Is ADHD a real disorder?

Incredible how an alternative to ADHD drugs is reducing sugar intake. GEE I WONDER WHY.

Maybe its because I'm missing the "hyper" part.

The issue is the fact that way too many GPs are diagnosing it in kids that don't have it. It gives the genuine condition a bad name.

Nowell, if you're concerned about it, should you see a psychologist [rather than a GP or psychiatrist]? They can help you without drugs, and can most likely shed light on what you're going through.

Real = Crabs

xpost: Chronic fatigue is sooo not fake.

OTM, I have an uncle who's like this. It led to his divorce.

Also: yes ADD is real, it has to do with certain neural pathways not being connected or something. I know that Ritalin does have a calming effect on me so that I concentrate more, although I don't have the "hyperactive" variant thank God. And I don't eat much sugar/junk food.

my person didn't want to read my thing. they were very artful about it and it made me guess that they have regulations about taking things from people. also...and i hadn't thought about this...i was basically giving them homework. i'm sure they have enough to do. i did mention that it was on medium.com if they were ever bored.

― scott seward

ugh this is a hard thing for me. i recommended my therapist watch philosophy tube's video "i emailed my doctor 127 times" and she _did_ and i felt kind of bad about that, but she liked it. then i recommended she listen to "pink moon" and she didn't, which, fair enough. i just hate recommending people thing, _particularly_ if it's something i've written. because reading my writing is, like, work. i try to make it as readable as possible, but sometimes i just wind up finding other ways to say what i wrote about. sometimes i've just read my writing out loud. i have this really challenging thing where i'm supposed to do a diary card every day, and i dread writing about my day, every day. because i don't want to copy and paste my journal. i was really surprised when i learned that my therapist was actually reading what i wrote on my diary cards. i type over 100 words a minute. back in the usenet days i could drown people in a deluge of bullshit, before people discovered the magic of tl;dr.

like here's the thing about ADHD for me

i bore myself

i'll start something and not finish it because who fucking cares. even if it's important, even if it would help me to write it out, even if it would help me to say it, i get sick of the sound of my own voice. maybe that's depression or anhedonia, i don't know. i need to _think_ and _feel_ and _express_ my thoughts and feelings and i do not have the time and the energy to do it, particularly not when i need to do laundry as well.

here's the thing about boredom

i'm not sure it exists, and if it does, i actually like it

ay Scott from a random on the internet who appreciates your posts & vibe - congratulations on sitting down with a talking person, I know you've expressed a lot of apprehension about doing that and it is fucking cool & strong that you knocked it over

I hope it becomes a cumulatively cool experience & useful - and if it doesn't/isn't then you will have a better idea of what you're looking for in a brain collaborator

thank you! i think its a good thing. it feels like a relief.

"here's the thing about boredom"

"i'm not sure it exists, and if it does, i actually like it"

tempted to steal this, kate! :)

i definitely get it too.

also: it has been very helpful for me to be open/honest/public and the medicine i am taking definitely helps me to be like that but i totally get it if other people are not at that place where they can just lay their stuff down in front of people. i just felt like i had nothing to lose. i wasn't getting anywhere keeping things to myself. it was starting to suffocate me. even though i come from a long line of stoics. the kind of family that feels its unseemly to air your dirty laundry in public. but fuck it. i don't want to bum people out or give people too much of me - though i might have already crossed that line! - i just want people to know that - hopefully - there IS help out there. people will listen. even just here. people will listen. it took me one solid year of effort and false starts and waiting to get to that chair and tell someone how i felt. which felt like forever. but it was worth it in the end.

A lot of love.

How I break it down to an extent is that "read this thing I wrote" is asking them to non-interactively get the experience of you with your 'you' mask on, and they don't need to do that, they're already going to do a lot of that to get to the other side of that.

I started using Lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse) for my add about 2 weeks ago and it's been a life changer so far.

― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 03:22 (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

brb, googling this

How did the assessment go / is the assessment going?

first time round he couldnt really say much because i was on a heap with other stuff, a followup aonth later and hes prescribing the above once i pass gp heart etc checks

/in a heap/

I started using Lisdexamfetamine (Vyvanse) for my add about 2 weeks ago and it's been a life changer so far.

― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 23 May 2018 03:22 (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

brb, googling this

ty i will take that as an interim update very gladly

That's also what I'm on and I love it too except for the fact that it's taken all joy out of food for me and I struggle a lot with eating now. Same drug is used for binge-eating disorder so makes sense that it quiets food noise but I didn't think it would make eating unappealing for me and it has. :/ I can just not take it on nights when I have a big meal planned etc but it's still a bummer.

i tried vyvanse for a month and then there was a shortage of some other drug, which cascaded to a vyvanse shortage... i've been stockpiling adderall for years, underdosing adderall, because, well, the american healthcare system is in a failure state. and i'm a little bit salty because a lot of the reason i'm taking these drugs is so i can survive in an environment that's not conducive or healthy to me. working from home in my apartment is just not a good work environment for me. i need more external structure and routine, and well, it wasn't there. i guess now i get to find a job that might work better for me, except i also don't want to have a two-hour commute every day...

as of this morning i take speed every day and its approved and all

and how's your day been?

low dose but whether placebo or just a good nights sleep.....yeah really good. head was quieter i think.

thats nice to hear!

it was nice not to hear tbh

the effect apparently accumulates and the dose ups in a week, maybe I'll make the headlines around april 1st

i've been getting a good night's sleep lately and as a result i'm trying to get my life more organized. the thing for me is that these lists and lists of lists and lists of lists of lists discourage me and make my head spin. i feel like i spend half of my time accounting for myself - telling myself that i am not a failure, that i have done quite a lot, trying not to dispirit myself out of doing the too-much still to be done. getting distracted. taking three hours to watch a video essay and then thinking about how the essayist's perspective was interesting but that i differed from them on a couple key points and oh god it's almost bedtime, i was going to clean off my coffee table. i chafe against excessive regimentation, get up at this time, eat at this time... i thrive on routine but at the same time it seems terribly dull. i spent the weekend, well, i wrote about it in the rabbitholing thread... "ADHD" they call it, and it's a misnomer. i watched a three hour video essay critically, that requires a fair amount of attention. the problem was i did that instead of filling out various forms of paperwork i swear i am going to get around to. frankly a three-hour video essay in one sitting is a little rich for my blood. i was looking forward to a nice relaxing afternoon alternating between episodes of NINJA Slayer from ANIMATION and Dare to Believe, yes BTW a good friend did hook me up with all of the episodes. he was actually surprised i'd heard of it, which says something about that show because he's known me for a quarter century. he wasn't surprised that i'd heard of the Japanese Cursed Kleenex Ad.

oh look there goes the ADHD. well that last little bit is a ramble I guess.

if the first three days are anything to go by, this is genuinely transformative stuff

ive made a lot of recent changes besides so possibly its more just in the mix of that but i couldnt really have asked for more of a positive effect on many of the things i had been hoping would improve or get easier (especially at work)

as of this morning i take speed every day and its approved and all

― tuah dé danann (darraghmac), Monday, March 24, 2025 9:21 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

D - glad it's going well so far. One thing I hadn't anticipated was feeling exhausted/sick when I don't have any or don't take it. It caught be really off guard the first couple times.

thks, hopefully i manage to avoid that but it's good to know

Since I started it there have been a couple times where supply chain issues have meant I've been unable to get vyvnase for a couple weeks each time. I also skip it if I'm going out to eat or having something nice and want to enjoy it. Every time I get confused about why I feel so tired and then I remember. I think it's just because I'm used to a very diff baseline energy-wise now but idk.

One thing I hadn't anticipated was feeling exhausted/sick when I don't have any or don't take it. It caught be really off guard the first couple times.
Yeah
The only place that has been able to fill prescriptions of this med for me is not gonna be able to get it for two weeks and I’m not doing so hot.

just to answer the thread question: yes

Downstairs friend had a bunch of standard release R that expired in 2019 and hooked me up for this gap in supply. As of this morning I can report that expired R remains effective

(I am on extended release one cap in morning so I guess I need to do a second one of these at 4pm or something )

Generic Vyvanse helps me organize my thoughts and it keeps me wandering from reality. I don't really get bad side effects when I don't take it because I sleep in (although I revert to an unfocused daydream mode). I have the type of ADD that isn't hyperactive -- rather, I am distant, don't relate to others and have no interest in most conversations (I'm coming to terms with having mild-autism as mentioned by my Psych, although I haven't tested for it). I wonder if withdrawal is different for hyperactive ADD. Different dosages obviously would change withdrawal.

