Back to being overwhelmed

[alexparkeralias]

Hi 👋 new here. I got diagnosed about 5 months ago and I started doing better and getting more productive and things weren't so...chaotic anymore. But the last couple of weeks I feel like I am back in the same boat. I'm seriously overwhelmed, I don't know how to ask for help, and I don't know if I've possibly gained a tolerance to my medicine? Or am I just not doing the right things?

[RCJH8610]

Hello! This is completely normal. I like to think of ADHD as a rollercoaster ride with periods of time feeling great and productive and then huge falls were everything seems so overwhelming and your mind can’t stop. Have you had any sudden changes in your routine such as a new job, school or project? In addition, you may need an increase in your medication because it’s very common to build up a tolerance to Stimulants after a while. Just know you are not alone and although I wish there was a simple fix, you’ve just got to learn how to roll with the punches (I am still learning after being diagnosed almost 4 years ago) ❤️

[Shirleytaps]

Hi alexparkeralias. I have found the for me, this was very normal over the first few months and even now. We can't control when we are bored or our expectations are too high, which both cause procrastination. Be kind to yourself, try the 10 minute start, break up tasks into bite size pieces, and be vulnerable: ask for help. Good luck.

[Credit]

I feel the same. This is the second time I get treatment, first was approx 12 years ago. It gave me so much focus and energy that I started piling up more and more responsibilities, felt that I could handle them but there's only so much a person can handle without feeling overwhelmed. I stopped and regretted stopping. I started again a few months ago, and here I am piling up projects and responsibilities once again and not being able to catch up, paperwork that's late, missed deadlines etc... I think coaching of some sort combined with treatment could help, but I haven't started that yet. Not sure if that's why you feel overwhelmed but in my case, I know it's just because there's just too much on my plate.

[LotsOfSunshine]

Dear Alexparkeralias...

You're not alone. I'm a 53 yrs old single female. My ADD was diagnosed about 10 yrs ago. For me, it has been an evolution of learning about myself, learning more about ADD, and trying different things (medication, therapy, and for a time a coach). Medication helps me help myself worki at finding ways to compensate for ways ADD sometimes has me feeling scrambled.

And, yes, like you - for a good stretch of time (3-4 months) I'll feel like tools and awareness I've developed are helping me, even am gleeful having that, "Look Mom, I'm riding with no hands!" feeling, at times ... I feel like I'm rolling with it better...and then suddenly I feel derailed and have trouble tapping into the right tools to correct my then wobbling sense of self and sense of defeat (for me, that often becomes a helpless feeling as I myopically become overwhelmed about my personal difficulty with reliably making my home environment comfortable... that is, realizing I have "stuff" just "living" all over the place where I should be living).

For whatever reason, I seem to have found myself there - overwhelmed & defeated (which can head into depression) for the past few days, after a LONG period of "rolling"!

I will find my way again. I'll assign myself some of the babiest of steps to hopefully little by little see and experience improvement and feel empowered again!

Your post was from 3 wks ago, so I hope you are feeling like you're in a better place again.

I find my ADD is a bit like a whack-a-mole at times (for lack of a better reference). You'll work and work at taking care of getting a handle on it, and WILL, and suddenly, as if from behind you, it pops up at a new time to nag you.

Wishing you the best! And... you're not alone.

[MtMan]

Medicine alone may not be the answer: there are no "magic beans" that fix what is going g on with us.

As t o how to ask for help, it can be as easy as calling a mental health provider that has good reviews on Google or some such and saying, "I need help." To put on my "been living with it all my life hat" for a second, what gives? If you were bleeding out fromm a cut on your arm, would you say, "I don't know how to ask for help" or would you do whatever it takes to treat the injury?

My dad (and many others I'm sure) used to say, "If you want to change some things in your life, you have to change some things in your life." All the respect in the world to you for posting g here, but if you want to win the lottery, you gotta buy a ticket.