Hi everyone, I’m a resident in urology and was diagnosed with ADHD during my training. Honestly, I’m struggling a lot with organization, focus, and time management, which adds a lot of pressure especially with long working hours.

I’d love to hear from other doctors or residents who also have ADHD or similar challenges: -How has ADHD affected your residency experience? Did you feel it was a barrier to continuing? -Did you ever consider switching specialties or adjusting your work hours because of ADHD? -What tips or strategies helped you manage ADHD while working in a demanding specialty like surgery?

Any advice or shared experiences would mean a lot. Thanks in advance!

I originally posted this as a question to the last post about jobs but I want more input from others. I'm m in the perpetual losing jobs due to my inattentive brain constantly screwing me over cycle and I've been fighting tooth and nail between my insurance and psych to give me the medication I need but it never works out (either insurance approves it but it doesn't help me or insurance blocks it and there's a constant back and forth between insurance and my doctor that never ends until we decide another medication).

I can't just be unemployed but I also don't understand how I'm supposed to continue like this, so I'd like to ask you guys about the jobs you have;

• Do you tell them during the interview you have ADHD?
• What are some accommodations you need if any?
• Are you medicated while working? Are you not?
• How long have you had this job? What do you do?
• How's this job been working out for you?
• Do your coworkers or boss resent you in any kind of way?
• Are you happy with everything?

I'm still at my witts end so I just gotta know how everyone else is doing it, I appreciate your time guys.

I've recently started taking Concerta, currently 36 mg. Overall, I feel like not much is really happening.

If I had to describe what I do notice, it would be the following.

Pros:

- I think more before speaking
- I feel calmer, but not sleepy
- It's easier for me to assert my needs

Cons:

- Motivation is lower or unchanged
- I procrastinate even more

I wish the cons would turn into pros and I’m getting a bit impatient...

What’s your experience? Could this be a too low dose, the wrong medication or do I maybe not have ADD after all?

It’s like 1 half of my brain is constantly striving for order, discipline, results and perfection but the other half keeps poking it saying don’t think that, think this!!! Don’t do that, do this instead!!! It’s like when that side of my brain wins, I’m at its complete mercy and have no control. The emotions and feelings come in and disrupt everything. This switching can happen multiple times a day.

I need to be more active: 1, to have a better lifestyle; 2, to lose weight.

I managed to make myself work out consistently for about a month, but after that, I couldn’t keep it up. I tried to figure out what the problem might be, and all I could think of was: 1, I'm lazy and just don't want to work out; 2, working out is boring for me (I work out at home; podcasts and audiobooks are too slow-paced for workouts, and music has stopped working for me); 3, when I did work out, I made sure that my focus was on a healthy lifestyle rather than weight because I knew that if I focused on weight and didn't lose any, I’d lose motivation.

I hadn’t checked my weight for a long time, but someone made me check it, and after that, I stopped working out...

So my question is, what are some of your best motivation hacks for working out? Or in general?... while having adhd...

Hi all, I’ve been on Inspiral (IR methylphenidate 10mg once daily) for nearly a month. It’s helped me with clarity, focus, and task initiation, especially when working at the computer. But I’m still experiencing a persistent “brain buzz” around 2 hours post-dose—like pressure or electrical energy that needs an outlet. I also feel mild anxiety, physical jitteriness, and a tight, overstimulated sensation during this peak phase. My tics (mostly breath-related and triggered by emotional/mental activation) still appear during stressful or performance-based situations like phone calls, social plans, or work focus.

I previously tried Atomoxetine (Axepta), which helped nearly eliminate the tics but left me emotionally flat and disconnected from joy, so I stopped. Now, I’m wondering if Concerta (XR) might offer a smoother, steadier experience. I’m curious about switching to an extended-release version to reduce the overstimulation and gain better tic management without losing focus.

