u/LiverpoolBelle

I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 25 (days away from turning 26). All the way through Primary School, I displayed the most textbook neurodivergent symptoms- Inattentive, fidgeting, sensitivity to noise and lights, easily distracted, etc. \*All\* of which would have earned me a trip to a psychiatrist and a plethora of support had I been born as little Timmy and not little Jane.

I was actually flagged as neurodivergent to the school (diagnosed with dyspraxia at the age of three). However, this never stopped my teachers from being seemingly clueless as to how to approach neurodivergence in girls. They were often offended and baffled that I didn't like making eye contact, and they even called my parents into the school because they believed my behaviour was the result of being abused at home instead of neurodivergence.

I recall being yelled at and told to "act properly" by my teachers when I struggled to focus. Meanwhile, a boy in my class runs at me full speed and elbows me in the ribs to the point it hurts to breathe for several days- but I couldn't be upset about it because "it's not his fault he can't help it! He's got ADHD!"

I believe that this attitude persists into adulthood for neurodivergent men. How many times do you see women on Reddit venting that their partner isn't helping with household chores, only people to rush to the comments and be like "but he might have ADHD! Why u sooooo mean! He can't help it!"

Or indeed, men who have been diagnosed with ADHD using it as their justification for being either purposefully malicious or as useful as a rock on acid. "Look babe I'm sorry I cheated on you and didn't wash the kids clothes for 4 months straight, but I have ADHD."

Neurodivergent men are often diagnosed at younger ages, given adequate support in school, medicated (if necessary) and are excused for any wrong doings way into adulthood and yet still struggle to be half as component as neurodivergent women, who are often berated and given no support in school and are only diagnosed and medicated when their world starts collapsing around them.

As a side note, I find it interesting that the whole "Everyone is neurodivergent nowadays!" narrative only came about when women and girls who slipped through the cracks were finally getting diagnosed.

Since I'm getting into AOT? I thought I'd share a story. When I was 17 (a decade ago) I briefly met Bryce Papenbrook at Liverpool Comic Con. At the time, I had 0 interest in Anime at all and was just there because a friend liked him. Perfectly lovely man.

Fast forward 10 years- I'm getting into AOT and had no idea how good I had it🤣

I was once active in the online kink scene many moons ago. My main "interest" was that I liked cutesy tickle play fights with my partner that ended in passionate, playful and romantic sex.

I remember talking about this interest to my "fellow kinksters" and they told me that this was fucked up" because "tickling is abusive" and also the whole scenario itself was "sooo vanilla."

Like, of course it absolutely can be abusive. But here this wasn't the case, and hearing this from women who spent their weekends getting strangled until they almost passed out by their porn sick boyfriends was certainly an eye opener.

Like, a little bit of consensual messing around between partners is "abusive" but your r*pe fantasy isn't? Okay LMAO.

A subreddit (that will remain nameless) posted an article about the rise in women feeling insecure about the appearance of their vulva. A woman in the comments pointed out that this is the result of mainstream pornography, and the way the men carried on in the comments you'd think they'd had their life saving medication cut off.

These fellas were falling all over themselves to insist that this is a nonsense idea. It has nothing to do with porn! Even though 40 years ago this was an almost non-issue and men would be happy to get a single look at a woman's pubes in a naughty magazine, never mind have a series of opinions on how a perfect vulva should like.

Why does it seem that many men get so personally triggered when you criticise their precious porn to the point they can't acknowledge anything harmful about it? That is of course until they goon themselves into premature erectile dysfunction and then suddenly "porn bad because it made me break my wee wee."

These mf's have no business criticising women's vulvas when they're lucky they're getting to see one in real life.

Week 7 of titrating Medikinet XL. Only med I have tried thus far. Currently on 50mgs.

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I am finding that the Medikinet XL helps with both my mood and my ADHD symptoms. I appreciate how quickly it activates too. However, I find that after about 3 hours of taking my dose, I experience quite sudden mood crashes. I become quite irritable and anxious for a good while. Then after about 2 hours, I get a second boost and then it seems to taper off quite smoothly for the remainder of the day.

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I have tried everything to prevent these mid day crashes. Protein breakfasts, no caffeine, 8 hours sleep, splitting doses to spread them out. But the midday crash is inevitable.

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I am currently on an induced menopause for my Endometriosis, and have just started taking HRT. I am going to see if reintroduced Estrogen has any positive impact on these crashes (I started induced menopause the exact same week as I started titration. Fun 🙃) but if it doesn't then we will look into another medication.

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Realistically, I think I need something similar to Medikinet XL that doesn't cause a random midday crash and that doesn't rely so heavily on breakfast (seriously, forcing "rich protein and complex carbs" down my gob at 7am is difficult).

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Anyone have any advice or suggestions? TIA

Titrating 50mgs of Medikinet XL, in Week 7 (potentially moving over to another stimulant in a few weeks).

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Received my prescription on Saturday, and received 3x boxes of 20mgs instead of the 2x 20mgs and 1 10mgs. As this happened on the weekend, the pharmacy is closed and psychiatrists don't respond for 3 working days. Called 111 who passed me over to an out of hours GP, who told me to just split one of the 20mg capsules.

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Looked into it more on Google, which advises against splitting the capsule of this medication. Called Pharmacy today who said don't split it, so now waiting back for another call from a different out of hours GP.

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Can someone please reassure me that I'm doing the right thing this won't fuck up my titration process? I feel so anxious knowing my perscriber won't catch up with this till probably about Wednesday and the pharmacy won't have a clue till tomorrow.

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For the record, I have continued to take 50mgs since this all happened. I'm just feeling lost.

Hi guys, I'm looking for advice!

I'm currently in titration on Medikinet XL (50mgs a day). I find that the medication has helped with my ADHD symptoms and my mood, but I've also been finding that after 3 hours of taking my first dose I experience a mood crash for about an hour or so, until I take my next dose and then it tends to smoothen out until the days end. I've also been struggling with my sleep a little more.

Other than these however, I have had no bad side effects from it at all *fingers crossed.*

It is also worth noting that when I started Medikinet XL, I started it the same week I started endused temporary menopause for my Endometriosis, so I've basically been in Menopause this whole titration! However, I started taking HRT yesterday so maybe things will even out?

Also, more of a nitpick but its a pain in the arse having to take every dose with food lol! It's doable but really inconvenient at times.

I'm discussing it with my prescriber but I'm being very hot and cold on whether I want to switch or not because I just can't decide, but now is the time to do so really.

Any similar experiences/advice? Help a gir out lol I'm struggling 😭