I'm wondering if this is an ADHD thing because if that's the case I'm going to address it differently than just trying to force myself to do something which so far hasn't been working. Basically the title of my thing is with what I'm struggling.It's excruciatingly difficult to get going when I wake up either in the morning or from a nap.
Although the later in the day it gets the easier it is for me to do things.
I've been saying half jokingly and completely seriously for decades that I'm the kind of person that needs to have already consumed the caffeine beverage in order to be able to prepare and consume the caffeinated beverage 🤦🏻♀️
If anyone has any feedback or suggestions I will be grateful.
I also have Pathological Demand Avoidance, autism, and extreme physical pain due to chronic disabilities.
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MorningDanceTrece
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Thank you for your response which I appreciate. That's an excellent point that you make that I had forgotten. I do take ibuprofen and acetaminophen the former of which can cause lethargy.
I have never heard of either of those drugs causing lethargy. On the other hand, some people react differently than most. Are you taking a stimulant for your ADHD ? If you are, try setting your alarm twice. Set your first alarm about 45 minutes before you have to get up. When your first alarm goes off, take your ADHD medication. When your second alarm goes off, get up. That works for many people with ADHD that take stimulants
Yeah ibuprofen is interesting because it can cause drowsiness, fatigue AND restless sleep 🤦🏻♀️Especially in large quantities.
I have prescription strength 600 mg tablets which I take every 8 hours.
I don't take a stimulant because I don't have the kind of ADHD that would respond positively to that. In the past I would have been diagnosed ADD if they had caught it.
Hi, my some was diagnosed years ago with ADD and I have been diagnosed ADHD although probably more ADD, at 47 yo last year. Stimulants still help with so many aspects of any type of ADHD I think. So same I reply above, I set my alarm at 6.30, take my meds elvanse 30mg(vynanse) and the next alarm for 7.15/7.30 and try to eat, I don't take any caffeine now. But previous to meds I just could not function in the morning and I know exactly what you mean haha I would need something to get me going but couldn't function to get the something 😅 maybe worth looking into a Stimulant med, even an immediate release. Mine is an extended release as I struggle with symptoms 24/7. I started on concerta 18mg which was not bad but I crashed with them and quite badly at the higher doses. Elvanse no crash at all! Made a huge difference to my life. My son is on immediate release and they are life changing for him. He's methylphenidate 10mg twice a day when he's at school. He's 16 now. I take pain meds too and have managed to cut down on them oddly enough since on adhd meds. But they do make me drowsy. I try and take them slightly earlier at night now. Good luck
Thank you very much for your detailed response which I do appreciate.
I probably should have mentioned earlier that I have Bipolar 4 and therefore cannot take stimulants or my mood stabilizer won't work and all hell will break loose.
I'm glad for you and your son that you have found things that work for you 🤗
Since you mention that you would need to take a caffeinated beverage in order to be able to prepare a caffeinated beverage, that indicates that you definitely respond to one stimulant... caffeine.
Caffeine does work differently than ADHD stimulant medications. It does trigger a release of dopamine, but it's a much smaller amount than an amphetamine or methylphenidate medication would.
• Do you or have you previously used nicotine, via tobacco products or vaping? If so, did nicotine seem to give you the "boost" you need in order to get started on things? Nicotine acts much more similarly to ADHD stimulants. (The problems with it are how highly addictive it is, and how damaging tobacco products and at least some vapes can be.)
As BlessedLady mentioned, for anyone who treats ADHD with stimulants, one tactic is to take medication some time before getting out of bed. I can remember Jessica McCabe, of the How to ADHD YouTube channel, saying on more than one occasion that she takes her first dose of the day 20 or 30 minutes before she gets up.
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I had been on Strattera for 3 years, but still found it difficult to get out of bed or to initiate tasks (i.e. get started on tasks at work and at home). Three months ago, I asked my doctor to let me try out Wellbutrin, and I found that it treats my Inattentive ADHD traits about as well as Strattera did, but also makes it a little bit easier to get started on things.
I still need my coffee to help keep my going. I've cut my caffeine consumption in half from what it was before I started on ADHD meds, but haven't been able to go without entirely. Plus, I like the taste...it's my favorite beverage.
I still struggle to get out of bed. (Maybe I ought to put a cuppa next to my bed at night. I don't mind cold coffee for my first cup of the day. Like you, it gives my the boost I need to make another caffeinated beverage.)
