If you have ADHD/ADD, what has helped you?

[Tone]

Those with probable ADD ADHD also have a propensity towards hyper-focusing...and because of their usual high intelligence can accomplish huge, almost impossible tasks as long as they find them challenging and engaging. The reason for productivity must be genuine. (At least to them)

This is scarilily familiar...

 

[DuckieLady]

This is scarilily familiar...

LOL Same for me. I think it's more common than people think. I grew up in the 90s where I didn't have ADHD and I was actually just lazy and unmotivated. Dad used to walk in and see me with 10 tabs open and talking to my online friends and say, "You don't have ADHD! Look all of those tabs! How can you manage all of that?"

The expectation of ADHD kids should be about three years younger than their actual age. The risk of teen pregnancy is also much higher for ADHD girls because of their impulsiveness and not thinking about the consequences. *raises hand* (Hence why I support the use of birth control regardless of religious beliefs and intention of celibacy before marriage.)

 

[Grailhunter]

OK I'm really flighty and inconsistent. Like 99.92384% sure I have ADHD and so were all of my teachers.

I'm trying to get organized though and keep it together. The only thing that has worked for me so far is writing down my to do list on an index card and setting a timer. And Ashwagandha was the BEST, but I can't afford it.

I decided it's time to get this handled, so I'm getting a smartphone again because moving back and forth from computer to flip phone is hard and I get busy, I'm allowing coffee back into my life. But I'm not good with organization apps or alarms because I just swipe them and ignore all of my alerts after the first day. I make dozens of weekly and daily plans and then I ignore all of those, too.

The thought of consistently following a daily schedule is ... not possible in my perspective. I'm not good with time blocking, either.

I'm looking at bullet journaling and Marie Kondo because people on the internet said it would help, but I'm not going to sit down and thank my place and talk to my clothes because they are inanimate objects... That doesn't do anything.

First off I am not trying to play doctor on the internet. I have none of that and do not know the challenge that it would be, other than observing it in others. Pray.
I am sorry about your head....LOL....From the movie 50 first dates. Humor is important.
I have heard a lot of explanations for these disorders but the one that seemed to be best received and understood is...Your mind and your brain are not the same thing. With these disorder the "body clock" brain and body are running faster than the mind can keep up. So you have to train your mind to babysit your brain and that starts with documentation and leaning how your brain works and understand that the chaos of your brain needs to be managed.
My experience with this is mostly with the time I spent at youth camps....troubled children and these disorders.

First thing....get a good doctor. Second make sure of your diagnosis. New drugs are coming out for these things all the time. Third fall in love with someone that you can trust. fourth, put fun on your schedule, it is more important than you might think. Fifth, find a hobby that requires a step by step process and be a nerd and carry a small spiral notepad. You start with writing down your process in your hobby and set your smart phone to buzz every 20 minutes and train yourself to look at the note pad when it buzzes. Write down the schedule of your medications. Then start writing down your schedule for the day and the week and document what you are doing...as you do it and what you intend to do next.

What you are doing with this, is that you are training your mind to be separate from the chaos that is going on in your brain...and the emotion generators....learn to see them more than feel them. To give you an example from my world....I may have a day that I feel edgy. I ask myself why? Well if I had taken Benadryl the day before....it causes me to be edgy the next day. Once I know the cause I am no longer edgy. Now that works for me and I am not saying it will work for you.

To some degree you are training your mind and body to work together to babysit your brain. You will never completely control your brain, that is why I call it babysitting. You will start a habit and reflex, when the buzzer sounds, your body will reach for your notepad.

All I am doing is trying to help. I am not a doctor, all I am doing is offering what I have seen work in a controlled environment with young people and adults. Good luck.

