I was diagnosed with ADHD a few weeks ago, ive been put onto the waiting list for titration to start meds but it looks like its still gonna be a few months. I could really do with getting my meds asap as ive got exams and coursework coming up, anyone have recommendations for stuff to help with keeping me focused? I’m currently just downing monsters like they’re water whenever I need to do work
Caffeine without sugar which causes worse spikes and crashes. Also avoid artificial sweeteners altogether. They cause crashes much more quickly as the body seems to think it’s about to get a boost, but then never gets it. Black coffee or black teas depending on your tolerance. Steady, moderate intake vs drinking a ton at once is way better to keep from crashing as well. And with food. Preferably more complex carbs like whole grains and protein vs sugars and white breads which trigger more spike and crash.
With the continued years of shortages in the US due to government policy and corporate production consolidation combined with climate change induced disruption to that production, there are many breaks in my ability to get meds, so I’ve had to learn his to get through frequent periods of rationing and running out between refills.
First off you should do black coffee instead of monster. I know it sucks but it’s a zero calorie beverage. Monster is poison. I actually just last year got diagnosed and I’m on Vyvanse (highly recommend over Adderall) one thing I noticed early on with the medication, that may help you depending on what your symptoms are, I actually realized that I was more capable of breaking my attention away from things without experiencing the anxiety of feeling like I will completely forget about it, than I normally am. I’m not sure how you can simulate this without the medication before you can get yours, maybe try writing more things down or redirecting yourself? Now I’ve been on the meds long enough I don’t really notice much of the effect anymore, but I’ve also noticed behaviors in myself that allow me to intervene on my ADHD symptoms without the medication every single day. I hope the medication helps you as well, and hopefully in the meantime you can get by with mindfulness tactics. I should have gotten diagnosed younger!
Second both the ditching of stuff like monster and vyvanse.
Well I only advocated against the monster. I did advocate for reducing medication to the lowest effective level. My Vyvanse has changed my life though.
I should have typed more. I meant advocating vyvanse over adderall. That’s my bad.
Thank you for clarifying ❤️
Oddly for me, Adderall is more effective than Vyvanse
Vyvanse was really bad for me, deep depression, lack of focus and other stuff. Ritalin ended up being much better so it’s definitely worth trying a few different meds if you can.
Me too, although I’ve been on Mydayis for years now.
Oh, yes, definitely worth trying both, though My doctor directed me towards Vyvanse cuz there is often less of an anxious effect, and I’m an anxious bitch 😂
Been only really drinking the zero sugar monsters because I know they’re so bad so was trying to make them slightly less murderous.
I’m in the UK and I dont believe aderall is prescribed here anyway!
The zero sugar versions of things are not any healthier. In fact, artificial sweeteners can be less healthy
Yes and no, depends on your intake and genetics. Definitely zero sugar products have helped a lot of people avoid diabetes, which is huge in terms of overall health. Especially since diabetes is one of the most common problems in the hospital in many developed nations
A waitlist for meds is so weird to me. I was given a prescription my first visit with a psych and then when I moved I told my doctor I had ADHD and he just wrote me a script without even doing anything more than an ADHD questionnaire.
Yeah, my psych diagnosed, and faxed it to my primary physician. He was like “ah yeah I see you got diagnosed. Here, let me write you a script for some meds… Uncle Sam will only let me write 30 days at a time, but I can post-date up to three. So I’ll write three 30-day supplies, and you can use them when they become valid.
I dont believe theres actually a waitlist for the meds themselves, I have to do titration first which I think is the hold up
Titration is just a gradual increase in dosage. So there really shouldn’t be a delay unless your pharmacy can’t source low dosages.
It’s Adderall, a lot of pharmacies can’t get any doses if op is in America. The DEA has restrictions on schedule 2 drugs like most adhd meds that have caused constant shortages for years
Noise canceling headphones with music that’s not too distracting and not too boring (instrumental hip hop beats or DnB) work wonders for me.
This helps, but I need to be in the zone a bit first.
Yeah, the sad reality of ADHD is that traditional focus aids only help if you’re already focused on something.
YMMV. I find background music to be cripplingly distracting (though it took me a while to realize this).
