r/adhdindia

Added a tldr

I've spent most of my life struggling with this and gave up 2yrs ago after a series of bad experiences trying to get help.

The first time I visited a psychologist, I left with SSRIs, although I did show signs of depression at the time but I feel like like it's mostly a consequence of my lifelong adhd. The meds just made me emotionally numb, as in not sad but unable to feel happy either. Fews weeks later, on the second appointment I tried to voice my concerns about my struggles with execution and how it was affecting my academics at the time, I was basically told "I understand you're struggling but think about it, studying would make your life better so why you try harder". I gave up after that.

I visited another therapist a few months, this time I was told to maintain time tables, and note down how productive I was being everyday. I did give it a try but honestly it worked negatively everytime I couldn't keep up and honestly just it worse, I brought this up but it eventually turned into try harder next week. When I mentioned I'd like to be evaluated specifically for adhd I was dismissed and the therapist decided to have a conversation with my parents about how 'every kid nowadays think they have adhd'

I decided to give it one last try and booked someone from CBS India. It was a bad experience, I felt unheard and was again prescribed some SSRI after a 10minute consultation.

That was the last straw and I was pretty much rawdogging it for the last 1.5yrs. Then I got extremely frustrated and decided to self medicate with modafinil. It did help with some symptoms but I've realised I do have a tendency to abuse it and I'd rather get proper help this time.

So drop some online psychiatrists that I can consider, preferably ones the would not lead to outright dismissal. I'm looking for someone that would actually hear me out and be transparent instead of just giving me some anti depressants or anxiety meds after a 10 minute consultation.

TL;DR:

I’ve struggled with likely lifelong ADHD and had several dismissive experiences with therapists/psychiatrists, including being repeatedly prescribed SSRIs without proper evaluation. I eventually self-medicated with modafinil, which helped but became concerning due to my tendency to abuse it. I’m now looking for a good online psychiatrist, preferably ADHD-focused, who will actually listen and properly evaluate me rather than dismissing my concerns or prescribing antidepressants after a 10-minute consultation.

I’m currently taking methylphenidate, but the brand I’m getting is pretty expensive. I’m on a tight budget, so I’m trying to find a more affordable option.

For anyone who takes methylphenidate:

• Which brand do you use?
• How much do you pay for it?
• Have you found any cheaper brands that work similarly?
• Is there a significant difference between the brands in terms of effectiveness or duration?

I’ll obviously check with my psychiatrist before switching. I’m just trying to figure out what options are available because the cost is starting to add up.

Any recommendations or personal experiences would be appreciated.

Hey 21m .it's been 4 months with the same thought that i will consult with a psychiatrist but i never do.

I think i have adhd or ocd as per i examined my behaviour of years.

I feel like getting out of this but unable too.

i seen people saying meds doesn't helps either.

psychiatrist mis-diagnose etc etc.

I feel like rock while excutive something ngl

I am an ADHD pi with executive dysfunction and depression...

My main problem is that there are things that I like because of the past experience but now even though I do them I don't feel anything while doing it or after doing it, I just feel like It's done that's all and sometimes I'm even bored of them. Not to mention with task paralysis and stuck on a waiting table to decide or to take action..

And because of this I kind of lost interest in so many things and I do have a fear of being seen and a judgemental fear so that is another problem due to my past. now on a day I just don't feel anything I mean I go to gym and afterwards and while doing it I'm already thinking when will this end coz I'm bored but it's only for a moment after that at home I just don't know what to do and even tho I know next tasks i just can't or don't want to idk..

so I'm in a low mood mostly and if I just leave myself like that I am stuck in bed all day drowning in that feeling and to get me out Manga or webtoon are the only things that distract me and I cannot function if I want this Manga addiction cum coping mechanism on control coz once I open it my whole day is gone in a blink before I realise that I have things to do...

I've been unemployed and so maintaining a routine is hard and my time is not in my hand coz of sudden obligations, it's not like no one will disturb me because of my family and I want to know how people are maintaining the Dopamine levels when they are not feeling anything while doing things or they just want to do one thing because of executive dysfunction or being stuck on the waiting table to do things how do you manage this are there any other things you can do to just be ok with it.

Thank you for your time.

Hi guys. I was diagnosed with ADHD earlier this year and have been on methylphenidate(M-det 10 IR first and then switched to Mdet-10SR once a day) . At my latest appointment, my doctor increased my methylphenidate dose to 20 mgSR in morning and if needed 1 tab IR 10mg(in evening) and also added fluvoxamine 25 mg( i dont know what for ?) at night.

