ADHD

So I made my own alpha smart with a Raspberry Pi 400. For focused writing when my ADHD is going wild, also when I need to remove any distractions to get things done. features:

• Word Processor
• Dictionary search tool
• basic Network Connectivity for file transferring
• Web based file browser for transferring documents

I want to get some feed back and suggestions on improvements. also anyone think this could be a good product. maybe with a E-Ink screen and a mechanical keyboard.

Links: https://blog.ascosilinux.com/the-pi-writer-400 https://git.ascosilinux.com/batvin321/CLI-typewriter-app/releases/tag/0.1

Hey everyone. Lately, I've been trying to learn more about ADHD (I was diagnosed with the inattentive type as an adult), and there are a few aspects that confuse me, so I'd like to know if there are others out there in a similar situation who might be able to guide me a bit. Unlike what I've read about people with ADHD, my train of thought isn't chaotic, with one thought overlapping another or constantly jumping between ideas. In fact, I often find myself not thinking anything at all, with total calm in my head. This happens both in relaxed situations (which isn't a bad thing) and in moments when I need to focus, like during work meetings, where I'll suddenly realize I've been zoned out for the last few minutes (not thinking at all) and completely lost track. On top of this, combined with the "if it's not now, it doesn't exist" mindset, my emotional world feels... "stable." Stable because neither the future nor the past is "now," so those emotions just fade away. All of this has left me feeling like my life is somehow out of my control. I feel like a little twig floating down a river, content to end up wherever the current takes me, unable to steer toward where / actually want to go. It's pretty disheartening, honestly. I'd love to know if there are others out there who feel this way -people living in a sort of emotional and mental void that only kicks into gear when alarms start blaring

Hey all.

I just waited nearly 3 weeks for my (generic) Vyvanse refill.

How much longer is this "supply chain" problem going to go on for? It's been like a year already, hasn't it? Wasn't the whole thing about manufacturers claiming they'd "exceeded their quota"?

Or is it going to get worse with RFK just wanting to send half of us to ~~concentration camps~~ organic lettuce farms in Kansas?

From Psych2Go

Have you used any of these tactics before? If so, were they helpful?

My 28-hours circadian cycle jacks me up. I am dragging ass in the morning. I will get up at 5:30 with the Sun and not do anything beside doom scroll for hours. I might get up to brush my teeth around 9:00, maybe start living the day around 11:00. This is with meds. I'm trying to start a morning routine that gets me going. The basic tasks are:

1. Have something planned to look forward to
2. Wake up same time everyday with curtains open for light
3. Make the bed
4. Brush teeth
5. Morning check in with a friend
6. Positive/enjoyable morning activities

It is at #6 where I could use some help because everything besides laying down in quiet with headphones on and looking at pointless superficial stuff on the internet seems like it is too much effort. Food is repulsive in the morning, so no breakfast. I also need to be near a restroom for the first few hours in the mornings. Any recommendations?

I noticed a few months ago that while I don’t like taking my meds when I don’t have anything to do, I feel the desire to take my meds before going to do things with my family members. It feels like I’m less anxious and frustrated with them when I’m medicated.

I looked into it and it looks like Adderall might weakly act like an SSRI, so it might be kind of like microdosing anxiety meds.

Well, yesterday, for an unrelated reason, I decided to take an extra dose of my meds.

WARNING: DONT DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS UNLESS YOUVE TALKED TO A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL.

Don’t worry I did let my psychiatrist know before hand. This experiment was meant to just make the focus effects last the whole day by starting earlier with my other doeses and then taking two extra half doses spread out in the early evening.

Fun fact, 40mg is the max recommended dose and I ended up taking 45mg. I don’t intend to take that much ever again. It wasn’t horrible but it did feel like I passed the point of it helping me focus.

After taking the first extra half I felt my heart rate go up and I got a slight tension headache, but I felt okay enough to take the other half. I expected it to make me more tense or more jittery, but at what I assume was the peak, I felt the opposite. For the entire peak and rest of the evening, I felt just incredibly calm.

My heart rate was even lower than it typically is on meds (though still high). But the weirdest part was that I just felt calm. My muscles didn’t even feel that tense. I was not able to focus all that well, (which means 45mg is too much Adderall lol) but I was fine with that.

I didn’t feel any high or happiness, honestly I felt bored but I was just like fine with that. I didn’t feel the urge to listen to music or watch something but I also could listen to music or watch something without feeling annoyed like I do when I want some stimulation but nothing is the right stimulation.

I even scrolled on lemmy for a bit but saw it was all more trump and Elon bullshit and instead of doomscrolling compulsively I just put my phone down. I mean it was literally like Nirvana. I had no desires or happiness but honestly I was just fine with that.

Anyway, my best guess is that I took enough adderall that it started acting like anxiety meds. I do have generalized anxiety which I haven’t gotten medicated for because I still have some irrational desire to not take meds, but that’s not the topic of this post. What I want to know is do any of you feel similar calming effects from your meds?

