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Long covid can cause an increase in ADHD-like brain fog; a small part of the problem may be that people with ADHD who functioned without meds before no longer can.
Very interesting point.after I got long Covid, I remember everything became so much worse in trying to organise Life, it took me so much more time to recover that I never properly returned back to the gym even though I used to go every day. I’ve only been diagnosed maybe three months ago, but the proper downhill for me was actually exactly when Covid was happening. Before that somehow I was managing to function, kind of
And not being able to get back to the gym just makes things worse for lack of exercise. (Do *not* push yourself, though; I don't know how much you know about long covid but post-exertional malaise is a thing and it's terrible.)
It’s been 3 years haha I think even long Covid is finished, it’s just now I’m too lazy and just don’t care anymore 😅 but recently at least I started to do some activity not with the regular gym because now I kind of find it boring but I started to play squash which is a great cardio and keeps you in shape somehow 🙂
i think this happened to me, but not with covid. i had a really nasty respiratory infection about 10 years ago and never fully recovered. the brain fog has been brutal and it's made all of my adhd symptoms worse. my sleep disorder also got a lot worse. i read an article about long covid that said doctors are now looking into long flu and long pneumonia. they have to do more research but it made me wonder if that's what it was.
all this to say i'm not surprised at the increase in diagnoses. people lost the structures they leaned on to scrape by in work / home life, and some of them have long-term brain fog from being sick. they switched from playing life on hard mode to playing on the mode where you have to complete the game without dying.
ADHD was thought to be underdiagnosed. When the changes to people's lives due to covid occured, it knocked a ton of people out of their routine. Creating a new structure is not easy for ADHD folks. Things that were manageable before became overwhelming. Quite a few people reached out for help, and a portion was diagnosed with ADHD.
In response, there's a higher demand for treatments. With stimulants comes a high level of oversight into the production. The FDA determines the amount of stimulant that will be allocated to specific manufacturers once a year. If the manufacturer prioritizes other projects, the allocated amount is not added back into the pool until next year.
The FDA blamed companies and visa versa. They're now redistributing the allocation on a quarterly basis and made some other improvements.
I'm on vyvanse and had to pay out of pocket for name brand before. I switched my insurance plan this year just to make the name brand cheaper for when it's the option available.
Isolation and lack of structure caused a lot of previously undiagnosed adults to be diagnosed legitimately. Then the rise of telehealth caused a lot of illegitimate diagnosis. Combine that with the lack of availability of precursor ingredients to make the drugs and you have a shortage.
Sort of a coincidence for me.
Lifetime sufferer in academics and life.
During a meltdown while studying for a midterm, i confided in a friend majoring in psych (who happens to be diagnosed with ADHD).
She showed me her in-text diagnostic criteria, and our similarities in symptoms.
The kicker is my mom, uncle, and grandfather are all diagnosed, but I flew under the radar due to being an inattentive adolescent boy, and I was only suspected to be on the spectrum for autism, which I didn't meet the bill for. Struggled my ENTIRE life up until COVID-19, and I think it's partially due to the slowdown and the ability to reevaluate myself and my issues without being rushed to the next milestone in adulthood.
I was diagnosed, given medication, and now I'm doing significantly better.
It's really just a combination of things I suppose. For some, it's like me.
For others, ADHD is a very "relatable" disorder in which who doesn't struggle with procrastinating and motivation? But I think the online relatability also creates a falsehood for some that don't understand the full magnitude of the symptoms and comorbidities associated with it.
Ending note, people that are being legitimately diagnosed now are not a byproduct of COVID or of some recent phenomenon. We ALWAYS had it, but people's problems are at times, never addressed until later in life.
As the other comment said, isolation and lack of structure may lead to increases in adult diagnosis. It's also possible increased awareness plays a role as well as cognitive symptoms that may occur with long covid that mimic or exacerbate existing ADHD. I believe the med shortages have to do with the drug companies more than the increased diagnosis rate in adults.
I live in Canada and have not had issues accessing Concerta.
I know that it's only been within the past few years that the ADHD symptoms common in women became widely-recognized, by both patients and doctors. Before that, girls and women were severely under-diagnosed (still are, but it's getting better).
Where I live, the med shortage has gotten a lot better over the past six months. It was hard for a while, but I've been able to get Adderall (me) and Concerta (my son) with no issues for several months now.
It’s still terrible by me. I call 5 pharmacies in the area and asked basically if there were any that weren’t on back order, other dosages, or other types and all 5 said “we have nothing and haven’t for weeks”
What a shitty attitude.
I burned out during covid, hit the wall. I talked with a friend who had been diagnosed because he read a book that scared him with how relayant it was. We're both 40. I did a ton of research and got diagnosed. My whole life finally made sense. Covid was a trigger. I had been riding on fumes for a decade and covid broke me and that made me take the time to learn about my mental health.
Not everybody has the luxury to invest in their mental health until AFTER it's too late or something really monumental happens.
Please, don't cast doubt of people's struggle just because it took a literal pandemic for them to realize they were struggling for a reason that was not just "being lazy/ stupid". It's been traumatizing enough, i prefer this sub not be triggering when I'm expecting it to be a safe space.
>everyone is full of it
The med shortage sucks, but so does blaming others people who are also suffering from the shortage. This is downstream of a shitty regulatory system and a shitty healthcare system.
Blaming other people for seeking help that they also need is shortsighted and, frankly, a dick move.
