Post by Daniel on May 10, 2015 11:47:55 GMT
Hi everyone,
I'm new here but I thought I would post to see if I could get any advice on getting what I think is ADHD under control.
ADHD came up a couple of times while I was at school but investigation never went far, partly because I had a natural ability at the subjects I did and always managed to pass.
At university I got into an advanced program in the first year, but was studying around 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and ended up burning out in second year. I used to fill the entire corner of my room with pieces of paper every few days, from ideas / drawings / ect. I found it very hard to do a physics question without thinking about how it could be applied to rockets, or basically anything else besides the actual question. This made me very inefficient.
I got diagnosed with depression and took a couple of years off uni.
I ended up back at uni, but this time I did it via distance and had a very careful programme setup with schedules, time off ect. and zero distractions (I studied in a small separated building at my parents farm, poor internet connection). This worked really well and I got great marks, and found I didn't need to study as long as I used to.
So now I am working professionally (as a programmer) and things are not progressing in the same way as they were before. I am finding trying to socialise, live in a busy flat, work with coworkers and get enough done in the day pretty challenging (and i'm regularly failing at these things).
Basically i'm terribly disorganised and seem to have to write down absolutely everything I do, or it's just 'gone'.
People think i'm weird when they see calendar reminders on my phone for emailing friends, or to do my washing. They also think I'm too obsessed with my work, but don't realise that for me it take 95% of my focus just to hold a regular job. I can basically socialise or work, I find it really hard to switch between without getting totally distracted.
I don't have many friends and am getting tired of all the systems I have to follow just to get 'normal' things done. E.g I need to run 5 KM every day during my lunch break or my mood / concentration totally fails me. Co-workers take this as me being very OTT, but don't realise for me it's essential to get anything done.
I went to the Dr. and mentioned that I wanted to talk to a specialist about it, and find out if the issues I'm having are caused by ADHD but she just told me she would think and didn't really know what to do about it as I was an adult (26). She said she would contact me the next week. That was about three months ago...
So any advice my situation? How do you go about getting quality medical advice on this issue as an adult? I feel like no-one will believe I have an issue as I have a job, and have a degree, and people just assume you can't have those things with undiagnosed ADHD. They don't realise the cost it's having on other areas of my life, and the extreme steps needed to get those things.
Thanks for any tips / advice,
Dan
I'm new here but I thought I would post to see if I could get any advice on getting what I think is ADHD under control.
ADHD came up a couple of times while I was at school but investigation never went far, partly because I had a natural ability at the subjects I did and always managed to pass.
At university I got into an advanced program in the first year, but was studying around 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and ended up burning out in second year. I used to fill the entire corner of my room with pieces of paper every few days, from ideas / drawings / ect. I found it very hard to do a physics question without thinking about how it could be applied to rockets, or basically anything else besides the actual question. This made me very inefficient.
I got diagnosed with depression and took a couple of years off uni.
I ended up back at uni, but this time I did it via distance and had a very careful programme setup with schedules, time off ect. and zero distractions (I studied in a small separated building at my parents farm, poor internet connection). This worked really well and I got great marks, and found I didn't need to study as long as I used to.
So now I am working professionally (as a programmer) and things are not progressing in the same way as they were before. I am finding trying to socialise, live in a busy flat, work with coworkers and get enough done in the day pretty challenging (and i'm regularly failing at these things).
Basically i'm terribly disorganised and seem to have to write down absolutely everything I do, or it's just 'gone'.
People think i'm weird when they see calendar reminders on my phone for emailing friends, or to do my washing. They also think I'm too obsessed with my work, but don't realise that for me it take 95% of my focus just to hold a regular job. I can basically socialise or work, I find it really hard to switch between without getting totally distracted.
I don't have many friends and am getting tired of all the systems I have to follow just to get 'normal' things done. E.g I need to run 5 KM every day during my lunch break or my mood / concentration totally fails me. Co-workers take this as me being very OTT, but don't realise for me it's essential to get anything done.
I went to the Dr. and mentioned that I wanted to talk to a specialist about it, and find out if the issues I'm having are caused by ADHD but she just told me she would think and didn't really know what to do about it as I was an adult (26). She said she would contact me the next week. That was about three months ago...
So any advice my situation? How do you go about getting quality medical advice on this issue as an adult? I feel like no-one will believe I have an issue as I have a job, and have a degree, and people just assume you can't have those things with undiagnosed ADHD. They don't realise the cost it's having on other areas of my life, and the extreme steps needed to get those things.
Thanks for any tips / advice,
Dan
