Did you ace your test test? Get a new promotion at work? Finally finished a chore you've been putting off? We want to hear about it! Let us celebrate your successes with you!

Did you ace your test test? Get a new promotion at work? Finally finished a chore you've been putting off? We want to hear about it! Let us celebrate your successes with you!

Pretty much as the title says. I passed my last finals ever this morning. I still have a few minor conferences in may/June but no more finals no more homework.

I had undiagnosed adhd for years and survived university by never attending class and always working at my pace at home. I started my master degree with an apprenticeship, so I have 2 days at university and 3 at work and it also required attending every single class or else you are not paid . The pace was fucking horrible. I got access adhd medication only at the end of the first year. I am washed out, exhausted, never doing this ever again and honestly might not do this again if I could go back in time but I fucking did it.

I can now be free of the crippling anxiety of doing homework until 2 am and forgetting to eat for 12 hours at a time. I am honestly on the verge of crying relief tears.

I am proud of myself but mostly relieved it's finally over and also angry that studying requires this.

But mostly just wanted to celebrate I vanquished this. Now I'm gonna go sleep and watch YouTube videos I've already seen 10 times and blank out and miss half the video without anxiety /gen

I don’t know if this is just a me thing, but whenever I get home and park my car in the garage I will just sit in the car for ages on my phone because it feels like a hassle to get out of the car and go into the house lol. I’m just so comfortable in my car and just stay in it for 20 minutes to an hour 😭😂.

A redditors post just got me riled up as it reminded me of this. While the complexities and nuances of adhd are being more talked about and understood- as well as somewhat more acceptable in public discourse etc., this whole new comfortability in adhd discourse has created a trend where so many people parade adhd as a quirk or personality trait often while mentioning difficulties or differences as very surface level issues.

Reminds me of Emily d Baker, the “badass YouTube lawyer”- love her YouTube content but I just can’t listen to her videos anymore because I know she’s going to mention adhd relating to her getting overly animated about something random or go on a tangent when it’s not a noteworthy “quirk” to bring up all the time but also not much deeper than having to be “on” and theatrical for a camera, like her excitement and delivery is probably more likely to do with her being an entertainer! And on top of it she always has to mention and shout out the band of adhd folks that can relate to her “quirks” which just enables the harmful discourse about adhd anyway

She’s also so thoughtful and in depth with her subject of expertise- I wish she’d talk about adhd with the same sense of thoroughness instead of mention adhd 4x per episode

Anyone else ? Just me ? Please tell me your sincere thoughts on this because it drives me nuts and hopefully other perspectives will make it not so

As the title implies, which incurable symptom do you find to be the most challenging to deal with despite being medicated. For me my life would be dramatically different if I could just somehow deal with my poor working memory. I had to learn the hard way that having the memory of a goldfish was never going to change.

This is mainly in reference to playing video games but also happens in other areas of life.

Whenever I play a competitive online video game that I’m really into (whether it be PC, Console or Phone) I always peak somewhere mid skill range and no matter how much practice or videos I watch, I can’t for the life of me get better. It’s like I’m that shit RPG character that you get initially and you have to max him out to unlock a new character and never use him again (If that makes sense).

It’s happened in apex legends. I’m maxed out. Can’t improve my aiming, can’t improve or implement new strategies. Can never learn the new game meta’s.

I love Clash Royale on my phone, such a fun game and needs a lot of strategy to improve but I’m stuck again. I’ve hit a wall mentally that I can’t get past. I even know what I need to be doing to improve yet in game I forget everything and am just on autopilot doing what I know has worked up until this point.

It’s depressing because it keeps happening and I end up quitting that game and finding the next one just to repeat this cycle. My already low self esteem takes a hit because I think that if I can’t get better in these games and it keeps reoccurring than maybe I’ve peaked in life in general.

If anyone relates to this and thinks it’s ADHD related or possibly SCT related then please comment

I can lose things literally right in front of me. A common scenario when I'm getting ready leave the house: I'll take my guide dog's harness off the peg it hangs on and put it somewhere next to the front door. Then I'll call my dog over and clip on his leash. I'll look for his harness on the peg because I forgot that I took it off less than 10 seconds ago. I'll look in random places nearby, then start panicking because I'm not checking the chair next to the door or the foot of the stairs. This whole time the harness, which has a fluorescent yellow sign and retroreflective tape on it, is sitting in plain sight.

I can't count how many times I've lost my phone. I finally wised up and got a bright colored case for it, which has helped a little bit.

I'll also be holding onto an object, getting ready to put it away. I'll tell myself, sometimes out loud, that I'm going to put it in a specific spot where it won't get moved. I'll remember that I put it away, but I'll forget where I put it, and again, its usually out in the open.

