u/SweetPickleRelish

We saw some people in Dutch jerseys walking downtown but we can’t find them now

I started adderall last week. The first thing I noticed was how quiet the world is.

I realized that my mind is just so loud. Constantly screaming at me, ruminating, worrying, even good stuff like planning for fun activities, thinking about my next meal, etc.

What was shocking is how closely I was apparently associating those thoughts with actual sound, because when they stopped it was like 8 loud people left the room at once and I was sitting in the room alone for the first time ever.

Not saying I hear voices. I don’t. I just don’t really know how else to describe the way that thoughts and actual environmental sound compete with each other. It feels like going on vacation. Doing little things like brushing my teeth is just calm to the point of pleasurable.

Is this how normal people experience the world?

My friend is visiting with her 2 year old and I have 2 large dogs.

OF COURSE the dogs and the kid aren’t going to be in the same room, but my friend is treating them as a huge inconvenience. Constantly asking me to kick them out into the yard, treating them like they’re dying to eat her child.

My dogs are so stressed. They haven’t eaten in 2 days. I’m legitimately worried about my senior at this point.

I don’t think people understand the role dogs play in your life when you know you will never have children. One of them is 13 years old and has been the closest thing I will ever have to a child for that entire time.

I just wish people had a bit more sensitivity and understanding.

So I started adderall (just 10mg) a week ago and stopped after 3 days. Basically all of my anxiety went away and I was able to do tasks without any feeling of friction, I just got shit done. That part of it was absolutely fantastic.

But I also kind of got zombified. I stared off A LOT. I got this blank mind feeling where I was super zen but not really social. My emotions on my face flattened out.

I work at a recovery organization and I was legit worried that my boss and clients would think I was using so I stopped.

Coming off of it, it took like 3 days not to be tired in the afternoon, but now I’m back to my regular hyperactive self .

My dog got sick this week and my anxiety is through the roof and I’m kind of like…it would be nice to be a zombie again.

So I have a few questions: 1) is this a normal reaction to adderall if you have ADHD? My psych did a short-form eval and I’m still doubting that I have it. 2) if you experienced these reactions, what can I expect from my appointment with my psychiatrist on Monday? Are there medications that will work better? Is she gonna pull me off stimulants all together? (Can you tell I’m anxious again?)

I sent a female client of mine to couples counseling with her husband. We have had family sessions in the past and he did ok. He has some addiction problems and is coping with a lot of trauma. I was kind of able to reach him in session, but he needed a lot of work. I still had a lot of hope for them after the family sessions because he was eventually able to open up and hear us.

If I’m honest, I believe that he is the problem. He needs therapy and someone he trusts to talk to. Its not even about his marriage, he needs treatment, but the only way he was going to go to therapy was with his wife.

I have a few female clients but I specialize in working with men with trauma, addiction, and personality disorders and I think that with these clients rapport building and positive reinforcement is very important if you want them to hear you. This guy especially needed a practiced hand in that.

Apparently the couple was fired after two sessions because the husband completely shut down. My client told me that the couples counselor was very blunt and straightforward and self-disclosed in a way that made the husband lose trust in her. IMO her approach seemed respectable but more suitable for female clients and especially not men with special needs.

I have never trained in any kind of couples counseling, not even in school, so please help me understand. Am I off base here? Are couples counselors trained in dealing with men’s issues? Are they typically sensitive to men’s needs?

Honestly this isn’t the first time I’ve doubted the benefits of couples counseling, but when it works it SUPER works so I keep referring clients. It just kind of makes me lose faith when most of my clients have bad experiences.

Basically like many of us I'm a therapist because I started life as a psych patient. I was a difficult child and I struggled with mental health issues in my 20s and was hospitalized a lot. I got stable on medication (just one!) and gave myself a year of stability before starting school. I graduated in 2017 and I've had no serious problems since 2014.

What I have been dealing with on and off since 2021 is burn out. I am not having the symptoms that would hospitalize me in my 20s but I am prone to burning out quite spectacularly. Just a lot of anxiety, compulsive eating, physical problems related to anxiety like chest pain and sleep problems, and intrusive thoughts.

