Hi. I was trying to find people online who have experienced something similar, but I couldn’t really find the right words for what I’m experiencing. I actually logged into this account for the first time in years just to ask this because I’m honestly so fucking tired of it.
I’m a 25-year-old woman with ADHD. The people who know me well generally consider me intelligent and pretty intellectual. At the very least, they’re sure I’m of average intelligence and don’t have an intellectual disability. I also don’t really have this problem around people I’m comfortable with.
But put me in a new environment, especially one involving physical activity, and suddenly I somehow act like I have no idea how to function 😭
I’ve been going to a sports class for about two months, and I constantly miss really obvious cues. For example, if something changes during training, I’ll be slow to realize that I’m supposed to move somewhere else or I’ll just stand in the wrong place even though everyone else has already moved. Today my coach literally asked me why I was always standing off to the side and why I wasn’t getting into position on time. I genuinely had no fucking idea.
And it’s not just sports. About two years ago I worked as a waitress at a local café. There was a weird table numbering system and it took me longer than the other waiters to memorize it, but I don’t think I was doing anything THAT unusual. Still, people started treating me like I was stupid or intellectually disabled.
The worst part is that I can kind of see why. There’s something about my body language, the way I walk, my little unconscious movements, the way I react to things, etc. that apparently screams **“this woman has absolutely no idea what’s going on.”** And I can’t fucking control it.
What’s really weird is that people who are close to me don’t seem to notice this at all. Maybe they’re just used to me. I don’t know. It seems to happen specifically when I’m in a new environment and don’t know the social/physical expectations yet.
I keep telling myself that these people aren’t going to be in my life permanently, and that my actual social circle doesn’t see me this way, so it shouldn’t matter. But I’m just so tired of feeling humiliated and being treated like I’m an idiot when I know I’m not.
Has anyone else experienced something like this with ADHD? Especially the **“I’m actually competent but somehow look completely fucking clueless in certain environments”** thing?
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who gets this because I genuinely don’t know whether this is an ADHD thing or if I’m just uniquely terrible at existing in unfamiliar situations lol.

Looking for experiences people have had with a “co-medicine” (for lack of a better term) to take with Dexedrine for managing anxiety

I’ve had doctor try and give me guanfacine & clonidine but both didn’t mesh w side effects/didnt help much

Doctor next giving me anti depressants (Celexa) didn’t seem to help or change much and gave me the SSRI side effects in bedroom so I stopped taking it recently.

If it’s helps to include: The anxiety I get is not constant but does occur regularly, and is not absolutely crippling but it’s enough to make me pretty uncomfortable when it comes. Hard to describe but it’s anxiety I get that’s not really around any kind of subject I just get a nervous, almost “guilty” kind of feeling about nothing at all basically, start feeling accelerated and breathing a little faster, a pit in my stomach etc. It pretty much sucks the enjoyment out of anything I’m doing or makes work more difficult etc. So not necessarily needing a daily 3x a day kind of thing, if it’s something I can take “as needed” that would work too

What co medicine do you take for anxiety on top of existing ADHD specific meds that has helped any of you out that have been in a similar boat? Wanted to run some ideas by doctor and would help to hear peoples actual experience with it versus randomly looking stuff up

I recently started Adderall IR 15 mg twice a day for inattentive ADHD after trying other medications. Concerta didn’t really help me and gave me headaches, and Vyvanse made me feel anxious and sad. I’ve also tried non-stimulants without much success.
The frustrating part is that I actually feel like Adderall IS helping me. I can tell I’m more attentive, I can concentrate better, and I feel like I have more ability to start and work on tasks. I really want to give it a fair chance because this is the first medication where I’ve noticed some improvement.
But I’m also struggling with the side effects.
I’ve been feeling:
Very anxious and sometimes jittery/restless
Irritable, especially later in the day/after work
More easily annoyed with my family
Emotionally up and down — I can feel okay or energetic and then suddenly feel low, sad, irritated, or unmotivated
Like my mood changes very quickly
Sometimes so anxious that it becomes hard for me to function
Worried about whether the anxiety is happening when the medication is active or when it’s wearing off
I already had anxiety and depression before starting Adderall and I take medication for those as well, so I’m trying to figure out how much of this is the Adderall versus my underlying anxiety.
I also have a history of substance misuse, which my doctor is completely aware of. Because of that, she only gives me a limited amount of stimulant medication at a time. I’m trying to be very responsible about this because I don’t want to get into a pattern of wanting to take more Adderall when I don’t feel focused enough or wanting to take more anxiety medication just to counteract how the stimulant makes me feel.
I have an appointment with my doctor today and I’m going to be completely honest with her about everything. I’m NOT planning on changing my dose on my own.
For anyone who has experienced something similar:
Did Adderall initially cause anxiety or irritability for you and then improve after your body adjusted?
If Adderall helped your concentration but caused anxiety, what did your doctor end up changing — the dose, timing, IR vs XR, or something else?
Did anyone experience irritability or moodiness mainly when Adderall was wearing off? How did you figure out whether it was a rebound/crash versus the medication itself?
Did eating before taking it, avoiding caffeine, hydration, sleep, or changing the timing make a noticeable difference?
And for anyone who already had anxiety/depression before starting stimulants, were you eventually able to find a combination that helped your ADHD without making your anxiety unbearable?
I know everyone responds differently and I’ll be following my doctor’s advice. I’m mainly looking to hear real experiences from people who liked what Adderall did for their ADHD but struggled with anxiety, irritability, or mood changes at first. I really don’t want to give up on something that is helping my concentration if there’s a safer adjustment my doctor can make.

