This is because ADHD was not diagnosed in women. I have several friends who definitely have ADHD and some neighbors growing up who definitely had it too. But because women present their symptoms differently, it was written off.
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I have to mute this thread because my adhd won't let me do anything else. But feel free to reach out to me if you need anything. I'm sorry to everyone society has failed.
And some men too! I have inattentive type ADHD and never would have found out if I hadn't happened upon an article about how ADHD presents differently in women.
Absolutely -- just as cardiovascular disease. Research has noted women are twice as likely to die from heart attacks than man mostly due to delayed diagnosis and treatment
46 and waiting for my official assessment report. My psychologist says every meeting that I definitely am. It is weird to finally feel validated after so many years. The anger, acceptance, relief all mixed together.
Gen X women were not diagnosed until much later in life due to diagnostics being geared toward the male presentation, then menopause makes the symptoms even worse. We arent abusing the drugs or faking diagnosis. We werenvictims of medical gaslighting.
We are always written off. I lost 25 pounds and it took six months before my MDs discovered a blocked abdominal artery because I’m thin and a health nut, I was under 50, and female. I nearly died.
This is Chloe... she is 20....
She has ADHD. She is a volunteer with me at a club for pensioners.....half like half hate her .they say she is too loud....her ADHD makes her louder and hyper when happy. The pensioners
Make her happy....I tell the haters to fuck off.
Mental health is under attack here in the UK at the moment.
(Too many fake claimants)
I have PTSD BPD anti social Traits social anxiety and depression.....I no longer qualify for a disability free bus travel card because "mental health is the wrong disability".
Not just women. I’m 48M and am getting my ADHD diagnosis next week. At school in the 80s I was diagnosed with dyslexia but my likely inattentive ADHD was missed till now. I just found my school reports & it’s all - lazy, doesn’t concentrate, can’t complete work. My whole life has been on hard mode.
I do not believ this is an illness, it is just another sort of human and it's only capitalism that makes it a problem, otherwise in a fair society adhd people would be crucial
besides I know intelligent people who are now dumb after taking the meds
I'm all for positivity about ADHD, and I absolutely agree that we often diagnose people with disorders relative to a "normal" that primarily serves capitalism.
However, many people do find ADHD detrimental not just to what they HAVE to do, but what they WANT to do.
I congratulate you on your academia, unironically. (it sometimes seems that civil disagreements are something reserved for the likes of us)
Your higher education will facilitate you to read what I said about the exceptions to my statements.
Yes, I read what you said about "exceptions that prove the rule", and it did not actually make sense or explain your anecdote about people supposedly becoming stupid by taking ADHD medication.
they said people with ADHD are "another sort of human" not that aren't human. and granted that is still an extremely iffy thing to say, but from context they seem to mean it positively in a neurodivergent sort of way
they probably misread or misunderstood your comment. but for the record i found your response to them to be pretty rude. they likely would have been fine if you'd explained or rephrased your point instead of being snippy
"Reuben and other researchers found that exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the U.S. population. That study estimated that childhood exposure to lead from gasoline cost Americans about 824 million IQ points."
If you're going to try to blame the rise in ADHD on environmental factors without evidence I actually would pull decreased rates of smoking. We now know that smoking is dangerous, but smoking is also a powerful stimulant, i.e. many people had ADHD but went unnoticed due to their smoking addition
A while back I didn't take my meds and I went to feed my fish. I took the bloodworms out of the freezer, immediately put them down in my living room, then did laundry instead. So my fish didn't get fed and it took me an hour to find my phone that I'd left in the freezer when I got the worms.
I'm not an american. My country is four times older and here in europe we have a lot of old wisdom that I see lacking in younger countries, shared in the form of old sayings everyone knows. One of the most crucial for me is that exceptions CONFIRM the rule. they are not arguments against it. 🧵
🧵 These are exceptions and they confirm that the rule applies to everyone else.
The same, I think with adhd. I say it's not an illness, but of course there are the exceptions of people whose adhd is ruining their lives. THOSE people can be considered to be ill, and absolutely should treat themselves
We have the saying "exceptions that prove the rule" in the US, too.
You tacked on "besides, I know intelligent people who are now dumb from taking the meds" to a criticism of ADHD being treated as an illness. "Exception that proves the rule" doesn't really apply to that.
As a single mom with an undergrad in CompSci, work in Fintech, and pursing my MBA concentrated in Business Analytics - you’ll pry my medication from my cold fingers.
My creativity isn’t lost. My intelligence isn’t lost. Some people need help which is ok.
I was told my behaviour was "erratic" when I kept forgetting doses & misplacing my scripts/antidepressant meds that didn't help because it wasn't the problem to begin with.
