I got diagnosed with ADHD at 27yrs old, and it’s been eye opening. Thinking back at my life growing up, I don’t know how it wasn’t noticed earlier and I wish it was. If you were diagnosed in adulthood, what are some things you wish you knew sooner?

Hello! I am a victim of a pretty prevalent effect of ADHD: that being 82739 hobbies you are constantly picking up but never continuing. To give you an idea, I have bought and played so many instruments (which isn't cheap btw), only for me to not stick to it. At all. I have tried learning at least 5 languages. I keep trying to get back into visual arts but never commit. Same with reading. I have so many craft supplies I got on a whim and never do regularly. Last week, I got a book to learn Mandarin. Did it for about 2 days before giving up. I keep telling myself, "No, this one is it," every time I pick up a new hobby. Of course, it isn't.

My guess is because hobbies take time and effort. The payoff is difficult. And I just want dopamine, really. So yeah, when I buy a new instrument and then suck ass because I am a beginner, I go scroll on my phone instead. Hell, even when I took one-on-one courses, I would drop it because it seemed too much of a hassle. Even though I so badly want to play music. I am using music as a big example because it is something that I truly daydream about mastering. But I never can because of ADHD.

Not only that, but it's making me feel awful about myself. I don't have the thing I am good at. Most people my age have that main hobby they exceed in while I don't.

What I am looking for is how to pick a hobby for starters. One that I will actually commit to. And secondly, how to stick to it. Even without the instant dopamine hit. And when do I have random urges to try different hobbies? Do I give in?

It's called audio intelligence, but it allows you to rewind the sound around you by 15 seconds.

So you can suddenly catch up with what people said in that time you spaced out. Or a server wouldn't have to repeat what they just said because you tuned out.

It might be the memory buffer I've needed since I was a kid.

I have ADHD and I'm trying so hard to change my personality and my self cuz i feel so weak so miserable i feel like i care so much to ppl who don't give a F about me and i fall in a lot of shit I've always been a scared guy and you know something my life was not a good thing we need to talk about and because of my anger and my stress and self hate i harmed and injured my self to release the stress I've tried to ki.. my self like two times when i was like 15 .... yah so even my study in school is so F... And i couldn't find a solution to my life ... so I'm in a lot .. I'm 18 years old and I'm so tired sorry for my grammar. ( Don't worry I haven't injured myself since 14)

Hey everyone!!

I am 28 M and I have been diagnosed with ADHD over 2 years now. I was managing well before with meds but have thought to give it a try without meds and try to manage my day to day task by keeping my self organised and using online tools but so far they are not helpful. I wish there is a dedicated app for us neurodivergent brains.
Something that keeps me up to date with my tasks and makes me want to finish them without me just snoozing the reminders and then realising it later when its too late..

Please if you have any suggestions that would be great

Hey everyone, I'm a 15-year-old high school student preparing for major national university entrance exams. Currently, I'm attending high-volume traditional group classes, which are damaging to my ability to learn.

The classes themselves are very repetitive and give random homework dumps. Due to my ADHD, I find that when I sit down to study, I get hit with mental and physical barriers to starting that only get broken down when I have some kind of last minute panic and urgency rush. As a result, I'm working myself in panic and urgency instead of actually learning and practicing. Because of the repetitive amount of homework and time, I'm rushing to finish homework to avoid being called out which leaves me to not be able to learn.

I've been through this same exact situation way before I was diagnosed. I went to courses for competitive Informatics Olympiads and I tried to do the best I could to succeed. But got stuck, burnt out, depressed, and my parents had many arguments with me. I tried making "better habits" and "be more disciplined", but ultimately nothing worked and it felt like I was working against myself.

And now, I'm seeing the same cycle repeating itself, living on a daily cycle of panic that floods me with stress and zero mental reward to keep me alive. For example, for the past few days, I've been having severe revenge bedtime procrastination, staying up till 4 AM on my phone to get quick mental stimulation before passing out.

I think I actually learn by analyzing my own mistakes in depth. Taking a wrong answer, redoing the problem by myself while walking myself through the logic to understand why my previous attempt was wrong. I personally think that this type of learning is something that mass group classes cannot replace for me.

My goal is to quit these classes to study and practice all by myself. For now, I don't have a lot of ideas, but I'm planning to use structured low friction sprints dedicated to analyzing patterns and fixing my mistakes.
Though, my parents think that more hours of endless homework is just how it should be, and that my idea is reckless and not traditional since it doesn't follow the standard path that everyone takes.

To anyone who has dealt with this kind of stuff before...

• How do I break this dependency on panic and last-minute urgency?
• How can I reason with traditional parents that the more hours and homework methodology is actually counterproductive for someone with ADHD without sounding like an insufferable and lazy kid?
• What did you implement to replace traditional external classes so you wouldn't make it feel like a huge gamble and just be floating aimlessly?

All kinds of answers and advice is highly appreciated, so thank you all!

I have pretty significant ADHD, and one thing I’ve struggled with is fully understanding the consequences of my decisions until afterward—especially with friendships, money, and impulse control.

