Is my Change of symptoms typical?

[Sunshinerider]

I notice many discussions regarding late ADHD diagnostic. I have not seen much at all about ADHD morphing with age.

My symptoms have changed so much I feel like I have gone from one type to the exact opposite. What was once minimal stuff is in its proper order (as is needed to keep my mind clear), has now become chaotic mess that is tumble and fumble over.

My previous winning speed for 5 tasks at once is a hazy memory. It is all I can do to get one task done and overwhelm seeps in with just one notification heard.

I have not lost my “know how”. I have just lost how to use it. I’m can see each step needed to get to finish line. I know it will be just 20 min. And somehow it is 4 hrs later. All I’m trying to accomplish is for my work to be clear and correct. But I can’t make my coordination or words/type come out as it is so clearly sitting In My mind.

Is this similar experience? I am having a hard time with others accepting ADHD as a reason for my decline.

[STEM_Dad]

I was diagnosed with ADHD at a time when my attention struggles were at their most severe. I had been freaking with severe anxiety at the same time, and going through counseling for the anxiety. (I knew that the counselor was familiar with ADHD, so I asked her to also evaluate me for ADHD...and that's how I got my diagnosis.)

• My own estimation was that my ADHD struggles at the time were at least 3-times as bad as they had been for most of my life, magnified but the anxiety. As the anxiety levels came down, my ADHD struggles returned to my baseline (which the counselor then assessed as "mild to moderate").

• Other things that I've noticed can make my attention struggles become worse again include: lack of sleep, poor diet, poor hydration, acute stress (although it depends on the situation, because sometimes responding to an emergency puts me at my best).

But, attention-related issues aren't only caused by ADHD. They can also be caused by biological, hormonal, or other neurological issues.

I read your profile and see that you are a woman, and your age.

• Just age-related changes to neurology can be impactful for anyone, even neurotypical people. According to a widely accepted model of neurology, people possess two different types of "intelligence": fluid intelligence and crystalized intelligence. Fluid intelligence helps people to learn and adapt quickly, and is much more abundant in younger people than in older people (typically highest on childhood and early 20s, and decreasing over time). Crystalized intelligence represents acquired knowledge and skills, and tends to grow throughout youth and well into adulthood...this is how we develop expertise.

• "Middle age" brings various biological changes. Metabolism slows down, the body becomes less efficient, hormones aren't produced at the same levels as previously. For women (and by this term, I mean biological women, people who are genetically female), these changes are compounded by perimenopause and then menopause. (According to medical studies, hormone replacement therapy is usually the most effective treatment to help offset menopause-related changes, which includes the effects on neurological performance. However, HRT carries some risk, so it's a topic best discussed with a doctor.)

