My daughter is 15 and the conversation about medication for her anxiety has started. She is in the room for it, which I think is right, but I can see her deferring to whatever the adults say and then not telling me afterwards what she actually thinks.

What I am worried about is setting up a pattern where this is something done to her rather than with her, because in three years it will be entirely her decision and she will have had no practice making it.

I am asking here rather than in a parenting sub because I would rather hear it from the person who was the teenager.

For context on what we are looking at, Emora Health keeps coming up, they work with children and teenagers only and it is all remote. Brightside Health is the other.

If you went through this at that age: what did the adults get right and what do you wish they had done differently?

Hey, got diagnosed with ADHD this year, inattentive type. I have been taking amitriptyline (endep) for years for chronic headaches (50mg atm) and started sandomigran as well after being diagnosed with vestibular migraine.

I started with vyvanse but didn't feel I got a lot of benefit from it. Tried Ritalin and also not a huge benefit but I get pretty bad headaches as it wears off. As someone who already has chronic headaches it's not really worth it for me. However I missed my sandomigran and endep the other night and then took Ritalin the next day and felt I had some benefit and definitely a less noticeable headache.

Not looking for dosage recommendations but just wondering if other people have also had trouble with headaches and stimulants and if you've got any advice? Thanks

I'm absolutely wrecked, this is an important assignment. If I fail I'll fail the semester, I haven't talked to my guide yet. They moved the due date by a month and I didn't check the mail. I am in absolute panic and going to have to pull a 48 hour long work session like last time. I'm feeling extremely hopeless, I don't know what to do

I’m a 34M, and I’ve never been tested for ADHD. Until recently, I never even considered the possibility that I might have it. I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) almost 10 years ago and have been taking medication for it ever since.
However, ADHD has recently become a big topic in our household.
Both of my children, ages 9 and 5, have been diagnosed with ADHD. After our oldest was diagnosed, my wife started researching the condition and began recognizing similar behaviors in herself. She eventually got evaluated and was also diagnosed with ADHD.
Interestingly, my brother was diagnosed with ADHD when we were kids, back in junior high school. So there’s definitely a family history.
Now my wife is convinced I might have it too, and I’m starting to wonder if she’s right.
Her biggest observation is my lifelong tendency to become completely obsessed with something for a short period of time, only to suddenly lose interest and move on to something entirely different.
And when I say lifelong, I mean it. I’ve been this way since childhood. It’s not something that developed recently. Looking back, I can recognize this pattern throughout my entire life.
For example, earlier this year, I became obsessed with working out. I was incredibly motivated, researching fitness, and genuinely excited about making it part of my lifestyle. Then, after a few weeks, I completely lost interest.
Music is another example. I’ll go through phases where I listen exclusively to one genre. For weeks, I listened to nothing but 1950s music. Then suddenly, it was punk rock (I’m an elder emo). A few weeks later, Mexican music became my obsession. During each phase, that’s practically all I wanted to hear.
Then came my reading phase.
A few months ago, I became obsessed with reading. I was finishing anywhere from one to three books a week. History, biographies, politics, you name it. I couldn’t get enough. I’d spend hours reading and researching whatever caught my attention.
And then, just like everything else, the interest disappeared.
I’ve even experienced similar phases involving pornography, where I become unusually fixated on it for a period before eventually losing interest.
The weird thing is that when something interests me, it REALLY interests me.
I don’t just casually enjoy something. I dive headfirst into it. I research everything, think about it constantly, and sometimes make it a huge part of my daily routine.
But eventually, it’s like someone flips a switch. Something I was completely fascinated by just days earlier suddenly becomes boring.
Then something new catches my attention, and the cycle repeats.
This has happened my entire life, from childhood through adulthood. The interests change, but the pattern never does.
For years, I assumed this was just my personality. I figured I was someone who got excited about new things, became bored easily, and struggled to maintain interest.
But now I’m questioning that assumption.
With my brother, both children, and wife diagnosed with ADHD, I’m wondering whether some of the behaviors I’ve always considered normal could actually be symptoms of something I’ve never been evaluated for.
I also wonder whether my anxiety diagnosis has anything to do with it. I’ve lived with GAD for nearly a decade, and I’m curious whether ADHD could have been overlooked or whether some of my behaviors could be explained by anxiety instead.
So I have a few questions for those diagnosed with ADHD:
Do you experience intense interests or obsessions that last weeks or months before suddenly disappearing?
Is this what people mean by ADHD hyperfixation?
Were any of you diagnosed as adults after discovering ADHD ran in your family?
For those with both ADHD and GAD, how did you distinguish between the two?
I understand nobody here can diagnose me, and I’m considering getting professionally evaluated.
I’m just curious whether others can relate, especially those diagnosed later in life.
I’ve spent 34 years assuming this was simply how my brain worked. Now I’m wondering if there’s another explanation.