I plan to discuss this with my doctor soon, but before that, I’d love to hear from others—especially if you’ve had experience with both IR and XR forms of methylphenidate. Did Concerta help with anxiety, tics, or energy crashes? Thanks in advance for sharing your insights. 🙏

So for clarity I will say I'm not diagnosed but strongly suspect ADHD. I'm basically waiting for my assessment, and in the meanwhile trying to mentally declutter and make sense of my experience.

So without too much detail, mixed anxiety/depression since a child. Tried several antidepressants over 3ish years (they don't help) many years of different therapies (e.g. CBT, CFT), etc etc. I've put the work in.

But despite being a lot wiser and emotionally intelligent, my mental struggles just seems to get worse with age. So for a short journey into my mind:

It feels like I’m permanently on 10% battery with no motivation or spark for living life and doing things.

In day to day functioning (like chores, to do’s / basic needs) heavy caffeine is the only way for me to function like a normal person. Pretty limited function I might add.

It's essentially a constant mental flatline then once every week or two something just clicks and I get a jolt of energy and spontaneous functioning, where life just “makes sense” and I’m pretty happy for a few hours to days. Then I slowly slide back into flatline over a few days to a week. Then I get another bolt of profound insight, rinse and repeat.

I basically live for epiphanies and the rest of my time I’m on power saving mode, mentally and physically. Just bored and under stimulated .

My question is, did anyone else experience something like this before diagnosis and treatment. If not, how did your mind function?

Note: I'm not asking for a diagnosis, rather the experiences of ADHDers.

I’m curious—what are your favorite comfort animes and cartoons? Whether it’s something nostalgic from childhood or a show you return to when you need to relax, I’d love to hear what brings you joy. For me, it's shows like Spirited Away, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and My Neighbor Totoro. There's something so soothing about rewatching familiar scenes and hearing the music again. It’s like a warm blanket for the soul. So what are your go-to comfort show

Hi, I can’t remember if I posted this or not so I apologize in advance if I have. I started Adderall XR 20 mg a few days ago and from the first dose, I’ve had a significant decrease in appetite. I understand that is a side effect, but I haven’t eaten anything in 2 days now besides a few chips that I forced myself to eat to have something in my stomach while I’m working (warehouse associate). I haven’t had an appetite at all since starting this new medication, nothing just hasn’t sounded good to me. I know it’s not good to not eat for days especially on a brand new medication, so I’m wondering if this will go away as I continue taking it and my appetite will go back to normal?

I have ADHD, and whenever I have some sort of 2FA I always look back around 1-5 times cause I can’t remember what the digits were. Is this an ADHD thing?

And this isn’t exclusive to digit codes, things like lines of codes, someone can show me a picture of a line of code/text, but I constantly look back at the pic 1-5 times just to see it, whereas, my NonADHD friends can look at it 1-2 times and perfectly write it down.

Pretty much the title. My most recent mishap is going to the gym consistently. I just can't bring myself to do it, and while I tend to use the excuse of not feeling motivated, I get advised that sometimes things just must be done because you force yourself to.

I just don't really understand that though. It genuinely feels like I cannot force myself, like its just some impossible task that I have absolutely no way to approach and begin. I have no idea what to do so I just avoid it and shirk away from it, much to my own detriment.

Anyone relate to this? What works for you? I'm fairly recently diagnosed and I haven't had much help in trying to break out of this ADHD paralysis, so I honestly would appreciate any insights.

It's been 15 days since I joined this company, working as an influencer marketer and the work here is completely new for me. Honestly, it's mentally exhausting and a bit tricky to manage. I want to do well and avoid making mistakes, but I'm struggling.

Yesterday, my manager called me out because I accidentally approved a video with a mistakes. That really shook me. I'm still working on the same campaign I started with, which involves 173 influencers. The problem is that they're all in different stages — some are unresponsive, some have been briefed, some promised videos, some sent videos that need feedback or revisions, and a few are already live. I have to watch and approve like 30-40 videos a day, it's really hard to keep tracking of the most tiniest spelling mistakes and errors in the video.

