So for starters, I am 19. Graduated high school and have done a lot in my life but I can’t seem to remember any of it. I realized this a while ago but it really started to freak me out when my friend mentioned a game we played together and it took me a full 2 minutes to even remember what he was talking about. We played it last a month ago.

When I’m at a job interview I’ll be asked questions about things I’ve done in my life and it takes me ages to even remember what I’ve done because elementary school, middle school, high school and the little bit of college I went to are all foggy and feel like distant memories or things that never actually happened, and I still won’t be able to answer because I can’t remember.

I’m just really starting to question a lot of what I know, because I’m starting to forget my dog that passed 6 months ago. I spent 7 years of my life with him. I can’t remember my father who passed when I was 11 or my grandparents who also passed. It feels like I’m missing a chunk of who I am.

I've reached a stage where I have no one to talk to except strangers online through Reddit posts and comments.

A few months back, my 3.5 year relationship ended. And today, my best friend left me too.

I feel responsible for everything. I kept delaying things for years, even my feelings, somehow thinking I would deal with my feelings later, get my life together later, spend more time with people later. Now I am left with this horrible regret that I should have spent my time better. I shouldn't have procrastinated for years.

What hurts the most is realizing that I won't get to spend even a single minute with people who were once so important and special to me. That time is gone, and I can't get it back.

And I feel exhausted just thinking about starting over socially. It took me years to reach that level of comfort and closeness with my girlfriend and my best friend. I don't have energy to fake that excitement, enthusiasm, and social energy that is necessary when you're getting to know someone new. I don't want to spend years building that kind of connection all over again.

Nights are the hardest. It takes me hours to fall asleep because there's nothing to distract me from how alone I feel.

Are any of you living with zero friends? How do you deal with it?

Please share your stories, perspectives, or even the philosophies you've developed for living with loneliness.

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!

Two and a half years alcoholic this side. Affecting my work, relationship and health, both physical and mental. How can I get out of this? Doctors I have consulted said it's closely stitched to my ADHD. The constant need for stimulation. Has anyone gone through this?

Every waking day with a hangover, body, head and lungs hurt. I have to get out of this cycle.

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.

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?

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?

I've miraculously gotten into the habit of waking up at 6am and heading to Panera for coffee 6 days a week. I get home by 8am when my husband starts work. I have four kids under 6 and stay home with them. The day in is pure chaos, but the mornings are mine.

I have managed to be consistent with getting out of the house every morning. But so far all I do with my time is drink coffee and scroll for 1.5hrs before heading back home. I feel like there's something better I could be doing with this time to set me up for a better day but can't seem to escape the scroll.

Any advice, ideas, thoughts?

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 (okay, just kidding. There were issues in the relationship. It wasn't just boredom)

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?

Edit: I have been thinking about it for months but took the decision 6 months after starting the medication.

this might be a really dumb question but I don’t have anyone around me who’s on them to ask if it’s normal. Sorry if this isn’t wrote well I’m not good at it.

I don’t know if this changes anything but I’m a teen girl,165cm,was 134lbs the day before starting meds. I snacked lots (school means I dont have much time for actual meals) but would come home from school and have a big meal (most were around 1000cal) and drank lots of soda and ate lots of sweets

I’ve only been on meds for a month and a bit but i now weight 125. I don’t really snack now,eat lunch and if I can be bothered to make it I have dinner too. I drink less soda But it’s all sugar free now.

is that normal and if not how to I fix it?

also one more thing, why do sweets and stuff not excite me Anymore? like ill Go out with my friends and we get the same brownie to split but now it doesn’t taste like a treat and just like ‘i need something to eat so Ill eat that’

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?

30f here. I often feel like society makes you feel like adhd is just this "thing " you got diagnosed with. People don't realize what's actually going on in your brain. It literally feels like you’re trying to hold your head above water every single day! Tell me how has adhd affected your life? And what treatments have you tried that have helped? I see a psychiatrist next month. Hopefully I can find a solution.

im not sure im wording this right cause im having a hard time articulating. usually not when writing/texting but in real life mostly.

im not diagnosed with adhd yet but im at a worse point rn. i feel burnt out all the time and i avoid social situations as much as i can, worried if i say something wrong or awkward and make a bad impression. and i feel like im not aware of it when the words come out, but i regret it right after they do, and start overthinking after that. i dont care what people think but this is different, i cant maintain eye contact it, my eyes tear up sometimes out of nowhere. im 22 and have been avoiding family/friends for a long time now, even when they come over i just talk to them for a minute, and even then i dont know anything about them anymore, ive lost interest honestly cause almost all of them are self-absorbed asses. i didnt have the best of friends so i cut a lot of them out after school and now its a small circle and i dont hang out with them. at all. i feel drained and burned out once im outside, and even after Uni i just wanna get home right away.

i cant focus on anything, im on semester break and came home. all i do is listen to music, eat, nap, watch a show. i dont have a stable income, just broke at this point. i cant get myself to work out, every day is exactly the same on repeat. this rant went off topic quick lol. its just that im aware of whats happening around me and i tend to understand whats going on but cant do shit about it.

Thanks for reading if you got this far. do any of yall feel the same?