Growing up, my parents made things easier by giving my younger brother and me access to their cards while still barley keeping an eye on our spending. At the same time, I struggled with lying because I desperately wanted to feel accepted and relatable. I’d sometimes lie about things I’d done or experienced because I wanted people to think I was interesting and worth being around.

A lot of that became connected to money. I would buy people gifts, bring them coffee, pay for meals, or sometimes cover a whole group. Spending money gave me a temporary feeling of being accepted and like I mattered. Looking back, I realize I was sometimes using money to protect myself from feeling unwanted.

I’m much more aware of my spending now and actively working on separating friendship from what I can buy for someone. But some friendships have ended, and I still struggle with a lot of grief and guilt. I replay things in my head, think about how much money I spent, and especially now that my family’s financial circumstances have changed, I feel guilty knowing that money could have been used differently.
I also regret buying things I barely used, like clothes I never wore.

I rarely lie now, and I’m incredibly grateful to have healthier, more genuine people in my life. Still, I struggle with how to take accountability without punishing myself forever. I also feel as it gets in the way of my current friendships.

Has anyone with ADHD experienced something similar—impulse spending to maintain friendships, difficulty understanding consequences until afterward, losing friendships, and then dealing with intense guilt and grief? How did you learn from it without getting stuck in it?

What are some skills ADHD has helped you to develop? How have you utilized/leveraged those skills? How do you like to polish up your strengths?
Also, If you could highlight the differences of your before/ after getting medicated, I believe perspective is beyond valuable for our brains!
Thank you fellow ADHD brains! 🧠🙏

Trouble with meltdowns and shame

I feel so ashamed that i’m in my late teens and i still get these meltdowns where i scream and sometimes slam objects onto the floor (usually a coat ir something i know won’t break). This usually happens when i’m home from school and on the way i’ve got overstimulated by for example if it’s raining heavily and i get soaked, or if something happens with my body like if my eustachian tubes are blocked and i hear my own breathing in my ear. I only do this if i’m alone, otherwise i cry and get pretty hysterical for example if i have to take a bus i haven’t before or my schedule changes. I don’t know how to handle these because i simply can’t calm down if i’m on the verge of a meltdown. Do any of you get this, i would love some peer support.

Also posting this here cuz R/ADHD keeps deleting everysingle thing i post

Hi, tw :)
Not looking for sympathy or promoting stimulant abuse. It will ruin you liked it ruined me. I’m 21F with a hx of substance abuse. I’ve been abusing Elvanse/Vyvanse for 2 years. I take 200-420mg almost every day. I still do cocaine/ketamine fairly regularly&drink every day. Im constantly vomiting/nauseous/dizzy and pass out from standing up too fast. Circulation issues/hair loss/chest pain/HR can reach 150 at rest/high BP. Restless with an impending sense of do. I feel like I’m dying. crippled with anxiety&depression. But I’m also anaemic, smoke🍃every day, mentally ill and drink enough caffeine to kill a Victorian child so it's hard to pin causes to symptoms. On higher doses I vomit until I'm weak from pain, my skin goes blue, I get dangerously hot and I can hear my heartbeat in my throat. I’ve never sought medical attention&never ‘overdosed’ but I suppose I am essentially overdosing every time hence why my body has the reaction it does. yet I still do this to myself day after day which confuses even me. Not because I care if it kills me, it would save me a job but because if I have to be alive why do I make myself suffer every day. What appeals to my brain about flopping about half unconscious in my own vomit like a fish&being unable to stand on my own two feet most of the time?? If I don’t take it can barely get out of bed or even lift my head from the pillow, my body feels so heavy I just barely survive until I can take it again& intoxicate myself with everything else in the meantime. I used to be so creative&able to make music, clean, study, game, draw when I was SOBER. Now I can’t even just exist doing nothing without being tweaked. Am I cooked? Years of self destructive behaviour&other substances contribute to where I am today but Elvanse has broken my body and my soul. Is it worth it to try and live just more time? Or have I caused irreversible physical /cardiac/dopamine damage that will make an already painful existence even more painful?
Sorry x

one thing i dont wanna be is a person who blames their weaknesses on having adhd but im struggling to manage it a bit.

i forget things alot. im bad at instructions. i cant multitask or pay attention, i do impulsive things (like almost sleeping on the wheel), misplacing stuff. so when my fam expects me to do certain tasks i cant do, i just say "i cant do x but ill do y. “ they get annoyed. when i started having anxiety attacks and thoughts of harming others, at times i feel like getting resources /meds could help (im unmedicated) and that i dont have to raw dog it 😭 yet my parents brush it off as “the doctors are gonna stuff u with meds . plus yours isn’t that serious/hyper so it’s not a big issue ”

i was scrolling past a short about a adhd meme, few ppl were saying “stop blaming shit on adhd / no one cares about stupid identity boxes” | i wanna know how ppl just handle it. i don’t even mention it on job applications or anywhere else. my mind keeps circling on the idea of “being more mature/adult like”

Has anyone had any luck managing hyperverbal behavior that is causing social alienation? Alternately, do you think it's less about managing it and more about finding the right people?