ADHD Symptoms

[_Sally]

Hello. I am yet to be diagnised with ADHD yet. I have been having symptoms since 2012 when I was I was 17. I am 28 now. The symptoms have been getting really bad so I decided to find help. I went to talk to a doctor but they were unwilling to help me and just brushed it off as anxiety. In fact, they made me really discouraged about going to another doctor again because they made it seem like having adhd was such a terrible thing and and showed no interest to help. I am extremely tired of having to mask this condition because in all honesty, it is completely draining. My main problem is the way i easily forget things and quickly lose items very often. I would like to please get some advise from people that have already been diagnosed on what to do moving forward. Thank you

[BlessedLady]

Get a appointment with a psychiatrist.

[_Sally in reply to BlessedLady]

I will hopefully get to that but before that like it’s very hard to find a trustworthy one in this country. I want to try some meds. Apart from aderall. What do y’all recommend?

[BlessedLady in reply to _Sally]

There are several different medications used to treat ADHD. Stimulants like Adderall, Dexedrine (Dextroamphetamine) and Ritalin to name a few stimulants. There are also non stimulants that can help with ADHD. It depends on your symptoms, the doctor and if you have other mental and/or physical health issues in addition to ADHD

[_Sally in reply to BlessedLady]

Thank you so much

[Wasted71years]

It is going to be an arduous journey. It was quite a long haul for me, first to find a solid diagnosis and then to find someone to help with treatment, now with the slow process of titration to select the right medicines. I read of others with multi year battles, some due to long wait times with their health care systems but others where those they approached denied or trivialized their condition.

My experience and what I read and hear from so many others is that the medication and dose that works for you can be very different from the next person with ADHD. That is a part of the long process, with the person initially treating you trying different medicines and gradually changing the doses. Your body needs a bit of time to adjust and to eliminate any temporary side effects, thus the changes have to be slowly made.

There are two major classes of stimulant medication and then a number of non-stimulant medications. The highest rate of effectiveness in general is with the stimulants, as I have read and hear over and over, which is why they are typically the first medicines attempted. However, some people have conditions that make stimulants a bad choice and some people just don't respond to them but find help from the non-stimulants.

I am not a doctor or any kind of medical professional, so I am just sharing my understanding. The actual decision of what to try is up to your treating medical practitioner, not you and certainly not me.

You may need to find one person for the solid diagnosis but then another to begin treating you. It is hard to find those people, in my experience. I went to a clinic with both psychologists and a psychiatrist, thinking that if the diagnosis was positive then that clinic would also manage the choices of medications. The snag I encountered after the long testing by a psychologist was that the psychiatrist at the clinic only treated women.

While on the subject of women, it is well known that many doctors trivialize women's complaints and ascribe them to anxiety or depression. Further, the inattentive type of ADHD presentation is not as obvious to them if they are not well experienced with ADHD. Don't let someone invalidate your condition out of ignorance - keep fighting until you find someone who will look objectively, without bias, and with expertise. Then, you will know if you have ADHD or not and can then pursue the appropriate treatment for your situation.

Just FYI, the two categories of simulants are methylphenidate based and amphetamine based. Within those categories are many variations that usually relate to how long the pill effects you in the day. Then there are all the brand names and the generics. It may seem confusing but that doesn't really matter because your prescribing practitioner will figure out which one to try and make changes until you get the most relief without objectionable side effects. It is not a choice we have to make, that is up the medical profession.

[_Sally in reply to Wasted71years]

This was very helpful. I really aprreciate the tgirough explanation. Like you said finding the correct doctor is the main issue. But I will continue to fight till I find the right one to help.

[STEM_Dad]

Be prepared for it to take some time, and possibly going through a few different mental health/medical practitioners to get a diagnosis.

I'm fortunate that I did get a diagnosis from the first practitioner that I went to for an ADHD evaluation, and only had to wait a few months. I got a second opinion confirmation from my doctor shortly after I got my initial diagnosis.

I was diagnosed with both Anxiety and ADHD, Inattentive presentation. Until my Anxiety was well under control, my ADHD was very severe. Even just one month on medication for the Anxiety brought my ADHD back to my normal severity, which was reassessed as "mild to moderate" severity. - Due to my ordinarily lower severity of symptoms, lack of hyperactivity, plus the amount of success that I'd had with my own coping mechanisms over the years, it's no wonder that I was "masking" so well most of my life.

If I'd had different care providers at the time, then I might have been told that because the anxiety medication worked so well, then my problems were due to anxiety. However, I was fortunate that both the mental health counselor and my doctor knew that ADHD is often comorbid with anxiety (or other disorders), and that the ADHD can be more prominent when anxiety levels rise.

