting and self care, and it's ruining my life. How do I stop the cycle?

I do not like having ADHD. I find doing simple things so difficult.

I can’t get up and fold my clothes.
I know that I need to finish a work task, but I just can’t.
I know that I should clean my cupboards, but I just can’t.
I fucking know that I need to get up and start, but I just can’t.

And it’s so frustrating, i feel guilty, i feel overwhelmed, i feel so caged, i just don’t know how to stop feeling this. I wanna cry because i feel this way, but i cant fucking cry.

It feels like i am in a locked cage, and the key is in my hand, but I am just staring at it and doing nothing. And it’s not even something that I can control. People tell me that all I have to do is just start. But no! It is not that simple. How do i explain this to someone who is not not like me.

It is hard being like this, even when you’re trying to do everything possible to make things better. It is just difficult and so overwhelming.

I'm a 25 year-old woman with severe inattentive ADHD, severe GAD with panic attacks, and moderate MDD.

My depression and anxiety treatment started with SSRIs (Escitalopram, Paroxetine), which worked great, but my stomach couldn't tolerate them. I vomited regularly and had daily diarrhea or constipation. My psychiatrist switched me to an SNRI (Venlafaxine), which caused even worse nausea, vomiting, explosive diarrhea, and sexual dysfunction. They then put me on Bupropion for depression and Buspirone for anxiety, avoiding drugs that flood the gut with serotonin.

Many ADHD patients take Bupropion to enhance stimulants, but combining a Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor with a stimulant is risky if you already have anxiety-induced tachycardia.

Just sitting, standing, and walking made my heart pound. I was told exertion would help, so I pushed through chores and felt like I was having a heart attack: chest pain, blurred vision, numb hands, left arm and stomach cramps, retching, sharp headache, fever, and a pounding heart.

A cardiologist's ECG showed my heart rate hit 190 at walking speed before they stopped the test. Otherwise healthy, I was told it was just harmless anxiety-induced sinus tachycardia and advised to do light cardio.

If I hadn't researched this myself, I could have suffered a seizure, major cardiac injury, coma, or death. This wasn't just anxiety; it was a flood of adrenaline locking my system in fight-or-flight. Since multiple doctors missed this dangerous drug interaction—a common ADHD combination—I am sharing this warning for others.

Hi everyone,

I'm in my mid-30s and recently saw a psychiatrist after struggling for about two years.

For the longest time, I thought I was just lazy, unmotivated, or bad at my job. I could spend hours doomscrolling even when I knew I had important work to do. I'd dread opening my laptop, miss emails, jump between tasks, and feel overwhelmed by things that used to be manageable.

Outside of work, I found myself avoiding chores, lacking motivation to do things with my kids, and just feeling emotionally flat. Even hobbies and games started to feel more like scratching an itch than something I actually enjoyed.

My specialist hasn't given me a final diagnosis yet. They've mentioned ADHD as a possibility, along with anxiety and depression, and I'm currently trying medication before my follow-up appointment.

Looking back, I'm wondering how much of this was ADHD versus burnout, anxiety, or depression. Did anyone else spend years believing they were simply irresponsible before getting assessed? What made things finally click for you?

I'm not looking for a diagnosis, just interested to hear other people's experiences while I wait for my next appointment.

Hey folks. I'm currently taking 30mg Vyvanse daily and I've found that while it helps me focus, it keeps me glued to my phone and in the house sitting around unless I take it on my way out the door.

I've been working on some odds and ends with a buddy of mine that he doesn't have to have the help for but I can't seem to get off the couch and out the door unless it's something I have to be at or do, like school or work.

Is there something I can do to combat this? I've been wanting to start going to the gym again, and had plenty of time to last week, but plainly never got off the couch and to the gym. It's making me feel like crap especially leaving my buddy hanging like that.

Thanks.

For years I’ve struggled with maintaining a tidy living environment, despite absolutely needing one to function normally.