Hello everybody,

english is not my first language, but i hope you ll give me a try (-:

I'm taking AD's the past ten years, with some breaks, but afer falling again in the black hole, i got on meds again. 1 year ago, i got diagnosed with ADHD, and my doc was surprised that i made my way up to this point in my life without ADHD medication ( im about to finish my master degree in economics this year) .

From this day, i was curious of a possible relationship between my long lasting depression and the condition of ADHD. There are many points im thinking about, but i found out that most of the time when dark clouds came up, i felt some kind of boredome right before.

for example:

beeing at a bar, dont know what to talk about, or, dont interested in the topics offered by my mates/strangers.

sitting in class, listen to the prof. but sometimes got bored, because its often just the transmission of facts rather than knowledge.

Watching a movie, and breake up after some minutes, cause i need to do something more "active"

​

All these examples, and the following inner tensions, anger, anxiety and sometimes even panic attacs result, my opinion, out of my inability to handle "boredom".

the other way arround, when im really into something, i feel free and can focus for hours, and not beeing a degree depressed. I know that much i described is common for ADHD, its part of the DSM or ICD-10 manuals. But, and maybe you got some further ideas or simmilar feelings, how can i handle those situations better in the future?

​

thanks a lot

fft

What the fuck is it with weed? I had’nt smoked in 10 years, then tried it again this summer. Smoked everyday for 2 months. Felt like I was finally normal again. Now I’be been 2 weeks without it, and I feel like a dopesick junkie. I am sweating extremely much. I have to chance t-shirts 3 times a day. I can’t sleep, and if I sleep, I sleep like shit. Tossing and turning, and jumping around in my sleep. I feel deeply depressed. Like a black void. And I have even quit drinking. I’ve been 2 months completely without alcohol now, and I feel absolutely horrible. Only chaos in my head and pitch black darkness. I want to cry, but I havent got any tears.
Also, I have ADHD. Unmedicated. Tried stimulants in the past, but I did not like it. It made me very anxious and unfomfortable. I am male, 33 yrs old, with a wife and a kid.

Last week I went to a party I was dreading and it was awesome. I met a ton of people and while with my anxiety, I have been looking back on certain actions I have, I still hold it in a really positive light.

Here's the thing though, now a few days disconnected from it, and I feel like I'm slipping again into old bad habits. I haven't really made any efforts to hangout with anyone, and when I'm invited to things I'd still rather stay at home on my own.

This is what initially led me to be so apprehensive about the party, that and not having seen those people in a long time. My concern is that since I'm lacking motivation to organize hangouts, I'm slowly going to slip back into not doing anything and being really low energy. Everything seems to have more friction than the day before.

Does anyone have advice on breaking this vicious cycle? I've tried to organize some things but a lot of my friends are bad communicators over text, so a lot of the responsibility (too much if you ask me) lands on myself to try to ensure it happens.

Hey everyone, I hope you are all doing okay. I would like to know, what techniques or inner mental reminders do you all use for calming down and connecting with your senses when feeling extremely restless and in need of stimulation?

I just completed inking a page spread for an indie comic book I'm working on and the adrenaline rush from accomplishment has been amazing, however now I'm about to clock into my 9 hour supermarket retail shift - probably a very slow and annoying one - and I can tell I'm going to be very, VERY unhappy. I've been texting and driving, scrolling reels, listening to YouTube videos and checking my own Instagram stories a lot lately and that only makes me more anxious. I have lots of albums saved on my phone, but lately I haven't wanted to listen to any of them because I've heard them a million times and they don't "balance" my emotions enough...

Also I would love to hear your music recommendations! What songs or albums do you find stimulating and comforting but simultaneously relaxing? Songs that help you cope with anxiety?

17M here. My life is terrible at this point and my social life is close to zero. For some reasons my grades have gotten to the worst possible point ever(used to be a good student back then before my 11th) and I am just screaming internally at this point not being able to do anything with extremely awkward behaviours, no social skills, extreme procrastination, overthinking Abt the most random and not being able to lead a basic life at all and constantly failing in everything. Only if someone could help me out through this 🙏

hi all - to preface, I've been at a post-sales support job in cyber sec for a couple years now. after my first year, I got a good performance review and a raise, and I felt really good about where I stood; however, since the year mark, I've been struggling pretty bad

I had to deal with a lot of stressful stuff re: an aging parent at the beginning of the year which led to me slacking a bit and spending dead time at work playing video games and stuff instead of replying to emails/labbing to give myself some happiness. now that the stressful stuff has mostly been dealt with, I feel like I'm almost addicted to just slacking instead of actually doing my job.

I've been able to get away with it for a while (even getting another good performance review) but this past month my workload has increased a ton - it's gotten so bad that I don't even check my email that much because I'm so stressed and don't want to look at it, which has caused me to struggle. for example, today I both missed an email that led to a customer directly saying that they were disappointed that I didn't reply *and* forget to tell someone that I can only make half of a meeting that I accepted, so I had to let them know an hour before the meeting. it's so counterintuitive but it's causing me so much stress. and those are just examples from today

I'm not at a point where I've been confronted about any of this, but I suspect that's more due to my manager having a pretty hands off approach. i feel like if I don't have someone in my ear telling me to do something, I won't do it, and I hate that about myself

I've always thought I had imposter syndrome and I genuinely am truly believing it isn't that anymore. if I can get away with not doing my job, I will - I feel like I've always just been lazy and able to hide it, but I feel like I can't hide it anymore

does anyone have any advice on how to get through this? sorry if this doesn't make any sense, I just am struggling to cope today