Those who are medicated and would like to share how meds have helped or changed your ADHD experience (especially as a student) it would really help me gain some insight…
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Hi, I live in Germany and get diagnosed this year. I am 40 years old and be a mother of two lovelies girls with ADHD. I started medication before my daughter started to test. My biggest point of medication is: I have more energy at the end of the day! 3 month later my daughter started and the next step is: my little girl is so happy after school, like never before since she went to school. It is really amazing how easier our lives went. Not perfect, cause life is never perfect. But much better and easier and we have more power than before.
I think it also depends on which one you take? I think in Mexico the only option we have for adhd meds is methylphenidate so I don’t have much experience with other meds. I did feel a difference the first few days, I kinda felt like I wanted things to go faster, like I was so ready to get work done. But after 2 weeks there were some days where I felt very anxious and nauseous. Other days I felt fatigued, like I couldn’t do any work. I had headaches as well. I talked to my doctor about it though and we made adjustments to the dosage and it’s been better! I can also relate to the family situation! My parents don’t love the idea of me taking meds, they even struggled with the idea of me seeing a psychiatrist in the first place. And the fact that I did well in school (graduated with a perfect score but at what cost?!) made it harder for them to understand what I was going through. It’s gotten better now though, this is kinda new for them so I’ve learned to be patient too.
It wasn’t hard to get the prescription but because med options are limited, sometimes can be hard to find them!
Thanks for your reply! Yes I have heard it can be very dependent on where you live and that can also affect how easy it is to find a psychiatrist, was actually getting the medication prescribed a long process for you?
Hey, that's a very good timing for me. I've been like you for all my life and just some months ago had my diagnosis, and I'm finishing my first month of meds. I can happily say you'll feel a big change in your head for the first days. I just felt so calm and focused in my mind that it was even weird. And the motivation to do stuff is 😙👌. After some time the big feelings fade and you feel more normal, but you can tell that the motivation is there still. I just want to say that if you are prone to anxiety, you should make sure that you know the side effects of the first few days and try to be calm about it. It's okay to feel some weird stuff and because I am anxious with health issues, I had an anxiety attack on my second week because of the side effects like heart palpitations that I felt and thought it was something to worry. They end up going away after some days, so don't worry. They're a game changer in my opinion, and it's funny how I was just like you a few weeks ago. The meds aren't everything though, but they do help to make it easier to do things for sure. Hope it helps!
Thank you so much for sharing. Trying medication would be a big step for me that I know I would greatly benefit from, though my family is very anti-meds…They’re too focused on the ‘side effects’ rather than how it would improve my everyday life, and I have been trying to get them to understand that just because I am achieving good grades doesn’t mean I am coping.