I had told him that my screen time, sugar intake, and other dopamine-seeking/instant-gratification behaviors have increased, and he mentioned this could be obsessive thoughts.

Does this seem like a reasonable approach? Has anyone had a similar experience?

Also, what can I do from my side (habits, therapy, lifestyle, etc.) to improve ADHD and reduce my dependence on medication over the long term? I don't want to rely only on increasing doses.

I’ve recently come to India for a vacation and realized that I’ll be staying longer than the amount of Vyvanse I was prescribed.
I’ve now finished my prescription, and I’m trying to figure out what my options are. I’ve heard that Vyvanse may be available in India, but I’m not sure how accurate that is or whether there are any psychiatrist is prescribing it .
Has anyone in India, particularly someone who was previously prescribed Vyvanse abroad, been able to see a psychiatrist and get a prescription ?
Any advice or experiences would be appreciated.

Title: Indian 2e student in a tier-1 college — ADHD has made me question myself a lot

Hey everyone.

I’m an Indian college student at a tier-1 institution, and I finally decided to join an ADHD community instead of just lurking.

I was diagnosed with ADHD, and I’m also 2e. For most of my life, I was the kid people considered gifted or unusually capable. I’ve done very well academically, competed seriously in chess, performed well in competitive/debate environments, and have always been the kind of person who knows an absurd amount of random information.

I genuinely love learning. I can get obsessed with something and spend hours going down rabbit holes about science, history, geopolitics, finance, computers, or basically anything that catches my interest.

That's probably why college has been such a strange experience.

I’m in a highly competitive environment surrounded by extremely capable people, and my CGPA is significantly lower than what I expected from myself.

And the frustrating part is that I don't feel intellectually incapable.

There are subjects where I can understand things very quickly. Sometimes I look at something complicated and think, "That's it?"

But then I'll have something completely manageable that requires consistent effort and somehow fail to execute.

The difference between what I know I can do and what I actually manage to do consistently has become one of the biggest sources of frustration in my life.

Before college, being intelligent and being successful felt almost directly connected.

Now I've learned that intelligence doesn't automatically give you executive function.

And that has been a brutal realization.

My working memory has also become something I struggle with a lot. I can understand something perfectly and later feel like someone deleted the information from my brain. I sometimes forget words while speaking despite knowing exactly what I want to say. I can struggle with pronunciation or spelling of words that I have used and understood for years.

That one especially messes with my head because I know my vocabulary and general knowledge are good. So when I suddenly can't retrieve a basic word, I start questioning myself.

There have been times when I've genuinely wondered whether something is wrong with my intelligence, even though objectively I know that's not the problem.

Being Indian adds another layer to this.

Academic achievement has been a huge part of my identity. I grew up being seen as the "smart kid," so struggling academically now doesn't just feel like getting a bad grade. Sometimes it feels like I'm failing at something that was supposed to be one of the things I was good at.

My parents are actually supportive, which I'm very grateful for. They're not the kind of parents who just scream at me for getting bad grades.

The problem is that they don't really understand ADHD.

They know I have it, but I don't think they fully understand what executive dysfunction, working-memory problems, inconsistent attention, or 2e actually look like from the inside.

So sometimes I have to explain why something that looks ridiculously easy from the outside can feel disproportionately difficult to me.

And I don't blame them for that. Honestly, I didn't understand it myself for a long time.

I also think being 2e makes this harder because people see the ability first.

I've achieved enough in my life that it is easy for people to think, "He's clearly capable, he'll figure it out."

And I usually do figure things out eventually.

But the amount of unnecessary struggle behind that isn't visible.

I've had periods where I've felt isolated, frustrated with myself, and genuinely confused about why I can perform at a very high level in some situations but struggle with things that seem completely basic in others.

I'm trying to stop interpreting that inconsistency as a personal failure and actually understand how my brain works.

I'm hoping this community helps me do that.

Would love to hear from other 2e people, especially those from similar academic/competitive backgrounds. How did you deal with suddenly having your intelligence stop being enough to compensate for executive-function problems?

And for those whose families are supportive but don't really understand ADHD — how did you help them understand what you're actually dealing with?

Glad to finally be here.

M/45. Single. Diagnosed with adhd 3 years ago. Not on any medications at present. Mom has Alzheimer's and does lots of humming, clenches teeth... I sit with parents for dinner but have headphones on as sound sensitivity/misophonia has made life a living hil.. just cannot tolerate the sounds patents make when eating.. I'vee tred to stay elsewhere many times but without success.. whats the way out of this situation?