-----

You mentioned wanting to try medications. That's only likely to happen if you get an ADHD diagnosis.

What I did that helped with my first diagnosis was to write out how my my struggles with my ADHD traits have shown up in my life, from as early as I could remember, all though school, and continuing though my adult years.

Go back as far as you can remember, and as far back as your school records might indicate ADHD-like issues. (This could include: forgetfulness, disorganization, tardiness, problems paying attention, distractibility, talking a lot, interrupting, scribbling, hypermobility...like wiggling in your seat, or getting out of your seat, or drumming on your desk, or tapping your feet, even playing with your hair or the hem of your clothing or objects like pencils or cell phone.)

Things that parents, teachers, and others have mentioned about how you behaved in out-of-the-ordinary ways as a kid could also be indications of ADHD in your youth...it doesn't have to seem like "typical" ADHD traits, because many of us ADHDers had unique presentations. "Hyperfocus" is often among the overlooked traits. Note that ADHD is more correctly described as having "problems with attention management", not necessarily an "attention deficit ".

An often overlooked dimension of ADHD traits consists of "emotional disregulation". This could include being "overly sensitive" (including Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, RSD), "not sensitive enough to others", prone to being argumentative and/or disrespectful (particularly from preteen years onward).

Note: Inattentive ADHD types of people tend to fly well under the radar, and may not have drawn attention to their struggles during elementary and secondary school years, due to their generally milder temperament, when compared to people who have Hyperactive-Impulsive ADHD traits.

[_Sally]

I genuinely believe you pointed out alot of what I am going through at this point. The trait that most affected me from what I remember about 11 years ago was the fact that I easily got distracted which led me to not do the things I was meant to do. I started to become disorganized and started not doing well educationally. I somehow managed to push through all of that though, till I finished studies and finally started work.

However, I have noticed that my inattentive traits and also hyperactive traits have become alot worse and more visible now. I fidget at every little situation I am around and for my greatest issue at this point, I have a very terrible memory. You can tell me your name literally now and 5 seconds later I will completely go blank. The worst thing is if I am reading something or talking to someone, just one second of distraction will make me forget everything I was doing or reading earlier.

I am no doctor but I genuinely feel my symptoms are what lead to my anxiety. Because I am extremely afraid of failure so If for example I have a deadline or an important work that someone had entrusted to me to compleate, my anxiety skyrockets like no other because I know even if I want to, my inability to concentrate and the way I always end up procastinating no matter how hard I try not to, wil lead me not to perform as expected. That anxiety sometimes leads to depression because I just feel I can never do anything right no matter how hard I try. Which in turn makes me demotivated to do the work. And the circle continues.

I’m sorry for the long rant but I am realy, really exhausted of living like this. And tge fact that I am yet to find a trustworthy doctor that will willingly diagnose me correctly just makes it worse.

[STEM_Dad in reply to _Sally]

I've certainly found anxiety and ADHD to increase issues with each other. It's a vicious cycle... ADHD struggles cause anxiety, anxiety causes my ADHD symptoms to become worse, which causes more anxiety.

My ADHD medication (atomoxetine) helps me a lot with my working memory. (When I was taking Adderall, it helped almost as much.)

I had major problems with my memory for most of my life, but now my working memory works almost as well as what's expected of the average neurotypical person.

Being short on sleep causes me to have reduced working memory again. Anxiety can cause almost as much of memory problems. (Stress and worry also cause anxiety. And then anxiety that I don't deal with can develop into depression.)

So, I've learned the importance of self-care. If I feel like my anxiety is going up, I need to make sure that I'm:

* Getting adequate sleep

* Taking my ADHD meds (and presently, I'm also taking an SSRI)

* Dealing with causes of stress or worry

* Taking time to practice mindfulness, and CBT "grounding" techniques when I need to

* And getting counseling when I realize that I need additional help

Thanks to counseling, and a lot of the reading & research I've done on ADHD and neurodiversity, I have learned that acceptance is very important. I've had to accept my diagnosis, my symptoms & limitations, and the consequences that have come up in my life. (I can't change how I am, I can't change my past, but I can accept it. I don't have to like my faults and failings, but I can accept them.)

Having more acceptance of myself for who I am has helped me immensely to be happier just being me.

[_Sally in reply to STEM_Dad]

I will take all of that into consideration for sure. I think accepting being who you are is a great way to look at things differently. And just talking about it makes you see that you are not only one and in general just makes you feel better. So thank you.