 

[DuckieLady]

First off I am not trying to play doctor on the internet. I have none of that and do not know the challenge that it would be, other than observing it in others. Pray.
I am sorry about your head....LOL....From the movie 50 first dates. Humor is important.
I have heard a lot of explanations for these disorders but the one that seemed to be best received and understood is...Your mind and your brain are not the same thing. With these disorder the "body clock" brain and body are running faster than the mind can keep up. So you have to train your mind to babysit your brain and that starts with documentation and leaning how your brain works and understand that the chaos of your brain needs to be managed.
My experience with this is mostly with the time I spent at youth camps....troubled children and these disorders.

First thing....get a good doctor. Second make sure of your diagnosis. New drugs are coming out for these things all the time. Third fall in love with someone that you can trust. fourth, put fun on your schedule, it is more important than you might think. Fifth, find a hobby that requires a step by step process and be a nerd and carry a small spiral notepad. You start with writing down your process in your hobby and set your smart phone to buzz every 20 minutes and train yourself to look at the note pad when it buzzes. Write down the schedule of your medications. Then start writing down your schedule for the day and the week and document what you are doing...as you do it and what you intend to do next.

What you are doing with this, is that you are training your mind to be separate from the chaos that is going on in your brain...and the emotion generators....learn to see them more than feel them. To give you an example from my world....I may have a day that I feel edgy. I ask myself why? Well if I had taken Benadryl the day before....it causes me to be edgy the next day. Once I know the cause I am no longer edgy. Now that works for me and I am not saying it will work for you.

To some degree you are training your mind and body to work together to babysit your brain. You will never completely control your brain, that is why I call it babysitting. You will start a habit and reflex, when the buzzer sounds, your body will reach for your notepad.

All I am doing is trying to help. I am not a doctor, all I am doing is offering what I have seen work in a controlled environment with young people and adults. Good luck.

Thanks, Grailhunter! I am positive about the anemia thing and I've been diagnosed with it by several doctors multiple times. It took me a really long to realize that it was something I had to stay on because B-12 has to exist for iron absorption. I kept thinking I just had to finish the bottle and I would be good, but I was on PPIs for GERD for over 10 years (which lowers B-12 by at least 70%), including one medication that is now banned, and I assume it caused permanent damage.

When I am on it I am GOLDEN! Skyrocketing and doing tremendously well.

"Third fall in love with someone that you can trust."

Maybe someday God will bless me in that area but I realized the other day that the happiest times in my life were when I didn't have any men around. LOL I remember dancing quietly to myself to Husky Rescue - New Light Of Tomorrow in the middle of the night in my garden. I was probably having a weird moment but it's one of my best memories and one of the reasons I was able to do that was because there wasn't any men around.

 

[JohnDB]

You're right... I like the folding tips, and went along with that, but the rest of it was so common sense that I couldn't understand why it was such a big deal to people. Actually how big it was blown up that throwing things away was this life changing concept actually made me more concerned for the adults in this country. After learning how to fold a t-shirt in a different way it was like "Oh okay it ends here then." Not very helpful. I'm going to have to look up other professional organizers.

I can absolutely focus for a long time when I'm interested in what I'm doing or in desperate situations. I'll spend hours working on something if I'm ready to do it.

But I do think that part of my problem actually involves doing too much for other people every day, and being a little too altruistic is getting me sick again. I just realized last night after the tinnitus and peripheral neuropathy started coming back, that I hadn't been drinking any water for the past few days and I haven't been taking my iron or B12 regularly for a couple of months and have been stuck on a lot of vegetarian food, so that explains the minor auditory/visual hallucinations, cloudier thinking, and emotional stress.

At least this time I recognized it before it got too bad. I hope I remember that I have a plan to take care of it.

Pernicious anemia is kind of debilitating but I get into survival mode and keep moving. I forget that my body needs things.

I also remembered my grandmother telling me that I *needed* to take oyster shell calcium because osteoporosis runs in our family, and then put together I grew up without having dairy in the home and I don't buy it either, and it looks like ADHD is also linked to calcium deficiency.

Time to drink water and get back on my supplements, I guess.

I LOVE the deadline idea. I never thought of that! Thanks!