Instead they would just trial me on another SSRI that made me sick and void of emotion again.
i doubt the studies were done on men. they were probably done on boys. society likes to treat autism like it's something you can only have when you're a child.
I know. As an architect, I had major problems taking a 4 day 32 hours registration exam to become one. And just at 66, I was told that I had it.
Also, tremors, which was the reason I saw this neurologist.
She was, and is awesome.
Yup! It wasn’t until I read an article in my late 20s on how it presented that a little lightbulb above my head turned on and I was able to get diagnosed.
Women are always written off because they only care about outcomes for men. The Medical industry is inherently misogynist and racist. Not saying this to create controversy, it's just a simple fact.
Diagnosis at 48. The meds worked immediately, and my lifelong anxiety brain was finally quiet! Now, I'm reprocessing my life, realizing why I felt like an outsider for 40+ years!
You said adults in your first comment. But it also has been studied to be effective in children. Medication is also not the first line of treatment for most children diagnosed with ADHD. Support services are usually the first step.
thank god my mom got me diagnosed w/ adhd young because both of us are now trying to get autism diagnoses and being blown off by our doctors ☹️ wouldn’t wanna hafta do that twice
Diagnosed at 15, mom said "nope! Just difficult!" Diagnosed and FINALLY medicated in my 30s. And if my mom was still alive I would be kicking her ass for letting me suffer through school like I did because she wanted to label me as a bad kid
Isn’t it hard to think about how different it would have been if we had treatment as kids? It breaks my heart. I kept being told it was my fault, as if it was something I was doing wrong on purpose.
I know someone who stopped functioning as a 55 year old. It turned out to be undiagnosed severe ADHD and high functioning autism. Medicated, suddenly they are able to think and move around and function. Undiagnosed until 55 years of age?!
Sounds like she hit autistic burnout. Autistics burn out if we force ourselves to pretend to be non-autistic our whole lives, & don’t accommodate the needs of our nervous systems. Autistic burnout is severe, can last years, involve cognitive impairment & skill loss…It’s bad! I know from experience.
That’s how a lot of adults find out they’re autistic. We hide it well for years, trying to “fake it til we make it,” & then we suddenly burn out, & no longer have the energy to hide our autistic traits.
That cheapest stimulants of all times to produce, scizotrigging family of garbagejunk drugs is the exact reason why el8n musk and adolf hitler had hallucinating shit for brains
Sadly, meds are not the answer to ADD / ADHD. Temporary use can give people a sense of what it is like to be able to focus better, but behavioral and psychological interventions provide a healthy way to manage the symptoms. There are many benefits to ADHD once someone learns to manage it better.
Sure I can. I have ADD myself and I've been helping people manage it for over 40 years. There are always exceptions: ADHD is a garbage pail diagnosis. Some people exhibit the symptoms due to brain damage but the vast majority don't. In many cases it's culturally induced (learned).
Just because something works one way for you doesn't mean it works that way for everyone else. I can't breathe if I am given penicillin, but that doesn't mean it's not a valuable treatment for others.
Exactly. That is a major problem with medication. Behavioral and psychological interventions tend to be universal and they are certainly more enduring and holistic. Remove a medication and symptoms return. Once you learn to manage symptoms you never lose that ability. Pharma pushes meds.
Man in my 50s here. I was diagnosed have been treated for anxiety since 1997. In November I took 2 tests and was diagnosed with ADHD. Helloooo Adderall.
A lot of male doctors gaslit countless women into dying of heart attacks for the same reason: different range of symptoms for the same underlying problem, with a healthy dose of narcissistic male chauvinism and misogyny thrown in.
It means that in my expert opinion of having ADHD (and being diagnosed with it for over 30 years) these women display a pattern of behavior that I believe is due to ADHD that is simply expressed differently because they have been culturally conditioned into expressing themselves differently.
Amphetamines have been around for a century. I've been offered a lucrative contract to treat ADHD near a college setting. Which individuals whom report benefit on stimulants "don't have" ADHD in your expert opinion?
I consider my daughter and my family lucky because we chose a pediatrician who happened to be a specialist in ADHD and he was able to diagnose her fairly early - Grade 7 I think it was. Until then, she was labelled smart but lazy.
Everyone around me saw the stereotype of ADHD in my brother because he was a "hyper white boy who stayed in trouble" and made the assumption he had it. No one said anything about me until I got to college. Ironically, siding with the time I was most broke and couldn't afford help. Still can't.
It's so hard; sorry you're going thru it. Yet another reason why we need Universal Single-payer Healthcare for All! The more difficult things got, the harder I drove myself, until I reached a catastrophic burnout from which I coudn't recover. 2014: ACA came out, I went on Medicaid, started journey.