Classic case of high iq adhd that wasn’t diagnosed until some things changed in my life and it threw me into an undeniable mental health situation.

Still trying to figure out the meds thing but the diagnosis itself and the obvious obsessive research and self awareness have already been a life changer.

Two opposite effects of understanding myself finally. On one hand I have finally recognized some of the masking that has just become normal to me. Some masking will never be able to drop, but some of it I can recognize and drop. There has been a huge sense of relief and reduction in mental energy expenditure by recognizing some masking and dropping it because I can. There are many situations now where I can just be me and it’s so much easier.

On the flip side it here are some things I that I never masked well but now that I’m aware of them I really try to mask and it’s very tiring.

The biggest one is, interrupting, over talking, over sharing, etc. I’ve always had a problem with it but never realized I was kind of being and annoying asshole by rudely talking over people, interrupting, and demanding control over the conversation.

Now that I know what I’m doing I try to mask and not do that shit. It’s super super super fucking hard.

In the end, awareness let me drop some energy hungry masking but also made me pick a few others up. In the end it’s kind of a wash.

Hey guys so yesterday finally someone did something with me that wasn't overwhelming and it worked. She said I'll delete 10 apps and match me. Anyone have a to many apps on phone problem that wanna do this together now?

Background: I have adhd, anxiety, PMDD and struggle with emotional regulation. I take concerta, lamotrigine and lexapro. The lamotrigine was added to help increase the SSRI effectiveness \*before\* my adhd dx and it helped significantly with my anxiety. Since I started concerta I feel much better in terms of my adhd and all around honestly. My emotional regulation has improved but not to the level I want it to be at.
So now I’m wondering if switching from lamotrigine to Guanfacine would be a better fit for emotional regulation. I’ve been reading it’s a great addition to stimulants and helping with memory and focus too. The med combo I have now isn’t bad, but I feel there’s room for improvement. Does anyone have both experiences being on Lamotrigine + stimulant AND Guanfacine + stimulant? (Separately, not all together).

I (21M) have recently started thinking that i might have inattentive ADHD/ADD and my gf have been saying it for some time now that i might have it. I am not overly active and apparently was not when i was a kid, but i do have some strong tendencies to ADD. I do have immense time blindess, in my world there is only now and not-now. Meaning that if i need to leave to somewhere, i either need to leave instantly or i dont have to leave now so i cant comprehend the fact that walking to car or things i need to do while getting ready. Another thing that impacts my life greatly is forgetfulness. I forget appointments, schoolwork errands you name it.

I also have noticed that i make more mistakes when work is repetative. My work is very repetative at times and i have noticed that i make more mistakes when my task is repetative. In school in the other hand, i have huge troubles focusing on the lecture. If the subject does not interest me i cant focus but then i catch myself finding out everything i possibly can about random sherpa who died in everest 100 years ago and read about that for the whole night and forget to eat and sleep.

