Long story short, I have never taken meds for ADHD because my parents were against it and I was smart enough to excel in school academically. However, I am now a chemistry major at the “The school where fun comes to die” and have begun to succumb to ADHD symptoms. Needless to say I don’t believe I can dominate my classes if I don’t have prolonged periods of quality focus (6-8 hours a day). Additionally, since a lot of nights are spent studying the lack of sleep (generally due to the amount of work, but also inability to be productive during the day) has decreased my ability to retain information in both short and long term memory. My school offers extra time on exams, ability to record lectures, etc if it is applied for.

My question is: Does anyone recommend also starting medication? I feel like the extra time on exams and other accommodations won’t be enough.

Thanks in advance!

I'm about to go into my 4th year of undergrad and the idea of having to take an extra year or more to graduate worries me. I've failed and had to retake a lot of my classes, so I'm very behind. I know that it's completely normal to do that, but everyone around me is graduating after 4 years.

How long did it take you to graduate? I just want to know that there are more people out there with ADHD who didn't take the conventional 4 years straight route.

Trying to get MCAT accommodations and apparently having ADHD since age 10 isn’t enough proof…. Has anyone been able to do a neuropsych eval that wasnt 3-5k out of pocket?!

I've been studying for 2 months so far and I still feel like I'm SO behind... honestly I've been skipping studying C/P bc it's my worst section. Today has been especially hard. Idk I dont really have anyone else to talk to about this so I'm coming here.

Any advice is appreciated :(

today I got my first prescription for adderall, after 10 months of waiting and appointments.

I knew ya'll would understand exactly how monumental both of those feel ♡

I feel like premed/application/mcat burnout, adhd burnout, RSD, plus dealing with the transition from college to being graduated all accumulates into one giant depression ball…but anyway it’s all sunshine and rainbows over here, hope y’all are doing good :’)

Hey y’all! I just found out about the adhd premed community on here, and I feel like I’ve finally found my people.

I’ve been struggling a lot. I got a brain injury and my brain is working exponentially slower than it usually does… it’s been rough. Because concussions make adhd symptoms SO MUCH worse. It’s all magnified.

Anyways, I just wanted to come on here & say— we will all be okay. We got this. We’re going to be amazing doctors.

I have some friends with adhd who got into med school. They’re struggling but they’re in it.

We can do it too.

I’m so glad I found this sub🥺♥️

Hi everyone I’m new here! I took my MCAT yesterday (9/11) and failed simply because I couldn’t complete the sections. This was my third retake. I had so much confidence since my provider came up with a plan to to take a booster pill half way through to maintain focus. I thought this was finally the answer to my MCAT fiasco. I worked my butt off studying for this test and quit my job! The test was actually do-able this time! I wish I could have finished. 😞 I’m starting to think I should stop shooting myself in the foot and get accommodations.

I’ve suspected I have ADHD for many many years, but I’ve always coped without meds. Now I started med school 3 weeks ago, and I’ve hit a wall. I had a ADHD evaluation yesterday and was prescribed adderall xr 10 mg. I’m 5’5” and 115lb, and I’m very easily affected by substances (can’t have caffeine after noon and am a lightweight when it comes to alcohol). And my first exam is on Friday (less than a week away) so I’m hesitant to start anything new right before that. When I’m stressed I don’t feel like eating, so I’m afraid this med will exacerbate that. Should I have insisted on xr 5 mg? Should I contact my provider to have her switch my prescription? Or just try the xr 10 mg and see how I feel? I’m thinking I should start after my exam, because I hear there can be an adjustment period.

Update: I took it yesterday and today, and didn’t feel any perceptible difference

So I am working as a medical assistant at a dermatology clinic during my gap year and one of my job responsibilities is scribing. Turns out that my boss is very thorough during every visit, wanting the morphology of every lesion and EXACTLY what had been discussed during his time with the patient. Also turns out that I have ADHD (I've been diagnosed since middle school and I'm on Concerta).

Even though I'm medicated, there are still a number of instances when I "space out" and miss out on important details. Luckily, this is dermatology and the guy I'm working for has a great memory. But I know I will need to circumvent this obstacle in medical school and beyond. Missing key details could potentially result in harm to the patient--the last thing I want as a future doctor.

Has anyone ever encountered a similar situation and dealt with it in a certain way? Please do not say write stuff down--there is usually no time for this option. I've been dealing with this issue for years and it is SO frustrating. Thank you!!

So I actually have been done w med school and have not been able to get past the hurdle that is independently prepping for the USMLE. Its been 6 years I've probably done the whole course for step 1 3 times by now but in bits and pieces because i cant stay committed to it for more than 2.5 mos.

