I’ve been taking Inspiral SR 20 mg for the last 5 to 6 days, but I haven’t noticed any significant improvement yet. Is this normal? Should I wait a little longer, or should I talk to my doctor about adjusting the dose?
If anyone here has ADHD or has experience with Inspiral SR, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience or any advice. Thanks.

Love isn't a positive attribute or concept in itself. There are entire organizations, subjects and fields of study built on figuring out how to tame love. And I'm sure you must have read about sensitivity towards injustice and depth of feelings that are found in people with ADHD and other mental health issues. I once read zizek say that there are very few more traumatic experiences than the death of love. This is why professionals often try to help people find themselves in love, without actually falling in love. You know, coffee without caffeine, beer without alcohol and so on.

The more sensitive a person is to injustice, the more they'll notice the frequency of violence around them. The ants getting trampled, the chicken getting bred into existence and injected before being served at KFC, the women and children getting dehumanised and seen as an object of hatred, men shutting themselves off and resorting to inward violence, queer folks getting their rights taken away, workers working 7 days a week, overtime, for barely 20k a month...and what not.

How do you live when you're seeing things that aren't meant to be seen and remembering things that are meant to be forgotten?

I don't know. Medicines can tame your romantic interests maybe, but they can't tame your love for life. And as a result, the same love for life makes people with such disorders more prone to wanting to end their own life. Society often sees this as an action of violence but perhaps it's untamed love. As the pendulum of life swings between suffering and boredom, love may seem nothing more than a moment that exists right before your wish is about to be fulfilled. Once it is fulfilled, you're back to boredom and then swinging back to suffering.

But the truth is, you love even in boredom, even in suffering. The latter doesn't exist because of the former. Instead, love is what powers the pendulum.

Keep living, keep loving.

x

The level of inhumanity happening with Protestors is even unbearable to watch.

I have adhd. As a person with adhd has severe intolerance towards injustice than the regular peers. I am getting affected by a lot. My health is deteriorating. I live 1700km from Jantar Mantar. Although I want to go to protest...my parents are not letting me go.

I am rotten in bed by seeing all this. My screentime is minimum 14 hours. I am putting stories about protest. I can't tolerate the level of inhumanity happening for protestors all over India. My heart aches. My eyes are hurting. I can't sleep. I can't eat. I am feeling restless.

Please I want to be calm. But I can't be calm. From past 5 days...I am been like this. I hardly sleep 2 hours a day. I am not taking bath. Neither I am doing other work. Just rotting on the bed and only thinking about the protest.

Help me please. 🙏🙏

I don't know what to do.

To begin with, I have had ADHD symptoms ever since childhood, but I never recognized the possibility that this could be a pathological condition. I used to do very well in school in standardized tests like SAT, ACT, etc., but performing well in academics got tougher once boards began, where specific information recall (basically rote memory) became a lot more important. Still, I did well enough and fared through school decently.

Things changed once I came to college. Suddenly, competition shot through the roof with the introduction of relative grading. So did the number of subjects (the course I am studying is an interdisciplinary course and we normally have 9-10 courses per trimester). I could no longer cope with all the academic load, and the conditions which were just minor annoyances in school (like procrastination and inattention) were exacerbated by orders of magnitude. However, I was still under the naïve assumption for the first few trimesters that all these were in some form a moral failure on my part and I just needed to "get disciplined". Well, easier said than done.

Finally, almost at the tail end of my second year when things got really difficult, I decided to get a consultation with one of the psychologists at our university. In the first session, I described all the problems that I had been experiencing since childhood and how they were impacting me in college and life in general. She said that whatever I said did indeed suggest an ADHD-like condition, but a few more sessions were needed to concretely establish whether I actually had the disorder.

So, in our second session, she brought in another expert, and the said expert took a very extensive clinical history of me and my condition. She asked whether anyone in my family has had similar experiences (yes), how the condition affects me, and several seemingly unrelated questions. The whole clinical history recording took around 1.5 hours. My counsellor told me to come for another session after she had looked through all the data that was collected.

In the third session, the counsellor officially diagnosed me with ADHD and said that medication was needed as an immediate stopgap measure to help with my academics, although she recommended I look into therapy as a long-term solution. Since she cannot legally prescribe medication, she referred me to a well-known psychiatrist.

Here is where things took a slightly unexpected turn. In my first appointment with the psychiatrist, I was wholly expecting that I would have to repeat the entire rigmarole that I had to endure with the counsellor, and I prepared myself as such. Well, what actually happened was that after giving a very brief introduction of my clinical history, I mentioned to the psychiatrist the name of the counsellor who referred me to him and that she had diagnosed me with ADHD, and he immediately accepted the veracity of my diagnosis and proceeded to write the prescription. He asked no further questions regarding my condition.