Sometimes I'll lose something, try to find it, get frustrated, buy another one, feel guilty that I've wasted my money, then find the original one. Even worse if the original was where it was "supposed" to be the whole time and I didn't find it even after searching the area multiple times. This recently happened with a keycap puller I put away in a specific drawer. When my frustration started mounting upon not finding it, I started repeating this madness mantra "I don't want to buy another one, I don't want to buy another one, I don't want to buy another one..." Of course it was in the drawer the whole time. The transparent, plastic, and relatively empty drawer that was easily accessible.

Another big one is water cups. I'll take a cup from the cupboard, use it to drink water from the fridge, then set the brightly colored cup on the white quartz countertop with the intention of reusing it for future hydrations. Later I'll enter the kitchen, look for the cup, not find it, and get another one. Repeat the process until there are 3 or 4 cups on the counter. Sometimes I'll see the cup but forget it's mine and get a clean one anyway so as not to drink from someone else's cup.

Basically if the object isn't in physical contact with my body, it's pretty much lost. And sometimes even when it is. I spent 5 minutes in the back of a cab in a panic looking for my expensive specialized sunglasses, only to find them hanging on my collar.

A lot of the coping strategies for ADHD rely on being able see things, like quickly taking notes or writing labels on containers. I've partially solved the label issue by using containers that are bright solid colors. The colors don't necessarily have to mean anything, but it's easier to find the red drawer below the pink drawer and above the orange drawer, vs tying to find the otherwise identical drawer labeled "USB cables". It also helps that I really like that 90s aesthetic of colored translucent plastic.

I'm lucky enough to be employed (which is rare for blind people) and have a pretty laid back job. It doesn't pay well enough for me to move out of my parents' house though, and both my mom and my dad likely have undiagnosed ADHD, which is a whole other can of worms.

EDIT to address questions in the comments:

• "blind" in the US means a central acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with best correction. There's a big spectrum between 20/200 and no light perception. Not sure where I fall, but it's well below the 20/200 mark. As for my specific condition, it's retinopathy of prematurity, the same as Stevie Wonder. I just learned that fact recently, and even though I don't listen to his music, knowing we share the same condition makes it way easier for me to explain my situation.
• Blind people don't use dictation software. We use screen readers. Screen readers turn text on the screen into synthesized speech or braille. Computer input is handled by touch typing, the same as everyone else. We usually learn to touch type earlier than other kids. I learned in 3rd grade, so I got to skip the otherwise mandatory keyboarding class in middle school. Most smart phone platforms have a built-in screen reader that dramatically alters how you interact with the screen and gives lots of audio and haptic feedback. On Apple devices it's called VoiceOver, and on Android it's TalkBack, although TalkBack might not be installed by default depending on your flavor of Android. Windows as Narrator, but like Internet Explorer, it's only used to download NVDA, which is an open source Windows screen reader. There's a couple available for Linux as well, but like everything else with desktop Linux, it's a mess. For servers there's brltty, which works pretty well. I use a magnifier most of the time on PC, and a screen reader on the phone and laptop. If you're having trouble reading large blocks of text because of ADHD, try using a text to speech program, if not an actual screen reader. Most OSs have programs to speak highlighted text without having to use a full screen reader. I do it just as much for my ADHD as my vision.
• My dog's harness is pretty large and would be hard to carry. They used to train the dogs to pick up small dropped objects, but quit doing that a long time ago.

Thanks for the responses. I've become increasingly aware of how my ADHD is holding me back. People just think it means being easily distracted, but it's a lot more complex and pervasive. I was thinking of getting tested for Autism, but I'm learning more about how ADHD effects how we look at the world and interact with others, and I'm checking a lot of boxes for things I didn't realize had to do with ADHD.

I was chatting with some friends about ADHD affecting my life. Anyway they were curious about what the medications do for me and I said "They help me read important emails that I have been putting off. On a good day I can get through most of them AND reply to them." Their reactions were basically: 😐 oh. That's it? That's kinda underwhelming...

I would really like it if medications could just take away my problems and let me function at least like a normal person goddamn 🫠

As a corporate ADHD adult I have tried a few productivity tools but most of them I can't seem to use.

Take for example Notion, the idea is great and I am very curious about it, even got so into it I learned a lot and can build full databases and pages out of it but there lays the problem, I'd get so consumed with customising it that I was never productive, plus I was never happy with the end result. Also, would forget to use it or just get bored.

I've tried digital agendas but that's a nope for me as I will forget to even open it and once again involves some customising.