There is lots of more things but just to name a few. That being said, my parents won't believe me and take me seriously as i wasn't overly active kid. That complicates things quite a lot becouse at least in my country, parents statement about your youth is mandatory to get the diagnosis. This however doesn't suprise me since my parents are a bit old fashioned. They didn't believe mental illnesses before my sister got diagnosed with depression. Now however i am looking for advice how to proceed.

Im an artist but I never seem able to follow through on any ideas I have

I have AuDhd

I’m I’m looking for honest opinions from people who may have experienced something similar.

Since childhood, I’ve struggled to make close friends. I’m looking for honest opinions from people who may have experienced something similar.

Since childhood, I’ve struggled to make close friends. In school, I was bullied for my appearance, often felt like an outsider, and was rarely anyone’s closest friend. I never understood why people eventually started avoiding or excluding me. In My lifelong struggle with friendships, bullying, social isolation, and repeated conflicts from childhood to my second job—what could explain this pattern 8, I briefly became more confident, but the same problems returned in Classes 9–12. I became isolated, was bullied, got into fights, and eventually started avoiding school.

I completed B.Tech CSE, but attended college regularly only during the first semester. For the remaining seven semesters, I went mainly for exams. I felt isolated and fought with three guys in three separate incidents.

In my first job, things were initially good, but similar problems eventually appeared. I fought with two colleagues, and one fight became physical. Now, in my second job, everyone was initially friendly, but I feel the same pattern is repeating.

I sometimes struggle to know what to say, understand hints and social cues, maintain friendships, or realise when I’m talking too much or interrupting. Sometimes I realise afterward that I said something awkward. I overthink interactions and wonder what I did wrong. I also copy other people’s behaviour to fit in and sometimes feel like I’m acting socially.

I struggle with attention, forget things, have difficulty organising tasks, sometimes act impulsively, and repeat certain movements when excited or stressed. I also had repetitive rituals during childhood.

Why might this pattern be happening across school, college, and work? Am I missing something about how I interact with people, or could there be another explanation? I want honest perspectives from people who have experienced similar difficulties. I’m also considering getting a professional assessment.

school, I was bullied for my appearance, often felt like an outsider, and was rarely anyone’s closest friend. I never understood why people eventually started avoiding or excluding me. In My lifelong struggle with friendships, bullying, social isolation, and repeated conflicts from childhood to my second job—what could explain this pattern 8, I briefly became more confident, but the same problems returned in Classes 9–12. I became isolated, was bullied, got into fights, and eventually started avoiding school.

I completed B.Tech CSE, but attended college regularly only during the first semester. For the remaining seven semesters, I went mainly for exams. I felt isolated and fought with three guys in three separate incidents.

In my first job, things were initially good, but similar problems eventually appeared. I fought with two colleagues, and one fight became physical. Now, in my second job, everyone was initially friendly, but I feel the same pattern is repeating.

I sometimes struggle to know what to say, understand hints and social cues, maintain friendships, or realise when I’m talking too much or interrupting. Sometimes I realise afterward that I said something awkward. I overthink interactions and wonder what I did wrong. I also copy other people’s behaviour to fit in and sometimes feel like I’m acting socially.

I struggle with attention, forget things, have difficulty organising tasks, sometimes act impulsively, and repeat certain movements when excited or stressed. I also had repetitive rituals during childhood.

Why might this pattern be happening across school, college, and work? Am I missing something about how I interact with people, or could there be another explanation? I want honest perspectives from people who have experienced similar difficulties. I’m also considering getting a professional assessment.

for honest opinions from people who may have experienced something similar.

Since childhood, I’ve struggled to make close friends. I’m looking for honest opinions from people who may have experienced something similar.

