adhdventures

[adhdventures]

I have ADD (professionally diagnosed) and everything I read about RSD never mentions ADD, only ADHD. Though I'm pretty convinced I get RSD. My question is simply: can people with ADD also have RSD? I really want to know if I do or if it's just all in my head

ADD and ADHD are no longer considered seperate things according to the DSM-I believe ADD has been renamed as a subtype of adhd but i forget the exact term

anyway the point is yes definitely!!

-mod happikatt who is very sorry for how quiet this blog’s been we’re like busy or distracted or something and also we all have adhd

[adhdventures]

@ultimatespyro other mod (matt) here; i have two aunts who also have adhd. the eldest was the golden child of the family when it came to grades, and had a natural knack for schoolwork despite having adhd. the younger one also got phenomenal grades as well; i don’t think i’ve known her to get less than a B grade more than a handful times. i myself also managed to keep up a pretty decent GPA despite still struggling with school more than my aunts did.     bad grades are a possible result out of thousands, not a symptom of adhd itself. they’re a side affect. and just like how you don’t experience every single side affect of medications, you’re not going to experience every single side affect of your symptoms.      while it’s nice to have posts to rally around in order to feel less alone, they’re by and large a generalization. adhd and the human brain have too much variation to make posts that reflect every single one of us, so as said above by the other mod, it’s best not to put too much stock into them.

For some reason I'm here at adhd Tumblr :p. Questioning my adhf. For context: I was professionally diagnosed, think (others back me up) I have a boatload of it (mixed type), and get good grades even without meds *record scratch*. So I don't know if I really do cuz I'm seeing these posts about bad grades when trying your best. But I'm crying and questioning my adhd

My advice is basically? In my personal opinion, I don’t think its a really good idea to latch on to relatable posts on tumblr or the internet as validation for your mental health and disorders, mostly cus we’re all at different places in our lives with our symptoms and experiences. They can help sometiems and can be fun, but don’t let them discourage you. [i know how funny that sounds coming from a relatable jokes blog] Some ppl with adhd get terrible grades, and others dont. I wouldn’t worry about it too much bud. 

[adhdventures]

For some reason I'm here at adhd Tumblr :p. Questioning my adhf. For context: I was professionally diagnosed, think (others back me up) I have a boatload of it (mixed type), and get good grades even without meds *record scratch*. So I don't know if I really do cuz I'm seeing these posts about bad grades when trying your best. But I'm crying and questioning my adhd

My advice is basically? In my personal opinion, I don’t think its a really good idea to latch on to relatable posts on tumblr or the internet as validation for your mental health and disorders, mostly cus we’re all at different places in our lives with our symptoms and experiences. They can help sometiems and can be fun, but don’t let them discourage you. [i know how funny that sounds coming from a relatable jokes blog] Some ppl with adhd get terrible grades, and others dont. I wouldn’t worry about it too much bud. 

[adhdventures]

Do you happen to know what the difference between RSD and BPD is?

Borderline Personality Disorder is an entire disorder by itself and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria is an overwhelming uncomfortable and upsetting reaction to rejection.

RSD is a symptom whereas BPD is its own disorder full of its own symptoms and behaviors.

[adhdventures]

Woah woah WOAH I just found out what rsd was and I was diagnosed as bipolar not too long ago and like it mentions in a post in this blog and like??? Im losing my mind now? ? I was diagnosed with ADHD at like 7 and bipolar at 17 and I've always connected with things about borderline PD and like?? All of It overlaps and it"s confusing me and I cant stop crying? And I'm not really looking for anything from you really I'm just venting?? And like so confused?? And ??? ?????? -E

you might have both! adhd has a high comorbidity with a whole lotta things. Or the BPD stuff could be what you’re dealing with; this is a really good conversation to have with your psychiatrist as soon as possible. Best of luck with figuring out your brain, E! 

Mod HappiKatt 

[adhdventures]

sooo i'm 14. My mom told me that I might have ADHD. She told me that a lot of people in my family have it (Both my brothers, My mom, my grandpa, etc) and I looked up the symptoms and I relate to them a lot, even when I looked at some posts about ADHD I strongly felt the same. My mom is going to get me tested but,, idk how to feel about all of this, it's happening so quick and i'm very nervous. Is there anything that I should be worried about? thanks.