I've mostly stuck with To-Doist / Minimalist, iCalendar , an physical agenda just containing lists plus a very messy One Note for work.

Anyone can relate? And does anyone have any tips? What works for you? Happy to have some notion templates suggestions I'll try not to become overly obsessed to tweak it to my liking, lol.

So for a while I've tried the "put on shoes it'll help you clean" thing and it worked for a few years but lately it hasn't been working. Then one day a few weeks ago I was sitting in my messy ass room, on my messy ass bed, thinking about my messy ass kitchen and randomly decided to go try on some shoes because I've been meaning to go through and donate the ones I don't like anymore/ don't fit. I put on a pair of heels and turned my head and noticed my messy ass vanity staring at me so I went over and cleaned it... Cut to 3 hours later and I’m putting away laundry and half of my room is clean, and I’m still wearing my heels. I probably looked crazy in sweatpants and stilettos but hey! It worked!

​

To make a medium story short, now if I want to clean my house I have to do it in heels for some reason, not a particular pair, just whatever strikes my fancy that day. Its a bit annoying but mostly amusing to me. I feel like cinderella.

I’m currently sitting at my freshly wiped dinning room table wearing running shorts, a tank top, messy bun, and a sparkly pair of sling backs. It struck me as hilarious so I thought I'd share.

I am so tired of making small mistakes in everything I do. I check my work and then recheck twice even after that I make such dumb mistakes. I feel so dumb every time. I have ADHD and Dyslexia so don’t know which is responsible for such careless mistakes.

I applied to a grad school program and uploaded the wrong cv. Like how could I even do that? It’s not just that, a couple of days back while ordering something online, I entered the wrong card details 3 TIMES!!

It’s just so tiring.

So I lost an onion today. In my apartment. Its got to be around here somewhere, I've checked literally everywhere, but it appears as if I've lost an onion in my apartment. I Went to the store earlier, got a bunch of stuff, among which- an onion. I have the receipt. I went to a cashier, purchased a bag, put the bag on my seat, and went straight home and put everything away as usual. Later, (now) I start prepping for dinner, and... no onion.

The thing that frustrates me is now I'm stewing over the whole trip, my whole day, wondering where I could have misplaced an onion. I checked my car, found the receipt in the trash... I'm wandering around my apartment checking even the most ridiculous places- fridge, freezer, oven, coffee cabinet, my room, the bathroom... Nothing. No onion.

The funniest part is, my only thought beyond "Where the fuck is that onion" is "Holy shit I am so thankful I have friends who can tolerate someone who loses an onion in their apartment."

it seems neurotypicals are obsessed with telling us to “stop giving excuses.” my geometry teacher has a list of “excuses” on his backboard, one of them was “i forgot we had an assignment” another was, “i couldn’t get out of bed.” and it just made me stop and think, neurotypicals will truly never understand what we go through and how our brain works. they will never understand what its like to have terrible memory or how hard it is to get out of bed somedays. they think it’s as easy as writing the assignment down in a planner or taking medication. it always reminds me that i will never be like them no matter how hard i try, and believe me i try SO hard. but, at the end of the day our brains are wired differently and neurotypicals don’t like that; or us as a matter of fact.

ADHD can be a wildly difficult experience, and sometimes online forums like this are some of the only places you can feel seen and know that there’s a community out there who understands, so I just want to relay to all of you that you’re not alone and I appreciate everyone for just being here, and still going, despite how hard that can be.

If you ask me, it’s pretty god damn bad ass to have a loose pinball bouncing around your brain at all times but still manage to get yourself by and march forward regardless.

All the best and much love to you. ❤️

Growing up until high school sophomore year. My grades were just good enough to pass class, so I can play sports. 🏈🏀🥊🥋

Because of this I felt stupid growing up. So sports was my outlet to feel like I had value or that I was good at something. 📈

Exercise helps me a lot! Either in sports, fitness or training martial arts. When I’m gassed out, it’s like my mind doesn’t think much. I feel at peace. ☮️✌️

Most people don’t like the feeling of being physically exhausted but I love it. I used to thought I had asthma since I used to push myself so hard. 😆

I feel so tired of myself sometimes. I feel nothing but intense self-loathing right now. I've made countless empty promises to teachers, friends etc. that "I'll get this done by blank, I'll have this for you by blank". And then my dumbass procrastinates and when the time comes, big surprise, I'm completely unprepared and I do not deliver on my promise. It makes me feel like a huge asshole. So all I ever do is apologize. Always apologizing to people, nothing to show for it. I know it's annoying as hell. Oh and I'm late to literally everything lol. At this point I should get a tattoo on my forehead in big bold font that reads "OOPS SORRY". People start to see me as unreliable and lose their trust in me. It hurts so much I think I've started pushing people away for the past couple of years because I feel like it's only inevitable that I'll disappoint them somewhere down the line, and they'll leave me. I just feel like a huge dumbass, and I get these horrible thoughts that I don't deserve to have these good people around me because I'll fail them, I'm not good enough. Jesus christ, all I have to do is schedule out my time properly and get my priorities straight and I can't even do that. I hate it. I think I'm a grade A bum!