Since childhood, I’ve struggled to make close friends. In school, I was bullied for my appearance, often felt like an outsider, and was rarely anyone’s closest friend. I never understood why people eventually started avoiding or excluding me. In My lifelong struggle with friendships, bullying, social isolation, and repeated conflicts from childhood to my second job—what could explain this pattern 8, I briefly became more confident, but the same problems returned in Classes 9–12. I became isolated, was bullied, got into fights, and eventually started avoiding school.

I completed B.Tech CSE, but attended college regularly only during the first semester. For the remaining seven semesters, I went mainly for exams. I felt isolated and fought with three guys in three separate incidents.

In my first job, things were initially good, but similar problems eventually appeared. I fought with two colleagues, and one fight became physical. Now, in my second job, everyone was initially friendly, but I feel the same pattern is repeating.

I sometimes struggle to know what to say, understand hints and social cues, maintain friendships, or realise when I’m talking too much or interrupting. Sometimes I realise afterward that I said something awkward. I overthink interactions and wonder what I did wrong. I also copy other people’s behaviour to fit in and sometimes feel like I’m acting socially.

I struggle with attention, forget things, have difficulty organising tasks, sometimes act impulsively, and repeat certain movements when excited or stressed. I also had repetitive rituals during childhood.

Why might this pattern be happening across school, college, and work? Am I missing something about how I interact with people, or could there be another explanation? I want honest perspectives from people who have experienced similar difficulties. I’m also considering getting a professional assessment.

school, I was bullied for my appearance, often felt like an outsider, and was rarely anyone’s closest friend. I never understood why people eventually started avoiding or excluding me. In My lifelong struggle with friendships, bullying, social isolation, and repeated conflicts from childhood to my second job—what could explain this pattern 8, I briefly became more confident, but the same problems returned in Classes 9–12. I became isolated, was bullied, got into fights, and eventually started avoiding school.

I completed B.Tech CSE, but attended college regularly only during the first semester. For the remaining seven semesters, I went mainly for exams. I felt isolated and fought with three guys in three separate incidents.

In my first job, things were initially good, but similar problems eventually appeared. I fought with two colleagues, and one fight became physical. Now, in my second job, everyone was initially friendly, but I feel the same pattern is repeating.

I sometimes struggle to know what to say, understand hints and social cues, maintain friendships, or realise when I’m talking too much or interrupting. Sometimes I realise afterward that I said something awkward. I overthink interactions and wonder what I did wrong. I also copy other people’s behaviour to fit in and sometimes feel like I’m acting socially.

I struggle with attention, forget things, have difficulty organising tasks, sometimes act impulsively, and repeat certain movements when excited or stressed. I also had repetitive rituals during childhood.

Why might this pattern be happening across school, college, and work? Am I missing something about how I interact with people, or could there be another explanation? I want honest perspectives from people who have experienced similar difficulties. I’m also considering getting a professional assessment.

I have been taking focalin 5mg for 3 weeks now. Works great for my productivity, energy, emotional regulation without giving me side effects like racing heart, dry mouth, stomach cramps, shortness of breath, sweating like I experience on concerta and methylphenidate generics. (I heavily suspect I may be mildly allergic to levomethylphenidate, but I’m not sure)

However on the medication… it’s like all my fears and anxieties get brought to the forefront. I have been dealing with complex traumas and irrational fears, that normally I can’t take very seriously at all because my inattentive ADHD makes it hard for me to think about what my thoughts really mean to me because everything is fleeting.

It feels raw, uncomfortable, unsettling, etc… it’s extremely hard to describe but the world doesn’t feel like “whatever” anymore.. it feels like everything is “clear” I also think another aspect of this is my memory has definitely improved on the medication, before it felt like I filled in the gaps on so much. And mentally if I got an uncomfortable thought, it would fleet, but now if I get an uncomfortable thought, it “sticks.”

I am definitely looking for advice, suggestions, or people’s personal experiences with this. Anything is appreciated.