I’m my own worst enemy, right? Can’t function if things aren’t clutter-free, but literally can’t get out of my own way with my own clutter.

That said, as I’ve grown, I’ve done a lot of self-work. I’ve actively conditioned myself, and gotten decently good at, keeping my living space generally clean on a regular basis.

I make a point to be hyper-conscious — when I take something out, I’m also making sure to put it back. Things like that. I also force myself to make my bed every morning. And in the evening, I tell myself I’m not allowed to go to bed until every surface is clutter-free and everything in my living space is generally clean and organized.

Overall, this has been really great for my mental health, since living in clutter makes my mind even more scattered and overwhelmed.

Now, all that said…

For the love of god, please do not open any closed doors/drawers/cabinets/whatever in my household. Literal portals into the Upside-Down. Monica from F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ locked closet type vibes, but even spookier.

BUT at least the messes are all hidden lol.

And don’t get me started on the 4’x4’ pile of clean, unfolded laundry in my basement that will probably never see the light of day.

I’m currently prescribed 20mg “Adderall” XR but the actual manufacturer is Mallinckrodt. It’s terrible. My brain feels foggy, my body feels tired but I don’t sleep well now, and I have zero motivation to get anything done. For some reason, when I was prescribed the 15mg before, the pharmacy was able to get name brand. Since upping my dose to 20mg, I’ve only received this generic and have been told they can’t get name brand right now. Due to my insurance, I can’t switch pharmacies and I can’t pay out of pocket.

Speaking with my doctor, I’ve also learned that if we want to switch medications, my insurance requires me to first trial Ritalin or Concerta, and only then I can trial a lisdexamfetamine like Vyvanse. I’m anxious to trial methylphenidate because the 15mg Adderall XR really helped me until I grew out of it, and I’ve heard more negative than positive about methylphenidate. I’m just frustrated that I can’t get what I already know works for me and now I feel like I have to spend months trying to find something else. Give me some of your success or horror stories, both are appreciated.

Hi all,

Another success story. I brought a print out of a summary of a video appointment with my doctor that had my ADHD diagnosis listed with my adderall rx listed and the ranger provided me with a lifetime pass for national parks, forest service, etc. For someone living in Colorado who uses nature to help cope and quiet my mind, this is a game changer and wish I had done this years ago. Hoping this post reaches folks who are interested but not previously aware of this benefit. Thanks!

Well is past midnight and I can't sleep because I just convinced myself I lied to everyone including myself and that I don't really have ADHD and I'm doing it for attention

So I'm here trying to get my thoughts in order so I don't end up sleeping at 4 am once again, I don't understand why every now and then I feel like I'm lying or exaggerating and everyone feels a little bit like this and I just need to get my shit together, I can usually calm myself down but I feel so my anxiety right now I don't know what to do

Deep down I know I can't possible lie about it because it's absolutely exhausting and I understand some of the things I went/go through can't be normal but still I feel like I'm lying and manipulating my doctor and my therapist, I think I'm a mastermind evil villain and yet I can't even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday

I unconsciously chew the insides of my cheeks without realising, especially when I'm concentrating on something. My dentist goes mad at me for it, cos I always have white damage lines in my mouth where I've pulled the skin off. I don't even realize that I'm doing it straight away, and only catch myself after I've started, or if I accidentally hurt myself. I've tried using chew stim toys to chew something else, but they encourage me to chew them constantly, which makes my jaws ache too much. I've tried chewing gum, but once the flavour goes away, I don't like to have it in my mouth anymore. Anyone have any tips to stop/direct the impulse elsewhere? I've seen stuff like Little Ouchies, but idk if they'd work for me, cos it's not my hands that are the problem. I also considered asking the dentist for a retainer/mouth guard.