I bet it would feel like a bit of a whirlwind, yeah! I can’t say I remember getting tested, since I was very young when it happened, but my understanding of how it works is it’s all basically just a lot of back-and-forth “what symptoms do you experience?” “this and this and this”, and then they ask if you feel you have it well enough under control that you don’t need any medication or if you’d rather try them out to see if they help, and the doctor can additionally get you special allowances that the school’s gotta adhere to in order to help you out further. (for example, i always got extra time on tests if i needed it, even standardized tests! i dont remember if that included the ACT/SATs, mind you, but the state mandated standardized BS tests that happened up thru tenth grade i got extra time on.) 

basically getting a professional diagnosis just means you’re gonna figure out of medication will help you and give you access to some other tools that’ll potentially help you really thrive! ouo/ 

-Mod HappiKatt

[adhdventures]

So, i dont know if this add or not, but ive found over the last year that i have these days where everythings fuzzy? Like, i cant get my thoughts together because too much is going on in my head

Sounds like it!

ADD can make your thoughts jumbled either from struggling to focus on a single thing or jumping from topic to topic one right after another. Sometimes it can blur your thoughts completely and make it difficult to find something to focus on, or fill your day with racing thoughts. It can also blur and warp your perception of time.

-mod speedo

[adhdventures]

Rsd 100% is not adhd specific, the name might be, but an awful lot of people suffer that for multiple reasons. Bpd maybe, as you mentioned, but I've also done a lot of reading on the concept of severe LSE and the description of it is word for word the same thing. You've got to be really careful with psych language and the DSM as things are rarely so easily categorised

I’m not the one who made the post, but I’ve been given the go ahead to deal with responding to this, so! 

Friend, I totally get where you’re coming from. Your heart is in the right place, and I appreciate that, and I agree that it’s good to be careful. The thing is, the post itself wasn’t like…claiming that it is absolutely 100% ADHD only. 

That post was originally created in October of last year, and I’m going to directly quote it here: 

“ok rejection sensitive dysphoria is for right now as far as we know, ADHD specific, though there have been discussions in a ton of communities over how it is possible some BPD [borderline personality disorder, not bipolar] sufferers experience it as well. But until thats really delved upon, right now, it is ADHD specific. [research changes constantly and alters all we know]”

this section of text was meant to represent exactly what you’re saying here, that research is constantly changing! Back in October, the studies that had (to my knowledge; maybe they were around longer and I just missed it, I don’t actually know) recently gone up about RSD were all primarily if not entirely focused on ADHD, and between that and this being an ADHD blog, we made that post based around ADHD. However, the post’s purpose was to describe the symptom itself, not to yell THIS IS AN ADHD ONLY THING IF YOU DONT HAVE ADHD YOU CANT EXPERIENCE THIS!!!! far from it, in fact! the post was made in response to someone asking what it is, that’s all.

i’d also like to point out too that this blog is not run by psych majors or psychologists or anything of the sort; currently we’re just three twenty-somethings with google and a lifetime of experience to draw from (and in my case my mother’s experience as well). we draw comics and give advice, and that’s about it. 

so, tl;dr, we appreciate that your concern comes from a well meaning place but the post in question was written like over half a year ago and was never meant to state that rsd is definitely always only going to be adhd, it was just meant to explain what rsd is because a lot of people who suffer from it have no idea that it isn’t their fault 

and that’s all we wanted to change! just help inform people that this is an Actual Thing That Happens so that they can better gear themselves up to cope when it hits! 

Mod HappiKatt

[adhdventures]

Anon with unsupportive parents: processing too is really hard

I do have some tips for processing, at least; I know I tend to try and talk things over with people if I’m having trouble working through it. In my case, it tends to work best if I do this with someone over text, typically online, since I’m especially bad at auditory processing; but whatever works best for you might be good! Whether you have to write/draw things out until they make sense in your head, rephrase what’s been stated in a way that makes sense to you, talk it out with peers, and so on and so forth! The main thing is you gotta give your brain a chance to go over things one more time, and try and get it sorted out into something a bit more organized than the brain soup that tends to happen w/ ADHD