Leading up to say that covered assessmts are rare but do exist. I had to press on for years, kept hearing "no ASD/ADHD testing for adults." Had to repeat to my PCP, SWs, etc. that I cannot move forward without this. The community MH clinic that saw me has a supervised psychologist-intern program.
After 5 years of under-informed medical support, finally found a 😇 paychARNP who saw, assessed & Dx'ed me at 57yo. Meds helped, but wasn't the miracle cure-all for me. More self-study & searching w/ growing awareness of ASD; 3 yrs on 2nd wait list for assessment, I'm Dx'ed autistic as of this week.
I'm happy for you that you found a diagnosis! Sorry you had to go through hell to get it though. I don't know much about ASD, but I hear often once you get a diagnosis it helps in terms of getting meds and help in general.
I'm scared to take meds for anything if I do have ADHD. It is fairly recent
Women should obviously have full access to pharmaceuticals. However, these drugs can be dangerous and it's quite possible microdosing psilocybin is more effective in treating symptoms. It's easy to grow at home, is not addictive, and has no known neg side effects. Lots of educational info out there.
So don't get caught. You can do it in bin on the floor of an average sized closet. The amount you grow for yourself is minimal. If I get caught I'll happily be the poster lady for a system that wants to take away home grown medicine from a person suffering from a genetic disease w/no cure. Bring it.
Yep and guess what’ perimenopause and menopause with the hormone changes wreck havoc. Even worse with add/adhd. So of course we’re getting diagnosed. We’re willing to talk about menopause (and scream why did no one warn us!!) and then we find out, guess what when we go looking for help.
It's really not. And it doesn't work like "speed" for people with ADHD, it actually does the opposite, you do realize that right? I'm on vyvanse and my brain is quieter and calmer because of it. I would have done so much better in school had I been able to focus like I'm able to now.
Yyyeess!!! Undiagnosed since childhood. Still never got assessed. Treating my anxiety and depression is easier than getting a ducking assessment for adhd
Not just women, but there's also many men and nonbinary people who have the same "female" presentation of ADHD and get ignored because of it. Same thing happens with autism as well. It keeps many people from proper treatment and causes lifelong suffering.
I was tested for ADHD with various tests. The psychiatrist said I don’t have it, I even double checked lol.
But 2 of my friends thought otherwise 😂😅 I also relate to a lot of ADHD content and my sibling takes meds for either ADHD or ADD though they didn’t do as extensive testing
I have been misdiagnosed with many disorders, turns out, just good ol’ ADHD.
I was tested as a child, and the paediatrician said that if I was “more trouble in school” he’d diagnose me. But because I’m high masking - no diagnosis.
It was fun when I had kids and my life crumbled before my eyes 🙄
I was diagnosed with postpartum depression and anxiety after I had them. But it lasted for like 5-6 years, I was prescribed every antidepressant you can think of. Nothing worked.
Then my kids got assessed for ADHD and I was like “wait a second” lol Then I got my true diagnosis of ADHD.
Same. I was dx’d with PPD and then PPA and none of the meds worked for years and years. TikTok picked me up over 2020 and I got correctly dx’d with ADHD and general anxiety
Perhaps the REAL problem is that so many more people are being affected by mental illnesses. Why? Chemicals in EVERYTHING. Shit food (like high fructose corn syrup), crappy air, and stupid people spreading diseases.
I have a female friend that wasn't diagnosed until after age 50. And it EXPLAINED SO MUCH. She was always ADHD. Now she understand why she is the way she is and now has coping mechanisms AND MEDICATION that helps tremendously.
When I studied SPED in college, a while ago, they taught us that "girls" didn't "get it" and boys "outgrew it at puberty"! Having ADD and not being diagnosed until I was 36, I can tell you that women masked it better due to behavioral expectations, behavior not expected from boys during that gen!
As an ADDer myself, diagnosed when my daughters were diagnosed. All my siblings and my Dad have it. Along with different comorbidities, ADD/ADHD always has at least one comorbidity. It is way more widespread then previously thought. Not necessarily a bad thing, many are geniuses or prodigies
This is so important to advocate for. I really hope when the political climate cools they will do more clinical testing for this & neurodivergent females in general. They seriously didn’t include us bc they said we were “unpredictable”🤭 which is not an answer but they use it continually
Duh….the rise in older women because we were tired of failure and found a psychologist who diagnosed us. No one is doing any research in the area of geriatric ADHD. I have been questioning this for years.
