Magnesium glycinate, +1. It saves my sleep...

Etymotics

Lists. Music. Earplugs for if I can’t remove myself from an overstimulation situation. Reminders and calendar events for everything. Keep all my stuff in the same spot. Take walks every day. Try to remember to eat and sleep well by keeping a strict routine. The last thing is crucial for me.

I never really thought about it, but it's certainly possible. It definitely makes me feel better to have certain things in these uncertain times.

If I sit still I get way more sensitive to temperature than if I move around. Like lying under a warm duvet, it's almost impossible to remove it. But get up and do some frog leaps and burpees and you'll soon want to throw off that duvet and change your situation. Same with shivering in a cold wet towel, being cold isn't enough to get me to get dressed if I'm sitting down. But doing some squats or hip raises to raise my body temperature and suddenly I'm able to move around and get shit done again. My brain is motion powered. I need to move to function. Find some movement you can do in bed (hip raises, crunches, pushups) that get you warm enough to get out of bed. Maybe it helps!

Many of us just hate talking on the phone, which gets even worse when the call is not on our own terms; although both suck, being called sucks more.

I don't really see it as randomness. More of a craving for novelty and a constant stream of consciousness. I was talking with another another ADHD person today and it might seem random, but every change in the conversation had a logical connection to the things before it. We both were content to flow with the conversation is it naturally moved between topics.

I've been working at getting better at being mediocre at things. So far, it's been a source of positive growth, but I do find it ironic how even when it comes to this, I feel compelled to frame it to myself as improving at a thing

My PCP recommended me to a specialist office that does neurological testing at scale, so I was able to get through it all pretty quickly. I asked about it at my yearly insurance physical in March, got an appointment for online testing on the 3rd, and got my results two weeks later. I was surprised by how easy it was. I have pretty good insurance from my job. Here's the specialist I used I'm not sure if they take patients outside Michigan or not, but everything I did was remote, so I don't see why they couldn't. Their reviews on Google are bad, but my experience was great, and I've had friends say good things about another doctor also at this practice

Thank you! That is encouraging.

Actually I don't, I have a new psychiatrist and the team is hesitant to give a stimulant when I'm on so many other meds for depression, anxiety, insomnia, and pain. They want to start with non-stimulants. I'm at a loss at what to do. Am I really going to start over AGAIN?! I've already done this. I just want to feel better already, I want that silence everyone talks about. That ability to just DO.

I have a todo app and have set up recurring reminders for daily/weekly/monthly tasks. Daily for like dishes/trash/meals Weekly for laundry/groceries/etc Monthly for budgeting/deeper cleaning I don't stress if I miss one (or many,lol) but at least having them in the app means I have the list handy already when I realize I should check it, and not be wondering "what was that once a month thing I meant to do....?"

I ended up getting reevaluated for some reason in high school back in the '90s, by a complete pompous asshole. So, according to this dude, not preferring to sit at the front of a classroom is proof positive that it cannot possibly be ADHD. I must just be lazy and manipulative. (That second part was a new one, at least. Trying to dodge accountability? Idek.) That was it, that was the entire rationale stated for why ADHD was supposedly no longer an issue in my life. I am not joking. Thankfully my parents thought he sounded full of it too, and did arrange for a more comprehensive educational reevaluation through a university center. Where my own seating preferences never came up, incidentally. Yeah, I also had PTSD and actual (partly documented) reason not to trust some people behind me at that school. Turns out I'm also on the autistic spectrum. I still have not magically grown out of either thing, 30+ years later. Funny how that works. That little anecdote aside, I do get the idea that this is probably one of those longterm received wisdom things. Just because it's a go-to suggestion, doesn't mean that this strategy is going to work best for everyone. Useful point to bring up, OP.