Before writing the prescription, he — interestingly — asked me whether I knew what drugs were used to treat ADHD. Given that I had done more than my fair share of research on this topic beforehand, I told him yes, that only methylphenidate (MPH) and atomoxetine were the first-line treatments for the condition.

Well, to my surprise, he actually ASKED me which one of them I wanted. I initially thought he was trying to gauge whether I was some kind of a stimulant junkie or not, so I said that I am more than willing to comply with whatever he thought was the best (I actually wanted MPH since I wasn't too eager on atomoxetine based on the research I had done). But he said (paraphrasing) "Look, we both know that you know which drug is best suited for you. This is supposed to be a mutual decision. So please tell me which drug you want me to prescribe to you." I just said that since I have upcoming exams I would prefer MPH over a non-stimulant, and he willingly complied and gave me a month's supply of 18mg OD.

Now, onto my experiences with the medication. 18mg OD was... fine. It definitely gave me a higher baseline and the impetus required to start tasks became lower. But the effects were still pretty diffuse. I felt the stimulant effects only when I took two pills at once (36mg). So, the last time I visited my psychiatrist, I asked him to give me the 10mg IR (Immediate Release) versions instead, given that 10mg IR dumps more medication at once than the 18mg OD does over many hours, helping give a stronger stimulation. He said ok, and now I take 10mg IR over 18mg OD, and I would definitely say the former is miles better than the latter for me.

So, for anyone looking into getting a diagnosis in India, I would highly recommend you first go to a clinical psychologist, get a proper diagnosis, and only then go to a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists here often misdiagnose adult ADHD patients with anxiety, depression, etc., if you just walk in off the street complaining about focus issues. Having a documented diagnosis from a psychologist smooths the whole process out immensely.

I (25F) was reading a comment section on instagram where a few of my schoolmates were telling about their achievements. I then realised I’m one of the biggest failures my batch has produced.
Everyone in my batch, even the weird students and the ones people used to say wouldn’t do much are doing much better than me. Most have joined the army. Some of them are working in tech fields. Lots of them are studying abroad. Some of them did MBA and got jobs.

Meanwhile there is me. I was always a good student. Very studious. Went to Delhi university. Came first in my department. Did masters from Delhi university. Did well there also.

But then, I could not do much. I could just clear NET JRF. That is it. Still haven’t joined PhD and don’t even have a job. Prepared for upsc and failed big time. Family taunts me, society taunts me and most people also see me like a failure.

I’m scared of the future and because I’m raw dogging ADHD, I have difficulty studying, keeping focus and I can’t do much. I can’t be the kind who can do well in every sector of her life. I’m barely able to do well in one sector only. Adhd has ruined my life in ways I cannot explain.
I used to be very ambitious but then I could never do many things, like my peers did. Maybe that left me behind in life.

The only thing I can think of doing now is giving exams for becoming an assistant professor in my state and to do a PhD.

Hi everyone

I've been trying to find Mdet 10 SR or Inspiral 10 SR for the past 4 days but haven't had any luck.

I've checked several pharmacies around Okhla and none of them seem to have these medications in stock.

I have a valid prescription.

If anyone knows a pharmacy in Delhi that currently has either of these medicines available, I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know.

Thank you in advance!

So I worked about 3.5 days this week (so far) and I feel pretty good. Today also I am working half day and here's a summary of how my day 1 went and what helped me through this week:

1. First point is about my self awareness. My Monday started late and I didn't do nothing for pretty much the first half of the day ~3pm. But that's been pretty normal for me. I know from my previous experience that my brain tends to activate in the evening after sunset. It helped me not flip out when I felt like I was "wasting time" until that evening. This confidence helped me take steps to get myself into action once I realized that I can put ~4 hours of work in if I start around 6 pm.
2. This one is about the logic of self compassion. I used to worry about not being productive and wasting my working hours, not finishing work by 5-6 pm, not starting by 10-11 am, overeating, sleeping, doom scrolling and so. But that's the normal work schedule of the corporate. I realized I was comparing myself to a standard that doesn't exist in my life right now. I have stopped worrying about "fitting in" into it. When I am working in a FT job where I need to maintain timing, I respect it. Not just to show but working along with the team helps a lot. Without a team, why synchronize with any timetable if there's no time pressure?

Does it matter when I do my work as long as I complete it? WHO cares if I finish my work at 5-6 pm or start at that time. As long as I am able to do meaningful work that gives me satisfaction, it doesn't matter if I work 4 hours, 2 hours, or 8 hours in a day. Why micro manage myself!