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Stimulants trigger a release of dopamine. (They are dopamine agonists.)
Strattera is a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. (When nerves release norepinephrine, they reabsorb any that it left over after transmission. Strattera delays the reabsorption, to give more time for the receiving neuron to absorb the norepinephrine.)
Wellbutrin is a dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.
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I have read that even some people who are on a non-stimulant, like us, can be prescribed a low dose stimulant for the beginning or end of the day (whichever is the need).
Hey STEM_Dad, a friend of mine makes coffee at night in a thermos, brings it upstairs and drinks it in the morning as soon as she opens her eyes! I think it’s brilliant! Enjoy!
I've had a plan about preparing green tea the day before as you can see in my above response to stem dad and your comment little fire under my fanny so to speak to try much harder to get my act together and do so so thank you very much 😉
Thank you very much indeed for all of that very useful and helpful information.As I mentioned before any kind of a stimulant more stronger than caffeine is out of the question because of the Bipolar 4 and even with the caffeine I have to be extremely careful and pay close attention so how strong what I am drinking is and how quickly / slowly I am consuming it.
I have already thought about making the thing the day before and I still haven't been able to get my act together enough to do so however I'm desperate enough that I think I'm going to figure out a plan.
More so than taking the caffeine or rather in addition to taking the caffeine to help me wake up and get motivated there's I don't know what to call it there's the situation that drinking a cold beverage first thing in the day upon awakening helps to kick start the metabolism.
There is another component or two perhaps in green tea besides the caffeine that helps to kick-start the metabolism.
So if I were to have cold green tea first thing in the day that would have the caffeine helping me to wake up and get going plus three different things helping my metabolism which is something I really need because I'm on a weight loss Journey and also my thyroid function is malfunctioning and the metabolism is part of the thyroid and aside from weight issues it's important for the metabolism to be choogling right along so all the other bodily functions work well.
I think that was a horrible run on sentence! 🤦🏻♀️
Please don't tell my son because he's an English teacher although thankfully not a judgmental or critical one 🤪
Thank you for reading/listening to me babbling which I appreciate 🤗
Hello. When someone mentions that they can't function or operate unless they have a coffee, my response is 'how do you know then?' If you always have a coffee to get going, you will never know what it's like to go a week without.
Of course, that's just me being stupid, and I mean no offence, but, it is true lol
Personally, as the reader and opinionated on your post, I would say the combination of your illnesses and disabilities, pain and especially PDA, is likely a probable cause to 'not want to get going in the morning'. If not 'the prime factor', then a massive contribution.
ADHD plays a part in it, of course, it's lifelong, but, I would suggest before jumping for some stimulants, maybe try to realise that you dont even need to start the day if you dont want.
Get some chocolates, 6 DVDs and just kick back in bed all day, baby. You might find you just need some hard earned rest. Dont be afraid of rest, just not for weeks and not too deep lol
I just really noticed something else you said. You said PDA is a factor in not wanting to get going.
I do want to get going.
The problem is I can't get going.
The situation would be exponentially less frustrating if I were apathetic and didn't give a flying petunia about at least you know functioning to a 'half-assed' level in my life.
Please understand I'm not saying that with any kind of judgmentalism or criticism or harshness towards myself or anyone.
That's just the way I think of it compared to I guess people that can work full time and take care of a family and take care of pets and keep a home clean and take care of themselves.
I'm doing about 90% of what I should do to take care of my pets because I feel like I don't have the right to have them if I don't do at least that much.
And then everything else that I'm actually able to do at all is maybe 30% at the most each of one.
I'm incapable of working or going to school or volunteering or taking care of a family.
So I would like to be able at least to do 90% of my housework and 90% of taking care of myself and 100% of taking care of my cats.
Well, on that basis, you're looking it wrong, you can't do 90% housework AND 90% yourself AND 100% cats... and you cant because there's no such thing as 280%
There's only 100%, you can't go over that.
So, split it up over the day, 16 hours a day, 8 hours sleep, 4 hours to do each. 30% cats, 30% housework, 60% yourself, every 4 hours... or,
Take the first 4 hours for yourself, get your 60% in, then potter about for the next 4 hours getting 15% housework done, 15% cats, then the next 4 hours, do the same.
