Reply To: Diagnosed last year, just started meds last week…but not working…

[sdwa]

I’ve had similar issues with not being able to focus when I want, reading the same paragraph over and over and not getting anything out of it, taking three times longer than anyone else to accomplish the same things….

Coffee doesn’t make me tired, it just doesn’t keep me from sleeping. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, will keep me up all night and sharp as a tack, so maybe it depends on the amount of caffeine. If I felt hyper and couldn’t relax, a little coffee might mellow me out.

Getting the meds right can take time. Also, what works for a while might change. Ideally, you have a doctor who will work with you to get the right balance. I tried the short-acting stuff, which was unpleasant. Now I use the “extended release” form of methylphenidate. I take Concerta. For a couple of years I was on 36 mg, but it got to be too much and made me cranky, so now I only take 27 mg. Medication alone doesn’t seem to give me the results it used to – I need cardio exercise, and I need to avoid sugar. I need to keep my environment in ways that support me.

How a particular drug affects you may not be the best indicator of whether or not you have ADHD. Your symptoms sound familiar to me…but I also have issues with depression and anxiety, which could conceivably limit the ability to concentrate. For me, it’s been a lifelong inability to focus when I want, unless having a truly great time – then the inability to stop focusing on that thing – trouble with switching gears, going from one task to another, one place to another. One of my classics is to put something down and forget where I put it, and run around the house like a nut looking for something I literally had in my hand TWO MINUTES AGO AND NOW I CAN’T FIND IT…oh, but wait, it’s still in my hand. Things like that. Not making progress on a project unless there is a looming deadline. Wasting hours goofing around on the internet without realizing it, sort of like what I’m doing right now. Fluttering from one activity to another like a butterfly going from one random flower to another. This is good for creativity, but bad for organizing and executing long-term plans. Being the first person to know if a garbage can tips over in an alleyway four blocks from my house. Not remembering anyone’s name, ever, unless I see it in writing. Not remembering that I went to a movie, or who I went with. On the plus side, I can see the same movie more than once and still enjoy it.

It just takes some experimentation to get the medication and all other management tools and techniques lined up in a way that helps. It took me a long time to learn to recognize what was working and what wasn’t. I kind of had to become a scientist of my own life.

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