ADHD

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A casual community for people with ADHD

Values:

Acceptance, Openness, Understanding, Equality, Reciprocity.

Rules:

No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments.
No porn, gore, spam, or advertisements allowed.
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Do not gatekeep or diagnose.
Mark NSFW content accordingly.
No racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, or ageism.
Respectful venting, including dealing with oppressive neurotypical culture, is okay.
Discussing other neurological problems like autism, anxiety, ptsd, and brain injury are allowed.
Discussions regarding medication are allowed as long as you are describing your own situation and not telling others what to do (only qualified medical practitioners can prescribe medication).

Encouraged:

Funny memes.
Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
Questions on confusing situations.
Seeking and sharing support.
Engagement in our values.

Relevant Lemmy communities:

Neurodivergent Life Hacks

lemmy.world/c/adhd will happily promote other ND communities as long as said communities demonstrate that they share our values.

founded 2 years ago

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When the meds work it is simply amazing (feddit.de)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Tl;dr: Awesome

Was officially diagnosed and put on medication (MPH/Medikinet) 5 weeks ago. I work far from where I live, so I got my own one-room apartment with a cat near my workplace and at the weekends I commute home to my wife and our shared apartment. I take my meds in the morning and they last for 7 hours. So, when the meds have an effect, I'm always at my workplace, but when I come back home to my working apartment in the evening, the effect is gone and I'm unmotivated again. Or it's the weekends and I'm at my "real" home with my wife, doing all sorts of activities.

This means, everytime I was at my "work" apartment, I was unmotivated to do anything. The apartment looked just like you would expect it after 1.5 years.

Today is my first day at my work apartment with the meds working, and suddenly, I'm cleaning like a single guy expecting to get laid. No forcing necessary, no motivating tricks. I see something I don't like and I do it. I can prioritize and focus and it requires no effort.

Medication really turns your life around when it works. And neurotypicals will never experience how much they play on easy mode.

Cat tax.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Do you feel you need that time after those seven hours to just be 'lazy' or at a state of rest due to the productive nature of your day?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

No, actually not. I feel like if the feeling of productivity stayed, I would even be more happy.

I realized that I have 3 different kinds of being unmotivated:

Low dopamine (brain). It's like having sat through an extremely long and tough meeting where you had to concentrate hard. and afterwards you just need to lie down a rest for a while. That's how I always felt during my entire life - but no matter how long I lied down, I didn't recover.
Not enough food. I never noticed it this way before the medication. Feels the same as low dopamin, but it goes away if I eat enough and healthy. Before meds, I would just feel unmotivated like I always used to feel, but also hungry at the same time. Eating wouldn't make it go away, but now with meds, it does.
Physically exhausted. The same feeling of unmotivated as the other two, but it follows after a heavy workout or hours of cleaning. Muscles hurt, joints ache. Needs a good nights sleep or some time relaxing and then it's gone

Before meds, I just always felt the same feeling of being unmotivated (low dopamine at all times), and sometimes I was also hungry and sometimes I was also physically exhausted. Now, I feel

motivated when the meds work
unmotivated when they work but I haven't eaten enough, but motivation comes back after eating
unmotivated when they work but I went to the gym and had a hard session, but motivation comes back if I relax for a while unmotivated when the meds lose effect in the afternoon