Mod HappiKatt

[adhdventures]

So I'm like 99% sure I have ADHD... I relate to nearly every symptom, and to every post I see about ADHD but my parents believe kids are diagnosed and since I'm a Smart Just Lazy High Schooler™ every time I try to mention it (ex. "my friend with ADHD said I have like all her symptoms") I get instantly shut down and I can't bring myself to go again. Are there any ways to deal with it w/o any help? :/ especially emotional and with attention / fidgeting I'm just a wreck lol

If your parents won’t work with you at all, I’d suggest maybe mentioning it to your teachers, at the very least? They won’t be able to give you official benefits like extra time on standardized tests and the like, not without an official diagnosis, unfortunately, but you might be able to at least work out some other help with them. I’d go for teachers you know you get along with first, if you do this, since they might be more open to listening to you on this in the first place. 

For fidgeting, I know I used to click/flick around a pen a lot or spend a ton of time doodling while listening to lectures; that’s a thing I know talking to teachers about might help, if you clarify with them that doing this stuff isn’t you ignoring them, it’s your way of paying attention while multitasking. 

Really, though, it’s pretty awful on your parents to reject ADHD as a possible diagnosis. >:T 

If your school has a counsellor you can talk to, that might not hurt, either; it might come down to you needing to shove actual research in your parents’ faces or getting another adult to talk to them about this, but I know that’s not an option for everybody. I got through high school with medication; I know caffeine helps some people with ADHD, so if that helps, that’s an option maybe? I remember my mom tells stories about how she did a lot of her best thinking while long-distance running, and that was a way to get energy out of her and try to focus better, but that might not work for everyone, either. 

ADHD is really hard to deal with without any sort of medication/accommodation, unfortunately. Do any followers have suggestions they can offer that I can’t think of? 

Mod HappiKatt

[adhdventures]

@eburneann sums up p much what i was thinking, here; i doubt adhd itself causes nightmares but it likely would intensify them if something else caused them 

it’s possible treating adhd might then lessen nightmares, but you’d probably have more luck dealing with them by going after the primary source of the nightmares! hope this helps, anon

I've heard that it's common for people with ADHD to have frequent/very intense nightmares. Is this true?

Sorry for taking a while to get to this one!

I honestly haven’t heard anything in particular about this, and I asked my psychiatrist last time I saw him, and he wasn’t sure either (but noted that he’s not an expert on ADHD specifically, he’s just the guy who signs off on my prescriptions). I can see it happening, though; anxiety tends to often happen with ADHD, and depending on how your sleep schedule goes, that could definitely result in possible severe nightmares. 

Any of our followers heard or experienced anything like this? I know I personally don’t tend to remember many of my dreams, but the handful of nightmares I really remember over the course of my life had a way of sticking with me pretty vividly. 

Mod HappiKatt

[adhdventures]

I've heard that it's common for people with ADHD to have frequent/very intense nightmares. Is this true?

Sorry for taking a while to get to this one!

I honestly haven’t heard anything in particular about this, and I asked my psychiatrist last time I saw him, and he wasn’t sure either (but noted that he’s not an expert on ADHD specifically, he’s just the guy who signs off on my prescriptions). I can see it happening, though; anxiety tends to often happen with ADHD, and depending on how your sleep schedule goes, that could definitely result in possible severe nightmares. 

Any of our followers heard or experienced anything like this? I know I personally don’t tend to remember many of my dreams, but the handful of nightmares I really remember over the course of my life had a way of sticking with me pretty vividly. 

Mod HappiKatt

[adhdventures]

Sorry if this has already been answered/isn't a question for this blog, but I'm not sure how to talk to my doctor about changing medications. There's quite a few things that I feel like my current one doesn't help, but I don't feel totally confident asking about it. Any tips?

Sorry for taking so long to get to this! 

It might help to write down a list of the things you’re having issues with before talking to your doctor? It can help boost confidence a bit to feel really prepared, and plus that way you don’t have to worry about forgetting anything important! 

Your doctor should want what’s best for you, and will likely be glad to hear about any concerns you have! Finding the right medication can take a few tries; I was originally on Aderall and that wound up having some kind of serious side effects that really made it a bad fit for me, but our second try with Concerta turned out much  better! 