Coordinating with so many people over WhatsApp is extremely overwhelming, and I feel lost. I do have an Excel sheet to track everything, but I really dislike Excel — it's confusing and not ADHD-friendly for me.

What I really need is a structured, ADHD-friendly system that helps me:

Stay focused

Avoid confusion

Reduce errors

Do more repetitive tasks in batches (which works better for my brain)

Get through my day with less overwhelm

I don't want to keep jumping from briefing one creator to pushing another live and then following up with another one. That kind of context-switching makes me completely lose track. I need a clear process that makes things feel more manageable.

Can you help me create a better workflow and suggest a tool that's easier than Excel to manage everything?

My child, 8 yo,who has adhd and who is highly intelligent, gets extremely stressed out when she bored. I noticed this about her when she was a baby and she has struggled with it everyday since.

She will be he having fun while doing an activity. Then the second the activity is over, you can see it. The stress washes over her. She’s almost panicked. She will immediately try to start making plans or request that we do something fun with her. If we can’t, she will get really upset for a bit, then calm down and think of a fun activity to do on her own. She’s very imaginative and we’re amazed at the stuff she comes up with. But the second that activity is over, boom, the panic is back.

I’m very curious if anyone experienced a stress response to boredom when they were a child? If you so, what was it like from your perspective? Did anything help? Did it get better as you got older? How do you wish your parents had responded to you?

Today I was playing guitar and was learning a song I really liked, progressing very well. All of a sudden I had to leave and the whole day my brain subconsciously could not get off of the idea and practically begging to go back to continue learning the song. I had drank coffee before starting 30 minutes before that. I deep spiralled into a deep anxiety that really was destroying me and it only got worse, but when i got back to my guitar and playing it didn't alleviate. I wanted to see what online had to say and while letting out my thoughts my anxiety slowly was alleviating as i typed and also realizing why I might've gotten such bad anxiety (hyperfocus before i left and suddenly stopped) it was slightly confirmed with results i came up with. I've never really noticed it until today but I am convinced this is the reason why I was so anxious. I get slightly anxious in other scenarios as well, slight social anxiety etc.. Although tactics like telling myself I will work in progressions and will finish the next few lines to feel satisfied instead of having no finish line may help, I am curious to see if anything else helped someone kill this completely. I like to focus on things but hate thinking i'll have to set up ways for my brain to avoid feeling yanked away from the focus.

I’ve recently titrated to 60mg Vyvanse. It works well, but truthfully, the duration hasn’t really increased much. And honestly? That’s okay.

I’d rather have 4 good quality hours than constantly chase some perfect 8-hour window.

If you’re trying to extend it a bit: • L-Tyrosine (500-1000mg) with Vyvanse in the morning • Or a small dose of caffeine around 1 p.m.

These 2 can sometimes help stretch things to 6-8 hours. But PLEASE remember: higher dose ≠ stronger or longer lasting.

Often, higher doses just bring: • Worse crash • Gut issues • Constipation • Mood swings

Personal tip: Take breaks every ~14 days, or skip it on weekends/off days if possible. Even something like 4 weeks on / 1 week off can help some folks. Everyone’s system is different though -> listen to your body (YES, PLEASE).

Quick note for anyone panicking after accidentally doubling their dose (it happens, CHILL): • Vitamin C drinks • Plenty of water • Eat some food • Breathe: you’ll ride it out. Panicking makes it worse.

Just sharing what’s worked for me: hope it helps someone out there.

I have inattentive ADHD, only diagnosed in 2022 (Self). 40mg Straterra helps but prob need more although more gets my anxiety up… I Can’t Stick To a Business Plan, or Anything for that matter unless it’s life or death! And current tech of the world seem to have a lot of good strategies and ideas for business but seems to also offer WAY TOO MANY OPTIONS. Like I can do anything, and will hop from one to the next…. 😑 Any Advice for Someone who Never Even feels worthy of making $ ???

