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Stimulants alone will not solve every issue we face with adhd, so depending on what you’re struggling with the most, you may need to look more towards behavioral therapy and/or coaching - stimulants tend to help with hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and attention. For me, I felt a difference with stimulants in that my mind feels quieter and I’m less likely to find myself bouncing around tasks. Stimulants do not however for me help with task and time management, prioritization, memory and other executive functioning issues - I’ve had to find other strategies to help manage those.
I took stimulants for the better part of a decade, but now I don’t tolerate them well, and I find my biggest struggles aren’t with what they help anyway, so I’m currently just focusing on behavior strategies.
Hope this helps!
I definitely don’t have it all figured out yet but some things that help me:
- for losing things: if possible, everything has a “home” in a place that’s in sight/very obvious (ex: I have a key ring that’s the first thing I see when I walk in the door) it takes a little effort at first and it’s not 100% foolproof but the things that have homes I lose wayyyyy less now
- for being late: keeping events multiple places with multiple reminders (ex: all my calls/meetings go in my calendar w two reminders set, plus I have a physical calendar on my desk right in front of me, and if it’s extra important like leaving on time I set an alarm also) if I had an assistant I would have them remind me too but alas
- for task management: use something that works with your existing work flow, not adds a whole new thing to remember to do (ex: I work heavily in my email as I have loads of little things that come in every day, I found the app Microsoft To Do that whenever I flag an email it will add that to my to do list and I can use the flags as built in reminders too so it’s all in one step and located right within my email)
Also just generally the tried and true, don’t trust my brain to remember anything, write it down immediately (if im on a call I take notes as a reply to the email my call originated from and send the email just to myself so my notes stay with the rest of the chain).
Im also just trying to be honest and communicate with my peers/supervising attorneys about when my plate is too full to take on more tasks or when I know im running on E.
Also find the time of day you’re most alert/at your best and try to do any difficult/stressful/things you’ve been avoiding then (for me it’s first thing in the morning - I used to let calls and e-mails take up basically the whole first half of my day then always found myself procrastinating so much more on hard things in the afternoon but it’s because I was waiting until my brain was tired/over it to try to start - not smart!)
I was diagnosed at 30. My first go around, I felt like nothing made a difference, and I tried 5-6 different things at least. I basically gave up. Five years later I tried again, and noticed that I couldn't "tell" when I was taking them - there's no scales falling off the eyes like some people seem to experience - but MAN can I tell on the days I forgot. I think the first time didn't work because in hindsight I was so anxious and depressed that those symptoms took over. Once I had a better handle on that, the meds could work, but I still had to adjust my expectations for what they would "do."
I take ritalin for ADHD, and it makes a huge difference. It isn't a magic pill, and I don't feel any different on it, but it makes a huge difference that shows up in productivity. It took a while to get the dosage right, and I found that the generic brand made a big difference.
It varies from person to person, but I started during law school and within weeks went from lower half of my class to top 5 students in my school.
I take adderall for adhd. But I also work on building skills. Additudemag.com has been a good resource. And they have a lot of free webinars and materials.