I was diagnosed at 48, after decades of collecting psych diagnoses. Got diagnosed ADHD,put on Adderall and my brain, body and life finally started working in sync. When I turned 50, my insurance deemed me “too old” for the scrip and pulled it. Predictably, my life fell apart. Again.
Me to Dr: "I'm tired of it being a foregone conclusion that having a vagina and being over the age of 50 is the root cause of everything you don't have an answer for. If you don't know, I'd prefer that you just say so." So...yes. 😂
My eldest sister,was told it's in your head.She almost died,she actually has Hashimotos disease.
I was told,you're having panic attacks,actually it's heart disease.
I will not take the pills they push. I will stick with my healthy diet, CBD, THC and sitting in nature when I can.
Yup. Confirmed diagnosis during menopause. Was prescribed meds 2 years ago & have yet to be able to fill it because of the shortage. Have had multiple convos w/ pharmacists & docs who are just as frustrated as we are.
I was diagnosed years ago. I feel better on Adderall, but it is such a pain in the ass to get my prescription. My oldest has it as well. There is always a shortage.
I’m 40 and I just got diagnosed. I had to get a buddy to body double me so I could make an appointment for meds. I just want to function I’m so tired of these symptoms ruining my life.
people say that, but even girls that present the same symptoms are treated differently. I got screamed at for being disrespectful and they locked me in the nurses office
I had no ability to think about consequences, so I was constantly in trouble. "Why did you think that was a good idea?" look sir, my brain did not evaluate ideas. "hey, jumping off that roof looks fun" = jumping off roof. Absolutely no "is this a good idea" thought process getting in the way.
Because there’s not adequate research on women’s health & this administration wants to keep it that way. We should be celebrating the fact that more women have access to quality care - not labeling them as drug abusers because the medical system failed them until later in life.
I was one of the lucky ones who was diagnosed as a child, but I have many friends who were diagnosed until they were adults. It's not one size fit all, not for ADHD, autism, many things. I wish that was better understood.
I am 65 and was diagnosed with ‘hyperactivity’ (that’s what they called it back then - had multiple tests to confirm) when I was 4 - took Ritalin for years. They told my mom I’d grow out of it which was completely incorrect. Still have ADHD today.
Yeah, turns out the very different from all my friends calming and focusing reaction I had to too much caffeine wasn't because I was just more used to it, but that I had ADHD all along. Huh.
Definitely under diagnosed in women. I’ve been a special education teacher for 26 year and I cannot even count how many kids I worked with that had ADD and ADHD, not one was a girl. Not one.
Same! 26 year, primary education teacher here; I’ve had a handful of girls in my class diagnosed recently, but that’s definitely a change. Learning about my kiddos’ diagnoses, has helped me realize I also have ADHD.
This is nothing new women have been ignored, misdiagnosed by the male medical community. More effort is put into breast cancer than women’s heart attacks despite the fact that the leading cause of death for women is heart disease.
Plus my take is that like autism spectrum… it is simply better/ more often diagnosed now. For everyone.
Both these groups kids in days of yore were just diagnosed as hyper or behavioral problems.
The neuropathy of ADHD is definitely better understood than 30 yrs ago
this is probably my own ignorance talking, but given that we haven't identified an underlying cause of ADHD and it is identified by differential diagnosis of symptoms, if men and women tend to present ADHD with different symptoms in what sense do they have the same disorder?
This is me! Didn’t get diagnosed until 51. I even spoke about my symptoms over the years with doctors and never once did one mention ADHD until I started therapy.
Our member is a Black trans woman, an advocate, a friend, and a proud blue voter. Currently incarcerated due to her gender identity. She is being sexual assaulted in the men's section of the jail. Her bond is $600. She doesn’t have the money to pay it.
I had a teacher that told my mother to have me tested this was 1987 I was 6 it was not talked about like it is now. My mom laughed and said that's for boys. I have had a very hard life.
I am not intending to provide a comprehensive list here but if you find yourself with a bunch of different hobbies that you get really into and then stop suddenly, that's one good sign. Also, women with ADHD tend to, in my experience, have a way of talking that takes many branches along the way.
At 40, my diagnosis still only came after years of other medications with minimal improvement. Initial screening was interpreted as bipolar, then PTSD. I finally just asked my PA for Adderall and BOOM! actual progress
The impact of ADHD drugs and just functionality of how ADHD works is so drastically different in women and I've seen the impulsivity is often confused with bipolar/ personality disorder in most places
...but there is a legitimate ADHD/Bipolar comorbidity...
The concordance of ADHD and Bipolar is: 1 in 13 people diagnosed with ADHD will also have Bipolar. 1 in 6 (!!) people diagnosed with Bipolar will also have ADHD.
