Discussion
Since turning 30, I've noticed a significant uptake in 'symptoms'. The hazy brain, constant procrastination, outbursts and finishing other's sentences and continuous mind racing has become at times unbearable and can now understand why I lack much of a social life. My wife pointed it out to me - before I was just called 'extroverted' and 'loudmouth' by others. We don't think seeking any medication is a good idea as we're not convinced it's the right path.
The one benefit that I've been able to really harness from it all though is hyper-focus. I could never put a word to it before, but I have an ability to mentally fixate on something with borderline obsession for a period of time, provided no external distraction. Part of avoiding any diagnosis at a child was because I'd be top of the class in any exam due to being able to totally immerse myself in aiming for 100%. The downside can be that if people try to talk to me whilst I'm watching television it can give me splitting migraines.
The one benefit that I've been able to really harness from it all though is hyper-focus. I could never put a word to it before, but I have an ability to mentally fixate on something with borderline obsession for a period of time, provided no external distraction. Part of avoiding any diagnosis at a child was because I'd be top of the class in any exam due to being able to totally immerse myself in aiming for 100%. The downside can be that if people try to talk to me whilst I'm watching television it can give me splitting migraines.
Teddy Lop said:
does anyone else find this no end of aggro ?
Between the jobsworth ****s in the GP surgery, the incompetent ****s in the pharmany and the clowns who can't even seem to make and distribute some highly profitable yet fairly benign compounds I swear it's like they're all tag-teaming each other in a conspiracy to stop me having the medication.
I spent several grand getting the "authorisation" if you will yet I'm tired with being made to jump through hoops continuously. i'm done with it. I'm wondering if I can just buy something funky from a guy in a blacked out funny smelling audi and down mix it far enough it'll do the job. is there a dark-web way of procuring the stuff? (all jokes BTW mods don't delete me)
I should really keep taking something as while i'm disinclined to throw hyperbole around, I'm an electrician and what brought all this about was I was making mistakes due to lapses in attention and brain fog that made my blood run cold with what the outcomes could have been. i'm self employed, there's no-one to sign me off and pay me sick. there's the peverse incentive of when my moral duty to stop taking calls and simply stop work should kick in.
Curiously, the pharmacy I get my meds from, is the one attached to my GP. Who consistently said no to my private prescription prior to me going shared care. That was both before and during the shortages.Between the jobsworth ****s in the GP surgery, the incompetent ****s in the pharmany and the clowns who can't even seem to make and distribute some highly profitable yet fairly benign compounds I swear it's like they're all tag-teaming each other in a conspiracy to stop me having the medication.
I spent several grand getting the "authorisation" if you will yet I'm tired with being made to jump through hoops continuously. i'm done with it. I'm wondering if I can just buy something funky from a guy in a blacked out funny smelling audi and down mix it far enough it'll do the job. is there a dark-web way of procuring the stuff? (all jokes BTW mods don't delete me)
I should really keep taking something as while i'm disinclined to throw hyperbole around, I'm an electrician and what brought all this about was I was making mistakes due to lapses in attention and brain fog that made my blood run cold with what the outcomes could have been. i'm self employed, there's no-one to sign me off and pay me sick. there's the peverse incentive of when my moral duty to stop taking calls and simply stop work should kick in.
Too soon to tell if there are still hoops, but the first and second prescription turned up no probs
lifeboat22 said:
I can go onto shared care, but for £130 I get to stay in control of where I get my medication (ie, where it's available) and I generally get my prescription within a day or two of it being due.
why does that stop with shared care?Edited by sparkyhx on Monday 18th March 18:28
I was diagnosed in my late twenties around 2017/18.
As a child I was hyperactive and 'disobedient' as teachers liked to say. I couldn't ever stop talking or butting in. I was inattentive and lacked certain social skills.
As i grew older the hyperactivity tapered off, but the laziness grew stronger. I've always been above average in intelligence, though always a procrastinator. I don't like doing work at all. Once i've started I keep going, but the easiest part is finding 10000000 excuses to not do anything. Hence everything takes me an age.