I think it was someone on this thread that said you can get private healthcare to do an assessment by approaching it as a mental health crisis rather than directly, so I have given that a go. Put a request through to BUPA to say that I was having a lot of difficulty coping (which was true) then they gave me three psychiatrists to contact, only one responded and I saw her last week. After going through my life story she agreed to give me a referral, but in the meantime she said that I was clearly suffering from anxiety and needed treatment, so I said "sure, ok" and she gave me a prescription for sertraline. Now I've never taken anything like this before and it is kind of a revelation, I did not realise what a constant noise my anxiety was at every moment of the day, it's like the hum of an electrical appliance i've tuned out and forgotten about, and now suddenly it's switched off. I can talk to people without rising panic, I can say and do things without this paralysing fear. It's like I'm constantly on this low level microdose of E. I am a bit worried about becoming dependent on this, but for now I feel like it's a good move, I was so desperate and needed something. the psychiatrist asked me when the last time I felt genuinely happy was, I could think of two moments in the last decade. Now I have felt happy maybe five or six times in the last few days. That's a lot! It is doing nothing to address the underlying issues but I don't want to be stressing about the underlying issues all the time anyway.

one responded and I saw her last week. After going through my life story she agreed to give me a referral, but in the meantime she said that I was clearly suffering from anxiety and needed treatment

100% my experience on first contact end jan. i cancelled the follow up he scheduled because it clashed with a work meeting 😬 (this is where my head was at the time)

by the time there was a spot free again id been off work for a few weeks and he was able to diagnose adhd and start process of getting me tested etc for meds

the tests focused around heart health and despite being cleared for adhd meds some were bad reading so even before meds arrived id attacked my eating habits

having dialled out of work and been clear about why, and taken what ended up being five weeks out, my return with a clearish head led to good conversations about changes i needed, theyll be happening very shortly and will make for a much more stable and structured environment

so, *before* i get to take any meds, ive made a lot of changes in approach, my own responsibility for self management, structure, etc, all of which are good positive things that im hoping will bring better outcomes.

_then_ i start the meds, and fuck me lads i was really not ready for how quickly and strongly my own head became a tool i could actually use again instead of swimming through, lost.

i thought at best the effects might be a subtle boost or nudge but id struggle to explain to even my old self how quickly and easily im now doing the same work and tasks i found impossible two months ago through avoidance, distraction, disorganisation.

im conscious of watching myself about not rhapsodising- again i have self-directed a lot of change that has been hard and im proud of, and the pills came after that. but.....i really was not prepared for how well they would work against a whole range of things i wouldn't even have named as symptoms until i realised they had faded.

Jeez, this is starting to sound like I need to look into it. At a dinner party the other night the entire table diagnosed me, with bemused patience that I didn’t see it myself.

I can talk to people without rising panic, I can say and do things without this paralysing fear. It's like I'm constantly on this low level microdose of E. I am a bit worried about becoming dependent on this, but for now I feel like it's a good move, I was so desperate and needed something. the psychiatrist asked me when the last time I felt genuinely happy was, I could think of two moments in the last decade. Now I have felt happy maybe five or six times in the last few days. That's a lot! It is doing nothing to address the underlying issues but I don't want to be stressing about the underlying issues all the time anyway.

in january the psych wanted to meet me again asap to prescribe anti-anxiety meds, he really couldnt speak to me about adhd (the purpose of the evaluation when first instigated over a year previously) because of the imminent and overpowering stress i was under and how strongly that was exhibiting.

i was averse to the idea of taking something for the stress, it caught me a little off guard (even though i was absolutely in agreement with diagnosis etc) and i havent really figured out how or why it was like that for me. i haven't any such feelings regarding the adhd since.

i think perhaps i accepted the stress as very situational but the adhd as an input in itself, maybe? i have tried to figure it out since but haven't quite gotten through the knot yet.