Agreed, but I do feel how ADHD functions in women is severely under-researched, and there is no denying that there is comorbidity. But most doctors atleast in Pakistan delibrately skip the possibility that you might have ADHD, & are much more comfortable with giving out a Bipolar disorder diagnosis.
On my ADHD screening there were definitely questions that could lead to a bipolar diagnosis if one didn't understand the difference between manic and hyperfocus.
Same with the ASD, girls in the US are more likely to be misdiagnosed diagnosed as BP then correctly with ASD and/or ADHD
Typical ADHD screening does have these questions and they often tell your likelihood of having BPD too.Most people actually aren't aware of the distinctions
You'd be surprised to see how strong the stigma for ASD is here, most doctors very openly and strictly disregard even the possibility of AuDHD
I'm not surprised, I still see the stigma in the states, people (doctors and educators) who deny or dismiss my family members diagnosis or people who equate ASD to a lack of empathy vs understanding that it's a processing disorder.
Yeah I've had my (correct) Bipolar 1 diagnosis since 1998 but didn't get diagnosed with ADHD until 2/2024...AND I had classic ADHD (heavy on the H) only starting in the early 1960's before it was a thing...
Not having ADHD diagnosed for that long must have been very hard... and particularly adult ADHD is very different from that in children so most professionals skip it possibility due to the intersection of some of its traits with high functioning depression
and that is just severe neglegence imo. The amount of medical practitioners and even researchers that I have heard saying things like "global discourse percolates and somehow everyone in Pakistan has a medical disorder" is insane. Here I'm actually people with well-reputed PHDs saying smth like this
Thanks for sharing an international perspective. The tendency to assume "female-presenting patient w/ these symptoms = bipolar & nothing else" seems to be rather consistent across cultures, unfortunately.
i've always believed really has to do enormously with entrenched gender norms. permission to show impulsivity and cognitive differences and energy/ dopamine crashes "disrupts functioning of domestic labour", BPD then becomes an obvious blame game situation than delving deeper for ADHD/ASD diagnosis
they also tend to aggregate in the same families/pedigrees, even when they're not co-morbid in an individual patient
(honestly I think one could make an argument that bipolar disorder falls under the paroxysmal disorder umbrella - you see these aggregate in the same pedigrees as well)
The World of "medicine" was designed to be misused because most of what is prescribed is bordering on toxic Witchcraft. There are very few actually effective and safe medications.. It is such a shame Natural Health Departments of medicine don't exist widely..for all.
But they are not provided by the medical industrial Big pharma complex, that was my point. Hence natural medicines are safe and don't bring in huge profits and don't make people sicker..but they are the best option for many health conditions.
Incorrect information. The medical system is rigged and controlled by those who wish to control health via drugs. That is a fact. You don't have to get prescribed natural medicines you can simply buy them in all their forms if you have researched well. Thus authentic versions are freely available.
Meine frühere Freundin (und ihre Söhne) und ihre Mutter hatten es zu meinem tiefsten Bedauern und weigerten sich (mit Ausnahme eines Sohnes), etwas dagegen zu unternehmen. Da ich anfangs mit diesen extremen gefühlsmäßigen und stimmungsbestimmenden Berg-und-Tal-Fahrten
überhaupt nicht klar kam, hatte ich begonnen, mich zu informieren und viel darüber gelesen. Selbst dieses Informieren sorgte für unglaublich dramatische und ausfällige Meinungsverschiedenheiten...
My former girlfriend (and her sons) and her mother had it, to my deepest regret, and refused (with the exception of one son) to do anything about it. As I initially couldn't cope at all with these extreme emotional and mood-altering ups and
I've just been diagnosed at 54. My life makes so much sense now. I'm both happy and sad about it. It's a lot to process! I'm not sure what medication would do for me, though. I've done pretty good without it. And I don't want to lose myself. What difference does it actually make?
You know how your brain is constantly thinking of multiple things at the same time and you can't organize them into one lane to process it all? It helps fix that.
It's finding the right medicine and the right dose. Find a good doctor that will work with you until you find what's right for you. Also, I have an amazing ADHD coach that helps me work on working with my brain and undoing all the old messaging we got as GenX girls/women.
Echo the other reply and when I added a med on top of all the other things (meditation, nutrition, movement) I could actually NOT THINK about anything instead of the "monkey mind". I was 54. Also I have more of a choice about hyperfocus (and focusing on the healthier or smarter things).😉
very few medications ever result in “losing yourself” and I have never heard anyone say they had that experience with ADHD medications, though of course lots of different reactions are possible
it’s a tool not everyone chooses to use, and one that doesn’t work well for everyone, but you’d be you
I was diagnosed at 4. And mum was told I'd grow out of it. Imagine my surprise when it came back with a vengeance in my 40s. And in retrospect I just got really good at masking until neurodivergent perimenopause burnout.