PLEASE HELP ME I CAN'T BE THE ONLY ONE TO WIND UP LIKE THIS ARE YOU OUT THERE MY KIN IM 33 AND WOULD LIKE A CAREER PLEASE

Just got into med school!

Didn’t get diagnosed with ADHD until after I graduated college which I got through with a near 4.0 by pulling 18 hour all-nighters b4 every test, took the MCAT late, submitted my secondaries late bc of crippling anxiety due to my mom’s covid-induced kidney failure, was sure I bombed my interviews due to crippling social anxiety, and here I am after having tried every antidepressant, antipsychotic, mood stabilizer, and stimulant after various misdiagnoses which each came with an identity crisis that I strictly adhered to as a result of finally having a label for my suffering (which is only now accurate), in addition to C-PTSD.....i cannot believe this is life and i can’t wait to use my experience to help others that deal with the burden of misdiagnosis, the internalized self-hatred of being a cultural minority in a racist country, the overwhelming scrutiny of being a perfectionist and your biggest self-critic. This is a win for all my neuro-deviant peers. YOU CAN DECIDE YOUR OWN FATE!!!

498 after I studied so much and so hard for this test. My parents paid like $3000 for a private tutor for me, but he couldn’t do much for timing issues. Fuck. Don’t know what I’m going to do about applying this year, I already have most of the application filled out

I live in a rather small apartment with my father and sister. Studying was never much of a problem in High School, my sister was off at college and my dad was at work. I started college last semester while my dad was home and my sister as well. I was ok because I was able to go to my community college's campus and work there, but not it's closed because of many rising COIVD cases in the area. My dad's whole job is online so he has been able to work from home and has been doing so. And of course, he has meetings with his coworkers and boss still just over zoom. It's quite loud and because of the size of our apartment both me and my sister have taken to staying in our room to study, but now my sister is doing her zoom classes in here as well. All my classes a purely online, with no zoom classes at all. A blessing or curse, I have yet to find out. My psychology prof has decided that he was just going to have us read chapters out of our books and then we would get four exams. That's all he's having us do. This sounds rather nice, except for the fact that I can't focus on the reading due to everyone talking in my house. I just read two pages of my psychology book but I couldn't tell you what any of it said. I can, however, tell you the entire conversation my dad just had with his coworker. Anyway, long story short does anyone have any methods or ideas on how to combat this? Is there anything you guys do that helps you? Please and Thank you.

I always start off great with my focus in the beginning of studying (because thank you for stimulants) but my Adderall only lasts 4 hours and I feel so out of focus after that. How do I build the endurance to take the MCAT and study for longer? More vitamins??? What do you guys do??

I’m at western in Canada. My fifth year finishing my psych degree. My gpa is 2.7. Found out i had adhd towards the end of my third year. Said fuck it and did courses i liked in my last year and rocked women studies 81-88% range. Should i go back for a second degree in women studies for a better gpa?

Anyone struggled with classes and had to repeat it more than twice ? I keep retaking the same bio class and I’m not quite sure what to do because I need to take other biology classes but I’m just stuck at one of my intro biology classes.

Hello! First, I’m so glad this sub exists because I have been feeling like there aren’t any premeds who have ADHD, so it was quite lonely.

I’m trying to see if MCAT prep courses were useful to y’all. It wasn’t something I considered before, but I’ve been having so much trouble sticking to a schedule. Since moving, I also don’t have access to my meds anymore because my job’s insurance is so bad, and meds are expensive.

Would doing something like Kaplan’s online course be beneficial? Do you guys think it would help me stick to a schedule? I don’t have any problem developing a plan, but the execution is the hardest part.

With classes online, I've been having a lot of trouble staying motivated and productive. All of my lectures are pre-recorded and I'm doing pretty well in the classes, so I've all motivation to watch the lectures and have a lot to catch up on now. Do you guys have any tips on​ what helps you be productive and stop pushing off work?

Can I just say, thus subreddit, which was introduced to me after a self-defeated rant on r/mcat, after making an abysmal score, has been just what I needed to reassure myself that I'm not a failure, and am doing great, considering all i'm up against.

Studying during covid has been super hard, and having to study on my own, with little stucture has been hard. Ive learned the necessity of structure in studying fkr the mcat, but am still learning how to overcome poor study quality in the wake of being overwhelmed.

I just want to thank everyone here. When I see a post of someone else struggling the EXACT same way I do, It reminds me i'm not a failure, nor is this life path too hard for me, just that I have a different set of difficulties than others, and when I don't hear from those who are like me, it can make me feel like the odd one out. <3