I am thinking:
- relying on each other for body doubling
-being serotonin and dopamine partners (no drugs exchange but human presence)
-having safe space to share experiences
-encouraging each other in healthy ways

It is difficult for people without ADHD to understand and provide neutral care without judgement or getting frustrated. Having a safe circle would help us.

[Undiagnosed ADHD, 18M]

Messed up jee (and many other) exams last year thinking i would do better this time, except i scored worse than before because i didn't study at all. I lived inside my mind more than doing something productive in the real world.

I scored too low to get into top colleges but literally missed application windows of some decent colleges just because i was emotionally too unstable and scared to even open the portal.

I'm drowning in shame and guilt, questioning my existence and capabilities. Having failed so many times i don't have any courage left to face my family or even society.

Typical desi family at home, won't understand my mental struggles and would label me stupid (could be partially true because of what i did). They are disappointed and lost faith from me which is quite fair, i can't blame them for that.

Got interested in something new, tried for a while, got burnt out, moved to learn something new- this is the cycle that i went through. That is why I'm also unable to decide whether to pursue engineering, commerce, law or which degree would suit the best for my life ahead.

Preparing for such exams killed my true self long ago, i remember loving to draw, design or do other kinds of creative stuff but left them to 'build a real career' which i couldn't as for now.

Having said all this, I'm looking for your advice about what should i possibly do in the coming future?

Hey, i am 27 and was diagnosed with adhd 2 years ago. I am thinking to start a community for folks with adhd, where we can meet up every 2 weeks and discuss our experiences, laugh and navigate through this world together.

What do you guys think
Feel free to drop in advice or if you have had similar experiences or if you’re in Hyd and would be interested. Cheers!!

I’m starting atpmoxetine 40mg, i need to know what to expect. And how long will it take to show changes. Anything to keep in mind while starting.

Thanks

Alright (I really really need some clarity).
Here is going to be a short version.

By hour 3, nothing happened. I was still sleepy.
By hour 4 although, I could feel its presence.
By hour 5, I was able to focus on my work.
Hour 6, same, but HR rose to 90-100.
Hour 6 I got very anxious and laser and lost mood
I also had to go to the bathroom, and then my HR stayed at 120 for good 10-20 minutes.
Hour 7-8 It was more calm, I started feeling a little less effects of it and my drowsiness came back.
My blood pressure was normal. My temperature rose to 99F.

To expand onto all of this.
I felt hot since the beginning, I was clenching my jaw, I also did not feel a single bit of euphoria, goodness, or an uplifting of mood. It was like very very subtle focus but at the cost of making me feel a little bit more on the edge and as I started working deep the edginess also increased. My first experience was therefore, very mild in terms of any good thing happening but reactions and side effects were more or less all felt and happened.

I had 7hr+sleep with sleep score of 95, I am strictly vegan with the exemption of egg whites. I noticed increase in appetite, becoming less social and more jittery if anyone came to talk to me. I was purposefully not being engaging.
So my concern runs pretty deep now, this all happened with just 18mg dosage. I feel very wronged in terms of how good people’s reaction to this has been as seen on so many occasions but mine was so underwhelming, I cannot consciously even speak to any goodness that I might’ve felt.
This is so discouraging for me for a lot of reasons that I don’t want to get into. I really needed this Concerta to happen to me as it did and does for other people.

Hi! I am a university student preparing for a really competitive entrance exam. I think I have adhd but my current circumstances don't allow me to get an assessment so I kindof just have to deal with it without any external help. I hope you bear with me and hear me out.

For context, I have a really vast syllabus to cover and most of it depends on my ability to recall things precisely. I attend classes for the same and they're scheduled very tightly across the month. I take two hour classes 6 days a week and I'm barely able to concentrate during these lectures because I don't really like the reading through a really long ppt lecture approach. I am supposed to keep up with two different fields inside my major per month (I'm pursuing psychology so for example, this month we're covering developmental and biopsychology together).

Here comes the part where I need help.

Initially I was able to attend classes but since I don't like their approach to teaching I seldom pay attention in classes even if I force myself to attend them.

I decided to make notes simultaneously so that if I'm not paying attention I can atleast take notes somewhere. That lasted a week or so and I stopped doing that as well. I studied consistently for a week but after that I have not been able to do anything at all.