Comorbidity very common with a lot of these tbf, probably what makes the diagnostic process so difficult

Found this in a psychiatry journal, grain of salt but you know

As many as 80% of adults with ADHD have at least one coexisting psychiatric disorder (4, 5), including mood and anxiety disorders, substance use disorders (SUD), and personality disorders. This can complicate the recognition and diagnosis of ADHD in adults, and despite ongoing clinical controversy, the bulk of evidence suggests that ADHD remains under-recognized and under-treated in the adult population (6).

im actually trying to limit my salt intake also, but ty

it's only been in the last six months that i've finally figured out that i'm autistic and i have ADHD. i'm coming up to 55 years old, why did it take me so bloomin' long? pure ableism is probably the most part of it let's be honest, but also yes the comorbidity, that whole interaction of contradictary traits. so many years of people close to me saying stuff, so many years of not feeling like i quite fitted in my own skin, huge relief to have finally twigged and i'm slowly learning to understand myself properly. it's very strange, it's just turned everything i thought i knew upside down. the ADHD bit seems both like a blessing and a curse, it really is the part that makes me actually want to do stuff cos there's a whole other chunk of me that just wants to hide under a rock forever. but seriously i could do without the permanently scrambled brain, never being able to just get on and do very basic things without weeks of procrastination, all that shit. and don't even get me started on the RSD. the moment it all finally clicked was when i read a detailed list of the symptoms of RSD and it was shocking how accurate a portrait it was of me on my worst days. i mean it was so clearly me i could've used it as a passport photo. this is all self-diagnosed btw, but now i'm just owning it, and i can totally see throughout my family. so yeah, hi dere thread.

ive noted that i put a lot of other things in place before actual diagnosis and medication- one of those things was addressing appalling eating habits

im 28lbs down in six weeks, which started pre meds but im not handwaving away how my new-found ability to ignore small little pleas from my brain/gut as a distraction/reward from work or a task, and an ability to much more strongly stick to a goal that ive set in my head, has helped here

a nice bonus

Good work fella

*thumbs up emoji*

I’ve just started taking clonidine as a complementary to the lisdexamphetamine in an attempt to control the crushing RSD and some situational depression to be honest.

First impression is that it seems to work but it’s killed my ability to sleep more than about 3 hours. Probably not helped by the enormous espresso someone handed to me at about 4 yesterday afternoon.

I’m normally able to get a good 6-7 hours. I’m really hoping this settles down.

curious if anyone has tried qelbree

For UK-ers, there's a Chris Packham documentary on ADHD on in 9 minutes.

Came back from a week's holiday and it's totally messed up my habits. Anyone else have a problem with this?

And the feeling of having a breakthrough of new interests/ approaches to life that will make things better, then it turns out to be a mirage/trap and the confusion never quite goes away?

Yes and yes, especially trap — during Covid I transformed a minor hobby of buying/selling records into a side-hustle with external commitments that I’m still struggling to untangle myself from. I now have a full-time hobby on top of my full-time job, plus my band (which this year is releasing an album, so there’s a ton of undone stuff to do around that), plus I have a couple of extended kayak camping trips I’ve committed to this summer (that I have to do the logistical organizing for), and I’m deep in the middle of a construction job that I organized poorly. Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. All of this stuff is extremely positive and has enriched my life immeasurably, but it’s taking time away from my other hobbies it’s causing my brain to melt.

So of course my brain is now like, “you must urgently write a bunch of songs.”

The thing about habits — once broken, impossible to re-establish — also rings true.

im a bit early into things to really know i think

i took a decent holiday recently (ten days abroad) and i seem to have slipped back into work ok afterwards.

But work has started to ramp up in pressure and pace again in recent weeks and I am starting to feel that organisation is fading, and that a solid platform/position for what I'm doing is slipping away from me again.

How I react to that, this time, and how much stress and internal whirr i allow to build up before taking constructive communciative/delegative action, is maybe the truer test of how I'm progressing

im now down 37lbs since starting meds/self-governance in march. thats not all magic pill at all, but its nice.

That's great stuff, I'm really happy for you, deems. And that you can identify that it's your shoulder at the door, as well as oiling the hinges.

I think it was someone on this thread that said you can get private healthcare to do an assessment by approaching it as a mental health crisis rather than directly, so I have given that a go.

I think that was probably me - and yeah, though it was less "you can" than "you have to", based on the plan that I get through work. I'm glad that it's working out, even before you get any further with the referral. Are the projected times still "about a year"?

I've been back through that avenue again - my sleep has been terrible since I got a settled dosage. Well, it's been terrible before that, but it used to be "I don't get to bed before 2am half of the time", and over the last 8 months it's gone to "I don't get to bed before 2am pretty muich ever". I'd have settled on the right dosage (60 mg Elvanse) a few months earlier except I wanted to see if I could get my sleep back under control before sealing the deal, and yeah that didn't happen. He did offer that a lot of the symptoms of ADHD and the symptoms of sleep deprivation - well, it's not the same circle, but there's a lot in both.