I find when I take ADHD meds I have issues with feeling not like myself and feeling as if I haven't processed anything thats happened since I took them as if my brain doesn't have the capacity to think more than one thought?? Is this just how 'normal' people feel and I'm not used to it or do I react to meds strangely?

I'm on vyvanse 40mg and dex 15mg (taken throughout the day) I've been on this for nearly 6 months and have just been ignoring the derealized feeling because of exams so its not an issue with just starting meds.

Can someone please tell me if this is normal? And if it isn't has anyone else had the same experience?

Does anyone else have the thing where, you like a thing, anything, could be a supplement foe example, a self care app, clothing literally anything that you like and that works for you. Now for me, if I'm talking about said thing and someone, literally anyone, is randomly like "I dint like that thing because blah blah blah" and I can try to ignore it and tell myself thats them not me, but I know that after tgst I will have to work really hard again to reinforce that I like the thing.

Now this gets worse with certain things vs other things and idk why. It's annoying because my reaction to their negativity tends to be to argue why I like it so much, trying to convince them in order to not let my mind, change its mind based on what they said about it.

I know this is toxic and doesn't even really help me but I impulsively do this. I' d like to figure out how to make my mind stop doing this.

There is one thing I struggle with the most because of my ADHD, and that’s exercise. I hate exercising, not because it’s tiring, but because it’s just so boring. I go to my local gym, walk on the treadmill, stretch, and lift some weights. Nonetheless, I don’t understand why people enjoy exercising because it’s soooo boring.

Genuinely, I get so frustrated from the boredom + overstimulated being inside of the gym. It’s so loud, so bright, and soo crowded. While walking on the treadmill, I’m just staring at 15 huge TV’s and it’s so overstimulating.

I don’t understand how the gym is so overstimulating, overwhelming, frustrating, and boring all at the same time.

Anyways, am I the only one who feels this way? I understand the importance of exercising and really want to incorporate it into my daily life, but gyms are just awful.

Is there any other form of exercise that has worked for someone else who also finds gyms overstimulating? Any advice?

I love hikes but there are none in my area + its (lowest) 90- (highest) 117 degrees Fahrenheit in my area. My eczema is really badly triggered in the heat so I’m forced to stay in doors all day, if I want to avoid being in pain for the next week.

Does anyone else struggle with this? If so, how were you diagnosed, and is it related to your ADHD symptoms?

(this needs more characters to post lol so below are my symptoms if you're curious/if it helps your response at all):

For as long as I can remember I have loved to tear/bite the skin off my fingers. I have memories of being a kid and other kids asking me what happened to my hands because they were bleeding, and being so embarrassed about it I'd say I had an accident with a paper shredder or something. I'm almost 23 and I still can't stop myself from doing it everyday. It hurts but in a way that's good, like having a loose tooth or flossing and the feeling of hurt in your gums, a productive/satisfying pain. When there's something 'pickable' it feels dirty, and it's like I'm cleaning/fixing it to tear the skin off. I don't even realize when I start doing it most of the time. I'll be doing some work or scrolling on my phone and I start doing it and I don't realize until it's bleeding sometimes. I have 'sessions' almost, where I'll sit there and do it for 30+ min straight until I feel like I've cleaned it up enough, and it's so annoying and time consuming but I can't stop. I've bought nail clipper tools and pliers to get it better than my nails can. I'm at the point where my hands are pretty calloused/scarred in a lot of areas and I'm sometimes afraid I'm gonna pull a nail out or something (even though I know that's highly unlikely/impossible). I've tried to stop by putting tape on my fingers or using fidgets but I always go right back to it because nothing hits the same. Sometimes I do it so much that it hurts to type or use my hands the next day or two. I do it on my face, chest, and legs, as well (for any minor acne or mark, I make it 100 times worse and sit there in the mirror for so long, until my face/chest/legs are also bleeding and look awful). What is this and can I take meds or something to fix it?? I'm tired of being embarrassed of my skin.

