Adult ADHD without meds?

[prairiewindmomma]

1 minute ago, TCB said:

I asked her about playing music but she said usually that increased her distraction, especially if any words, but she’s going to try white noise instead.

Dh runs our HEPA filter on high as a white noise machine, fwiw.

[TCB]

3 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Mindfulness. Consider a trial of meds to see how they feel. They have a very short half life and are not something she *has* to take every day, unlike say an SSRI. So she could try the meds but only use a short acting one to give her 4 hours for school work or take it XR but only on school days. She'd have options like that. How is driving going for her? The data on driving with ADHD can be pretty bad without meds. 

Caffeine does not stimulate as many parts of the brain as stimulant meds, so it's really worth a trial to see what she prefers.

Her driving is actually good, thank goodness! She really does manage well, but has b en commenting about the discomfort in her brain recently.

[TCB]

2 hours ago, Carolina Wren said:

I use Vivaldi's The Four Seasons on repeat via headphones. Music has to be non-verbal for me to not be pulled away from reading/studying.

She may also need to do something like get a to do list written out on paper before starting so her mind doesn't keep coming back to remembering it, and having like sticky notes or a bullet journal at hand to write down anything that she will want to come back to later. She might also consider whether this is coming from anxiety (especially if the interrupting thoughts are about anxiety-provoking things rather than merely interesting things, like whether she really has enough time left to study all these chapters versus oh hey I want to make sure to buy apples this week).

Thank you for those ideas. I’m going to check the anxiety thing with her.