It really seems counterintuitive for stimulants to make you less anxious. And hey Methylphenidate made me wayy more anxious than adderall. Oh, also I don’t feel any high from adderall, (especially at that dose I took last night since I got a slightly annoying stress headache). I don’t feel withdrawal either even when I take a break after a long period of constantly being on my meds. Hell I still have to force myself to take my meds every day, so I guess it’s just not giving any sort of reward to trigger habit formation. Anyway, I say all this because I’m wondering if not getting adrenaline or pleasure from the adderall is correlated with being able to notice a calming effect from it. Anyone feel like their experience supports/weakens that hypothesis?

Turning the tap on that nice bed-like environment is a real dopamine hurdle. And I keep getting lost in my thoughts. Bathrooms are practically stimulation-less spaces.

I started taking stimulants a month ago for ADHD, and wow. I mean, some of the effects were expected - the increased alertness, the focus, the slight uptick in motivation (I haven't experienced the full 'GO GO TAKE CARE OF NORMAL THINGS' burst that some friends and online folk have had, but I've had a little motivation boost, and I'm grateful for every little bit).

But the counterintuitive effects? That I sleep easier and better now than I have in years? That my temper is much reduced because it doesn't bang at my head like a jackhammer? That I can sit down and relax, because my focus isn't darting to every little distraction? That I can listen to people talk without wanting to bash my head in because listening is idleness and idleness drove me crazy? The exact opposite of things that I would have expected from taking a stimulant, before I learned that I had ADHD and got put on them?

The human mind is whack

Medicine is fucking witchcraft

Like autistic people get to be autistic. That's a word, and it has meaning. Someone can be autistic because it's a type of person (spectrumy type). In my opinion, ADHD sucks as an identifying term. It's 3 letters, one repeated. It means nothing as it is spelled and can't be owned as an identity because they're letters, not a word. "I'm adhudd." The initials include "disorder" in it. That sucks. Autistic people don't go around saying, "Hi, I'm austically disordered," cause that's not accepting. Is there a term that is smooth and not judgmental for ADHD? Maybe we can take Aspergers since it got dropped, but add the 'd' to get "Adspergers". Nah, that's stupid af. What about multibrained? I feel multibrained because I act like I've got multiple brains running in my head doing their own thing all at the same time, and I bounce around them based on who knows what.

What? Oh, yes...I'll have the spaghetti bolog-knees. Do you guys have red pepper...crushed red pepper? Yeah, thanks. Cool. I like your name tag. Is that really your name? Samsquatch?...oh! It's Samuel, but you changed it to Samsquatch! I love Trailer Park Boys. Fuck off, Leahy! Yeah. Sorry. I got excited.

Okay. So...um, is there a descriptive word for ADHD that isn't ADHD?

Its attatched to the toilet paper dispenser. Ive literally looked at it multiple times a day for like 10 months and my brain never noticed

Anyone else feel like theyre one step from being blind? I always lose so much shit in plain site. Sometimes I leave a wallet on my desk, which I use daily, and I can't find it for days. I'll even MOVE IT and not realize its my wallet.

I have reset the link. If you want to join, write me a private message :)

A rant. FYI, this post might be a but triggering for some.

She called about ADHD. She was renewing her nursing license (though she's retired) and said she took a course on adult ADHD. She said she felt bad that she has been so ignorant about it, and that she didn’t know I was suffering all this time.

I didn't, but I wanted to say, "what the fuck do you mean you didn't know??? How????"

I literally requested help for it at like 13, but the doctor gave up on it immediately after I was on Concerta for just a few weeks because I was FORGETTING TO TAKE IT (??????). She said, "you're just depressed and anxious". Okay??? As if it's impossible to have ADHD too???

Never mind the fact that when the doctor dismissed me the first time, it took me crying to get her to even consider it the first place.

My parents didn't even say anything when she took me off of Concerta and reiterated that she thought i just had depression and anxiety. They just accepted it even though I KNEW I had it. I did the research, because no one else was going to, clearly. And I knew my feelings usually weren't taken seriously, anyway.

I was finally able to get medicated just recently. I'm 32. I appreciate her trying now, but I needed help then. My life could've been so much different if I hadn't been easily and frequently dismissed.

Hi everyone!

I think this needs a bit of backstory before I get into the actual problem. There will be a TL;DR at the end.

I am in my 30s and for some time now, after an encounter with an acquaintance from abroad who had been diagnosed with ADHD, I have been suspecting I might have it too. All the struggles and hardships he faced in his life overlap quite a bit with my own experiences. At first I didn't think much of it, but found it rather strange as I always envisioned ADHD just as the physically hyperactive part and never really looked into it. But on multiple occasions, especially after joining Lemmy, there were popping up posts from the ADHDmemes community which were scary relatable. There were also some youtube videos, where creators I follow started to talk about their experiences and the process of getting diagnosed and how everything after that went for them. Considering all of that, I am fairly certain that I fall into this category as it would explain quite a bit about myself and why I do things the way I do.