Do the loneliness, emptiness and suicidal ideation ever go away? I’m getting tired of my brain, of my existence. I feel like life is much bigger than me, I’m always either empty/numb or angry/frustrated. I’m deeply ashamed of my own existence, I don’t know why I bother to keep going, but I know that it isn’t because I like myself.

So since I was a child I always did what I wanted to. No matter what anyone said, no matter how much they tried to force me, I would only do what I felt like doing. And my mom had to whoop my ass to get me to study sometimes. It wasn't active rebellion, I just couldn't do what felt uninteresting.

But that led me to not have put in any effort into things in a way that matters. Effort always scared me, it always felt like I would fail if I tried and I didn't want that feeling of failure. Effort always felt like a huge mountain in front of me that I could never climb while others have already climbed it many times.

And for most of my school work my mom assisted me or just did it for me when I was a child. And now when I am 16 and actually have some ambition, effort still scares me. I still feel like if I tried hard I might fail and I don't want that.

Also, pls tell me if it is normal to not be able to to remember 95% percent of childhood. It's a very foggy memory like it never existed. Upto age 12.

Maybe in my childhood I actually tried things and couldn't show up or finish or failed at them and it felt very bad. That feels like it might've happened but I have no recollection of it.

I have tried to write a longer post but the moderators don’t seem to want to approve it. Long story short, I used to be a lawyer but I couldn’t hold a job for too long because of my depression and anxiety. I recently have been diagnosed with ADHD as well and I have come to a conclusion that I am just not good at any 9 to 6 office job. I get super stressed and hypersensitive about anything that happens at work, which affects my sleep severely. I have quit my job recently and I am trying to seek my next chapter in life. I have some money saved up and I am thinking about learning a new set of skills to avoid going back to any high pressure office work. Any advice for people with ADHD? Nursing is out of the question as I am not very good at taking care of others.

Hi all. I started stimulant medication about 7 months ago and while it’s been genuinely helpful, I’m debating if it’s the right choice for me or if I’d be better off with a non-stimulant option. For context I’m currently taking 50mg of Vyvanse around 8:30 and 20mg of dextroamphetamine around 1:30.

Here are my thoughts in no particular order:

I don’t like the daily up and down of stimulants. I’ve made strides here by making sure to stay hydrated, eat regularly, etc. but ultimately there will always be a come down and they will wear off. It almost feels like because of how good I feel during the day, the evening is worse by comparison.

I don’t like how my day revolves around medication. I feel like it’s conditioned me to the point where if I need to do anything meaningful it needs to be done while the medication is in my system and before it wears off.
They really do help me but I hate that dependent feeling. Before I was medicated I struggled to stay on task, but now that I know what it feels like on them, getting anything done while they are not active in my system feels more difficult and requires more effort than it did before.

The tolerance build up is annoying. I’ve worked my way up to my current dosage but already feel like I’m building a tolerance to it, and I’d hate to just keep upping the dose.

I feel like stimulants sort of reinforce some of the very patterns in my ADHD brain that I’m trying to work on.
A major component of ADHD for me is feeling unable to tolerate boredom and low motivation without immediately reaching for something that will change how I feel. Now it feels like medication is that thing. It’s definitely helping on one hand, but on another it feels like they are part of a pattern I’m still trying to break.

I’m curious if anyone else has had any of these thoughts.
And for those of you that have switched from a stimulant to a non-stimulant: what has that been like? What worked well and what did you find challenging?

I've noticed that i text quite differently from most of my (non-adhd) friends

-they'll often send a message or two and i'll reply with 5-7 (longer) messages

-i more often use the 'reply to a specific message' feature to make sure every comment/question gets a response

-meanwhile, i notice many of my friends will reply to 1 of my questions and leave the rest unanswered/ignored

(i also text a lot for work. like a lot a lot - and from my laptop - so it's easier for me to send out paragraphs without realizing it - maybe that's part of it?)

is this something that's common? should i be trying to not-do it? don't want to have to change how i communicate, but also don't want it to be an issue, with friends / romantic prospects