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Hi thread! After putting it off for ages, I worked up the courage to go ask a doctor about ADHD since I've seen a lot of stuff about it over the last year or so and lots of it hit close to home. Stuff like: fidgetting with pens/my hair/crap in my pockets/decks of cards, auditory processing issue ala someone talks to me, me blurts out "What?" and then answering them like a half second later, memory issues(pretty sure I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached), and on and on and on. I'd asked my family doc about it once before and she sent me to talk to a counselor which, while helpful for working through some poo poo, was not actually what I had been asking for. So I went to a random doctor at the clinic and he printed off the little adult self test (Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1)) and out of the 18 questions, only two of my responses weren't in the grey areas. So uh... yay? I've been on a trial of Vyvanse 20mg for almost a week, go back on Monday to see how it's doing for me. The thing is, I have no idea if it's working as intended. I can tell I'm taking something since I've noticed some of the side effects(increased mild vertigo/dizziness, dry mouth) but I can't tell if my focus is improved or not. I've noticed a difference in energy levels though. I work in a grocery store bakery and if I'm on production/packaging I get this burst of manic feeling energy about two hours after taking a dose, and it lasts around 2 or 3 hours, during which I feel like I'm doing an interpretive dance cover of Flight of the Bumblebee. But I don't get the same feeling if I'm having an office day, doing paperwork and sitting in my chair. It's less intense. I've also noticed that food affects it. I don't normally eat breakfast when I work since food and I are not compatible at 4am after 17 years of getting morning calories through coffee (yes, I know caffiene bad but you'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands). But if I take the Vyvanse later and have a small to mid sized breakfast, I don't feel anything at all. But I don't know if the focus has improved! On the other hand, I played something like six hours of ESO by myself this weekend when I normally don't last more than two hours before getting bored and going to do something else. So uh, there's that. So now I'm starting to second guess if I've actually got ADHD or this is something else and it's been niggling at the back of my mind for two days at least so here I am, posting in the ADD thread, instead of eating breakfast. I think I need to ask about getting a referral to a psychiatrist.
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Mar 3, 2019 17:49
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 14:32 |
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Grape posted:Vyvanse really not doing much for me. Vyvanse has been doing something, alright. Finally figured out today that I've been steadily working into an anxiety attack that seems to be driven by it for the last two or three days. So uh.. that's a thing. I left work just about ready to break down, very nearly did break down when I got to the walk-in and oh, hey. They're not accepting any more patients today due to volume. Thanks, jerks. I didn't have the capacity to stick around and wait to talk to reception, I just left. So now I have to keep going back to see when my doctor is back in the clinic because they won't tell me that over the phone and jesus murphy, I just need like ten minutes of the guys time to get a different prescription and ask about a referral to a specialist. I *hate* walk-in clinics. I'm going to cuddle my cat now.
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Mar 5, 2019 01:10
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It's been a while since I posted in here. A year or something? Anyway, poo poo went down yesterday. I got suspended from work for ten business days, no pay. And if I can't follow the development plan they're drawing up for me once I go back, I'll get fired. I never did take the second prescription I was given because the Vyvanse experience put me off so badly that I was terrified to take the Concerta in case I had the same reaction. So I've been unmedicated this entire time, failing at any sort of time management stuff and just getting more and more overwhelmed at work, which means more stressed, which means even worse at time management and frozen by anxiety. This is bad because I'm a department manager, though a relatively new one(two years as of march). And I had some revelations about it last night. I've done the same career for 18 years, with the same company, and I did it relatively well before I moved into management. But before, I was a baker. I had set tasks for my shifts. I showed up, I did the production as written on the list, and I went home at the end of my shift. I knew what the expectations were, the time lines and deadlines and all that. It was hard work, good work, but it wasn't mentally engaging and I had tons of time for my mind to wander around and I was starting to get bored. So I figured, sure. I can do management, right? Except no two days have been the same, I have no consistent schedule, I have like a bajillion things on the go at any given time and lose track of them, I try to write to-do lists and then lose them or only manage to get two things done before I get pulled away/distracted. And this got taken as willful negligence of duties and anytime I said no to something was written up as insubordination. Admin doesn't know I'm ADHD, I don't know if I actually want to tell them. But... I can't keep functioning like this. I found the Concerta last night and after consulting with a friend who's a pharmaceutical doctor, got told that since I stored it at room temp in a sealed bottle it should still be okay. So... I took one this morning and I'll take the rest over my "holiday" and see what happens. I'm rambling. I needed to vent, have done a few times now to some close friends and my spouse. But... does the thread have suggestions for ways to make it easier on myself document things so I can stay on task better? I already know that if the Concerta does good things this week, I'll go talk to the doc who prescribed it and ask for an ongoing prescription, but I know I need more than that. I thought maybe a smartwatch and a shitton of calendar reminders might be a start. Therapy too? I just want to do my job like a normal person. All the other managers can do it. Why can't I? 
