#combined adhd

[piskelo10]

Living with ADHD

[itsbansheebitch]

You may have ADHD, but I have AD4K

[carriageofaerietails]

Personal update below cut bc this got longer than I expected

I officially got my combined ADHD diagnosis on Monday, so that's been incredibly validating. The psychiatrist also stated that she absolutely believes I'm autistic as well, and that if I got reassessed (she rolled her eyes when I told her about the original doctor at our county's NHS autism centre) I'd absolutely get that diagnosis, too. She kept this fact in mind when deciding which medication to try because many ADHD meds can cause autistic people severe sensory overload and I told her how hard it is living with my parents and little brother with the noise in the house.

Speaking of them... She also asked if she could contact social services on my behalf as she believes I'm a vulnerable individual being neglected and abused in the house. Of course, given my stepdad has paid for the assessment (ADHD queues on the NHS are 3 - 5 years and I'm 30 and my life is a disaster), people might question that, obviously. But one of his kids has CTPTSD because of him, and my stepsibs both maintain the only reason they turned out alright and I'm a mess is because I was stuck with their father and my mother and they were mostly out of the way. Obviously being mostly trapped here in adulthood hasn't helped.

I'm holding off for now, because I'm concerned with how things are in the UK that social services might not be able to get me out and then my parents will get even more aggressive or throw me out onto the streets. One of my gaming/FF FC friends has at least told me that if my stepdad tries to withhold medication over anything that she'll help me pay. But I mostly just want to restore function enough to be able to work consistently like I used to! Because I used to work as much as I could get and be the one that people reached out to cover shifts and take overtime! That was me!! I never used to ask for money, I used to surprise my friends with gifts all the time!! And I want that back, actually!!

So that's my life update. No tumblr rp, only me, again lol. I do write over discord a lot tho if anyone wants to arrange anything but I'm not the writing machine I once was because ^^^^^^ all that. But perhaps in a healthier environment with the right regime of droogs I can once again become creatively insufferable.

Ty for reading if you read it lol

[mogai-headcanons]

Pizza Cookie from Cookie Run: Ovenbreak is an autistic GNC arospec asexual gay transmasculine agender turigirl with depression, combined ADHD, and bipolar disorder who uses he/her pronouns!

Mocha Ray Cookie is an autistic GNPNC aroacespec gaybian genderqueer cookie with combined ADHD and bipolar disorder who uses any pronouns!

dni link

[rottingrancidangel]

HEY IVE BEEN BITCHING ABOUT ADHD MY WHOLE LIFE AND SCORED HIGH ON THE COMBINED TYPE AND WHEN I INQUIRED MY PYSCHTRITRIST ABOUT WHY IT TOOK SO LONG TO GET TEsted

"b/c you're a girl"

first off, I'm an eldritch creature and second off...

FUCKTHAT

[livixbobbiex]

You know what's fun?

They seem to have made Percy more on the inattentive end of ADHD than hyperactive. Aside from the capture the flag scene, we mostly just see him zoning out, 'daydreaming', the line "I don't think it's the marshmallow's fault I never pay attention".

ADHD barely gets good representation as it is, but I don't think I've ever seen the inattentive type in media like this before. This is going to be huge for a lot of people who don't fall under the hyperactive stereotype umbrella.

I'm just really excited that more people will get the chance to see themselves.

[nyc1992]

damn I cant remember anything

[nazumichi]

neurotypicals are so funny sometimes. “well, just don’t forget it next time.” holy shit. you’ve done it. you’ve fixed me. who knew memory problems could be solved so simply? i am no longer autistic, i am ready to join you at the social function. by god.

[thats-godscomma]

Since rewatching Psych, I've been thinking about how weird and arbitrary Shawn's interests are. Sure, late 2000's writing had something to do with it, and maybe a bit of Henry and Gus's influence, but hearing Shawn be so vocal about how he hates certain popular things or (more importantly) refuses to give them a chance BUT at the same time knowing so many pop culture references, it got me thinking.

What if the reason Shawn has so many pop culture references on hand is because of his eidetic memory, and he doesn't actually have as much of an interest in pop culture? Throughout the show, he actively avoids getting roped into big interests and franchises (see: comic books, soap operas, etc.) despite the fact that he genuinely seems excited once he's part of it. In fact, we don't get to see a lot of Shawn's interests at all unless it's based on an idea.