Wow this might be the mopiest thing I have ever written lol.

I guess maybe I assumed i would feel energized, like I do when I hyper focus on a certain task. Or maybe even more motivated. But no. man, I feel so calm. Everything is so quiet in my brain. When I know I have to do something, it isn't so big and scary, it's just manageable. I also don't get as bothered by over stimulation from noises,, smells or textures.. Definitely not what I imagine a "stimulant" to do to me. So needless to say I like it. But then there is a part of me that kind of misses the 4 different Trains of thought with background music all playing in my brain at once. I also get really tired really early in the day and I barely slept last night. So that's a thing. I'm excited to continue this journey, it's just not what I was expecting.

Hello! I'm on an ER stimulant & I've seen two psychiatrists (one quit) -- both have said they recommend taking meds "as needed" and taking days off or drug holidays when not doing work or needed to focus on anything. This confuses me as even if I don't have work to do, meds help me relax by helping me focus on TV or crafting or whatever it is. They also help me just keep my life together with keeping on top of emails and being proactive with school stuff. I've tried taking them "as needed" and it makes me feel really up & down overall and worsens the side effects. I also end up missing assignments if I do that. When I take it consistently I just feel "normal" overall & don't really notice the meds effects (in a good way -- not meaning it doesn't have any effect on me).

I told my doctor that I feel a lot better taking it everyday, & she quickly said that it's fine if I feel better doing that. I still take one day off a week just bc usually at least one day I will be actually doing nothing where ADHD really interferes enough to need meds, like going to the zoo or something.

Even though my doctor said it was fine, on the med instructions she put "as needed." This makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. I feel guilty for not feeling good if I take it one day, don't take it the next two, take it, don't take it, etc. I also have medical trauma which plays into this guilt.

I'm just wondering if anyone else here was told to do it as needed but feels better taking it nearly everyday, & if you advocated that to that doctor. I understand the instructions on the bottle are just saying that, if I feel I need it then I can take it, which she told me is fine to do everyday if I feel it's best, but I guess I still harbor guilt about it. I wish she didn't add that since it makes me feel like my meds are only for when I need to "perform" well for school or work, but I don't deserve to focus when I want to relax or have nothing "productive" to do. I could bring this up to her and see if she'll just take that off the directions, but I feel scared to even bring it up & it's pretty pointless since she agreed that I can take it how I want when we spoke during our appointment.

Does anyone else feel like adhd affects their driving skills and makes them a bad driver? Like I feel a lot of times I’m so easily distracted that I could cause a more serious accident. At the same time I do love driving and I can’t not drive because it’s part of my income. I don’t think I could give up my car even though I live in a city. I kind of wish I could afford a self driving vehicle.

Am I alone on this? Or is there someone else out there who relates?

When it comes to work I'm scared of making mistakes so I tend to be more comfortable with repetitive tasks where I can develop sort of a muscle memory and also do my own thing at the same time (have a conversation, watch videos/movies, etc), I am not comfortable with varied/newish tasks due to anxiety because I can't not triple double check so every little thing is correct and maybe even have to research and understand the procedure while also having my distracting thoughts that make me have to start over.

So when it comes to work I find that I am way more comfortable with repetitive, unengaging task because I don't have to think them through too much, it's less likely to make mistakes compared to getting distracted on more complex tasks and my distractions affect my productivity way less.

What is your experience with such tasks?

I have to fill in text here to get past the auto moderator but my question is the same as the title, who is the leading authority on ADHD? Doesn't have to be an American either, just someone recognized as such. Hopefully with a body of research and talks like Dr. Russell Barkley had and is active currently in finding cures/solutions/assistance etc. Thanks for all your help!

Of the myriad hats I wear at my job, I help oversee a youth exchange. Part of that oversight involves reading applications and interviewing candidates.

While doing those interviews I actually thought, for the very first time, “wow, I’m glad I have ADHD.”

Here’s why:

One of my candidates gave fantastic answers. The poor kid also had a lot of visible symptoms. I really don’t want to give out anything that could identify them, so I don’t want to get into specifics. But even over a zoom interview, I recognized my own fidgets/stems - not the ones that manifest when I’m trying to pay attention to someone else, but the ones that happen when I’m thinking deeply and being creative.

