Image not quite for ADHPeeps but I feel this sort of thing happens regularly for us as well.
Extreme anxiety.
For the longest time, I couldn’t recruit enough concentration to get homework or big projects done until it was this huge looming threat. Frequently, that would involve an all-nighter since it was something due the next day. Other times, it meant cranking out last night’s math assignment in home room mere minutes before it was due. It turns out that adrenaline and other stress hormones are great at shoving all the ADHD noise out of the way, however temporarily.
Interesting experience. My partner who we suspect has ADHD always used to be up all night writing essays on the deadline in uni too.
I’m a heavy tea drinker. When I got diagnosed with ADD at 40 I realized I was probably (lol) self-medicating with the copious amounts of tea.
Still better (and tastier) than meds IMHO. Of course don’t take my advice always, ALWAYS, talk to your doctor.
You should know that there is data that backs you up: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8875377/#sec5-nutrients-14-00739
And also on the self-medicated front: nicotine is effective too. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8741955/
What this makes me wonder is how much of the population is self-medicated in this way but doesn’t know it?
Yup didn’t mention cigarettes because I kicked the habit but nicotine also does wonders for ADD. LOL
Weed to let me take things slowly. Otherwise thoughts spiral out of control, I want to do 1000 things at the same time and can’t focus on a single thing. Weed gives me focus, and those eye blinders that people used to put on horses so they would have a narrower field of view, whatever they’re called. I’m not english I’m so concentrated I almost forget to eat on days I have an edible,… and I’m a foodie
Started with caffeine as a child and never really stopped. School was a problem and I sought solace in cannabis as a teen. Eventually cannabis became toxic to my mental health and I quit it in my twenties, and alcohol somewhat filled the void. A ten year hiatus from all substances ensued but I hated my job and went back to education to retrain and this is where I really got into it with drugs.
Motivating long and boring tasks is ADHD kryptonite, as I’m sure many here are familiar. This particular motivational mountain was a PhD thesis and my weapons of choice were opioids, cocaine, amphetamine and benzodiazepines. Opioids are great for motivation, stimulants sharpen the concentration and benzos let me sleep. I was unaware of ADHD at this time but I knew something was wrong and that this cocktail was completely unsustainable.
Fast forward three years and I finally learn why I seek these things, it’s ADHD, duh. Now I have the correct medication and therapy I never think about drugs. I’m happy and productive, I can work on undoing forty years of pretending to be someone without an attention deficit.
My exam trick was no coffee for two days before the exam, then a couple cups the morning of. Worked great. In other news, holy crap, do I have ADHD??
Similar but Pistachios. The mechanics of opening the shells and eating them allowed me to focus on the college professor’s material after an 9-10 hour work shift. If I showed up to class without pistachios or sunflower seeds I was nodding off in class.
When I was younger they gave me Ritalin, mostly to stop me from burning the building down. It worked, because I never burned the school down… can’t say the same for the neighbors shed… plus there was that incident with the bridge, luckily the fire department showed up quickly.
good stuff, keep up the flame! 🔥
So much fucking coffee. My god it was too much.
I think I got this from lemmy?
Look, as long as I can convince myself to go to sleep and not hyperfocus on whatever is in front of me I’ll be fine. Problem is, it’s a 50/50 toss up whether or not I can ignore my brain on any given night.
I had this too, everyone around me went “just close your eyes and sleep” and that had the exact opposite effect on me, now I take meds (seroquel at a low dose) and I finally understand NT people, I get sleepy at about 11 pm and can sleep in 5 minutes from laying down, if you have the chance to talk to some doctor about it, please do, it changed my life
What if caffeine doesnt work on me?
I got 10 hours of sleep last night, drank a coffee at noon. Still crashed at 130 and had to take an afternoon nap like normal.
I believe it’s common for ADHD folks that caffeine doesn’t energize you, but it might help you concentrate better. Or it might not. I don’t know, really. I drink copious amounts of coffee and energy drinks and still have trouble concentrating.
Caffeine’s problem and virtue as a common stimulant is that bodies adapt to it readily and become dependent. Blood pressure doesn’t spike when you’re used to it, sleep is less effected, etc.
Caffeine’s problem as self medication for ADHD is that as a result it’s more of an addiction than a self-medication. The short and long term benefits are minimal and it’s more of a comforting habit than treatment. Maybe ADHD peeps are chasing that initial benefit, or maybe we just use it because it’s legal and we’re tired from staying up late.
I used to drink over two liters of coffee every day. I stopped that a few years ago, now i typically only have it one or twice a week. I dont think I feel any different compared when i was drinking it regularl or when i drink a lone cuppa now, as if my body has become immune to caffeine from using it so heavily for many years.
