My flightiness explained! Menopause really exacerbated my symptoms, even though I've gotten my hormone levels balanced. I’m just starting Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and have an appointment with a psychiatrist In March. I also have battled migraines for 10+ years, and am hopeful treatment for that can help break the cycle of migraine pain. I am apprehensive to take medicine, as I am sober 27 years. However, I’m more apprehensive to continue my life as a scatterbrain. It’s also very enlightening to realize how many people in my life that also have ADHD and are medicated. I’m grateful for this forum to have contact with others further along the path.
Are there other later in life women who’ve found that menopause aggravated symptoms? What has helped you with symptoms outside of ADHD medications and hormone supplementation.
Thanks!
Newly Diagnosed with Adult ADD
Newly diagnosed and lost
Newly diagnosed, where do I go from here?
23 year old inability to launch
Newly Diagnosed, just started treatment
Hi JLJLMT, I'm on the north side of 30s and was just diagnosed last week. I hear you about medication; I grew up in a family with substance abuse and the prospect of it scares me, but, like you, I'm more scared of not getting my crap together enough to do good things in this world! If meds are what it takes, then I guess so be it; I don't when or if I'm going to put on meds yet. It's so good to have a place like this to compare notes and also that nowadays there are many resources related to recognizing potential substance abuse. CBT seems really helpful, from what I've read. I've been trying out the EFT tapping thing that I saw on YouTube... it looks hilarious so definitely don't watch yourself in a mirror while doing it if you try that lol. I sort of worked for me last night in calming me down before a college test. I didn't bomb it but I didn't do as well as I'd wanted. I will say, though, that exercise has a tremendous when I regularly do it. Dr. Medina's "Brain Rules" books explain that better than I could. He's a genius!
All the best!
Thanks for reaching out.
I have done tapping when I was seeing a therapist in the past and it is helpful. I will look into Dr. Madina's Book
Good luck with your education. That’s fabulous! Having deadlines in college was really, really helpful in my earlier years (even though I didn’t know I had a problem). I would lock myself away all day in a study room at the local library because there were no distractions. The subject matter lent its self to studying with flash cards, so I would go over and over the material, discarding the cards I "got", repeating the ones I didn’t "get". Invariably, on the morning of exams I’d have a few cards left to really imprint on my mind before the test and I always had at least one essay question that was on those last few flash cards. I got straight A's for several semesters. I remember my boyfriend at the time (who aced calculus without even going to class) mocked my study habits because I had to work so hard. That was tough...to be getting great results and made fun of because of the effort it took...ouch!
And exercise certainly does help...I’m preparing for my walk now.
All the best to you on your journey!
Thank you!! It feels simultaneously wonderful and daunting going back to college twenty years later! I miss those straight A-s days
these days, everything is more challenging, but my timing is off, too. Things ARE easier to learn at different ages. Formative years go without saying, and then 11 or so, then 18/19 (college age), then mid-40s (should've waited to return lol), then the last surge in learning happens in your early 80s in one particular discipline... ARITHMETIC. Yeah, imagine being 83 and blowing the doors off anyone at math. Humans are weird.