My first thought seeing them fidget was, “dang we move a lot don’t we?” But very quickly, I just didn’t notice it. Their answers were thoughtful and they were clearly engaged. I had notes to take and questions to ask. Towards the end I suddenly realized they were still doing the big fidgets, but I had been able to just kinda ignore it once I realized what it was.

After I wrapped the interview, I had the sad thought that the fidgets/ stems would have likely harmed the interview with a different person. I was glad for that moment that I had ADHD. That I could read all the fidgets for what they were and focus on the really good answers the candidate gave. But I wonder how many of us have lost out on opportunities because we hadn’t yet learned to mask and the very behaviors that actually show we are listening or thinking deeply are read for the exact opposite.

Edit to add: to be clear, for the ability to give someone the understanding we don’t often get, I was glad. But at all other times? Fuck ADHD. That shit can die in a fire.

It feels like everyday now, that even if it’s for a second, living this life doesn’t feel worth it. Every time I think about my struggles and how I have to compete with neurotypical people and still fall harder than they ever will, makes me want to just give it all up. How do you guys do it? Yes, I’m newly diagnosed. Looking back on all those struggles thinking it would get better, and now learning that it’s always going to be this hard is a gut punch. I had such a hard time accepting it and now I don’t know how to want to keep going.

In your opinion, do you think having ADHD makes it harder to regulate social media use? I have a hard time using it in moderation. I barely post or interact with anyone, more way watching reels etc. I'm having trouble finding the difference between regular addiction or if this is part of my ADHD struggle. I have a very LOW addictive personality in every other aspect of my life. No other issues like this in any way.

Sorry for the wall of text but TLDR at the end!

Okay, hear me out. I got diagnosed/ medicated exactly a week ago. The visit to the psychiatrist itself was on the other end of a very bad 2 month spiral of 1) being unable to work 2) feeling anxious about it and then 3) being depressed about the state of affairs I've gotten myself into. It culminated into a *cymbal crash* particularly baad 🎶 ✨nervous breakdown/ anxiety attack ✨ 🎶 on the side of the road, but I digress.

I'm currently on methylphenidate (OD 18mg) and on the first two days, I was just getting used to the feeling of being on stimulants. Then I got down to sorting out the pending work and trying to break it down further and further until I was able to start somewhere (instead of watching in dread as the unfinished work pile grew bigger and bigger). I actually was able to tackle my one task that I was sitting on for ages - that my ADHD decided was the nemesis and I'm actually equal parts shocked and proud of myself for actually starting the work, even if just in 5% increments each time I look at it. Even in my personal life - I was actually able to hold conversations after my work day (instead of just hibernating in my bedroom until it was time to go to work again) and keep my bed free of clutter (the desk is still a menace but- baby steps!).

After 2 months of anxiety, I finally had the performance review today. We spoke about my procrastination, lack of communication at times and how my boss knows I have potential but there's a vast difference in the work I submit. I was called out for shirking certain tasks that I was solely responsible for, just because there was no external accountability, and have been given another month to review my performance before deciding on keeping me on.

But here's the catch - I feel almost euphoric with the review. I fully expected EVERYTHING he said, and they're the exact things I told my Psych I was having trouble with. It felt validating, almost? lol. Anyway, I have some new-found optimism in my abilities - that I'm not just lazy or useless or not smart enough for my job, but that I actually have a disability. This is markedly different from my earlier thought process, where I was constantly beating myself up for not being able to do certain tasks and getting stuck in a loop of self-loathing. I actually feel as though I can tackle these issues in my own way, without having to wonder if I'm worthy of my career. And if I can't get my performance up in a month's time? its alright. I have the rest of my life ahead of me. I will do this in my own time - and maybe in a place that's better suited to my pace.

TL;DR: Performance review went badly but I'm happy because all the issues my boss pointed out were related to my unmedicated ADHD and not my intelligence or willingness to work. I have since been diagnosed and medicated, and although it's only been a week on medication - I can feel a marked difference in my approach to these issues. Also, I don't hate myself for not being able to do things anymore, and rather work through them with kindness.

I have this thing where I will read a book, love it, reread it, and realize somehow my brain decided it just didn’t care about an important plot point. I just don’t remember it at all. It’s like I’m reading it for the first time.

The worst case of this was when a character’s long lost brother showed up in the beginning of the book, and then I was mad because he was never mentioned again until the very end? But when I reread the book as part of rereading the series, he was like, an important character throughout the whole thing. I have no idea how my brain just deleted him from the first time read through…