Take being a bounty hunter, for example. According to him, he's obsessed with the idea, but he doesn't make many references to an actual bounty hunter show or franchise. Instead, he just remembers the one bounty hunter he saw as a child and maybe references a movie or two. Because once he remembers something, he's never going to forget it, or at least not for a very long time.

That's why he thinks in references. Everything is a reference if you have a good enough memory. Everything reminds you of something. If Shawn hears someone make a Spock reference, it's in his repertoire forever. But he wouldn't be caught dead watching the shows or movies because that's just too much information. Why on earth would he endure that?

Of course, it also intertwines with his ADHD. He has bouts of energy and trouble focusing. He can't sit still to save his life, and he hyperfixates...or he would if his memory didn't make him averse to it. So if he doesn't want to hyperfixate on an information-based interest, then what does he hyperfixate on? Physical activities. Instead of learning about his favorite daredevil, he tries to be one himself. When he learns about oil rigs, he doesn't get a book from the library. He tries to find oil in his backyard.

This is also where he and Henry differ regarding Shawn's "potential." Henry is correct when he talks about Shawn's "wasted" potential, but he doesn't understand the toil of having this eidetic memory and ADHD. Here's what I think happened: Henry probably noticed Shawn's stellar memory at a young age, realized he has a gift, spoke with his wife about her eidetic memory, learned that you need to challenge your child's eidetic memory at a young age or it'll go away, started the hat game to make it fun and exciting, but then Shawn's ADHD appeared. Suddenly, it made him much harder to raise (because let's be real, Shawn was not an easy child.) Henry didn't know what he was doing anymore, and since it was the 80's, he didn't have the resources to properly understand his kid's behavior, so he tried to find a common interest, and started training Shawn to be a detective "because kids love cop shows." But Shawn struggled to stay attached to one single interest, and when he grew up, he stopped trying to articulate his problems because his mom (the only person who remotely understood his struggles) left, and he blamed his dad for it.

And academics? Those are a joke because what is the point of studying if he already remembers everything? Until, of course, he needs to apply it to a problem-solving test or writing an essay. Suddenly, he's memorizing a math teacher's answer sheet and copying Gus's report.

Yes, Shawn could have been a great cop. He could be an amazing scientist or anything really. He could have been a national spelling bee champion like Gus wanted to be. Even 15 years later, Shawn remembered exactly what word Gus messed up, how to spell the word, and what letter he made Gus slip up, but he didn't want to be on that stage with Gus because that requires so much learning. And so much time. And so much memorizing. And he refuses to sit still for that long when he knows that overloading his head is going to give him migraines.

Also his "I've heard it both ways" probably comes from the fact that people with eidetic memory can still make lots of mistakes if they don't actively commit something to memory. If Shawn only overhears something, he'll still naturally try to fill in the gaps like everyone else, but because he's so confident in his memory, he just believes what he remembers to be true, leading him to repeat incorrect information with confidence. That could also be why some of his references are incorrect due to mixed-up homophones.

Anyway, this post was supposed to be about how Shawn is just a walking movie reference because his memory won't let him forget quotes, but then I fell into a rabbit hole of the negative effects of having an eidetic memory as a child, and I am very passionate about how Henry actually tried his best, and people need to stop calling him a horrible parent. Love y'all. Let me know what you think.

[piskelo10]

I can't be trusted

edit: ignore that I wrote this at 4 am

edit edit: I forgot I didn't need to point that out because I fucking said the time in the goddamn message oh my god

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

obviously hanguang-jun would wear sports bras…. right?

Wei Wuxian failed his perception and insight check rolls.

[lothalrebel]

Anyone else understimulated but overstimulated

Like I need something or I’m gonna go crazy but I also need everything to stop or I’m gonna go crazy

[walkawaytall]

I really wish there was more interest in how to handle ADHD other than just addressing the symptoms that affect the people around us.

Like, the best pharmaceutical treatment we have right now is stimulants, and I agree that being on stimulants 24 hours a day, 365 days a year is probably not good for your body. Hell, I’m on a less-than-ideal dose of my medication from a concentration perspective because the ideal dose had my resting heart rate sitting at a cool 115BPM. I know taking med holidays is important. I know all of this.