Most true mental illness surrounds some degree of narcissist behaviors and attitudes.
If you don't truly own that then you aren't mentally ill. So don't handicap or limit yourself with such a label as "mentally ill".

And where you are extremely gifted in a lot of ways beyond other's abilities... you aren't Superwoman or God with a limitless supply.

You are finite. You have a finite amount of time, energy, and resources. You can't be all things to all people...and when asked to a request you earlier rejected, you express your desire to fulfill that but "whatever excuse you can think of based loosely on the truth" gets inserted here.

IOW it's not good for you to try to do too much because then nothing gets done. Meaning that you have to take time to take care of yourself too. Otherwise a dead person or a hospitalized person does nothing productive. You either get to be the missionary or the mission field. Your choice.

So pick and choose the object of your altruism...and limit yourself to the one... meaning that the others get to just wish to be the focus. (Always leave them wanting more)

My cookie and truffle making at Christmas is a prime example. I made 14 varieties of truffles and 13 varieties of cookies. That's more than enough varieties!. I gave out 24 ct boxes of truffles and a 25ct cookie platter.

I dare anyone to make more varieties, package them, and remove the allergic reactions causing ones by individual requests and deliver these beautiful packages of homemade love to as many people as we did. (Wifey packaged and made lists and delivery routes)
All tolled...my wife and I accomplished a superhuman feat of brilliance.
But the whole time I was feeling like it wasn't enough, I need to do more, the candies need to look more perfect, the bake on the cookies needs to be better, I need to tweak the cookie recipes I wrote a bit more, and on and on....

The truth however didn't match my desires and feelings. I did good. My wife did excellent. Together, we did more to bring Christmas cheer than the rest of our friends combined. So why did I have all those negative, self destructive feelings of inadequacy the whole time?
Because I'm normal...the others...the recipients didn't get the joy of giving at all.

I am a true culinary professional. Yes I used to get paid handsomely to do this every day. I see truffles and cookies made in the same fashion as I currently do them and know what the retailers charge...I even know a few. Mine are exactly the same as what they can produce. Flaws and all. (Although my friends can't find a single flaw...they don't have the skills to)

Wanting more...we all do that. It's what Adam and Eve did that got them kicked out of the Garden in Eden. And working yourself into the ground to get that little bit more?
Thats why God wrote the tenth commandment.

 

[Pearl]

OK I'm really flighty and inconsistent. Like 99.92384% sure I have ADHD and so were all of my teachers.

I'm trying to get organized though and keep it together. The only thing that has worked for me so far is writing down my to do list on an index card and setting a timer. And Ashwagandha was the BEST, but I can't afford it.

I decided it's time to get this handled, so I'm getting a smartphone again because moving back and forth from computer to flip phone is hard and I get busy, I'm allowing coffee back into my life. But I'm not good with organization apps or alarms because I just swipe them and ignore all of my alerts after the first day. I make dozens of weekly and daily plans and then I ignore all of those, too.

The thought of consistently following a daily schedule is ... not possible in my perspective. I'm not good with time blocking, either.

I'm looking at bullet journaling and Marie Kondo because people on the internet said it would help, but I'm not going to sit down and thank my place and talk to my clothes because they are inanimate objects... That doesn't do anything.

My grandaughter has ADHD. She is now 25 and was diagnosed at about 7 or 8. She was prescribed medication which worked well unless she decided to give it a miss when she grew up. I don't know if she is still on it though.

 

[Tone]

LOL Same for me. I think it's more common than people think. I grew up in the 90s where I didn't have ADHD and I was actually just lazy and unmotivated. Dad used to walk in and see me with 10 tabs open and talking to my online friends and say, "You don't have ADHD! Look all of those tabs! How can you manage all of that?"

The expectation of ADHD kids should be about three years younger than their actual age. The risk of teen pregnancy is also much higher for ADHD girls because of their impulsiveness and not thinking about the consequences. *raises hand* (Hence why I support the use of birth control regardless of religious beliefs and intention of celibacy before marriage.)