I tried the ADHD discords but their eirher not very active or else not real time responsive right now. I'm looking for someone that also has to many apps on their phone so we could both be accountability buddies and finally sort thru them by what we need don't need to start getting less overwhelmed with being so disorganized. After that I want someone for emails but one step at a time that is a harder task so I'l be looking for a partner for that next. I can't get rid of my anxiety and task and time management issues if I don't fix the root of the issue I realized and it's a bunch of this kinda stuff I realized doing it not the medication. The meds r fine

​

Hi everyone! I urgently need some advice!

So someone really close to me was bothered today thinking she has ADHD. She said she has typical syndromes of ADHD like "hyperactivity , forgetfulness , easily distracted, the brain fog thing, restlessness and fidgeting, impulsiveness,procrastination,hypersensitivity to sounds etc"

She isn't officially diagnosed yet cuz she is still 18 and her parents won't allow it ig cuz we know how some may feel abt it.But i didn't know how to help her T\^T. I said some shit and then said' don't overthink ' but it made her mad...it was dumb of me to say that...so I need to know what would be the things that comforted you like literally anything when you first realised you had ADHD or you were first diagnosed with it?

It will be really helpful! I just want to help her

When having to sit at a desk for 8 hours and tend to stalk the time throughout the day, what else can someone do to make work feel less grueling?

For context:

\-I do enjoy the field and tasks, don't hate my job, in fact it is a creative industry I always wanted to work in, and I do not plan to leave it just because of my own intolerances with the actual "work" part and the restlessness I experience

\-Other coworkers sit immediately next to my desk in the same office space

\-The building is quite small (an office attached to a warehouse) with just a lunch room for staff, so no leisure areas

\-We are in an industrial block, there is no where to really go or do during breaks

\-We get 1 hour long breaks that we can break up as we want, but my concerns are the hours in between

I realize with every job ever had, this was the same reoccurring issue. I've worked at a store in a mall before where at least during breaks, or even for a short moment on down time, I was allowed to walk to other stores or grab a drink. Anytime I was off work for more than a weekend, I realize I have energy to release, whereas waiting for just an hour and a half of work turns me right back into sluggishness while time crawls. I feel burnt out within the last 3 hours of a shift, and it sometimes affects my energy for the rest of the day and even my weekend sometimes once finished. It feels like I have not enough recovery or free time to myself.

Here is what I have tried based on ADHD online suggestions:

\-We are allowed to listen to music, podcasts, etc on headphones, but I've done this to the point where I can't stand my own music, I get quite tired of a generic playlist/genre after a while, and I have no interest in audiobooks or podcasts

\-We cannot leave our desks on the clock except for bathroom breaks or grabbing a snack

\-No way I can do jumping jacks or intense stretches right there in the room with everybody, but I can do some stretching in my seat. I do that as much as I need, but it still doesn't help anything

\-I take the max number of short breaks and walks (though usually to the bathroom since again, no where to really walk) that I can do before it starts to look like distractions/slacking

\-I don't actually want to do the broken up coffee/lunch break thing and prefer the full hour lunch. The smaller breaks I feel makes the day feel longer somehow, and a 15 minute feels far too short to feel worth it. When other coworkers take theirs at set times, I am reminded of the time and dread how much there still is left in the day

\-I do not wish to disclose my condition to my manager or coworkers and expect special treatment, nor that there isn't anything else that could be done for me as it is. It's not even anything severe enough to disrupt my performance or not want to go to work, it's just a big annoyance that I want to learn a way through

Those here with a similar situation what has helped you or something you swear by? I know all are different in how they handle these kinds of things but I'm willing to try new ideas

Thanks

I hate needohs so much im not kidding, and when I look for fidget with everything that a needoh isn’t, I find one that’s literally PERFECT then come to find out it makes noise….I ALSO HATE NOISE. Genuinely what am I supposed to do? My only fidgets I have at this point are pencils but I bite on those when I’m not using it for its intended purpose🥹

How do you prevent yourself from being trapped into thinking you are nothing more than your disorder? How do you take responsibility and actively work toward becoming someone better than the limitations you were born with?

