u/ieredmonk

Has anyone been in the situation where they genuinely can’t tell if the meds are helping or not?

For reference I’m still titrating on Concerta. Had a week of 18mg and am now on day 3 of 27mg.

I had a couple of days where I had some very productive mornings in work, but other days where I basically did nothing for 9 hours and couldn’t focus at all.

So that seems a pretty standard pattern for me pre-medication.

I also had a day last week where I was so insanely overstimulated that I was scaring myself with how angry I was getting over every little thing. But had good days too (mainly days where I wasn’t working).
I’m also exhausted by lunch time every day like fighting off sleep exhausted.

I get up about 5-5.30 most mornings thanks to the dogs. I have an iced coffee with protein milk (psychiatrist said it was okay to still have caffeine).
Then about 7 or 8 I’m having a protein drink with 26g of protein and I take the concerta at 8.
So I’m having about 35-40g of protein in the mornings alongside the medication.

Yesterday I did manage to make myself do some things that I just didn’t want to but was able to tell myself they had to be done and just do them with no massive hours long mental negotiation. So I thought that might be the meds, but overall each day is so inconsistent and different that I really can’t tell if this is just my ADHD being ADHD or if they are making any difference.

I’m supposed to be on 27mg for another 2 weeks after this week and then I have my 4 week review with the psychiatrist but honestly if they’re doing nothing and remain inconsistent I really don’t want to spend another 2 weeks at such a low dose.

Anyone have any experience or insight?

I have my assessment with Mindpath tomorrow. Ignoring how nervous I am and the serious imposter syndrome I’m trying to focus on practical things.

Can anyone who has used them tell me a bit about the timelines?

The FAQ on the website says that you’ll be given an “indication” of your likely or unlikely diagnosis on the assessment call itself.

I swear I remember reading somewhere that you get a high level diagnosis within 24 hours but I cannot for the life of me find where I came across that now.

Obviously if diagnosed the report is its own separate thing with its own timeline as they will need to compile it etc

But essentially right now I’m wondering if this time tomorrow I’ll have a good idea of the outcome and when I will get formal confirmation.

Anyone got any insight?

So for the last few years I (like most people) have seen a massive increase in ADHD content on social media.

A lot of it resonated with me, but a lot didn’t. I’m 38F and never even considered anything might be going on with me, I just always thought I was lazy and undisciplined and had no follow through and no impulse control and basically the stupid bad decisions, the impulse purchases, the fuck ups and social difficulties were just because well, I’m me and I’m a mess and that’s just who I am.

But the more content I saw the more it felt like this could be me. Except for a lot of the things people say about ADHD there’s a voice in my head saying “but sure everyone is like that, that’s normal” and also I am terrified of being dramatic and would be absolutely mortified to go through an assessment and be told I didn’t have it and be after wasting all that time and money just to be told no, it’s not your brain, it’s just you. You suck at being a person.

But last week I came across Mindpath for the first time and on a whim I did the pre assessment and follow up call. I scored really highly across all categories and just laughed hysterically down the phone when they told me my scores.

I haven’t been able to get the idea of a full assessment out of my head since. It’s like the pre-assessment gave me the validation that I have reason to believe this might actually be true for me. And today, once again on a whim, I contacted them to book my assessment.

My immediate response was wanting to throw up. Now it’s real. Now the imposter syndrome is back. Now I’m either going to have an explanation, or have some serious reckoning to do with facing up to my flaws and failures.

Not much point to this post beyond laughing at myself, but I figured if anyone were to get it, this place would.