After getting fired from several jobs over the years for various reasons (lateness and inattentiveness mainly), I happened to read about ADHD, and everything made sense.
I got a referral from the GP, got asked to fill out a questionnaire, then I was interviewed by some bloke (he might have been a psychiatrist). It was a fairly straightforward process to getsectioned drugs.
Anyway, I got the medication (concerta xl) and it was like a switch had been flipped. My mind was no longer clouded. I could think clearly. I had drive. I knew exactly what I needed to do next, and I just got on with it. I was on the ball. It was like i'd snorted a bag of coke, but without any of the downsides. The only side effect is that my pulse is elevated and I feel 'on the go'.
It's really noticeable if I don't take the medication, as I can't think as clearly, and my timeliness and sense of urgency takes a nosedive. Getting started on tasks is a chore. I need everything, no matter how small, to be in place to allow me to start - sounds autistic, but it is what it is.
Although it has had a great effect on me, I've still been fired from a role or two since. But I put that down to my personality. I have a big mouth which is sometimes hard to control, I don't always toe the line, and I don't put up with dumb s
t.
As a child I was hyperactive and 'disobedient' as teachers liked to say. I couldn't ever stop talking or butting in. I was inattentive and lacked certain social skills.
As i grew older the hyperactivity tapered off, but the laziness grew stronger. I've always been above average in intelligence, though always a procrastinator. I don't like doing work at all. Once i've started I keep going, but the easiest part is finding 10000000 excuses to not do anything. Hence everything takes me an age.
After getting fired from several jobs over the years for various reasons (lateness and inattentiveness mainly), I happened to read about ADHD, and everything made sense.
I got a referral from the GP, got asked to fill out a questionnaire, then I was interviewed by some bloke (he might have been a psychiatrist). It was a fairly straightforward process to get
Anyway, I got the medication (concerta xl) and it was like a switch had been flipped. My mind was no longer clouded. I could think clearly. I had drive. I knew exactly what I needed to do next, and I just got on with it. I was on the ball. It was like i'd snorted a bag of coke, but without any of the downsides. The only side effect is that my pulse is elevated and I feel 'on the go'.
It's really noticeable if I don't take the medication, as I can't think as clearly, and my timeliness and sense of urgency takes a nosedive. Getting started on tasks is a chore. I need everything, no matter how small, to be in place to allow me to start - sounds autistic, but it is what it is.
Although it has had a great effect on me, I've still been fired from a role or two since. But I put that down to my personality. I have a big mouth which is sometimes hard to control, I don't always toe the line, and I don't put up with dumb s
t. Edited by fasimew on Monday 18th March 19:14
fasimew said:
I don't always toe the line, and I don't put up with dumb st.
I was asked in an interview whether I'm willing to follow a leadert. I replied yes, as long as the leader isn't an idiot
I was later asked what was my biggest flaw
I don't tolerate fools gladly
I've now been self employed for 25+ years
sparkyhx said:
why does that stop with shared care?
I think (I've only heard this from friends who are on shared care) that you're tied to one pharmacy, so if they don't have your drugs in stock you're snookered. Added to this 'general fEdited by sparkyhx on Monday 18th March 18:28
kery'. I can't handle the stress and anxiety of not being able to get my pills every month, so I'm happy to pay. ETA - it's £130 for the script, and then £70 for the admin. So £200. Fairly lumpy. I'll look into shared care once the shortage is resolved, as that is quite a chunk of change.
KTMsm said:
fasimew said:
I don't always toe the line, and I don't put up with dumb st.
I was asked in an interview whether I'm willing to follow a leadert. I replied yes, as long as the leader isn't an idiot
I was later asked what was my biggest flaw
I don't tolerate fools gladly
I've now been self employed for 25+ years
My first corporate interview...'do you follow processes' ... 'yes, unless I can do it better'.
Didn't get the job. Learned to lie, only to hate having to follow process and move jobs a number of times.
KTMsm said:
fasimew said:
I don't always toe the line, and I don't put up with dumb st.
