I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and ASD as a 37 year old woman. My life has been in a downward spiral for the past 10 months (I blame the antidepressants they put me on when I was misdiagnosed), and I was hoping for tips for getting back on track. I work full time and am currently having issues at work. I am the only one in my department and I am currently trying to keep up with the demands of several different positions. Normally, our stores have different employees doing the jobs that I do, but I am only one person doing the work of 5. I feel like they are taking advantage of me and my work ethic. My home life has been suffering also, work gets the best of me and my family gets the crap that's left over. I have 4 neurodiverse kiddos as well, ranging from 18 and heading off to college to 7. I guess my question is, have any of you taken a medical leave of absence from work and if so, how do you get started? I have short term disability insurance, would they pay for a leave of absence for mental health reasons? I just have to do something, I can't go on like this, my body and brain are starting to shut down and trying to keep it together and professional at work is so draining... I am currently on medication, but I don't think it's right for me. It doesn't seem to help me concentrate, just seems to make the chaos go faster.
Written by
dizzyoctopus
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
I am sorry to hear that you are struggling. What meds are you on for ADHD? Have you adjusted the amount since taking them? I just learned that to much Adderall can cause more anxiety,
You don't say what med you are on or how long you have been on it.I can only tell you that my son (22) was on adderal for 7-8 years. His doctor kept raising the dosage when he told him it wasn't working. He was up to 60mgXR daily. Then he started to have all this anxiety so he put him on 150mg of hydroxyzine.
Same issues at work. He's a people pleaser. He got an "Attaboy" from his boss saying he did 3x higher his quota...then another. Yes, he's young and he can do that type of strenuous work (warehouse loading semi trucks) but you can't keep that up every day for 10 hrs.
He called for help one day on his radio- no help came, so he went to find his manager and passed a file cabinet and smacked it with his hand. Now he's fired.
Got highly upset over that. One day he was just manic. Saying he was going to kill the dog and suicidal. I called 911 and told them to send the cops to get him to the ER- told them tell the cops to watch their guns. Long story short they locked him in a room in the ER- he overturned a bed to get out, security and a cop came, took him down and he tried to grab the cops gun,now he has assult charges and trying to disarm a cop. (after I told them to watch)
Spent 10 days on the psych floor. The very first thing they did was take him off his adderal and hydroxyzine- cold turkey after 7-8 years on it. They told me so many people come on that floor so angry and on adderal. I googled it and surprise, surprise.
So..talk to your doctor if your med isn't working. Everyone is different. My take away is if a med isn't working, or stops working, and you start to have issues, don't have a doctor give you another med to take care of those issues. Try something new. My son was on 4 meds.
One big thig is ADHD falls under The Americans with Disabilities act. Didn't know if you knew that or not. I don't know if you let your job know you have ADHD- but you can get reasonable accomadations. Maybe this will help instead of taking a leave. Talk to HR~ or your boss.
I don't know what job you have to think of accomadations but you can contact NAMI and they can help you. Just don't wait to do anything so you end up like my son did.
I followed the same path with increasing my Adderall XR. Since I only thought the ADHD affected my focus, I thought I was fine on the higher dosage because I was able to hyperfocus and get a crazy amount of work done. Never realizing the increased anxiousness was caused by it and my ADHD. Now I am paying the price. Please read my story for more info and thanks for sharing.
Congratulations on the new accurate diagnosis. And sorry to hear you are doing the work of five. Even without ADHD (and ASD) that would be extremely challenging. Im 38, female, and have only this year been diagnosed w ADHD (and part of me also believes I have ASD), so your post really resonates. A few years ago I had a high stress job that came with a toxic work environment, and the two created an unbearably stressful situation that I finally got help for. This landed me on a medical leave through short term disability insurance. Here is my story for whatever parts help shed light on your path forward.
I started prioritizing seeing a psychologist (again) because my stress level was through the roof. At our second session she asked how I was, and I told her I couldn’t stop thinking about work from the second I woke up to the second I fell asleep. And that Id initiated a conversation with a coworker about a problem needing to be solved, and after they responded to me, I had zero idea what conversation I had started. Which then triggered an anxiety attack right in front of the person.
The psychologist immediately responded with asking if I’d be open to taking a two week medical leave of absence. I responded that that was all I wanted and I hadn’t known it was an option. She offered to have a psychiatrist write the letter, so it would show as a two week dismissal from work by an MD. This helped calm my nerves about my employer knowing it was mental healthy related (I can’t wait for the stigma on this to lessen). The letter was maybe two sentences, stating I would be off work from this date to that date because of medical needs. I both called and sent the letter to my HR person and supervisor. I think all I had to do was send the letter, but I wanted to hand off notes for work and hold my head up kind of a thing. I got asked if I was ok, to which I responded yes and then stopped talking.
HR said to use up my sick time first and then it would automatically kick into short term disability. I got 60% pay on SDI (I’m in CA, may vary by locale). The psychologist had me do a number of stress classes through my insurance company with my new found time for self care (I had Kaiser and they had a lot, for which I was grateful). We checked in regularly and two weeks turned into five weeks of leave. At which point I got my head back above water and saw I needed to quit. I put my notice in and chose to go back to finish my two weeks.
I hope this helps you in your journey. You deserve to take care of yourself and your family first.
This might not be your issue, but in case it’s at that level, I will share a bit more.. My former place of employment got sued a ton, and is again now at this time by at least one former coworker. Some people don’t realize that there’s abuse / worker’s rights violations happening that are part of the mix in these situations. And that the way some companies change is by receiving this level of pressure again and again over time. Even if you have no intention of suing, it can go a long way in getting protection if you document your side of the experience as it moves along. Document, document, document.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Are there times that you are more overwhelmed with tasks, projects, etc. then others?
please help me my life is so overwhelming 
Sometimes the utter exhaustion of being ADHD takes its toll.
I feel lost, like a fish flopping on shore.
Ready to move on from this job to a better one 