I’m not a female but my symptoms were displayed completely differently as well. I didn’t get diagnosed until last year at age 28. It took a Social Worker to figure it out. I was just told it’s severe depression. I started Adderall and Wellbutrin and my life has changed
This also doesn’t even factor into new understanding like ADHD and Autism Spectrum have a huge overlap. I wouldn’t be shocked if they merged in DSM within the next 5-10 years.
But, my 60 yo friend is questioned and denied this medication because it can’t be for her! Her doctor has had to call the pharmacy every time she fills the prescription. Also, she doesn’t want to take it because she perceives the need for it as “wrong” somehow. She’s been in 5 accidents in 15 yrs.
I wasn’t diagnosed until 8th grade (I’m AFAB) and EVEN WHEN DIAGNOSED, NOTHING WAS DONE FOR ME. It’s nightmarish. And don’t get me started on being autistic and AFAB
Me too, hi 👋
Trying to be an adult for 42 years under the assumption that I was neurotypical when I was not has been a special kind of hell. My life could have gone so much smoother had someone noticed that I was daydreaming all the time and was “bright” but “struggled to apply myself” in school.
Right? Me as well. FYI your comment reminded me of K.C. Davis saying you can drop the plastic balls just keep the glass ones up in the air (the crucial ones).
Her book, very short, written with ADHD readers/busy people in mind: _How to Keep House While Drowning_. 1/2
Omg, this is how I feel right now. Dr says hormones. Seriously, how does menopause take away my ability to read a book, watch a movie, remember literally anything, organize my email, listen to my husband, retain any new information? I feel insane at 54. I need help!
I am 55 and was just diagnosed! I have a 13 yo son who was diagnosed as well a few years ago. Hormones make it awful, the work around I had no longer work.
This is similar for AFAB people who are autistic. It presents differently for them, so many either go undiagnosed or do not get diagnosed until adulthood.
I was diagnosed at 48. Symptoms got worse in my early 40s, and the answer was mass amounts I'd antidepressants and exercise. Now I'm on one ADHD med and life is much better.
My mother was inconsistent about picking up my ADHD meds when I was younger, and eventually I stopped taking them altogether. At first I thought that I didn't need them anymore. It was recently that I realized that my mother was also probably ADHD and found the routine impossible to add.
It really is absurd how hard they make getting these meds for people who, of all things, have a diagnosed medical problem engaging in exactly the sort of behavior that is demanded of us in order to get the meds that let us do it. Forced to live in a "just in time" supply chain system.
Truth! Having to go in, in-person, regularly, to pick up meds that may be out of stock, then follow up with doctors to pick another drug in the meantime, is the worst for folks with ADHD and the accompanying issues with executive function.
No worries. With RFK in charge of our health, ADHD will just go away. Meds will no longer be readily available and people will no longer suffer from inattention. All they'll need to do is ingest goats milk and squirrel entrails.
My sister was ADHD. Always fidgety, couldn't concentrate, talking in class. This was back in the late '50s. She was always being reprimanded, notes sent home to our parents. My son born in '71 & diagnosed w ADHD. Testing became avail in 3rd grade but it took a toll on him & he forever hated school.
Such BS. I was only diagnosed 3 years ago and I’m 64. 2 of my sons were diagnosed years ago, so I thought I should get tested to see if I could have it. Turns out I do.
I have it in the women in my family, going several generations back. Was lucky to get diagnosed when I was in my 20's. When few adults were. Reading a whole textbook chapter at one time was a revelation. My daughter was diagnosed in 5th grade. She wished it had been sooner.
I was one of those women. 🙋🏻♀️ I found out when I was 51, now 53. At least I’m not beating myself up anymore. But, man, how different life could have been as a child, if I knew. 🤯
I got diagnosed for the first time a couple years ago and it was like the missing piece to the puzzle I didn’t know was missing. Which explains why none of the dozens of anti depressants, anti anxiety, anti psychotic drugs never worked. Still hard to get someone who will focus on treating it though
Diagnosed at 35, medication was life changing and even helped my already medicated anxiety even more. I figured it out after figuring out I was autistic at 34 (diagnosed at 37). AuDHD me is so much happier and healthier than “lazy, stupid, weird” undiagnosed me.
My ADHD diagnosis didn't occur until I was in my fifties. I'm nearly 70 now, and I've never been on medication for it. That was my choice. I was relieved, actually, to know that my struggles with learning weren't because I'm stupid or lazy. I also have dyscalculia. I don't take any medication
because I'm on a bunch of other meds for other problems and I didn't want to overload the system. It does piss me off that women are always either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed throughout their lives.