...interrrrrrr...essssst...iiinnnngaahhhhhhh...

Oh no, I'm acting up...

 

[Tone]

Thanks, Grailhunter! I am positive about the anemia thing and I've been diagnosed with it by several doctors multiple times. It took me a really long to realize that it was something I had to stay on because B-12 has to exist for iron absorption. I kept thinking I just had to finish the bottle and I would be good, but I was on PPIs for GERD for over 10 years (which lowers B-12 by at least 70%), including one medication that is now banned, and I assume it caused permanent damage.

When I am on it I am GOLDEN! Skyrocketing and doing tremendously well.

"Third fall in love with someone that you can trust."

Maybe someday God will bless me in that area but I realized the other day that the happiest times in my life were when I didn't have any men around. LOL I remember dancing quietly to myself to Husky Rescue - New Light Of Tomorrow in the middle of the night in my garden. I was probably having a weird moment but it's one of my best memories and one of the reasons I was able to do that was because there wasn't any men around.

Nah, you probably do not need any men around...but perhaps a good husband will do the trick...!

 

[Grailhunter]

Thanks, Grailhunter! I am positive about the anemia thing and I've been diagnosed with it by several doctors multiple times. It took me a really long to realize that it was something I had to stay on because B-12 has to exist for iron absorption. I kept thinking I just had to finish the bottle and I would be good, but I was on PPIs for GERD for over 10 years (which lowers B-12 by at least 70%), including one medication that is now banned, and I assume it caused permanent damage.

When I am on it I am GOLDEN! Skyrocketing and doing tremendously well.

"Third fall in love with someone that you can trust."

Maybe someday God will bless me in that area but I realized the other day that the happiest times in my life were when I didn't have any men around. LOL I remember dancing quietly to myself to Husky Rescue - New Light Of Tomorrow in the middle of the night in my garden. I was probably having a weird moment but it's one of my best memories and one of the reasons I was able to do that was because there wasn't any men around.

Ok, no men.
How about pets? A good boxer can be as obnoxious as a guy.
As a funny I will share a funny story. One of the councilors at these teen camps, an attractive lady with some of these issues also, smoked a walnut tobacco pipe. Carved in the shape of a hobbit's head. She smoked blackberry tobacco in it. Smelled great. She played a Huber gold inlay banjo. Now if you know your banjos you know that this is a pricey banjo and she could make this thing talk. Bluegrass and folk. Between smoking the pipe and the banjo they were attention getters and conversational pieces. She traveled a bit and spent some time at Silver Dollar City, in Branson, Mo. She said the pipe and the quick music associated with banjos gave her something to do with her hands and work off some of her nervous energy.

Now I am not recommending picking up pipe smoking, I just thought it was a funny story.

 

[Tone]

Well...maybe just the finest weed in the South Farthing...

 

[Tone]

 

[jshiii]

OK I'm really flighty and inconsistent. Like 99.92384% sure I have ADHD and so were all of my teachers.

I'm trying to get organized though and keep it together. The only thing that has worked for me so far is writing down my to do list on an index card and setting a timer. And Ashwagandha was the BEST, but I can't afford it.

I decided it's time to get this handled, so I'm getting a smartphone again because moving back and forth from computer to flip phone is hard and I get busy, I'm allowing coffee back into my life. But I'm not good with organization apps or alarms because I just swipe them and ignore all of my alerts after the first day. I make dozens of weekly and daily plans and then I ignore all of those, too.

The thought of consistently following a daily schedule is ... not possible in my perspective. I'm not good with time blocking, either.

I'm looking at bullet journaling and Marie Kondo because people on the internet said it would help, but I'm not going to sit down and thank my place and talk to my clothes because they are inanimate objects... That doesn't do anything.

ADD and sometimes ADHD here! lol. Emergency Department, Trauma Nursing has cured me! I have many fellow employees that are just like me! We rock it out in blood and guts!!!