In my current relationship we hit a brick wall. I am very sensitive to stress and when in a stressful situation I tend to have outbursts of anger. Nothing violent, just verbally condescending. Exhibit A: "So, what do you plan to do about it?" "Do I look like I have a fucking clue what to do?!" or Exhibit B: "So, what now?" "I can't talk about it now or the next few days." (might be bad examples, but I can't come up with anything better)

This, of course, has led to one too many fights and problems not just with my partner, but with parents and family (including all the other things associated with ADHD as I found here https://lemmy.world/post/24554298).

Getting a diagnosis in my country (non-EU) would be hard. There seems to be just one doctor who does it in another city (I don't think any of it would be even covered with healthcare) and from googling around it seems that medications is rather scarce. After doing one online questionnaire, which someone in a video suggested, I got a pretty low score meaning I don't have it.

Would going thru the effort and trying to get medication solve my stress related issues? Or would it just make it bearable? The ultimatum was clear - either solve it or gtfo. Talking to her about my suspicions about the causes didn't seem to yield any results as it is just a suspicion.

Before anyone suggests it, I went to therapy for a few years and it has helped greatly, but with (likely) faulty hardware there is only so much software trickery you can pull off.

TL;DR: I am undiagnosed and therefore unmedicated. Partner set an ultimatum to get my sensitivity to stress under control or we are splitting for good. Has medication helped anyone with this specific issue?

The ad has this person sitting in his room talking about how frustrating it is to have a low-to-no productivity day and how he has made this revolutionary discovery that it has to do with his executive function 🙄. He continues to briefly explain his solution but not before INSERTING HIS ENTIRE LAPEL MIC INTO HIS MOUTH and then apologizing and blaming his lack of control over his executive functions.

He doesn't specifically mention ADHD, but especially with the highlighting of Executive Function stuff, I think it's meant to target us. The combination of the "lol so random -- squirrel!!" trope and the claim that it solved all of his problems feels very reductive. Usually, I am not one to get triggered by people misunderstanding ADHD, common-knowledge/media has done us dirty, but this is a planned advertisement and I think it should be held to a higher standard.

Personally, one of my fixations are planners and organizing solutions, so this ad may have actually interested me before they resorted to stereotype. Pretty fucking aggravating.

EDIT: Thank you all for the suggestion that I shouldn't be seeing Ads in the first place if I was living my life right, ha. Trust that I know what Ad-Block is and what DNS-filtering is. The point is that I managed to get this Ad and that it left a poor taste in my mouth.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24466755

me_irl

I mean on the one hand, I could take the two minutes right now. On the other hand, I could lie awake for another half an hour thinking about this thing I could easily take care of immediately, and then later on take time out of my day to actually do it. It's an easy choice which is a better management of time, I'll be back in bed in a minute.

Alright, now that I've had a full minute back and comfy and tucked in again I've thought up another task that's even less time-consuming than the last one.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24419381

2meirl4meirl

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/31225630

I have approximate knowledge of many rules

So, he said that neither are necessary. Much of it comes from the loss of appetite: The body needs at least as much food as if it were not on stims, possibly even more, especially when the stims help work out more or clean in a frenzy or whatever.

So we have to treat the body as if it were not on stims. Can't rely on intuitive eating, so I have to count the calories. A liquid engineered staple food is easiest to gulp down without any appetite, such as "This is Food" or "Jimmy Joy".

Also, when I did a little workout, I need to have like an apple and take it easy for a moment. I would usually feel the need for both, but on stims, chances are I take the extra endorphins from the workout on top of the dopamine and start a cleaning frenzy. Don't do that anymore.

The important point is to not on a food deficit when it starts to wear off. Otherwise, it goes from 0 to 80 real fast, and then the craving is for unhealthy snacks. Better to have something ready, and not be behind on eating in the first place. Again, engineered staple foods as an emergency option should be around for someone with ADHD anyway, without meds even more than with meds.

Thank you everyone who was so kind and supportive in my previous post. The comments really helped me through the crisis. ❤️

I started reading this book by Gabor Maté, a doctor who has ADHD. In just the first chapter, I felt seen in a way that I have never experienced with any therapist or psychiatrist I have consulted in almost 47 years.

She ate something she shouldn't have and it's blocking her intestines. She has to have emergency surgery tomorrow morning and this is all my fault. If my house wasn't such a disaster, she wouldn't be in this mess.

I honestly don't deserve my pets because of this. I can hardly take care of myself. Idk why I thought pets were a good idea.

I am always surprised when I am reminded of people who use amphetamine meds off-label for weight loss, because even though I don't have an appetite while I'm taking them, there's always a few hours before bed after they wear off when I can't stop myself from eating everything in the pantry.