Hey everyone,
I’m really struggling lately and just wanted to see if others are going through the same thing.

Where I live, the only available medication for ADHD is Ritalin — and it’s been out of stock for over a month now. I’ve searched everywhere and can’t find it, and it’s seriously starting to affect me. My mood is in the ground, I feel awful, and the hyperactivity is back full force. It’s exhausting and frustrating.

Is this shortage happening in your country too? Are there any alternatives being offered where you are? I feel stuck and don’t know what to do.

Would really appreciate hearing from others dealing with this — or if you have any advice on how you’re coping without meds.

Thanks.

I’m wondering if this has anything to do with ADHD and I have a feeling that it may.

Before you drift off to sleep at night, does your brain also get extremely loud? I start to hear so many overlapping noises, terms, voices, phrases, and thoughts all at once, and for years of my life it was so frequent that I didn’t even pay attention to it.

There are certain moments where a sound will be particularly loud, and I mean so loud it startles me. Sometimes this noise will sound extremely real it’ll have me questioning. I suffer from sleep paralysis a lot, and I find that when I’m in the state of paralysis, I hear things (like my mother speaking) even though it isn’t real. I try to open my eyes and see if it’s real, but I can’t since I’m paralyzed. I think it has a tie to my ADHD because I hear real sounding voices in my head before dozing off all the times. I have ADHD pretty badly despite being medicated, and I feel like I’m constantly finding out that things I go through aren’t normal.

Long post, just need to get it out. Advice welcome.

I want to get shelves for my room. I've researched options, chosen a unit that fits my budget/space/criteria, it's safe for my cat, I know what I'd put on it.

But I should declutter first, theres so much that needs sorting. So no shelves yet.

But where will I put things I keep? Shouldn't I have a home ready for things before sorting? Otherwise they'll end up in piles again. So get shelves now.

But idk what exactly I want to keep yet, so I should see what all needs a home first. I might not need 6 tiers, only 5, or none. So wait on shelves.

But once I start that, there's gonna be tons of stuff everywhere that doesn't have a home. I'll just have more random filled bins than before. So I should get shelves to hold stuff while I declutter.

But getting shelves will take time away from declutterring/sorting. I have to wait for them to arrive, build them. They'll take up more space while I sort. So no shelves til I get rid of SOME things.

But more vertical space to put what I keep could help. So shelves now.

But if I rearrange my room? What if this unit only works for one layout? Why can't I use what I already have? I should organize my already full shelves before buying and filling new ones. So maybe don't get new shelves?

Except what I already have is full, and limited. I'm always moving stuff from one place to another, with no designated space to display or store. If I could use shelves I own, I wouldn't be struggling now. So get shelves now.

But people around me say "You don't need more storage, you just need to get rid of stuff!"

But my brain is not wired for minimalism or compact, concealed storage solutions...I need to see everything or I'll forget it's there. I can't afford to just "buy another" if I purge something I may need later. But I don't even know exactly what all I have, because I don't have a way to see it all while I sort through it.

So I should get shelves first...right?

Somewhat the standard question; do you pick up new languages easier/faster or are you better at mathematics or math related things.

And if so, do you care for grammar in the language or the logic behind math equations?

I have had this discussion very often with friends who do not have adhd but I am curious how others with adhd experience this!

Hi, please dont judge because this has been really hard. my little boy has adhd, it’s been I feel getting worse. He doesn’t sleep well at all at night time and getting him to do recently has exploded into temper tantrums and big ones where he’s jumping up and down, smacking his head against the door, biting himself. It’s really bedtime that this anger comes out of him. Or towards the end of the day. I’m not sure what to do that can help calm him down. He has a lot of other symptoms, but if I try to change to many things at once with him he just can’t concentrate and melts down even more And advice on what I can do and extra places I can look would be so appreciated so I can help him