#SavingLives

 

[DuckieLady]

ADD and sometimes ADHD here! lol. Emergency Department, Trauma Nursing has cured me! I have many fellow employees that are just like me! We rock it out in blood and guts!!!

#SavingLives

Working in trauma cured you? Used to want to be a phlebotomist before I was worried about getting punched in the face, what's that like?

Just fixed up my grocery list and hoping better diet with more green food and less brown food will help and some maca that I don't expect to work at all, but it's effort..

Seems like the weirder it sounds and the more it's talked about by bulking guys in tight v-necks, the less I believe in it's extreme unicorn powers, but my mom has told me like 15 times to get it and said it works so I'll try it.

 

[Tone]

ADD and sometimes ADHD here! lol. Emergency Department, Trauma Nursing has cured me! I have many fellow employees that are just like me! We rock it out in blood and guts!!!

#SavingLives

Yeah, I kinda lean towards some people being wired for extreme things.

It just took me a while to begin to see how I can channel it to the positive!

 

[Eternally Grateful]

If it helps, I did grow out of it mostly the older I got. But you still struggle, meds did help some but they were dangerous

 

[Tone]

hoping better diet with more green food and less brown food will help and some maca that I don't expect to work at all, but it's effort..

Yeah, I'm not really happy with my cigarette smoking of late.

I smoked four today...

This is the most I have in awhile...

I've also been really energetic (well I always am), but really talkative and... flirtatious lately.

I'm getting restless, which isn't that good for me.

I'm asking Abba to bless me really soon before I do something rash...He Is Faithful and willing, I believe!

 

[Tone]

I think if parents see that their child has high energy levels or what not...you know, the symptoms for ADHD, etc...--they should explore creative avenues in their kid's education. Like, focus on the arts and music and outside the box type endeavors. Don't just attempt to mold them into the same forms as standard education and train them to be factory workers or something. Not that there is anything wrong with farm/factory work, it's just that some people are created with what it takes to be what popular culture calls "stars".

I understand that there are socio-economic factors that limit what parents can do as far as exploratory education, but I believe that things are changing in this day and age with YouTube and other such platforms.

I think that if one were to look at the numbers, a correlation between the rise of the industrial revolution and the rise of "mental illness"/ pharmaceuticals will be evident.

I mean, there were only so many spots available for celebrityhood, with Hollywood pretty much having a monopoly over it.

Big changes are underway and even bigger ones are on the horizon...on earth as it is in heaven.

 

[DuckieLady]

Yeah, I'm not really happy with my cigarette smoking of late.

I smoked four today...

This is the most I have in awhile...

I've also been really energetic (well I always am), but really talkative and... flirtatious lately.

I'm getting restless, which isn't that good for me.

I'm asking Abba to bless me really soon before I do something rash...He Is Faithful and willing, I believe!

i believe in you! i was quit for about a week almost, but started up again. just started getting bad shooting pains in my left arm a minute ago and i am wondering if its related edit: stopped after a few minutes, i am okay now

 

[Tone]

i believe in you! i was quit for about a week almost, but started up again. just started getting bad shooting pains in my left arm a minute ago and i am wondering if its related

Thanks!

Shooting pain in your left arm?!

I'll tell you what. I won't smoke any more cigs. If you don't!

I don't even like it...the taste, the feeling...the worry if I'll get cancer or something...

I just feel like having one when I'm feeling a bunch of energy...and then later in the day when I am full from eating.

 

[DuckieLady]

Thanks!

Shooting pain in your left arm?!

I'll tell you what. I won't smoke any more cigs. If you don't!

I don't even like it...the taste, the feeling...the worry if I'll get cancer or something...

I just feel like having one when I'm feeling a bunch of energy...and then later in the day when I am full from eating.

yeah! it went away but my chest is a little tight, but that's normal for me! im alright! wanna officially quit at ten with me? maybe having to be accountable will set me straight!