These are just examples because you asked... I dont do any of the above lol
I clearly said that I want to do 100% of what needs to be donefor the cats and 90% of what needs to be done of the housework and 90% of what needs to be done to take care of myself.
I did not say I want to spend a hundred percent of my time taking care of the cats and 90% of my time taking care of the housework and 90% of my time taking care of myself because I don't need Captain Obvious to know that that's not possible and completely stupid.
So let me get this straight -- it's perfectly acceptable for you to accuse me of being a complete moron but if I have a problem with it and explain to you what I actually did say the first time more clearly I'm the one who's being rude?SMH
100% of what needs to be done for the cats is feed them four or five times, scoop the solid waste out of all three litter boxes, give them their fishy treats, comb and brush them, and take them out in the hallway to play.
I can't spread that out over the course of the week because it all needs to be done each and every day.
100% of what I need to do for myself today is scrub and moisturize my face, scrub and moisturize my hair, have individual therapy session on video, put on some makeup, take a walk in the hallway.
I can't spread that out over the course of a week because that also needs to be done all today.
Tomorrow I will not have to wash my hair or have therapy so I can replace those two things with something else or do less.
The housework that needs to be done is dishes, floors, mopping, vacuuming, taking the trash down to the trash room, going through boxes and getting rid of stuff, washing laundry, making the bed, making pasta sauce, putting the groceries away, and cleaning in the bathroom.
THAT can be stretched out over 4 days.
If it's stretched out any longer than that by the time I finish everything not only is everything that I started going to be dirty again but the place is going to be more messy, unorganized and dirty.
I am not doing the math wrong 🙄.
Those three groups of projects will take actually less than 100% of my time.
I'm not thinking they're going to take more nor was I ever.
And I'm not going to thank somebody who accuses me of being a complete and total moron.
Seriously?!?!
I'm supposed to thank you for offending and insulting me and my intelligence.
Just leave it. If you dont get you can only do 100% but think you can do 300% all at once in pain whilst arguing with people who try to show you how to do it, then good bye.
Well guess who's wrong. It's 4:30 in the afternoon and I have managed to accomplish 100% of each of those groups of projects.
100% of the things I needed to do for the cats has been done.
100% of the things I needed to do for myself has been done and 100% of the household chores have been finished.
Aaaaaaaaand that does not equal 300% of everything I needed to do for the day.
It equals 100%.
You're getting offended because I'm saying that your reading comprehension is lacking when your comments continually prove that your reading comprehension is lacking.
You are and have been all along talking about the amount of time I have in a day which is never more than 24 hours.
Even if you don't know you are doing that that is what you are doing.
I am and have been all along talking about the percentage of the total number of chores that I need to get done irrespective of how much time that takes.
Say I were working, going to school, and volunteering at an animal shelter.
Say they were 10 things I needed to do at work, 10 things I needed to do at school, and 10 things I needed to do at the shelter.
If I did nine of the things at work that would be 90%.
If I did nine of the things at school that would be 90%.
And if I did 10 of the things I needed to do at the shelter that would be 100%.
The total percentage of what I accomplished out of what needed to be accomplished would not be 280 but rather 100.
Thank you for trying to be supportive and help me give myself permission to not beat myself up and to give myself accommodations which I do appreciate. However the problem is I actually do have to function at a significantly higher level than I have been for the last 8 years.
I have already been not getting up in the morning, getting 6 dvds, kicking back, not doing a blessed thing and the time for that is over with.
Actually that's not true I've been working extremely hard the last 8 years on my Alcohol/Substance Use Disorder recovery and my tobacco / nicotine sobriety.
But I'm very far behind on my housework and I need to catch up and then stay caught up.
I need to start getting to all the different medical appointments that I've been missing.
The reason I know I can't function without the caffeinated beverage it doesn't even take a week to figure that out.
I wake up and there are a plethora of things that desperately need to be accomplished and I can't do one and I lay there and I tell myself over and over get up get up get started and I don't.
I then get a caffeinated beverage and consume it and then I start puttering around and accomplishing things.
This happens over and over again. And you know what they say, "Once is an accident twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern".
So after 8 years of this it's pretty clear that I do need some kind of drug to help me get things done unfortunately.
I've gone long periods of time without coffee and only been drinking tea which does in fact have significantly less caffeine.
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