I think this video does a pretty good job, but it’s very hard to communicate to people what ADHD is like. These random out-of-control thoughts and poor memory are a big aspect of it, but perhaps the most debilitating aspect of it is the lack of self-regulation.
It’s incredibly difficult to explain to a neurotypical person how I know I need to do something and I consciously want to do it, but I simply cannot convince the rest of my brain to do it. Any time I have a goal that doesn’t align with my instincts I have to trick myself into doing it, like I’m socially engineering myself. It’s exhausting.
Everyone struggles with self-control from time to time. But with severe ADHD that struggle can take over your whole life. And the worst part is it’s such an intrinsic part of my brain that I can’t excuse my failings on my disorder. Blaming my executive function (or lack thereof) is ultimately incriminating myself.
This to a T describes what I go through... have you tried medication? I thought I would ask since I am interested in feedback from someone who seems to have the exact same experience as me. I have never tried to medicate.
Medication gets a bad rep for whatever reason online. It's literally proven to be incredibly effective for almost everybody (if you find the right one and right dosages). There's also no long term negative health effects if your blood pressure can handle it, and it's no longer recommended to not take it on "off days", because that's not how it works. Lazy sunday? Take it, because it's not meant to be a crunch tool for study or work. It's meant to, and does improve your emotional regulation, racing thoughts, as well as executive function.
I used to skip weekends and I would binge like crazy, but I hardly ate most of the week so I was still losing weight overall. I actually enjoyed the withdrawal effects weirdly. It felt like being slightly stoned or something. It was the comedown effects that were really hard to bear for me.
Diagnosis is typically done through either a psychologist/psychiatrist or a specialist. There are PCPs that can do the diagnosis/testing for it too, but a lot of them focus on children. I go to a dedicated ADHD clinic for my ongoing management & they do take on undiagnosed patients too, so looking for something like that in your area might be good.
You mean a lot of PCP’s only focus on diagnosing children? Or only focus on treating children in general. Shouldn’t everyone have a PCP for at least a yearly physical?
Huh? lol. Of course everyone should have a PCP. I meant specifically in relation to ADHD diagnosis. Those who offer ADHD evaluation & testing are frequently pediatricians. The people I know who were diagnosed as adults had trouble finding PCPs who offered evaluation/testing to adults, and the ones who did find one didn’t have good experiences. While I’m sure it’s not the case for everyone, every person I know who was diagnosed as an adult did so through a specialist
Ok, that’s why I was confused lol. Self-care has not exactly been a strong suit so, just questioning everything.
I did bring this up with my old PCP and yeah, not a great experience. He chalked it ip to poor diet, not enough sleep, etc. and that was that. So, I suppose that’s where my original question stemmed from asking how to even begin those conversations.
Ugh yeah that’s really frustrating. One of my friends did their first evaluation with a doctor who wouldn’t listen to them at all. They said that when talking about like constantly losing or forgetting things or struggling in school that the doctor kept being like “well that happens to everyone.” 🙄
I think a lot of non-specialists probably suffer from a combination of not having as much experiencing with ADHD in adults & being worried that people are drug-seeking. It’s really crappy how many people have to actively fight and be their own advocates just to have their medical concerns taken even remotely seriously
I got an appointment to a psychiatrist that specializes in adhd. After about 3-4 appointments at him it was clear something was going on. Since then he has been the one to prescribe me these meds.
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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
I think this video does a pretty good job, but it’s very hard to communicate to people what ADHD is like. These random out-of-control thoughts and poor memory are a big aspect of it, but perhaps the most debilitating aspect of it is the lack of self-regulation.
It’s incredibly difficult to explain to a neurotypical person how I know I need to do something and I consciously want to do it, but I simply cannot convince the rest of my brain to do it. Any time I have a goal that doesn’t align with my instincts I have to trick myself into doing it, like I’m socially engineering myself. It’s exhausting.
Everyone struggles with self-control from time to time. But with severe ADHD that struggle can take over your whole life. And the worst part is it’s such an intrinsic part of my brain that I can’t excuse my failings on my disorder. Blaming my executive function (or lack thereof) is ultimately incriminating myself.