And then to add insult to injury, many of us were diagnosed with anxiety and / or depression because of our inability to 'get things done' outside of a highly structured environment.
Executive dysfunction was the culprit all along.
Do you know how quickly a doctor tried to diagnose me with bipolar disorder and prescribed lithium as the treatment when I came in asking for an ADHD diagnosis? He spoke to me for all of 40 minutes before making the determination that I was definitely bipolar and needed lithium. I have AuDHD
The problem is that stimulants given to someone who has bipolar disorder without very careful med management has been known to trigger psychosis. Even "normal " people have a 5x fold risk of developing psychosis on stimulants. So you could argue better to err and diagnose bipolar than adhd. 😞
Not bipolar, he made the determination because I told him that I suspected my mom MIGHT have been bipolar, and that she killed herself. I have never suffered from suicidal ideologies and yet, he was on the lithium train in less than an hour.
I totally agree. Women across healthcare parameters were under evaluated for cardiac sx, Diabetes, hypertension, and cancer hundreds of years because women symptoms are different from men. Medicine parameters for women are being studied now unless Trump canceled that at NIH.
yeap, diagnosed in my late twenties when I entered the workforce and looking back at my report cards it's all "needs to pay attention in class" "needs to remember home assignments" "needs to think before speaking" - if I was a boy I'd be diagnosed in elementary school
As a kid, I was told that my hearing was just too good. I heard too many voices and couldn’t pay attention to just one. No one could explain why I need to read, play a game, and watch tv at the same time. Hmmm. Gen X woman.
They spend too much time worrying about abuse instead of allowing people to take medication that can help. If someone abuses it that shouldn't become a problem for people who need the medication.
And they don't seem to understand that these medications have the opposite effect on most of us. Why would I abuse a medication that puts me at baseline calm so I can do chores without getting overwhelmed lol ooooo I folded my laundry today!!!! I'm going crazy on these things! 🤣
Yep, this. Our bodies change and what WAS working, what we’d gotten used to suddenly doesn’t seem to work. Masking just isn’t manageable in the same way we just spent 30-40 years figuring out.
My doctor had me go off the pill 2 years ago now to confirm perimenopause (thought I was too young at 44) and it is like my few coping mechanisms that still worked went out the window. Finally went for an assessment. Still fighting the perimenopause battle though even w all the hot flashes and etc.
A couple years ago, with breast cancer I started tamoxifen, so complete menopause with no HRT option. I'm pretty sure now that estrogen is the give-a-fook hormone, and I am aaaaaaall out lol
This is me!! I have been in and out of therapy for MOST OF MY LIFE....My 8th therapist, that I just found 3 years ago is the FIRST therapist to say that he thought I had ADHD....took the online test and I am TEXT BOOK! Diagnosed at 53! Adderall is LIFE-CHANGING for me!!
Because if fucking menopause!! We have brain fog, forget shit and can’t focus! The world spent billions on figuring out how to combat limp dicks but can’t spend a dollar on something that affects half the world’s population!!
Mirin, A. “Gender Disparity in the Funding of Diseases by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.” NCBI, 7/12/21. 75% of cases where a disease impacts one gender, the research funding patterns favor men. 2x as much funding goes to diseases that affect men compared to those that mainly impact women
Well it didn’t stop with just Viagra. They have Cialis and longer acting or extended release versions. Viagra was the mid 1990s we got the first drug to deal with hot flashes in the last 6 months.
Is it ADHD? I was diagnosed as a child but did not continue treatment. American women are trying to keep track of their jobs, bosses, children, spouses, laundry, housekeeping, health, finances, families, aging parents, communities... they aren't sick, they are effing tired!
Comments
> "lotta women taking medicine these days"
She has ADHD. She is a volunteer with me at a club for pensioners.....half like half hate her .they say she is too loud....her ADHD makes her louder and hyper when happy. The pensioners
Make her happy....I tell the haters to fuck off.
(Too many fake claimants)
I have PTSD BPD anti social Traits social anxiety and depression.....I no longer qualify for a disability free bus travel card because "mental health is the wrong disability".
besides I know intelligent people who are now dumb after taking the meds
It may be too soon to tell but I don't feel dumber yet.
Just a bit nauseous and fatigued.
Haven't eaten anything all day and am still up 3 hours past my bedtime. 🙄
Apparently this happens a lot.
However, many people do find ADHD detrimental not just to what they HAVE to do, but what they WANT to do.
You can trust that I have studied science 20 years and I am qualified to translate medical papers.
