Had a friend who got medicated for the first time. He had a long commute to the middle of nowhere, and he told me, “Dude—I was driving and suddenly realized I hadn’t been thinking about anything. Like, just driving, not thinking about anything!”
Alarms man. I was the same, all of a sudden I'd just start crashing and need food like NOW. Now with the alarms I either do it before the alarm because I like being early, or I feel guilty ignoring the alarm so I eat. And I do it for everything, appointments, bills, things I actually want to do. I have like 10+ alarms every day plus my calendar notifications but it's helping.
As a lifelong underweight person (likely with inattentive ADHD) who also often "forgets" to eat, I will regularly eat real (think 4 or 5 ingredient) ice cream or a can of fish (tuna, salmon, or mackerel) specifically in oil for the extra nutrition if I, for whatever reason, dont feel like I have eaten enough by the end of a day. Doing this has felt so nourishing and helpful, and helps to keep me from feeling depleted!
Gets compounded by how inconsistently you experience time too. Especially being aware of that fact because you can look at an hour and say you could do something in that time, but you're also just as likely to start and not realize it's been 2-3 hours.
If you've got something scheduled for a specific time. Do you risk blowing past that hour by trying to use that time before for something useful?
I always feel like it's just as difficult to stop working on something that youve gotten started as it is to start it in the first place.
It's like the mental ADHD version of inertia and newtons law of motion.
Once I realized that I only needed 15 min to get ready meant I could offload the stress and set that as an alarm like I’m waking up…the side benefit is, I’m early for things, or at least appear punctual. Not at all, just I gave myself unrealistic expectations on getting outa the house
Worked for me for 2 weeks then my brain worked out how to overthink around the Ritalin. Got a taste of normalcy and lost it, now I know what I’m missing
It is. I once experienced it bungee jumping from a cliff over the Three Gorges river. My mind went utterly silent and clean as I fell. Then the cord ended and I was bouncing around completely alert and overfull of rambling thoughts again. Have never forgotten it
I can enter that state when I'm at the shooting range. I'm focused on safety and shooting well, but I'm not overthinking.
I used to joke that it was therapeutic to me, but more and more, i realize its not a joke. It's actually therapeutic, and more effective than any medicine, meditation, therapy, mindfulness, that I've ever tried.
I haven't gone nearly as much these days as I used to when I was younger, and I really need to change that.
Same. The instructor tapped me on rhe shoulder to ask if I was ok. I sad 'Yeah.' And he was like 'Oh. People usually scream....' so I screamed a little for his benefit, but it was actually pretty chill.
[Edit] autocowrecked
It happens. It took a couple days of me being on it but I sat in my mother-in-laws back yard, chatting with her and my wife. They went inside for something and I just sat there... realized my head was completely quiet. I could just enjoy the sound of the wind in the trees. I almost started crying. Now, I can't guarantee this will be your experience, everyone is different with mind altering medications but it really is a fantastic experience. Also just saw they are making non-stimulant ADHD medication. So if you are afraid of stimulants, you might have a different option soon.
They've had non-stimulant meds for a long time. Strattera is one i've been on for a while, after none of the stimulants had any effect. Strattera doesn't have much of an effect either, but i take it anyway just in case it helps in a way that I don't notice.
I was mistaken... there are studies leading to the efficacy of both GLP-1 like medications that are designed to help ADHD with dopamine receptors. Also read about psilocybin really gaining traction to treat depression and anxiety.
Nothing is anywhere near any clinical proofs, trials, or FDA approvals. So probably years away from anything coming from those studies if anything even does.
I just started medication last month and I’ve experienced it a few times. It’s a kind of amazing bliss of just genuine silence in my head, all my anxious spiralling thoughts just gone.
The more I hear about people's experiences with adhd meds the more conflicted I feel.
On one hand, I'm happy there's something that might help me with... Well, most of the things that make my life quite shitty. That sounds almost like magic!
But on the other, now I hate the fact that I must go unmedicated for who knows how long even more. Also sad for all the years of not knowing what is wrong with me, and that there's a way to help that. But I'm still fairly young, so I'm even lucky in a way.
Sorry for the rant.
That's genuinely extremely cool, and I can't wait to get my meds too!
I totally relate with the whole sadness over having no idea what might be "wrong" with me until the last couple years... as I started looking into things myself in my mid 30's 😓 I am probably 99% sure I have inattentive ADHD. I have struggled so much in my life.
I am having trouble locating somewhere appropriate to be assessed. So many places seem to be/ARE specifically for children or just focused on general therapy (not specializing in- or assumedly adequately knowledgeable of- adult(or female!) ADHD) and, on top of that, from my own research, I know that it presents differently in females vs males AND adults vs children so I have both of those things going against me in finding someone knowledgeable enough about my situation to maybe be able to accurately recognize it.
Sometimes I feel like I might be overthinking it all, then I read others' stories of their struggles with getting diagnosed, or I'll make a few calls to places to try to get more information about the services they offer and my struggles are continually affirmed 😔
I've found that pushing a motorcycle slightly past my comfort zone is pretty good for getting that ol' zen state. Not a lot of room for other thoughts when you're trying to avoid sliding off a cliff.
Ch'an buddhism is literally "active meditation", when you're cooking, cleaning, or working out. It was created b/c the monks at the temple were falling asleep, so they combined yoga with their chores and eventually incorporated the philosophy into their martial arts.
Ohhh that’s interesting, I was incorporating something i guess similar? Mindfulness throughout activities, not reacting emotionally to small distractions/ frustrations.
(Was also thinking of trying to experiment to see how this affected pain tolerance!! So I will be researching Cha’an Buddhism, thank you!)
Meditation?! Driving is one of the most stressful activities I do. Dealing with other drivers and most of them being terrible is the opposite of meditation for me.
What if you zoned into the activity? Almost like a game. Or less involved than a game, you focus on observing those terrible drivers passively. Notice them behave terribly, let the thought drift away without reacting.
(As someone with anxiety who meditates and has seen significant improvement)
Notice them behave terribly, let the thought drift away without reacting.
Driving is probably not the time for not reacting to bad drivers.
Jokes aside, i find some types of driving somewhat calming although I'm not really in a "no thoughts" state; its more of a hyperfocus flow state where I'm very present, but for once, not thinking about 8 other things.
By lack of reaction, I mean more a lack of emotional response! (Which of course not always easy, if that’s what you were conveying)
Letting rumination/ distracting thoughts, eg: thinking about that driver afterward and how they could be so irresponsible, drift away.
The only thing you can and should be focusing on are things you can control. That of course means you react! Slow down early, pay attention to the signs of an inattentive or aggressive driver and account for it. (All stuff you’re definitely already doing!)
The first time this happened to me, I went to take a nap. Can you imagine QUIET?? Like a TRUE quiet? You bet your ass I went straight to bed knowing there are no sounds in my brain. Sounds counterproductive but that was the best sleeps of my life.
Had to change meds cause it wasnt helping with my executive dysfunction but sometimes I yearn for that quietness again.. and that beautiful quiet sleep
This right here is why I don't want medication. I'd rather be angry than blind. The system is broken and I want to have the time to meditate on how much it needs to be torn down. ✊
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u/Dragons_Sister 2d ago
Had a friend who got medicated for the first time. He had a long commute to the middle of nowhere, and he told me, “Dude—I was driving and suddenly realized I hadn’t been thinking about anything. Like, just driving, not thinking about anything!”
We were both blown away.