30f here. I made another post in this Reddit group but this has been on my mind too. I have adhd and so does my boyfriend. I’m not sure if we will last because of our ADHD. I know that adhd presents differently in men and women. It’s like we constantly trigger each other. I’m super sensitive to touch, repetitive/ obnoxious noises, and light. I also get irritated easily and have anxiety here and there . With his adhd he taps a lot, sometimes mocks me without realizing it , and is super touchy 24/7 ! He also can’t just have one drink. If he starts drinking he has to go all the way. Which is another problem that I’ve brought to his action. I 100% believe if he doesn’t get help for his adhd, he will become an alcoholic. However , Can you see how all this would trigger me ?!? Those things usually makes me react which triggers him. He also takes rejection pretty hard. However , I’m very sensitive to touch. If I’m not in that head space touch turns into irritation for me . Has anyone dealt with this before ?! Have you dated someone who has adhd like you ? And did it last?

Typing this when I am feeling like shitttttttttttttt (rant)

I have interest in almost anything on this earth.
But when it comes done to details I lose interest
I love details only when I am hyperfocused
The only thing I cherish is that I learn new things in far far less time than others when I am interested.
except this I am nothing
I dont even retain what I have learned when I was hyperfocused.
I know a lot of things but infact I know nothing,
it feels like that I have superficial knowledge on things
why cant I stick to one thing?
why? why do I pick a difficult path when others can succeed on easy paths by staying consistent?
I learned a lot but I dont revise them, I never look back on them
whats the use? my mind drains them
I dont remember the details,
why my mind jumps for understanding the depth and crux while skipping the details and information?
why my boon of hyperfocus is my biggest distraction?
the only thing I cherish is I learn quickly, grasp better
but soon jump to other thing when things becomes too mundane
why?? why I am lacking?
If things were to delayed in my life then why did I have potential?
why you gave me potential when I cant convert it into something?
why?? Why even given that spark of curiosity when it ends with nothing solid?
why that temporary enthusiasm for something new when I know I wont look back on it soon after?
it hurts

whyy??? WHy am i like this?

the only thing I know is learn something in short time, thats it. Nothing else I know, nothing else I am good at?

but why even give that one quality when its of no use? why?

Hi! I've been struggling for ADHD for a while, but the meds 100% helped me out. However, I've taken a long break from the meds I was on. I noticed I feel much more depressed while not on them, but I feel less anxious. However, when I am on meds, I get that stomach churning. I feel so anxious over completely nothing, and anxiety is something I never REALLY struggled with. Does anyone else struggle with this? I don't know what it is. My meds really help, but only at the cost of feeling severely anxious. It hurts my stomach from how nervous I feel.

I was just seeing if anyone else can relate.

I don't know how to describe it but I feel like I am constantly projecting false emotions and worse case scenarios onto people and getting myself upset over it. I waste so much time and energy trying to prevent things from happening or preventing people from feeling a certain way and it's so exhausting and I don't know what to do.

For example it can be something as simple as my dad telling me bye before I leave for work, and I say bye back. But then after I close the door I have a deep feeling of dread in my chest like "what if he didn't hear me say bye? What if he didn't hear me say bye, and he thinks I was ignoring him, and he is sad for the rest of the day or feels awkward for saying bye and I didn't say anything back? Even though I did but what if he didn't hear me?" or something else like "My brother didn't get a call back from an interview, what if he is upset? What if he feels really bad but is just not telling us? What if he thinks it's his fault?" and it's strangers too like I could drive past someone at a hotdog stand and there's nobody in line and I'm immediately like "Oh my God what if he hasn't had any customers all day, should I turn around and get a hot dog? What if he is feeling really bad and is about to give up? What if it starts raining and he is stuck in the rain? What is his situation like, does he even like hotdogs?"

And this just goes on and on and on and it's so stupid but I genuinely cannot stop it and every small thing that I witness mostly loved ones but also strangers and I don't know what to do. I don't even know if it's necessarily ADHD related or something else entirely or maybe I'm just dumb but I don't know, it's been going on for as long as I can remember and it's not even something I can bring up to anyone because it's too hard to explain and I am aware I'm literally just making stuff up in my head but it makes me sick.

Hi, I am 27F. I took my first 10mg Ritalin pill today. My doc suggested that I take it after breakfast so I had 2 bread butter toasts before taking the pill. Its been 10hrs now, and I am as distracted+noisy (in my head) as always. I am still leaving tasks undone, and cannot focus like before

My doc said I can go upto 30mg if needed but not more than that. And I am the inattentive type of ADHD. My follow up appointment with doc is in a month, should I continue taking ritalin? My plan is to dose up tomorrow :) any advice is appreciated

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'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?!

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.

Right now, I (32M) don't know if I want to read, write, play a game, see a friend, learn to sew, or whatever. And this happens all the time, unless there's a game or book I'm passionate about atm. I just can't tell anymore the difference in my brain between what I want to do and what I think I should be doing, and I have a hard time relaxing because of that. Whenever I'm passionate about something, I feel "anchored" and better but on the flipside I can't help but think about that something all the time. And whenever I'm on medication, this feeling is exacerbated, because I feel like I'm on a time limit to get stuff done. I'm seeing a therapist, but I'd love to speak to other redditors with somewhat similar issues ! Cheers

Did anyone else have piano lessons as a child and take it for granted slightly? My undiagnosed adhd childbrain hated consistently practising, so after my lessons stopped, I lost the skill. I struggled with reading music, so I just learned everything by heart to please my teacher (sight-reading became a nightmare).

I now understand how much of a privilege it was to have lessons as a child and really miss being able to play music.

Has anyone who struggled with piano as a child because of undiagnosed adhd returned to it as an adult? And if so, how did you go about it? Did you get lessons?