It’s the same for me if the music has words in it. If there aren’t any words in it then it doesn’t get distracting for me.
The extra harm from the extra months when they COULD help you is so bad and unnecessary - I hate it! When suspected, I was happy to get an appointment for my kid in 4 - 5 months (very good!). That was just a talk asking me who I am and what I want. Following psychologist appointments for the tests, which I could only even start scheduling after that talk. Then, I needed a doc appointment to read the test results to me, 6 week waiting time. After that, I was allowed to make the appointment with the same doc to prescribe the meds. Nothing really to decide or talk about, there is one recommended way to go (low dose methylphenidate), insurance would not cover anything else anyway when that has never even been tried. Optionally occupational therapy as alternative / in addition.
In the end, it took a year.
Sorry, this is about your situation. Where do you live? Maybe something else is much easier to get, like Modafinil, which can even be highly effective. In case you can get that one, watch out for its extreme incompatibility with SO many other meds, though. Probably got to stop taking it and wait a day / days before starting on your real meds. Not a good one to self-medicate; there’s a reason it’s prescription only.
You could also get bloodwork and a heart check already so they can’t “stall” further using that as an excuse.
I have been diagnosed for almost 2 years now and there are 3 things that helped a lot to improve.
- Sleeping well, like not staying with screens until late and sleep at least 7 hours.
- Doing the good old excersice, it just works
- Go to therapy, you don’t know how broken you are from ADHD symptoms until you start treating it. If you would only take one thing from my comment, please go to therapy. There is not magic solution, just working on yourself!
Honestly, I would put sleep above a shrink - especially since finding a shrink that truly works well for you is often quite the challenge. You can figure out many of your own problems, but not if your brain isn’t getting the full recharge it needs - you simply cannot replace lost sleep. One bad night of sleep takes several consecutive decent ones to make up for, and I’ve seen some experts say the damage to your brain from lost sleep can never truly be made up for, with the negative effects accumulating over time.
Yeah, you are right! Different people definitely have different priorities. In my case having a professional helped me identify and organize my problems
Go to therapy, you don’t know how broken you are from ADHD symptoms until you start treating it. If you would only take one thing from my comment, please go to therapy. There is not magic solution, just working on yourself!
You may have been lucky. In my experience, your average psychologist wants to put you into the “is depressed” bin because that’s easier and then will hold it against you when the standard things don’t do anything to help you. I’ve literally seen 5 psychologists and been judged into giving up each time. I came away from these experiences worse off than when I tried to get help in the first place.
Sorry that you have experienced that, have you tried looking for a psychologist on a place that’s more specialized on ADHD? (Perhaps other contry) I had depression before starting though. Once I did get better on depression department, I have been working on how ADHD affects my life and people around me.
Any depression for me is a byproduct of the ADHD and not something that exists within me alone. This is the part that people seem unwilling to consider. I don’t really know how to find someone who specializes. Finding ANYONE who can accept patients is already the hard part. How have you done so?
Well, I leave on a different country than you probably, Uruguay!And my psychologist leaves on another country, online sessions are easier for me. I understand how hard is looking for help, perhaps you have someon close to you that you could ask for help to find a psychologist outside your current sphere. There is a lot of people that speaks English and doesn’t live on USA or England, so perhaps you could look for a culture that is lore accepting of our issues!
Something that has worked wonders for me is buying whole guarana seeds and sucking/chewing on one before/during class. Keeps me alert and focused and I don’t have a caffeine crash afterwards.
Where do you get these and do you have trouble sleeping at night?
I picked them up from my local herb shop, Twisted Thistle Apothecary, you can buy them online too. I have trouble sleeping in general, but not because of the guarana, I’ve taken a nap after class no problem
Twisted Thistle Apothecary
Thank you, I will give it a try.
I tried many forms of caffeine as well, and this was the best. You’d think black tea evenly distributed or small cups of coffee would have the same effect, but no. Don’t ask me why, guarana works best for a smooth effect without peaks and downs.
You can’t make anything nice like coffee with it, so imo, best to just swallow the powder in capsules.
Brown noise… not white or anything else but brown weirdly has helped me focus
THC works for me.