But because ADHD isn’t just an attention problem (or may not actually be an attention problem at all at its core), it sucks that the only time period medical professionals seem to be concerned about treating are the “important” times: the length of a school or workday. Forget the fact that ADHD affects executive function, forget the fact that people with ADHD often experience chronic and unending anxiety and/or depression as a result of the ADHD, forget that there are important times that have nothing to do with an 8-hour school or work day, forget the rejection sensitivity dysphoria, the sensory issues that make things like clothing, food, and group situations a nightmare to try to navigate, the household stuff that has to be taken care of outside of the 8-hour school or work day. It feels like none of that matters because it doesn’t affect a group of fifteen or more people.

On top of ADHD, I have been plagued with anxiety-related issues for the majority of my life. I likely have a form of OCD and I have a history with a restrictive eating disorder; both of those conditions are very closely associated with high levels of anxiety. I’ve been on anxiety medications before. I was first given an as-needed medication that took the edge off but also made everything feel a little fuzzy, like there was a pane of glass between me and the rest of the world; I was put on an SSRI that somehow made my OCD-related intrusive thoughts about 50x worse than usual and had me wondering at one point if I should be hospitalized; and I’m currently on buspirone, which is doing what it’s supposed to do without the side effects of the others thankfully. But nothing, and I mean nothing, has reduced my anxiety as much as my ADHD medication.

Two hours after my first stimulant dosage, I just suddenly didn’t feel on-edge any more. I estimate that being on ADHD medication has reduced my anxiety by about 70% (buspirone’s for the other 30%). I started taking it in the summer of 2020 and I remember, in 2021, when I saw my boss in person for the first time since lockdown, he remarked on how much more confident I seemed, how I was more likely to speak up in meetings, etc. And I was like…yeah, man, it’s a wonder what not feeling anxious every second of every day will do for someone.

ADHD affects so much more of my life than just attention and anxiety, too. I have sensory issues with mine, which is pretty common, and they make eating — an already sometimes-complicated task due to the ED history — difficult at times because, while I can eat foods that I don’t particularly like, if something is what I call “the bad texture”, I will gag no matter how hard I work to overcome it (believe me, I’ve tried). And my brain sometimes decides that foods that were previously fine are now “the bad texture” and they may or may not shift back to being okay eventually; I don’t know.

The sensory issues affect me socially. My therapist and I have recently come to the conclusion that I’m probably not actually an introvert, but if I’m around larger groups, that means noise and movement and probably being touched, and too much of that causes my brain to either freak out or shut down. I used to always say, “I love people, but when I’m done, I’m done.” And that was likely because the overstimulation was building and building in the background, and at a certain point, my brain would just be like, “We gotta get outta here.” I was Queen of Irish Goodbyes for a very long time because of this.

And the executive dysfunction affects…well..everything? Not just work, not just school (but also those because if my environment is chaotic, my brain feels chaotic, and it is difficult to maintain a non-chaotic environment if you keep getting stuck on order of operations when picking up a room).

I’m not saying that I want to be on longer-lasting stimulants or that I want to be on the higher dose that I know helps my concentration more, cardiovascular system by damned. What I’m saying is, I wish treatment research had been more holistic rather than just figuring out what would give teachers and managers an easier time despite what the person with ADHD might be dealing with as soon as their meds wear off.

Maybe current research is working on it; I don’t know. I just know that, the older I get, the more frustrated I am with my brain and the more apparent the deficiencies I used to be able to counteract with pre-chronic-illness energy and crushing perfectionism become, and I wish there was an answer to this that actually helped me most of the time rather than forcing me to pick which parts of my day/week is “important” and making sure I’m medicated for those parts.

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

The 3 ADHD Types

The Mini ADHD Coach

[foone]

I've got a "to buy" item on my list that's been there so long that not only is the item discontinued and not available, it's clothing for a gender I'm not anymore

[literallyjusttoa]

Making Apollo a fucked up little guy by collecting other fucked up little guys in media and copy pasting their fucked up nature onto him. Or, on the other side of the coin, taking Apollo’s little scrimbly scrumbly fucked up self and dumping it onto every other blorbo I see. What a way to spend a weekend!