The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves)

[Wretched]

@macha said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

I only seem to be able to focus on 'fun' things. Other than that, I want to sleep. ...and sleep.

We have an interest based nervous system. If something isn't stimulating then it cant hold your attention because your brain needs that JUICE. Which is one of the reasons stimulants help, your brain has the juice it needs. The 'always sleep' thing I feel like is our way of ust PASS THIS GULF OF TIME UNTIL I GET THE GOOD FEELS AGAIN. At least in my experience. How long till when? hours? Okay, offline mode till then. That or nervous evergy and unable to sit still or do anything else productive... I'm rambling.

Anyhow I paraphrase because am not science person. I am relating hard.

[Macha]

@wretched But for me, it's actual tired, too. I woke up after 6 or so hours of sleep, and passed back out. And woke up, washed my face, took my meds - usually enough to start the brain moving... and passed back out. This went on for several hours, and then I was up for a couple hours, a nap for 30 min, the another couple hours, and then nap for an hour. And I still feel exhausted. I think it's more stress than anything.

[SixRegrets]

[Too Old For This]

@macha You may want to have your vitamin/mineral levels checked. I was in a similar situation last year, sleeping way too much but I could never seem to get any REST and I was constantly exhausted. Turns out my D3 levels were about 4% of what they should be, and my B12 levels were about 18% what they should be. We won't even talk about the anemia. But I have some otc vitamins now and I largely feel MUCH better. Mind, this occurred within a month or two after having recovered from COVID.

[GreenFlashlight]

@sixregrets said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

I can't care about things for my sake or for their own sake, but thinking of the people relying on me has been a good (not perfect, but good) motivator.

[Macha]

@too-old-for-this ....now that you mention it. Fuck. When I came off a med, the doc stopped my calcium and d3 pills, too. I bet that has a LOT to do with it.

[Too Old For This]

@macha Yeah, those vitamins are way more important than I gave them credit for. It wasn't until I started taking them that I realized how much they can actually affect your ability to function normally.

[Sparks]

@too-old-for-this said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

I have bounced from job to job to job to decades because the repetition KILLS ME. I get so bored doing the same thing over and over and over again. And I'm afraid, because my current job is nothing but repetition, and I've just passed the one year mark, and I'm feeling antsy. Its a great company, I could get really far... except I don't know if I'll last long enough to get there.

Belatedly...

This is, I think, the entire reason I love my current job. All my previous job hops were trying to do something new; from data modeling to video game development to cryptography to working at a microchip company to telecommunications to... etc.

But it turns out that being part of what basically boils down to the engineering equivalent of a mercenary company is amazing for ADHD; people run into difficult tech situations their own company can't solve, and come to us to make a working Thing X for them. So I could spend six months working on a video game console, then another eight on a medical device, then six on a satellite, then another six on an industrial sensor array...

I can stay in the same place, at the same company, with the same people, and still be functionally hopping from one thing to a different new one!

[Ganymede]

@sparks said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

But it turns out that being part of what basically boils down to the engineering equivalent of a mercenary company is amazing for ADHD; people run into difficult tech situations their own company can't solve, and come to us to make a working Thing X for them.

This is the practice of law.

Except, y'know, we don't actually solve shit.

[Carma]

This post is deleted!

[GreenFlashlight]

@carma said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

@too-old-for-this said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):
I've begun retaking my daily multivitamin. Will report any increase in functionality after a week.

Boilerplate reminder that while multivitamins are better than nothing, most of their content goes straight through your system without doing you any good, so it's better to get your vitamins from your diet. That said, good on you for taking care of yourself.

[saosmash]

it took me three hours to make 4 mailings today because I kept printing out the wrong thing, throwing away the wrong thing, taking calls, getting up to make coffee, stopping to dance with the dog, having to make a new envelope because I put the wrong sticker ...

Assessment soon. Also did my cognitive assessment this morning after breakfast. Knock on wood.

Five minutes is a really long time to sit and watch letters flash across the screen waiting to hit the spacebar on one letter.

[Macha]

Today, my boss called me out on my ADHD. It's worse in the mornings, it always has been. He knows it. But his boss didn't see me in one of our programs handling cases yesterday, and got up in his face over me. (I was watching mandatory training videos that I hadn't had time to get to before the holidays) So yeah. "You need to focus better. IS there anything I can do to help?" Yeah. Tell my PCP to give me an actual ADHD med?

[GreenFlashlight]

@macha said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

"You need to focus better. IS there anything I can do to help?"

As far as boss talkings-to go, it opens crappy but the offer to help was unexpected. Dunno how I feel about it.

[Macha]

@greenflashlight Oh no, as a general rule, my boss is AWESOME. He also knew that this time of year Dec/Jan for me is brutal, depression wise. He knew it, he knows it. And when my depression gets worse... everything else starts to spiral, too. The ADHD, the anxiety, and so on.

He also knows I'm trying to get an appointment to try something new, so.. yeah. I gave him the sarcastic line when he asked. He knew it was coming. But he /had/ to talk to me, his boss insisted.

[Wretched]

[Wretched]

[Wretched]

[Wretched]

[Ifrit]