Good luck!

Mod HappiKatt 

[adhdventures]

both me and my mom have adhd. Im smart, but i cant focus on work and get bored easily. I ace every major test but i cant get my work in out of sheer boredom. Im now failing 6 of my 8 classes and may not get to go to junior year. do you have any advice? I normally have b's and a's, but this uear has just been hell.

I had a kinda similar situation when I was in high school, and I think I might be able to offer some suggestions.

I know I was never able to get my homework done /at home/, but I WAS able to get it done at school, either the day it was assigned or during a free period before it was due. I mean, that doesn’t apply as much to stuff like big research essays and so on, but daily homework I tried to always get done during study hall and the like. It’s a sort of brain-association thing that happens, you can sort of trick your brain into learning to focus more in certain environments. So what I guess I’m saying is: maybe try and set up a particular space where studying/working on homework is the ONLY thing you do? Whether that place be in a public space, somewhere at school, a room in your house you don’t usually use, or, heck, at a friend’s house - maybe being part of a study/homework group would help add on the extra incentive of peer pressure, in kind of the same way you can fight executive disfunction and get yourself to clean your living space by having a friend come over to pressure urself into going OK SOMEONE ELSE IS GONNA BE HERE I RLY GOTTA CLEAN!! 

i get where this problem starts, though, man. it sucks being a rly smart kid in grade school because you never learn good study/homework habits and it bites you in the butt later :c i hope some of what i’ve said helps! any of our followers have any other tips for fighting boredom and getting homework done? 

Mod HappiKatt

EDIT: i think you’re the same anon from that last ask, i just noticed, oops

me and my mom both have adhd, too, but see. to me that just makes me all the more irritated at her, because my mom definitely understood that if i was struggling with a thing, it was either because i’d been having an adhd problem and couldn’t focus, or i’d legit not understood a concept in class. just because she was apparently able to wrangle her adhd enough to always focus in class doesn’t mean you’re exactly the same!  adhd isn’t the same for everyone who has it, and that’s important to know, too! 

boredom rly is such a huge problem with adhd, because our brains are just so terrible at focusing on things that aren’t interesting to us :C i rly hope you’re able to find some solutions to this! 

[adhdventures]

Adhd be like: Me: "alright, I'm a little scared to ask, but my Mom's always there for me when I need her, just ask!!" Me: Hey mom can I get some help with homework? Mom: you would've learned this if you had just been focusing in class! Me: ok sorry RSD: ( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o) Me: wait no

hey anon im gonna fight your mom 

this is a super relatable and frustrating series of events and im sorry you’re constantly experiencing it, but jfc!!! does your mom just not understand that focusing is literally not something that ppl with adhd can consistently do at will??? and even if adhd wasn’t a factor, if you’re asking, then obviously you didn’t learn it in class, and sure that could be because you weren’t paying attention, but it might also just be that you didn’t understand it! refusing to help you at all is the absolute WORST response to you asking for help that she could’ve done and im gonna fIGHT HER 

im also gonna fight RSD. just, all RSD ever. because RSD is the worst. meet me behind starbucks, RSD. 

Mod HappiKatt 

[adhdventures]

I finally opened up to my parents about my massive executive dysfunction. My dad is also ADHD but I've never seen him struggle with executive dysfunction so I never felt I could talk about it. But he understood perfectly (he calls it inertia, like, trouble getting started with things) and helped me explain it to my NT mom, and then offered me support when I'm struggling to do things, and I just feel so good right now.

That’s fantastic!! I know I think of it as being a problem of inertia a lot, too; oftentimes once I do get started I can finish a thing just fine, but getting started can be SUCH a huge struggle that it’s far easier said than done. I’m rly happy for you anon :D :D :D

Mod HappiKatt 

[adhdventures]

Is it an ADHD thing to love organization and the feeling of control it gives but being basically unable to follow through with the organization and ending up with a huge mess that will just stay on the floor forever?

it’s DEFINITELY an adhd thing to be either 100% organized or an absolute mess, so what you’re talking about sounds like it, yeah! I know I have a similar problem; every now n then i’ll actually get everything all sorted out and nice and neat, but it never stays that way for long and things get messy again pretty quickly.

Mod Happikatt