Specifically, how do you stop yourself from hiding inside the "ADHD box" where you simply blame your diagnosis or how you are wired and instead consistently take active steps toward becoming the best version of yourself?

21, NEET, ADHD, ASD, OCD, borderline pattern, significant trauma, porn addiction, pot addiction, MtF.

I have intense executive dysfunction, I have zero positive habits. Not one.
I am in an intense amount of emotional distress constantly, which makes the dysfunction worse. I cannot deal with the emotional pain until I’ve dealt with the dysfunction, because dealing with that emotional pain would require sustained effort — which is completely impossible. I am not capable of it.

The problem is that I can’t deal with the executive dysfunction either. It doesn’t matter how much I know, either in regard to why the dysfunction occurs or what I could do to counter it, it doesn’t improve my ability to act. It is also medication resistant, I have tried five without any improvement in the dysfunction.

I also don’t have the willpower to quit my vices, and developing it would, again, require sustained effort. Which I can’t do, because I am a subhuman who can’t direct my own behavior.

There is, as far as I can tell, literally no advice that could possibly be given on the subject, because I have an unfixable brain issue.
I can’t make myself do things, and I can’t work with myself to do things, because I can’t do anything at all.
But killing myself would require, you guessed it, a sustained effort to make myself more comfortable with self harm/immolation. So not only am I condemned to suffer the rest of my life as a pathetic midwit who can’t improve himself or be anything other than a miserable loser — I also can’t end it.

The problem, ultimately, is there is no course of action that I can’t just… refuse to do. I can’t stop myself from refusing, because I cannot put in the sustained effort to develop the emotional fortitude to deal with that kind of discomfort.
Laid out like this, there is literally nothing anyone could say and nothing I could come up with to make this issue better — which means that I am going to die miserable after having led a miserable life that.

How is a person supposed to move forward when they are categorically incapable of moving forward?

I’m a creative director with ADHD. Every to-do app I’ve tried has died within a week. Either I forgot to open it, or keeping it up to date became its own job. So I built something that does the upkeep for me. I called it Viewport.

What it does

• Writes my morning brief before I’m at my desk. It reads my calendar and my work task tool, then tells me the three things that actually matter today, what can wait, and one tiny first step I can do in 10 minutes. It doesn’t give me a list of 40 things.
• Shows my day as a timeline with a “now” line, so I can see how much time I really have rather than guessing.
• Lets me drop tasks in like I’m texting someone. I type “remind me to do expenses Friday and move the producer call to Thursday” and it sorts it out: new to-do, date changed, with an undo button. No forms, no fields.
• Gives me a “Next week” view every Friday showing what’s booked each day, what’s due, where the crunch days are, and an explicit list of what I’m NOT doing.
• Prompts me for my timesheet at the end of the day, already pre-filled with its best guess. I reply “yep” or correct it in plain words. I went from weeks behind to fully up to date.
• Has a little helper (a cube with eyes) I can tap for “what’s next?”, “prep my next meeting” or “lighten my week”. That last one suggests what to defer, delegate or drop, which is the decision my brain avoids most.

What made it work for my brain

• It comes to me. It updates on its own and nudges me, so I never have to remember to maintain it.
• It’s honest about load without guilting me. The first version had the mascot looking stressed when I was overbooked. That just added pressure, so now he only tries to help.
• It’s fun to look at. Big bold type, stickers, a cube you can throw around the screen. If something’s boring I stop opening it, so the silly bits are doing real work.
• It has one place. Everything I’ve said, decided or been asked to do ends up on the same page.

It’s built with Claude (scheduled tasks plus a private web dashboard), linked to my work calendar and task tool. The screenshots use made-up data.

Happy to answer questions about how I set it up.