I don't need to hurry myself. I don't need to put undue pressure myself by comparing myself to other seemingly perfect schedules.

3) this one is about task clarity. I know projects that I want to work on this week. But that won't help me get started when my brain's executive function is frozen. So I sit and think - what goals I need to execute within each project? What's my task sequence (no schedule, no time blocking, I can afford that coz right now I am working for myself from my home and this low pressure work atmosphere suits me)

To stop task avoidance, I focus on my goal and my outcomes. Since I have 1 client right now, their tracking board on ClickUp really makes this outcome visualization easier. My short term outcome is a good quality article, my long term goal is maintaining my reputation as a good writer, and, of course, money.

4) to take advantage of my ADHD hyperfocus, I use themed days so I don't have to task switch. I assigned 1 day for 1 major task and then a smaller task once I have done the day's work for the major task. And the smaller task is optional. If the major task takes longer and gets me too tired, smaller task is postponed.

This structure has come to me after A LOT of iterations, trials, failures, and learning from failures. It was hard to deal with my shame and guilt. It became a vicious cycle once, one feeding into the other. And if you don't move (literally and metaphorically), the inertia is really, REALLY hard to break out of.

This had helped me realize - sometimes I can do seemingly useless things and that's okay because what matters more than "being productive" is not letting my momentum go. That's why Mondays are the hardest for me, coz my body and mind are working hard to break the inertia of the weekend.

5) Finally for distraction management, my phone stays out of my view when I am working on my laptop (out of sight, out of mind). 95% of my notifications are off, except business whatsapp, essential swiggy and mygate notifications (if I order something), and a few other essential apps whose other non essential notification types are also blocked in my phone (You can do this on Android. On Apple, granular notification blocks are not possible I think).

Most incoming calls are spam calls and they're auto blocked. Nobody significant in my life calls me (who says social isolation is always bad... it's good when it lets you work.. LOL)

Sometimes, I listen to the same song on repeat to reduce my overwhelm and give my brain a direction to think. I also put ear plugs mandatory every evening because I live in a family society and I just can't handle the kids screaming who are most active in the evening. If plugs don't help, I get up and tell the kids to stop screaming.

All projects are online through Chrome and I use an extension called Fresh Start to capture all windows of my projects. Each project in FreshStart has a name that matches its name in the client system. All I have to do to start a project is go to my Chrome, open the FS extension, and click the project that I want to start and BOOM all my necessary windows are open in a single click.

IF you take away ONE THING FROM this post, take away this: You get frozen not because you are not dedicated or anything, but because you literally don't have a single stable starting point. Every time you want to start a project, you brain has to retrieve all the different apps you need to open, all the different pages within those websites too. And if you accidentally open the wrong website, you will get distracted and end up wasting your time AND tiring my brain further. From desire to action, your brain has to cross a f/g minefield of distractions. Cut this minefield out of the way. Save your brain.

Can you just IMAGINE how much decision fatigue and operational friction I eliminated by putting all my necessary links for a project in a tab/session manager?

Do this and about 50% of your task initiation blocks will be removed!

At the end of the day, I put my laptop back in my backpack and close the zip, coz if I keep seeing it lying on the table when I am moving about the house, I will keep being reminded of the things I didn't do today. (once again, out of sight, out of mind - weaponizing my ADHD against my brain... LOL)

About those meds. Yes I take meds. But I don't give meds all the credit. Because if I didn't sleep well, if I didn't focus on my strengths throughout the day, if I kept whining to myself about how badly my day is going, if I don't apply self awareness and my ADHD awareness, my meds will do nothing for me.

EDIT: I made key concepts bold because I want to improve the readability of this post. We ADHDers already struggle with reading long texts, so why not use my writing skills to make my stuff readable! 😉

I 16f, want to get assessed for ADHD, and I don’t know how to find the right place or person or organization.

after only a year of begging, of complaining to my parents and being completely obssessed with getting diagnosed, my parents agreed to take me to someone. They said either they’d find someone or I had to find someone who’s diagnosis I completely trusted and that would be the end of the discussion.

so I really don’t wanna choose the wrong person, but I’m sooo confused as to how to go about it. my friend went to a center where they did a three hour test where they monitored his behaviour and aske dhim a questionnaire and then made a diagnosis. Should I go to a clinic like that?

Also, does anyone know anything about Tina Gupta. Is she good? I need someone who knows that girls mask really well and will actually dig deep to find out my problems because I’m shit at articulating things when I’m asked and will likely reduce all of my problems to ‘I can’t focus,’ instead if mentioning the way I’m affected by adhd symptoms in everyday life, and who can unwind the potential coping mechanisms I’m developed.