Perimenopause can be difficult to identify. Many women are able to tell when they are going through menopause (although help from a doctor might be needed, particularly if a woman has had a hysterectomy or has conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, PCOS; my mom has PCOS, and my ex-wife had a hysterectomy, so I've got a bit of second-hand knowledge about those two types of circumstances).

~~~~~

Without the help of doctors and medical tests, it might be impossible to know exactly why your attention capabilities have changed.

For my ex-wife (when we were so married), I noticed that her ability to multitask better than most people and to keep vast amounts of details in her head decreased around the time that she was pregnant with our two youngest children, and decreased again within the last several years (beginning before COVID). Since she had a hysterectomy a couple of years after our youngest was born, in think that she is unable to tell if she is going through perimenopause/menopause...but I highly suspect that's what has been happening to her. On top of that, she has developed diabetes and other health conditions within the last decade, which I think have also affected her condition. (People used to be amazed by her superhuman multitasking abilities. Now, she seems much more average...but still better than me.)

[FocusAndFlow]

I hear you. Same here. I got diagnosed about 13 months ago, just before turning 50 and I am now 51 and I 'don't recognize myself' in terms of my ability to schedule tasks, structure them, break them down and just get the job done. This can be terrifying, and it is, until you start figuring out how to take some of the power back that it has taken away. I'm in my eights month looking for work at home on LinkedIn, and networking, which has only made it harder. However, it's about perseverance and learning to lean into the effort (not too hard), while learning to literally not care about the results. That is the only way the receipts start trickling in for all your hard work.

First and foremost, man or woman, sleep, sleep, sleep! I cannot stress enough how changes to my sleep hygiene have provided the right foundation to then start building upon. If you have any sleep issues, definitely address those first. Andrew Huberman has an amazing sleep tool kit I recommend to everyone. Being a life-long insomniac/poor sleeper, this really affected my quality of life and I believe is the primary driver in my ADHD decline in the past five years. I started figuring out how to mechanically influence and optimize/improve both the quantity and quality of my sleep. That's No. 1, bar none. Without that, you're literally building a castle on quicksand.

Secondly, I cannot take any medication because of severe CPTSD and other issues (skipping gory details here...), and after having done A LOT of research and reading on neuroplasticity and cognition improvement and related subjects, I have narrowed my ADHD main trigger (and slight bipolar 2, OCD, depression and anxiety, along with CPTSD) is an overactive amygdala. It misfires and WAY overshoots at the slightest upset. Anything that can channel into Rejection Dysforia Syndrome does, and Wow... Do I pay the price. It can be anything, and it will literally keep me up without sleep until 5 AM on a good night, or up for two nights. Mind you this is getting better and better every day. After the last 13 months at this, it only fires off about once per week or every ten days instead of multiple times every day and it 'messes up my life' for two to five days instead of it being a never ending cyclone of misery. The key it to be grateful for the breaks and the progress and to learn to capitalize on that and finally, bit by bit, minimize the bad times as much as possible by compartmentalizing and journaling.

All that said, if you can take Ritalin, or any Rx and it works for you, learn to get used to it and leverage it to your advantage. Whether you can or cannot (like me), start researching diet and supplements to rectify any potential issues with your diet. This provides a second level of buoyancy, or resilience, if you will, to emotional responses, especially inappropriate ones.

As it turns out, exercise is in fact critical, and although it would be great if we could all swim two miles a day, run a 10k and lift weights every day, the reality is that we have busy lives and we need to compartmentalize. After six months of being a recluse in my house because of the 'wall of awful' inherent in ADHD kept me indoors and isolated from society 100% (we are well acquainted 'frenemies' by now), I was finally able to just go out my front door on simple walks. It's been about seven months now and I get out on walks, primarily in nature at a park near my house, for 1-1.5 hours three to five times per week and that helps me declutter the mind immensely as a complement to sleep hygiene and diet. As a result, my resting heart rate during the day has decreased from around 65 bpm to mid to low 50s, and I have lost 24 lbs down from 230 to 206. I have a ways to go to reach my goal of 190, but I do much better sticking with it if I don't push myself too hard. If I do, the 'wall of awful' starts encroaching on my exercise and it ruins my efforts and can make for a very bad day indeed, and round and round we go...

These are just some basics that I believe we all end up learning, especially after an ADHD diagnosis, but I cannot overstate how related they all are to one another and how synergistically they work together. That would be my greatest recommendation of all is to start understanding this diagnosis as requiring an overall holistic daily approach that builds in the various behavioral tools and disciplines as habits that stick, so start slow and easy. Don't overdo it, or the less endearing parts of ADHD may sabotage you as they have me this past year.

You show this thing who's boss, one good thought, one walk, one vitamin/supplement, one good meal and one good night's sleep at a time. Remember - It's about progress, not perfection, and yes, there will be down days, so learn to give yourself breaks along the way. Learning the art of self-compassion is critical here.

Godspeed.

[samami]

I have had a terrible time with ADHD symptoms getting much worse since my late 40s. I was finally diagnosed with ADHD in my late 50s. Here is an interesting webinar I listened to last week:

additudemag.com/webinar/hor...

I think the studies show that it is similar for men as their levels of testosterone decline.

[Mamamichl]

what I’ve read is that hormone changes can affect how adhd comes out or how strong our symptoms are. I read that if your an older female, that menopause changes it drastically.

[Attentiondefdiff]

in my experience my symptoms change with my diet, exercise, rest, and stress levels. When I am overly stressed it really gets bad. Changes in my routine are my biggest problem. The holidays played havoc on my ability to stay on task and function well.

[cappermcgee]

SAMMMEEEE but i cant tell if its my adhd itself changing or if im just burned out ????? because sometimes i see glimpses of the old me but its one day out of a whole month, its depressing and not sustainable