I've tried every method I could think of. Giving myself breaks is not a viable solution because if I let myself get distracted and break the flow I won't be coming back to studying at all. I tried making tables, flowcharts, etc but that's too time-consuming. I tried keeping all of my distractions away from me when I study (like turning my phone off) and even then I'd much rather stare at the wall and talk to myself than study. I have a huge backlog of studies and yet each day i just can't bring myself to get up and study. I can't even bring myself to read a simple paragraph if my brain decides it's one too many sentences and I'm really scared and frustrated.

I really want to study but I just can't seem to bring myself to do that. And even if I do get myself to focus for some time, I have this habit of going into detail for each topic and I can't move forward with anything else unless I get that done perfectly which has been a great inconvenience in covering stuff in appropriate time frames.

Other than that, I can't help but sleep at really weird hours. It's either i can't sleep at all until early morning or I wake up in the middle of the night if I sleep on time. I wake up and then fall back asleep during the day and I just can't keep myself awake idky.

I would really appreciate it if I can get advice on how to tackle this or get myself to study atleast once a day instead of wasting my days away.

TLDR: Issues with concentration and consistency and need study tips to tackle that.

I live with a complex, overlapping picture — chronic pain and hypermobility (fibromyalgia/HSD spectrum), CPTSD from childhood, and long-unaddressed ADHD traits that had been masked or misattributed to anxiety for most of my life. Every previous provider treated these in isolation. Medication trials failed repeatedly (SSRIs, SNRIs, TCAs) with no one stepping back to ask why.

The collapse that started it:
Last year I lost a close family member (my sister-in-law) suddenly and unexpectedly. That grief didn’t stay contained — it triggered old childhood trauma, and I started having flashbacks and re-experiencing episodes on top of the grief itself. My body and mind essentially stopped functioning. I went from managing a full-time job to being unable to sustain basic daily function, eventually needing extended medical leave. Physical symptoms piled on — joint pain, vestibular issues, extreme fatigue — and no one around me, including some earlier providers, could explain why one loss had derailed everything so completely, or why recovery wasn’t linear.
It wasn’t until I started working with her that I understood the fuller picture: long-standing, unrecognised ADHD traits had been quietly increasing my baseline load for years — masking effort, sensory overwhelm, executive dysfunction — and grief plus trauma re-activation was the tipping point that exposed it. The overwhelm wasn’t “just grief” or “just anxiety” — it was years of unacknowledged ADHD-driven strain finally hitting a breaking point, compounding the trauma response and making recovery far harder than it should have been. Having that explained clearly, with evidence behind it, changed how I understood my entire collapse — not as a personal failure to cope, but as a specific, nameable pattern that finally made sense.

What was different with her:
• She didn’t rely on a single intake form. She used a structured, validated ADHD interview (DIVA-5) rather than a quick checklist — going through childhood and adult symptoms systematically, across multiple life domains, before reaching any conclusion.
• She actively looked for what didn’t fit as hard as what did — flagging anxiety, OCD-spectrum traits, and trauma as overlapping contributors rather than lumping everything under one label. She was explicit about what was confirmed, what was preliminary, and what needed more time before being called a diagnosis.
• She explained the why behind everything — why a medication had failed before, why a new one was being tried at a low starting dose, why certain symptoms were anxiety-driven versus ADHD-driven versus pain-driven. For the first time, my symptoms made sense as a connected picture instead of a list of unrelated complaints.
• Medication changes were conservative and closely reasoned — low starting doses, slow titration, clear rationale tied to my history of failed trials, and honest acknowledgment of what’s still being adjusted rather than overpromising.
• She gave real time in session — often going well beyond the standard slot — specifically to build safety before going into harder material. That mattered enormously with a trauma history.
• Beyond medication, she thought about the whole picture: physiotherapy suited to hypermobility, sleep architecture, structured routines for executive dysfunction, and even flagged relational/couples work given how my symptoms affect my marriage.
• She has skills of a psychoanalyst, which showed in how she picked up behavioural and relational patterns I hadn’t been able to name myself, and helped me actually work through them rather than just manage symptoms.
Result: Noticeable improvement within a short window — not because of one magic medication, but because the whole formulation finally made sense and the plan was built around me, not a template.
Her details, for anyone in India searching for someone similar:
• Dr. Vaidehee Lakhani Chaudhary, MBBS, MD Psychiatry (Reg. No. MD 39950)
• Practice: Nirvana MindCare
• Location: Doc Thakur Clinic, 5th Floor, Bodycare Complex, Vadaj, Ahmedabad
• Offers online consultations pan-India (Zoom)
• Website: nirvanamindcare.com
• Contact: connect@nirvanamindcare.com / +91 7096106460