I'm not a doctor nor I claim to be. Informed opinion, however.
Congrats on your academic achievements. I also have those.
Your higher education will facilitate you to read what I said about the exceptions to my statements.
Nice talking to you. :)
"just another form of human", like tall or short or blue eyes or brown eyes
I stand by my aggressive and not rude response, that you can see I do not use with everyone.
And i muted them; if you go check their replies you will find them telling people to "fuck off". Who's rude?
They're all people things.
A negative perception of disability can make people assume it's positive or helpful to tell people they're not disabled. But it generally isn't.
"Reuben and other researchers found that exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the U.S. population. That study estimated that childhood exposure to lead from gasoline cost Americans about 824 million IQ points."
Just like cannabis is not addictive and not a problem, I have met people whose model of heavy consumption has made it a problem in their lives.🧵
The same, I think with adhd. I say it's not an illness, but of course there are the exceptions of people whose adhd is ruining their lives. THOSE people can be considered to be ill, and absolutely should treat themselves
You tacked on "besides, I know intelligent people who are now dumb from taking the meds" to a criticism of ADHD being treated as an illness. "Exception that proves the rule" doesn't really apply to that.
As a single mom with an undergrad in CompSci, work in Fintech, and pursing my MBA concentrated in Business Analytics - you’ll pry my medication from my cold fingers.
My creativity isn’t lost. My intelligence isn’t lost. Some people need help which is ok.
Men are TWICE as likely to be diagnosed as women are.
https://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/history
Instead they would just trial me on another SSRI that made me sick and void of emotion again.
Also, tremors, which was the reason I saw this neurologist.
She was, and is awesome.
I mean, here's one. Also what is an "adequate" number for you?
Thanks America.
"Oh dearheart, don't be so melodramatic..."
I'm scared to take meds for anything if I do have ADHD. It is fairly recent
But 2 of my friends thought otherwise 😂😅 I also relate to a lot of ADHD content and my sibling takes meds for either ADHD or ADD though they didn’t do as extensive testing
I was tested as a child, and the paediatrician said that if I was “more trouble in school” he’d diagnose me. But because I’m high masking - no diagnosis.
It was fun when I had kids and my life crumbled before my eyes 🙄
Then my kids got assessed for ADHD and I was like “wait a second” lol Then I got my true diagnosis of ADHD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKCkzxc2zqY
I was told,you're having panic attacks,actually it's heart disease.
I will not take the pills they push. I will stick with my healthy diet, CBD, THC and sitting in nature when I can.
How different my life could have been.
But at least we have lots of research on and open access to Viagra.
Both these groups kids in days of yore were just diagnosed as hyper or behavioral problems.
The neuropathy of ADHD is definitely better understood than 30 yrs ago
The concordance of ADHD and Bipolar is: 1 in 13 people diagnosed with ADHD will also have Bipolar. 1 in 6 (!!) people diagnosed with Bipolar will also have ADHD.
Same with the ASD, girls in the US are more likely to be misdiagnosed diagnosed as BP then correctly with ASD and/or ADHD
You'd be surprised to see how strong the stigma for ASD is here, most doctors very openly and strictly disregard even the possibility of AuDHD
Even from so called progressives, it's upsetting
(honestly I think one could make an argument that bipolar disorder falls under the paroxysmal disorder umbrella - you see these aggregate in the same pedigrees as well)
willow bark is natural medicine. apple cider vinegar is "natural medicine."
I'm always telling my oldest how he's got my brain.
I'm always telling my son he's got ADHD.
And then
I realized
...
it’s a tool not everyone chooses to use, and one that doesn’t work well for everyone, but you’d be you
No stopping to learn to control or work with their emotions, just use drugs to mask them and avoid learning how to be an adult.
I hit menopause and my symptoms got so unmanageable.
Felt like all the balls I had in the air came crashing down.
I finally understand why I felt so different all these years and why friendships have always been so difficult for me.
All these years…
Trying to be an adult for 42 years under the assumption that I was neurotypical when I was not has been a special kind of hell. My life could have gone so much smoother had someone noticed that I was daydreaming all the time and was “bright” but “struggled to apply myself” in school.
Only did well if I was engaged in the subject
Her book, very short, written with ADHD readers/busy people in mind: _How to Keep House While Drowning_. 1/2
I was told I just needed to apply myself
But you can't make Walgreens fill their rx
Also bc menopause can bring out ADHD symptoms in a huge way!
His argument is that the medics for it are heavy stuff that he doesn’t even has the license to prescribe
Executive dysfunction was the culprit all along.
Speaking of its probably time for me to get back in ADHD meds.
Like... What?