How do I get diagnosed with ADHD? My sister just recently got diagnosed in her 40s (in another country though) and I'm like, well maybe I have adhd too, but I don't know who to ask, and the online quizzes all seem set up to sell you stuff.

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SequoiaHope 5 days ago | parent [-]

I took an online quiz, then told my doctor, then my doctor administered an online quiz to me and subscribed me Adderall. It has taken me a year and a half to make sense of what Adderall means to me but it’s quite helpful. I’m 40. I had never had stimulants like that before! Be careful with the euphoria. For a while my dose was too high and it felt great at first but I crashed on the weekends. Now I keep my dose lower and it’s helpful without being too much. Mindfulness and self control are important here.

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Aurornis 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Be careful with the euphoria. For a while my dose was too high

This is a scarily common problem. For some reason, a lot of primary care doctors are jumping straight to very high doses of Adderall.

Most patients love the feeling at first. They think they're going to conquer the world and that they've become an entirely new person.

The euphoria never lasts, though. When tolerance erases the euphoria they start complaining that their medication "isn't working any more".

The good practitioners will actually titrate upward: Start with a low dose, then incrementally increase it on future visits.

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abustamam 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Thanks! I like to think that I have mindfulness and self control, but I might be overestimating myself.

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SequoiaHope 5 days ago | parent [-]

Yeah honestly I have good self control for a lot of drugs, but this one was pretty tricky. It took me a while to realize what was happening. I had been on Adderall for almost a year when I started a new job at a fast paced startup, and only then did my usage patterns become an issue. My golden rule now is I only ever take the same dosage at the same times of day (morning and afternoon). For a while I took extra on busy days and this led to poor sleep, additional use subsequent days to keep up, and then a crash. The crash was characterized by feeling extremely sad to the point of ruining my weekends when it happened. Now for the past few months I’ve never exceeded my daily dose and I feel much better. Sounds like with this simple guidance and your mindfulness you will do great

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abustamam 4 days ago | parent [-]

That's awesome! Thank you for the tips!

	▲	SequoiaHope 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Makes me happy to help. Good luck.