So, I've technically been a professional illustrator since I graduated an art institute in 2021, which I am very proud of, and have created probably over a hundred fully-rendered illustrations since then. I consider myself an extremely prolific, hard working and skilled illustrator as I basically spend every moment of my free time slowly chipping away at art projects.

For as long as I can remember, however, there has been one gigantic crutch that I've had to deal with due to my stubborn ADHD brain, and that's a VERY stubborn refusal to put patience and research into learning new skills.

I have had phases of being extremely excited about learning ceramics, sewing DIY clothing, routinely practicing watercolor and (most recently) learning web design - with EXTREMELY supportive friends in the industry willing to help me out - yet it's almost like I flat out REFUSE to be humble enough to try taking those first steps to learn. It must be very annoying from those friends' point of view to see me constantly asking for help on my Instagram story and never following up or making progress. On my days off from work, I'd rather do ANYTHING else.

It's always the same exact cycle:

- an art convention, concert, fellow artist or business opportunity gives me a burning passion to learn a new skill

- I begin by making a quick Google search and open an article, trying not to hold myself back by overthinking it

- I start to question whether or not this particular article or tutorial is suitable for the type of skill I'm trying to learn and the end product I want

- I open more tabs and try searching for more specific keywords

- I run out of time and need to cook food or go to my retail job without having read or learned anything

- I ask others for help, to which they tell me the same exact process I had already started: reading up on guides online

- I completely forget about this process or lose interest in it the next day

I need this cycle to end so I can pursue my art career, and I KNOW that this is an ADHD symptom. Can someone please give me some advice?

I’m an 18-year-old girl, and I believe I have ADHD. It all started in my fourth year of high school, when I really struggled with my studies; I would procrastinate constantly and leave everything until the last minute. This led to extreme burnout that left me mentally exhausted—to the point where I often felt behind my classmates, was under constant stress, and doubted my own abilities. I felt like a total failure. Looking back at my childhood, I recall how my report cards described me as "explosive" or "full of energy." People were always telling me I talked too much, interrupted others, and chatted with classmates during lessons. Throughout my school years, I frequently procrastinated; in middle school, I only got by because I’m intelligent and could rely on logic rather than rote study—which is why I struggled whenever a task required actual, dedicated studying. My whole life, people joked that I was the "ditzy blonde"—forgetful, always losing things, missing appointments, leaving behind school supplies, or even misplacing valuable items. Then, my best friend—who has an ADHD diagnosis—got me thinking. I’ve started to wonder if these traits aren’t just part of my personality, but perhaps signs of a condition that could be diagnosed. I’m afraid to talk to my parents about it; I don’t know if they’d understand or even care, especially since I never struggled academically—I always got good grades, even if it came at the cost of a lot of suffering.
I’m not sure if they’d be willing to pay for a formal diagnosis, and I don’t want them to waste money if it turns out I don’t actually have anything. But, more than anything, I’m terrified of discovering that everything "wrong" with me is entirely my own fault, and has nothing to do with ADHD. I don’t want others to think that I’m seeking a diagnosis just for attention or to have an excuse. I’m so undecided.
What should I do?

Hi all,

For background, I have been on 20mg xr for about 4 years now. Originally, my script was from my first pediatrician (she continued to see me until I was out of college) and about a year and a half ago, I began seeing a new PCP who was very hesitant on prescribing me my meds but after I pushed him he agreed.

Six months ago, he decided to switch me to a psychiatric nurse, who was much more receptive.

However, over the last six months I have noticed my meds just weren’t working as effectively as they have been for the last couple years. I really want to ask her her thoughts on increasing my dose, but I am too afraid.

The problem is, I just had my regular 3 month check in with her today (virtual) and I wanted to bring it up during the appointment, but it was really just a 3 minute check in and I didn’t know how to introduce the topic.

How have you had these conversations? I feel I missed the ball by not bringing it up on my check in today and will have to wait another 3 months (just to be too afraid to talk about it again).