I dont see how I can concentrate if im passed out in the middle of the day lol.
That’s fair
Ditto. I’ve tried “coffee naps” but with tea. I just end up sleeping through it.
Reminds me of when people find out I do cocaine and Adderall.
“Oh Michael likes to get high”
No, Michael doesn’t have health insurance and has very severe adhd. I can’t live a normal life without stimulants and drug dealers are cheaper than doctors. welcome to America.
Caffeine is a very good stimulant for treating adhd symptoms as well. It has a very similar wake up affect to cocaine when taken sublingually or snorted. Take this with a grain of salt, as it needs to be carefully dosed still to avoid heart damage, so much more so when taken in those ways. Not recommending it as a substitute for real prescription meds of course, but it is a world better for you long term than cocaine.
Eh, cocaine seems kinda too much. I understand lots of adderall.
BTW, where I am normal ADHD medication is illegal, unless you get it and the recipe in another country. As you might imagine, that is kinda expensive to do every few months.
Damn mate, that’s really rough. I did see recently how US companies are taking advantage of the made-up scarcity to scalp people with ADHD to the point where the black market is more affordable. I only you know what you’re doing vis-a-vis risks from tainted batches.
I do worry about getting a hot batch and dying but that’s just the state of America today. Women will be getting dangerous back ally abortions as well soon.
please test your pills! fentanyl test strips are cheap and widely available. you can also use reagent tests to confirm what is (and isnt) in them. DanceSafe is a great resource for this: https://dancesafe.org/
It’s a problem with the categorization. They’re treated like oxy legally so they aren’t allowed to manufacture over a certain amount.
Cocaine bad for mental health. Even with ADHD cocaine is so cut and stepped on its not reliable enough to get anything done.
It falls into the “better than nothing” category for me. I’m aware it’s absolutely not a good idea.
I’m sorry your government failed you so badly. That’s a tough place to be in.
Thank you Mr poopybutthole
The “bad guys” are bridging the gap!
You nailed it. I fall into the insurance gap in my state. I make too much for free healthcare but not enough to qualify for discounts on healthcare. The Fed thinks I should be helped by my state, my state disagrees.
what state?
I’ll give you a hint with a fake headline…
“Man attempts to marry racoons but refuses to sign the racoons pre-nup”
What state is it?
Tennessee? lol. thats rough I’m sorry.
Free market capitalism… fuck this place
Kind of off topic but when people say “capitalism is evil” it reminds me of the people who say “socialism never works”
The rebuttal is always “well REAL socialism hasn’t been tried. Soviet Russia was a bastardization of the system!”
I feel that way about capitalism. America isn’t a capitalist system. It’s a corrupt oligarchy and that’s the issue. If we had REAL capitalism I wouldn’t be having this problem. Not saying life would be perfect I’m just saying corruption is the reason I can’t afford a doctor, not capitalism.
Option C: capitalism is neither good nor evil, just an economic reactor core that must be properly harnessed to deliver on its promise (market efficiency) and avoid its peril (oligopoly).
The primary means of keeping the reactor core healthy (full-market efficient) is to keep it cool (evenly distributed) by pruning and recirculating capital via taxes. This amounts to redistribution, of course, which many have taken to calling “socialism.” But the reality is both are needed to maintain balance in the people’s economy.
The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can fix the damn reactor core.
Of course it is. Visiting a doctor is cheaper elsewhere. It’s the particular mix of regulation, subsidies and market that makes it so bad.
Why the combination? I have no idea about either.
It’s not a combination. I’d try to buy Adderall which is what a doctor would prescribe but there is an Adderall shortage because… Well because people sell their meds to drug dealers so the FDA clamped down.
So if Adderall isn’t available or too expensive I buy cocaine and use small amounts to combat my condition.
Alcohol. Before getting formally diagnosed and medicated, drinking was the only thing that would quiet the inner restlessness. It worked but it’s not a healthy lifestyle at all.
This is something I like to bring up to people who are hesitant to medicate their kids. Yeah, I know you think Timmy is fine because he’s not completely failing in school, but you should at least show Timmy that he has options and that it’s OK to talk to a doctor and take medication if he needs it. He doesn’t have to rely on Jack Daniels and Folgers to eek his way through life.
This one surprised me, too.
I had a nasty habit of waiting until the evening to do my papers in college, because that was when it was acceptable to have some wine or whiskey while I wrote. But it was amazing just how much easier it was to stay on task after having a drink, and during finals - or after college when i was on deadline - i would alternate between liters of coffee in the morning and several drinks in the evening.