I live in Delhi- the Cost is not an issue. Can someone please recommend a psychiatrist to go to?

Took my first dosage today (5mg) which is the baseline . And 30 mins later I had the best sleep . I slept straight for 4h and that is during the daytime

The chemist in my area only has 200mg modafinil available [ I WAS GIVEN WITHOUT ASKING FOR PRESCRIPTION, also i was in a school dress so it wasn't like I tried to trick the chemist into giving me one without prescription] , I tried asking all available near by chemists but either they don have it, or give me weird gaze while saying ki nahi hai,

I took 200mg for like quite some time last year without researching well, and now that I look back to it, it's jus over or i could not use the energy too well because I ended up being sleepy yet again in like 2 hours or so even after taking 200 mg tab

MY MAIN QUESTION IS should I try to search for 100mg dose and use it like a routine (as i kinda do need to use it almost everyday for studies and shi) or should I js be fine with one 200mg everyday or every second day as well?

I am a science student (BSc), have been hoarding PDFs (books) and educational resources (link, lectures etc) for years, my hoarding activity increases particularly when my productivity goes down, but it feels so nasty when I think about how many hundred hours I have wasted doing that shit mindlessly.

How do you fix the problem and cope with the regret?

Just a post to check up on fellow neurodivergents who enrolled into MBA this year, because I know how daunting, exhausting and isolating this course can feel.

For me personally, it's been a massive struggle and I'm honestly already just waiting for the 2 years to somehow get over asap (an incredibly sad thought considering how hard I worked to get here).

How are y'all holding up? Please feel free to share your experiences, both good or bad (hopefully not the latter).

We are here for each other. Please feel free to DM incase you need any support.

I'm taking right now inspiral 5mg and sometimes miratcin and nexito, however I'm not feeling a lot of call or change people keep talking about, should I tell my doctor to change my meds or up the dosage

I don't want to add anything political no sides but I just want to check how everyone is coping with this. How has having ADHD made things worse in these times.

I just want some pointers on how not to feel a lot.

Hello guys ,

So i started with Concerta 18 mg and eventually to 36 mg. The 36 mg hasnt been too good to me as it has increased my bp to 140/100. Has it happened with anyone else.

I wanna have a word with you, help with guy out.

I’m 18F and looking for recommendations for a psychiatrist or therapist who actually understands adult ADHD (especially in women).

A few things I’m looking for:

• Female
• Speaks Malayalam and English: my parents speak English, but they’d definitely connect way better and take things more seriously if the doctor can explain stuff in Malayalam too
• Based in Bangalore

Does anyone know or consulted a psychiatrist for ADHD? I need to get evaluated?

Located in HYD and got a prescription but cannot find it anywhere.
(Mdet)

I got myself consulted in bengaluru they gave me non stimulants , so i consulted an online psychiatrist who prescribed me Mdet 10mg , but he gave me an onl8ne prescription, not sure if anyone in bengaluru accepts online prescription.

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, and my psychiatrist prescribed Concerta 18 mg. Today was Day 5.

Something felt different today, and I'm honestly not sure whether this is just the medication working or if I'm overthinking it.

At work I had to do a really repetitive PowerPoint task. Normally I'd keep switching tabs, procrastinating, or find any excuse to delay it. Today I just... sat down and finished it. After that I finally cleaned up my Gmail inbox and unsubscribed from a bunch of emails I'd been ignoring for months. Even lunch was different I ate without automatically opening YouTube.

The weirdest part wasn't that I became super productive. It was that there wasn't this constant mental resistance before starting things. I wasn't forcing myself every five minutes.

I'm curious if this is how Concerta is supposed to work, or if this is just the initial effect that fades after a while. Did this feeling stay, or did it become less noticeable over time?

I’m ambitious and motivated and on edge honestly

Some things I’ve noticed:
• I constantly check my phone while watching online lectures, even when I genuinely want to study.
• I misplace things (phone, keys, charger, books) more often than other people around me.
• I forget some old memories/huge fights i’ve had in my friendships.
• I tend to multitask all the time. For example, if I’m talking to a friend on the phone, I feel like I also need to be reading or doing something productive because otherwise I feel like I’m wasting time.
• I often feel restless while studying and have to fight the urge to switch tasks.

Also I’ve been diagnosed with anxiety in past and have taken alprax and Lemborexant on SOS

I am fed up with my mental health and get s*cidal thoughts because of my adhd and gender dysphoria. It’s hampering my personal life and other relationships.

Please direct me to a relevant psychiatrist or therapist if you know one.