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You'll never "solve" it; you learn to manage it.

I've had fantastic experiences with donefirst.com, but also chadd.org is a great website with tons of resources.

Don't give up on the medication; finding the right one and right dosage is extremely helpful for many people with ADHD, myself included.

The most important part is: find an expert. Child psychologists/psychiatrists often have a ton of experience with ADHD, and also often treat adults. Someone without experience treating ADHD is almost worse than leaving it untreated, because some of the 'solutions' proposed by folks who don't understand the syndrome serve to only make life worse for ADHD people (negative reinforcement, talk therapy, etc.). Talk therapy, or CBT, for example, can be helpful, but coaching is much more useful.

Yes yes yes to all of this!

I was fortunate to have a local medical school with a psychiatry department that has an Adult ADHD clinic where I could seek a diagnosis at the age of 42. Unlike many adults who suspect they have ADHD, I was taken seriously and did not encounter any skepticism on the part of my healthcare providers. I even expressed concern that my problem could be anxiety or depression instead, and my psychiatrist said "If you have undiagnosed ADHD, of course you're going to be anxious and depressed." Find the most expert ADHD person you can for diagnosis and prescribing medication, I really think this is key.

I also agree on not giving up on medication, I had to try three before I found one that worked without also having negative side effects. There's at least one other one I'd like to try, mostly out of curiosity.

I've worked with both a therapist with ADHD expertise and an ADHD coach. My therapist helps me accept my ADHD brain, my coach helps me figure out how to work with it instead of against it. I agree coaching is more helpful but it works best if you can accept the way your brain works instead of trying to fight or change it, so seeing a therapist first to work through that might be a good idea.

I've been listening to a lot of ADHD audiobooks lately. The one I've liked best so far is Nancy Ratey's _The Disorganized Mind_ -- she has ADHD herself and she's the wife of John Ratey, co-author of Driven to Distraction. She kind of invented ADHD coaching and the book is about how to coach yourself.

I’ve been meaning to read that!

Also, this post is spot-on. 100.

Re-reading this thread, and "I’ve been meaning to read that!" is adorable given the context, in retrospect hahaha

Lexapro made me feel like I was on the come up for LSD or MDMA for the first two weeks I took it. It was, for lack of better explanation, as if I were plugged into an electric socket.

After the first two weeks or so, things evened out and I felt much more normal but all of the good things Lexapro brought to me remained. This, from my understanding, is normal and you simply did not give your body/mind enough time to adjust to the dosage.

I don’t think Lexapro did anything to me other than reduce my anxiety. Certainly no side effects in the first few weeks. I started at the lowest possible dose though.

I was also told that the effects only trigger after 2-3 weeks, so to not stop during the first.

Same here. I was on Lexapro for quite some time, and Prozac a few years later. Both (alongside therapy) reduced my anxiety, and helped greatly with my depression. I've since moved off both, and I've been in a quite good place mentally for over a year now.

Neither helped with attention and focus though. I still get distracted by the next thing easily. Although I've never had a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD, I've suspected it for a while now, as it had been suggested off-handedly by a former therapist back in college. This article might be the push I need to get some confirmation.

It hasn't impacted my professional life, but my hobbies have certainly fallen by the wayside because of my difficulties with attention.

> As soon as the call began they asked if I felt like I had ADHD. I said maybe and they stopped and said that they only diagnose anxiety.

What they really meant is that their business is optimized for prescribing certain medications with the same diagnosis and same spiel given to every patent conversation.

An ADHD diagnosis needs to be done by a neuropsychologist, who usually has a Ph.D. and specific board certifications. An anxiety disorder diagnosis is usually done by a psychiatrist, who is a doctor with an M.D. and specific psychiatry certifications.

Thank you. However, I'm not sure that is correct.

  There are several types of professionals who typically diagnose ADHD. These include: physicians (especially psychiatrists, pediatricians, neurologists), psychologists, social workers, nurse practitioners, and other licensed counselors or therapists (e.g. professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, etc.). [1]

  Some examples of professionals who are capable of diagnosing ADHD include: pediatricians, psychiatrists, family physicians, nurse practitioners, psychologists, psychotherapists. [2]

[1] https://chadd.org/about-adhd/professionals-who-diagnose-and-...

[2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/adhd-doctor

That is interesting that some of them are authorized to diagnose, but can't write a prescription to control it.

I guess that's why they'll all eventually send you to a "specialist," which is another way of saying "someone authorized to medicate you for this."

I'm not sure though - physicians can prescribe Ritalin, but at least here, they always send you off to be checked out by a psychiatrist first.

That makes sense to me. Of course, I'm not disputing the existence of specialists. A nurse practitioner or pediatrician may not have the most familiarity or want to deal with the issue.

I agree that it's both broader and more complicated than what I wrote. At least in some states in the U.S., a neuropsychologist can diagnose ADHD, but can't write prescriptions for medications to treat it. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist can write prescriptions for a patient with ADHD, but might only do so after he reads a diagnosis from a neuropsychologist. Your experience may vary.

Also, diagnoses for disability accommodations (e.g., in education) are a whole different and complicated thing.

Wow thank you for that video. It pretty clearly demonstrated to me that I di not have ADHD. I’ve seen threads like thus, recognized a few symptoms, and wondered. But my inner state is not even remotely close to that.