Now that I’m medicated both coffee and alcohol are just occasional indulgences… well, alcohol is at least. But I didn’t expect it to help curb my impulsive consumption habits like it has- it’s been a game-changer.
Neurotypicals think they have this superior discipline and attitude to “get on the task”, and I believed them, too! Now, medicated, I realise that they only work on these constant dopamine micro rewards in their prefrontal cortex. Which I now get, too.
I’ve been cutting back on caffeine finally because I thought it was my medicine giving me anxiety, and I’m pretty sure it’s the caffeine. Now I’m usually at about two cups of coffee in the morning (the mug I have is American large, and I always seem to fill it up).
I became a pothead because it made the cacophony of thoughts in my head stfu. I didn’t realize that my thoughts were like that because of ADHD, since I was only diagnosed in my 30’s (started smoking weed when I was 19).
Same here. And I consume a lot less pot the days I take my ADHD meds.
people do the same with caffeine and nicotine - both calm us down and allow us to function a little better whilst having pretty much the opposite effect to the expected one (instead of faster we get slower, but being slower makes us faster as the usual speed we go at can easily be too overwhelming)
not such a fan fact: adhd folks are nearly twice as likely to be smokers than non-adhd people
This seems sooo extremely common among software engineers.
Snap
Apparently videogames are a “medication” for my adhd because since i started adderol they don’t “pull me in” like they used to.
I miss it a little bit, it’s also kinda weird but its also nice to not be compelled to play like before
They suck me in easily, that’s why I stopped playing completely
Did you ever get the “brain feels weird, like the waves are a different shape” after a long deep dive in a game? Only games and books do it to me, books being a less janky, more smooth but definitely different sensation.
God please say yes it’s not only me right? what’s up with my worm-meat?
Yes! I get this if I stay up too late doomscrolling. But by the time it happens, it’s too late to do anything about it. It also makes me vaguely…nauseous? I’m not sure if that’s the correct word, but it makes something in me physically uneasy as well.
I don’t underdtand, rephrase the feeling please
Yeah i got a bit weird with my description haha… After a long session of hyperfocusing (on a game you’ve been sucked in by for example), do you ever feel odd for a few minutes after disconnecting from that focus?
Usually for me it ends on me going to bed because I played for 5 hours and haven’t done anything that I needed to do, which makes me sad and sleepy at the same time so I just go bed. But since I stopped playing games and went to the gym it has gotten a lot better, I recommend you to go to gym even if you are not a big fan of it
Thanks!
Your brain is dopamine deprived, video games are designed to get our dumb monkey brains to squeeze out all the happy juice. Adderall floods your brain with dopamine so the video games just don’t hit like they used to.
Videogames weren’t a medication, they were just something you were drawn to.
Oh i absolutely use(d) games to calm my anxiety, “straighten out” my chaotic thoughts and silence the intrusive ideation.
It’s like a soother, but it doesn’t help the actual cause so not medication.
Ok
ADHD, self-medicating behaviour from childhood in the form of candy seeking. Impossible impulse to control and occurs when experiencing a dip in concentration/boredom. It helped me focus for very brief moments.
Ooooh man as a kid I didn’t really like stuff that was strongly sweet or sour. But as an adult sour candy were my thing to the point that I burnt out them even tasting sour. I’d eat a family size bag of sour Skittles on long drives to help me concentrate.
Only sour candy though.
Sour candy still has a lot of sugar in it. Plus, acid can make us feel awake. Works well against nausea too.
Oh yeah for sure it has a ton of sugar. It’s just well masked by the sour.
This is caffeine acting on brain and unlikely any change in blood pressure per se. You can try measuring bp a few time before and after chugging red bull to see how much it changes.
Oh it does change, it’s still a stimulant. AFAIK basically all stimulants increase blood pressure. The degree varies of coarse…
it gets very fun with adhd where stimulants calm you down. So you’re sitting there chilling, slightly sleepy, and then you see your hands shaking lmao
Man, very true. I used to be totally in the zone after a coffee, because I rarely drank it, but I hated the physical nerviness that came with it. Bizarre mixture of mental calm and physical anxiety.
I remember one time I randomly had a really bad reaction to caffeine. Normally I have no real physical reaction to caffeine, but this time my body went crazy, hands shaking, dry mouth, I was kinda panicking honestly.
It made me completely bomb a game of tf2 6v6 and my maincaller got really mad at me :c
Mini thins (gas station speed) and Red Bull. At least that’s what I did in the 90s before I was diagnosed. Oh and pulling all nighters since my tired brain worked more like a normal brain.