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Jun 30, 2020 21:03
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Thanks, mechafunkzilla and mfcrocker, for your posts. I'm working on getting my calendar set up with notifications and constant reminders for important things. This will be expanded to my work calendar as well, when I'm allowed back. I have plans to get my medical records, just in case I need them, and I'm going to see if my family doctor is still around so that maybe I can work with her rather than relying on whoever is on rotation at the walk-in. I'll also talk to work about letting me have back my office days. Things were better when I had those dedicated days for paperwork rather than trying to piecemeal it out through the week in my "spare time". And getting people to drat well write things down, email them to me, and not just blather at me as they walk by and expect me to remember what they said three days later. As for the Concerta... Well I haven't noticed much difference, maybe a bit more alertness. This is both the best and worst time since I'm at home and I don't do much when I'm at home, though I've actually sat through reading articles and whatnot online without bouncing through 40 different tabs. On the other hand, I haven't noticed any ill effects and it's been a week now. Except for today. Today was a wake up and go run errands day as soon as I'm dressed day so I took my dose and toddled off out the door without breakfast and now it's "HI! YES, I'M ON STIMULANTS WITH NO FOOD!"  from my body. I have a sandwich. It's fine now. I think.Anyway, I'm working on it.
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Jul 6, 2020 21:04
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So far it's just that I get super twitchy if I don't eat when I take it. Which we're going to test again today since I overslept and just about missed my doctors appointment. Rushing out the door means no food with pills. Whee. Thank god for the smart watch I got because that's the only alarm that went off.
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Jul 7, 2020 17:44
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Arcsech posted:Grapefruit is a disgusting, awful fruit anyway. On behalf of grapefruit, I challenge you to a duel. Pistols at 50 paces, sir! Pick your time. More seriously: I made the decision to step down from my managerial duties and revert back to my old job of being a baker after roughly 2.5 weeks of constant stress and a really loving bad reaction to 54mg of Concerta. I had the Bad side effects. 36mg does alright for me so my doctor agreed to keep me on that dose, even though he's disappointed that I haven't seen a miraculous improvement. It's a bit easier for me to drag my focus back to where it needs to be when doing mind numbing tasks, but that's about it. However, if the lower dosage allows me to keep myself on track more often without suicidal thoughts, I'm pretty drat okay with this. It's been 3 weeks and while I regret the loss of pay, I have no regrets about reducing my stress and moving back to something that allows me to function. If I really wanted to be a dick I could probably get work into trouble over refusing to accommodate my request of having a scheduled paperwork day for better focus, but that seems like more effort than it's worth. In the end, I am less stressed out which means more cheer, more positive thoughts, more overall health improvements and the ability to better take the time to figure out this whole ADHD brain thing. The sleep chat is fascinating to me as I had never made the connection with being a so called night owl with my brain functioning differently than other peoples, mostly because I associated it with my mother's behaviors(protentional bi-polar, confirmed clinical depression). My father, the parent who for sure has ADHD, has always had a good sleep schedule so it just didn't click. But the whole period of work BS clued me in to the fact that left to my own devices, my ideal day starts at roughly 10am and ends at around 12pm/1am. I've thought about getting a weighted blanket but the price makes me hesitate and I question if it'll actually be effective or even comfortable and I just go back to layering my blankets again. And oh look, it's almost noon and I haven't eaten yet. I'm gonna go fix that. But at least I remembered my Concerta! Edited for typo! Canadian Bakin fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Oct 29, 2020 |
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Oct 29, 2020 18:51
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 14:32 |
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bagmonkey posted:That reminds me I need to buy a magnetic erasable thing for my fridge so lady bagmo can write all of the leftovers we have in the fridge There's also peel 'n stick dry erase surfaces, if you're interested. My husband and I got a big one (I think it was Post-It brand. From Staples? Maybe?) and cut it up so we could stick half on one of our kitchen cupboards and the other on the downstairs fridge. This was one of the best things we've done. Cupboard door is for To Do things around the house and messages to each other for daily tasks or items for the grocery list. Downstairs is for whatever leftovers are stored in the fridge. We're actually getting more stuff communicated and done, and our food waste is reduced a bit more. I mean, I still forget about all sorts of stuff in the fridges so it's a work in progress but better than it used to be. Highly recommend adding a magnetic caddy for dry eraser and markers. Other thing that I discovered recently: there's an app called KitchenPal that lets you scan barcodes on foodstuffs to track what you have in your pantry/fridge. They pull info from the USDA food lists so often your item is already existing in the database. If not, it's pretty easy to add in. You can track multiples of stuff and it's even got a built in grocery list. Suddenly I'm not going into the pantry and discovering that I have five bottles of ketchup because I keep forgetting if I have any and just buy another one. Best purchase of December 2021 was a giant rear end 2022 Mother Word family calendar. Cutesy teddy bear families in cheerful colors to constantly draw my eye combined with day planner stickers that match all the various bills and birthdays and stuff. We've got it hanging in the kitchen by the door we use most frequently and I absolutely mean it when I say that it has been a game changer. Bills are paid on time, I'm actually remembering birthdays, the garbage goes out for pick up on time. And I get to play with stickers! I bought another one for this year, bought one for my sister too.
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Mar 26, 2023 17:34
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