I'm taking an SSRI (recent since my burn out this year) and Lamotrigine (since 2014) but I'm still on a burn out cycle. I cut my hours to under 30 per week and I work from home a lot and I'm still burning out. I have a new psychiatrist who wants to treat me for ADHD.

I don't think I have ADHD or autism, but I know I'm neurodivergent in some way. Just very sensitive to rejection and other peoples social responses, a diagnosed sensory processing disorder, difficulty with regulating the somatic effects of anxiety, and just an eccentric personality. My therapist also does not think I have ADHD, but she thinks I might still benefit from adderall because I have a lot of ADHD-like traits.

I took my first dose of adderall this morning and I'm having problems with taking it. I experienced a lot of trauma in my 20s related to psych meds and hospitalizations and a lot of those feelings are coming back. I'm also taking more meds now than most of my clients, which has me feeling like an absolute fraud.

I know mental healthcare is self-care and I'm trying to be a good mental health professional here, but it's hard. Has anyone else experienced this?

For the last 2 years we decided to try for a baby but we’ve been kind of halfhearted about it. We are OLD (I’m 39 and he’s 44) and happy with our childfree life and honestly never wanted children until after we got old. So like fencesitters but we like kids.

But after years of course you start to get curious. We have good insurance so my husband had a semen analysis done.

It was not good. We were shocked. I don’t know why we didn’t expect it at all but it’s been very confusing.

When we got the answers I wanted to be relieved because the decision was made for us, but there’s also a large part of me yelling for us to do IUI.

I am very confused about what I want my life to look like. We just bought a teardrop camper that will not fit a child. We have purposefully not made room in our lives for a child because we were not sure if it was going to happen. We are starting to have what I call “old people behaviors”. Just kind of settling into middle age. The pace of our lives is slowing. If we had a baby it would be more like grandparents raising a grandchild than a normal parent-child relationship.

I am happy day to day with my life. Maybe the happiest I’ve ever been.

But then there’s a part of me screaming to DO SOMETHING! Get to the fertility clinic! Walk in tomorrow and beg for help! And I don’t know why that part is so anxious.

Idk. The results don’t feel devastating and my husband is taking it well, but it’s just all very confusing.

I’ve been in practice for 8 years and I generally have a rule not to diagnose BPD. I truly believe it is a social justice issue due to the stigma clients get once they are stamped with this diagnosis. When I get a client who has the symptoms of BPD, I write up a treatment plan to treat the disorder, but I usually will not put the diagnosis in the chart.

The exception is when 1) the client has been diagnosed by another clinician 2) agrees with the diagnosis and 3) explicitly wants it in their chart.

I have a new client who is currently in a sort of discovery phase where they are feeling out of place in treatment. This person may benefit from an accurate label just because a lot of their problem right now is existential.

I think the missing piece is BPD. The client provided me with records and their last clinician did not diagnose any personality disorder.

Obviously I’m going to do my due diligence (assessments, etc), but if I feel the diagnosis fits, is it beneficial to tell this person? This person is already part of several marginalized groups and is justice involved. If I tell them that they have BPD and they bring that to their next clinician, parole officer, mandated classes, etc. It could genuinely ruin their lives due to the stigma. I am happy to do all the psycho education but I’m worried it won’t be enough.

I keep thinking like…I’m just one person. I’ve been wrong before. I make mistakes diagnosing. Who am I to stamp this person with this diagnosis?

Idk, has anyone else dealt with this?

I am by NO MEANS asking for peoples' income or net worth or any numbers. I am just wondering at what point did you feel financially comfortable enough to take the plunge and buy your first luxury bag?

I am obsessed with the Mulberry Mini Alexa in green. I am at a financial place now that if I bought it, my life would not change and we would not notice the difference. We are dual income and the only debt we have are student loans, which we are able to budget to make generous payments on. We have savings, investments, everything, but we're not "wealthy".

My husband is an angel and he said to go ahead and treat myself. But our family situation is currently "comfortable but we are still flying coach" if that makes sense.

So yeah, ladies, at what point in your lives did you feel comfortable purchasing these bags. What are some financial "green flags" to go ahead and do it?