I was asked in an interview whether I'm willing to follow a leadert. I replied yes, as long as the leader isn't an idiot
I was later asked what was my biggest flaw
I don't tolerate fools gladly
I've now been self employed for 25+ years
Edited by sparkyhx on Tuesday 19th March 10:19
I'm going through titration. Up to 50+mg of Concerta, started on 18mg.
Initially my prescription was sent to one of those online pharmacies, but they couldn't supply it, so sent me the prescription. Managed to get it at a local boots for 30% cheaper.
Next time around, again they sent it to the same online pharmacy even though I asked for the prescription to come to me. £130! and that's on top of the £200 a month titration fee. I'm looking forward to getting a shared care plan to reduce the cost.
At times I don't know if the Concerta is doing anything, but when I think about it, it definitely does work.
- I'm less moody, I mean far less moody. Everything used to annoy me, and I'd snap a fair bit.
- As a software developer, I've had the skills to develop my own product. I've tried for 20 years and never finished anything. 6 weeks into meds, I've built a product, launched it into beta and focused on developing it and looking to the future.
- I procrastinate far far far less. Once I start doing something, thats it, I'm in it until it's done.
- In the past, if I was working on something that I thought was a good idea, after a week I'd start to doubt myself, doubt the idea, and start to think about switching to something else. That's gone.
It's only been six weeks though.
I'm approaching my mid-40's, and if this is what the meds do, then I'm a tad bit annoyed that I didn't get checked out sooner. You begin to think about what your life could have been, and have you just wasted the past 20 year. Nothing I can do about it though.
Initially my prescription was sent to one of those online pharmacies, but they couldn't supply it, so sent me the prescription. Managed to get it at a local boots for 30% cheaper.
Next time around, again they sent it to the same online pharmacy even though I asked for the prescription to come to me. £130! and that's on top of the £200 a month titration fee. I'm looking forward to getting a shared care plan to reduce the cost.
At times I don't know if the Concerta is doing anything, but when I think about it, it definitely does work.
- I'm less moody, I mean far less moody. Everything used to annoy me, and I'd snap a fair bit.
- As a software developer, I've had the skills to develop my own product. I've tried for 20 years and never finished anything. 6 weeks into meds, I've built a product, launched it into beta and focused on developing it and looking to the future.
- I procrastinate far far far less. Once I start doing something, thats it, I'm in it until it's done.
- In the past, if I was working on something that I thought was a good idea, after a week I'd start to doubt myself, doubt the idea, and start to think about switching to something else. That's gone.
It's only been six weeks though.
I'm approaching my mid-40's, and if this is what the meds do, then I'm a tad bit annoyed that I didn't get checked out sooner. You begin to think about what your life could have been, and have you just wasted the past 20 year. Nothing I can do about it though.
KTMsm said:
I was asked in an interview whether I'm willing to follow a leader
I replied yes, as long as the leader isn't an idiot
I was later asked what was my biggest flaw
I don't tolerate fools gladly
I've now been self employed for 25+ years
How do you find being self employed?I replied yes, as long as the leader isn't an idiot
I was later asked what was my biggest flaw
I don't tolerate fools gladly
I've now been self employed for 25+ years
I've been for nearly 3 years now and I struggle with it so much, because of what I do, January and February are always quieter months, this year it's already stretched to now and it's potentially going into April.
When I'm busy, I thrive, I'm at my best when I have a million things going on at once, but f
k me, when it's quiet I almost l procrastinate to the point of it most being crippling, like because it's quite I can't do anything outside of feeling anxious I'm not busy and not just with the work. Edited by NordicCrankShaft on Tuesday 19th March 13:32
KTMsm said:
I was asked in an interview whether I'm willing to follow a leader
I replied yes, as long as the leader isn't an idiot
I was later asked what was my biggest flaw
I don't tolerate fools gladly
I've now been self employed for 25+ years
The people I know often joke that I'm unemployable.I replied yes, as long as the leader isn't an idiot
I was later asked what was my biggest flaw
I don't tolerate fools gladly
I've now been self employed for 25+ years
When I had jobs, I'd make it clear I wasn't happy with unnecessary jobs/meetings. I'd question management decisions because to me they made no sense. From a HR perspective, I sometimes had difficulties knowing where the line was, and even if I found the line, I'd constantly challenge it. I've always been a shy person, and far from an a-hole.