(I'm not really doubting my diagnosis - the meds definitely do something, and I do still have the levels of focus that can be useful)

It's largely gotten worse since. I use a sleep tracker app to record it, and the weekly average to-bed time has crept up, in January it wasn't before 3am, with one week where the average was 3:34am, and the time asleep under 5 hours.

There's a counter-example too, right at the start of December there's 2:01 as the average to-bed time, and a whole 6 hours 12 average time in bed. And that's me travelling over to Dublin with Jen, for my sister's wedding. We got in the day before, checked in and asked if there was anything we could do (nope), so we had a meal and turned in early. It wasn't even great sleep, but I got up the next morning, checked if my sister needed anything, went over and sorted out what needed sorting out, checked us in for the flight back, got lunch for Jen on the way back, just had a very capable morning, then realised and started swearing "Fuck! Sleep actually works! Fuck!"

It's not even "I get to bed and toss and turn", it's just I'm up and I'm doing something (probably video games) and I'll intend to get to bed, and then just not. There's been a fair few other things happening this year in the house, not many of them mine to tell, and of course The Wider Context, so it might not be an ADHD thing at all. Anyway, a month ago I had my six-months talk with the doc, and he suggested 5mg (non-liz)dexamfetamine in the evening to see if I need a burst of focus to get "all the things done that I want to get done" before going to bed. I tried it, and the first night I was up until 4:30am and it got better but not significantly. Also it just doesn't match what I feel - it's that not I need to get my to-do list done (I mean, I do need to get it done, though the bits relating to the orderly running of the household are getting done, with the occasional asterisk) it's just pouring time into a vessel, with occasional "a bar has filled!" dopamine hits.

And I saw him at the start of this week, and he sent out a dosage of a sleeping pill: Quviviq (Daridorexant) - he said it's like taking your foot off the accelarator rather than slamming on the brakes, and crucially it won't leave me drooling in the morning. I'd been hoping that it's would be more of a knockout pill, almost "take standing next to bed" - the problem is that if it gets to 10pm and I want to start getting to bed, I already have action I can take - I can start getting to bed. I've got an alarm that goes off every night, and generally gets ignored. After a few nights, it looks like it just comes down heavy after a few hours (or I could just be exhausted) so I'm going to start taking it at 9 this evening with the hope that I'll be out by 11.

Update: it took all of today to get this written, though I wouldn't really consider that an ADHD thing as much as an 'feeling awkward about posting it, including posting it when my last post was "everything fine here, boss!"' thing, but I did take it at 11:00 and I am pretty woozy now, so that's good?

The lack of sleep is usually offset by getting up and taking the Elvanse and mostly I'm fine (first flush of "the drugs work!" from upthread fine) for most of the day, though sometimes it hits harder and I'm a zombie in the evening. Some time around when I managed to destroy a plastic utensil during cooking by just leaving it in the gas flame, I said to Jen "okay I should see a counsellor or something about this", and that took a while (I realise now that my current state is roughly "fixed in work, back to the previous outside of work") and in fact I hadn't done so by my six-month check-up, and I said oh so it looks like there'll be some path forward there, and Jen said "I'm really happy to hear that, but still I'd like you to see a counsellor",

Which brings me back to: I went back to Bupa and pressed the buttons, and they said oh no we don't cover sleep stuff, and so I (six weeks later) went back and said "No but it is a mental health thing" and they said "yeah but we still won't", so I need to go find myself a private counsellor.

(I am at, this stage, just blogging, I'm aware)

It's not directly related, RAG, but I'm definitely of the sort where I'm happiest when I can say that there's one things holding me back, and as soon as I get that sorted, I'll be fine.

Okay, screen starting to swim, love to you all, see you tomorrow :)

Came back from a week's holiday and it's totally messed up my habits. Anyone else have a problem with this?

And the feeling of having a breakthrough of new interests/ approaches to life that will make things better, then it turns out to be a mirage/trap and the confusion never quite goes away?

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, June 3, 2025 5:41 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah, routine changes are a classic habit breaker. You can reestablish them though.

Also, there are always peaks and valleys, and the best you can hope for is an upward overall trend.

i haven't been able to finish writing a piece in _months_, ugh

i even switched to vyvanse again