Interesting insight! I travelled the same road in the other direction. As someone who loves science, I always saw my role as a patient to just report symptoms and let the doctors do their thing. And I'm sure this would be the ideal approach if everybody had the House M.D. team on their case. But after decades of this failing, I realised that this method does not work with a real-world medical system where doctors have more bias than they should, work with methods from their studying days that assumed they had more time and resources per case, and wrong monetary incentives. So Method 1: I say I have X, and make it clear that I'll be a PITA if their test doesn't confirm it. If there were no bias, there would be no harm to this, but if there is, it's working to my advantage now. Method 2: Just think of them as the idiot who is clueless but gatekeeper of the much wanted prescription. Nobody wants to hear this, but a layman's web research, LLM and 1000 hours of thinking often beats 10 years of medical training if the doctor interrupts the patient after 20 seconds and only thinks about the case for 5 minutes. (With 30 minutes, my money would be back on the trained professional, but nobody has 30 minutes.) A patient can also fixate on a premature assumption just like a doctor can, but my very subjective experience is that doctors are more prone to that.

Surprised they werent just stored as strings you could edit in a hex editor or something, but then I know nothing about fonts

My psychiatrist keeps asking me what I think being normal is whenever I wonder what that is like, says there is no such thing, I just want to know what I'm striving for you know.

I didn't get a degree until my thirties, once I got diagnosed and figured out my needs. For me it was: Accomodations, Meds, Moving a lot, Low music with a predictable beat and no vocals, Accountability checks (showing up for every lectures or partnering/grouping up for every assignment), Active participation, Learning by doing, and Learning by talking. For maths (the bane of my existence, but soooo satisfying once you get it!) I also got to do the exams in a separate room with headphones on, and could take breaks to run around the building or up and down the stairs a few times whenever I needed to restart my brain. Plus extra time to account for those breaks and the mental breakdowns that preceded them. Meds are essential for me, but they can make me miss cues from my body. So it's important to manage my body's needs like clockwork while on them, regardless of what I feel like I can do or do without in the moment: eat breakfast and lunch and an afternoon snack/mini-meal to avoid emotional outbursts or binge eating when the meds wear off. Take breaks (just stepping out or standing by an open window to breathe, or set an alarm and lie down with legs up and closed eyes) for a few min every hour. Go to the bathroom. Drink water. Blink. Do not put in overtime to "only" solve/finish this one thing -that thing won't get solved until you have a shower or talk to another human. Overtime/cramming will not be efficient studying, the goal is not just passing one test and forgetting, but actually learning and understanding...and resting is an essential component of that. Listening to online lectures (or even worse, pre-recorded one's) was impossible until I got a walking pad, and it made writing assignments and at home-tests way easier. For on campus-days I'd run up and down the stairs during every break in or between lectures (most teachers would do breaks every hour but if not I would just ask them for it). Blood flow through legs means blood flow to brain! Low music without vocals with a good chill beat fill the silence when people are talking too slow and keeps me on track when it gets boring, without stealing attention or focus by being too loud or interesting. With daily lectures I got a schedule and routine, which got me up and started in the morning and left a suitable time slot for lunch (missing lunch is a big no-no!). While doing assignments with someone else it was a lot easier to get started (I'm great at filling uncomfortable silences that happens when no-one know where to begin) and organise and section off the work into manageable parts, while having someone else to take charge of those last 5% that I seem unable to do. I need to take plenty of notes during lectures (might never read them again, but just the motion of writing the words help my listening and retention). I also always ask as soon as I get lost or have a relevant question, and attempt to answer any questions during (even if I get it wrong) a class. If I think my question will get answered I'll write it down and ask them at the end if I'm still unsure. If I don't do this, I'll get stuck on something in my mind and stop following along. I chose a school with a lot of practical learning built into the education. Lots of practical assignments, internship opportunities etc. Our brains are evolved for conversation, language and communication. When getting stuck, I usually need a break... But if the break doesn't solve it, explaining the difficult thing to someone else will often make me figure it out by the time I've finished talking. If not the other person might have an idea for how to think and move forward. Asking questions, explaining complex concepts to each other, bouncing ideas, telling stories are all great tools for learning and more importantly gaining understanding of a topic. Good luck, and if you managed to read all this: you're gonna be fine!

There's been a "shortage" for years.

Yeah I've had late night cravings with it. Usually mine wears off around bed time, though, so I just go to sleep. Lol

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