I've been self-employed 18 years now
One of my clients, who are more like friends than a client, often says I'm a HR nightmare.
Edited by TheBinarySheep on Tuesday 19th March 14:10
NordicCrankShaft said:
How do you find being self employed?
I've been for nearly 3 years now and I struggle with it so much, because of what I do, January and February are always quieter months, this year it's already stretched to now and it's potentially going into April.
When I'm busy, I thrive, I'm at my best when I have a million things going on at once, but fk me, when it's quiet I almost l procrastinate to the point of it most being crippling, like because it's quite I can't do anything outside of feeling anxious I'm not busy and not just with the work.
Same with me, I thrive when I'm busy, or when there's a hard deadline approaching, it's like I go into top gear. I've been for nearly 3 years now and I struggle with it so much, because of what I do, January and February are always quieter months, this year it's already stretched to now and it's potentially going into April.
When I'm busy, I thrive, I'm at my best when I have a million things going on at once, but f
k me, when it's quiet I almost l procrastinate to the point of it most being crippling, like because it's quite I can't do anything outside of feeling anxious I'm not busy and not just with the work. Edited by NordicCrankShaft on Tuesday 19th March 13:32
When things are just ok, plenty of work, but no deadlines etc, then I mull along, get easily distracted, procrastinate etc. Which isn't great when you are self employed, because in an ideal world, I should have been getting the work done, and spending the rest of the time on the business.
If I was interviewed by the boss, I always got the job
If I was interviewed by HR, I rarely did
I was never sacked but I got bored and changed job regularly
Self employed, I waste a lot of time - particularly in the winter I just CBA when it's cold and wet
As everyone else has said I love it when its busy / a crisis - which is precisely why the Police / Army and A&E are full of us
I find I have to list jobs the night before - then start early and work my way through or better still employ someone - if I'm paying them I'm generally working with them and hence I don't stop all day
If I don't get something done I feel like crap, I've seen others mention that exercise works for them - completing a job works for me
If I was interviewed by HR, I rarely did
I was never sacked but I got bored and changed job regularly
Self employed, I waste a lot of time - particularly in the winter I just CBA when it's cold and wet
As everyone else has said I love it when its busy / a crisis - which is precisely why the Police / Army and A&E are full of us
I find I have to list jobs the night before - then start early and work my way through or better still employ someone - if I'm paying them I'm generally working with them and hence I don't stop all day
If I don't get something done I feel like crap, I've seen others mention that exercise works for them - completing a job works for me
This thread dipped in and out of shortages of various meds .
Our issue is Concerta , or the lack of .
Our 16 yr old grandson can only take Concerta , any other version of Methylphenidate, upset his stomach , this shortage is causing him considerable problems and there seems to be no ending to the shortage , latest is April for normal supplies to resume
Our issue is Concerta , or the lack of .
Our 16 yr old grandson can only take Concerta , any other version of Methylphenidate, upset his stomach , this shortage is causing him considerable problems and there seems to be no ending to the shortage , latest is April for normal supplies to resume
RSTurboPaul said:
Just wondering... these drugs that are mentioned... do they change brain chemistry (or whatever) permanently and become difficult to come off of, or are they sort of like 'drinking a red bull' in that the effect is temporary and wears off with no side effects in due course?
There are various drugs available, each class of which acts in different ways. the most widespread being the stimulants which are basically amphetamine or methylphenidate. Used with medical supervision they are not addictive or habit forming. There is often a degree of adaption by the brain giving some adaptation to the dose, when taken over a long time period. The medicines are short acting and the effects wear off over 4-8 hours, typically. You can just stop taking them whenever you want, but because of the aforementioned adaption most people experience some effects of that for a few days (sluggishness, sleepyness, low mood sometimes). Probably a good way to think about how they interact with your brain in terms of regular usage, withdrawal, etc. is that it’s a bit like caffeine, really (another stimulant, of course). If someone just stops drinking three cups of coffee a day they are likely to get bad headaches and altered moods and energy.
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