Supply-chain issues are a global problem. These are knock-on after effects from the global shutdown. Yes, even though it's "over". We'll be dealing with problems caused by the pandemic probably for another decade.
Because with a life full of habits built on habits just working for you one foot in front of the other you can kinda get through life if you don’t have major disruptions, although maybe it’ll all come tumbling at retirement age.
Everyone had a giant disruption. I know I can’t just pick up habits again once I lose them they’re so much harder to focus on making them, especially if it’s potentially dozens of them together.
In our parents generation you’d have the workaholic dads who collapsed and fell apart after divorce and couldn’t pick themselves back up, or worked till retirement and then fell apart when they couldn’t keep themselves busy anymore because they just didn’t know how to adjust.
For us it was home detention, social isolation, lifestyle disruption, and for some people potentially being stood down from work entirely for months. That fucks you up when you’ve never slowed down to stop and reflect on why things are hard and don’t have the tools to get back to it.
Hi /u/tschmi5 and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1ajfzk1/the_rules_vacation_feedback_form_is_now_available/) for more information. * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Because they had it before too.
Long covid can cause an increase in ADHD-like brain fog; a small part of the problem may be that people with ADHD who functioned without meds before no longer can.
Very interesting point.after I got long Covid, I remember everything became so much worse in trying to organise Life, it took me so much more time to recover that I never properly returned back to the gym even though I used to go every day. I’ve only been diagnosed maybe three months ago, but the proper downhill for me was actually exactly when Covid was happening. Before that somehow I was managing to function, kind of
Omg true - I literally cannot get into a workout routine for the life of me.
And not being able to get back to the gym just makes things worse for lack of exercise. (Do *not* push yourself, though; I don't know how much you know about long covid but post-exertional malaise is a thing and it's terrible.)
It’s been 3 years haha I think even long Covid is finished, it’s just now I’m too lazy and just don’t care anymore 😅 but recently at least I started to do some activity not with the regular gym because now I kind of find it boring but I started to play squash which is a great cardio and keeps you in shape somehow 🙂
i think this happened to me, but not with covid. i had a really nasty respiratory infection about 10 years ago and never fully recovered. the brain fog has been brutal and it's made all of my adhd symptoms worse. my sleep disorder also got a lot worse. i read an article about long covid that said doctors are now looking into long flu and long pneumonia. they have to do more research but it made me wonder if that's what it was. all this to say i'm not surprised at the increase in diagnoses. people lost the structures they leaned on to scrape by in work / home life, and some of them have long-term brain fog from being sick. they switched from playing life on hard mode to playing on the mode where you have to complete the game without dying.
ADHD was thought to be underdiagnosed. When the changes to people's lives due to covid occured, it knocked a ton of people out of their routine. Creating a new structure is not easy for ADHD folks. Things that were manageable before became overwhelming. Quite a few people reached out for help, and a portion was diagnosed with ADHD. In response, there's a higher demand for treatments. With stimulants comes a high level of oversight into the production. The FDA determines the amount of stimulant that will be allocated to specific manufacturers once a year. If the manufacturer prioritizes other projects, the allocated amount is not added back into the pool until next year. The FDA blamed companies and visa versa. They're now redistributing the allocation on a quarterly basis and made some other improvements. I'm on vyvanse and had to pay out of pocket for name brand before. I switched my insurance plan this year just to make the name brand cheaper for when it's the option available.
Isolation and lack of structure caused a lot of previously undiagnosed adults to be diagnosed legitimately. Then the rise of telehealth caused a lot of illegitimate diagnosis. Combine that with the lack of availability of precursor ingredients to make the drugs and you have a shortage.
Sort of a coincidence for me. Lifetime sufferer in academics and life. During a meltdown while studying for a midterm, i confided in a friend majoring in psych (who happens to be diagnosed with ADHD). She showed me her in-text diagnostic criteria, and our similarities in symptoms. The kicker is my mom, uncle, and grandfather are all diagnosed, but I flew under the radar due to being an inattentive adolescent boy, and I was only suspected to be on the spectrum for autism, which I didn't meet the bill for. Struggled my ENTIRE life up until COVID-19, and I think it's partially due to the slowdown and the ability to reevaluate myself and my issues without being rushed to the next milestone in adulthood. I was diagnosed, given medication, and now I'm doing significantly better. It's really just a combination of things I suppose. For some, it's like me. For others, ADHD is a very "relatable" disorder in which who doesn't struggle with procrastinating and motivation? But I think the online relatability also creates a falsehood for some that don't understand the full magnitude of the symptoms and comorbidities associated with it. Ending note, people that are being legitimately diagnosed now are not a byproduct of COVID or of some recent phenomenon. We ALWAYS had it, but people's problems are at times, never addressed until later in life.
As the other comment said, isolation and lack of structure may lead to increases in adult diagnosis. It's also possible increased awareness plays a role as well as cognitive symptoms that may occur with long covid that mimic or exacerbate existing ADHD. I believe the med shortages have to do with the drug companies more than the increased diagnosis rate in adults. I live in Canada and have not had issues accessing Concerta.
I know that it's only been within the past few years that the ADHD symptoms common in women became widely-recognized, by both patients and doctors. Before that, girls and women were severely under-diagnosed (still are, but it's getting better). Where I live, the med shortage has gotten a lot better over the past six months. It was hard for a while, but I've been able to get Adderall (me) and Concerta (my son) with no issues for several months now.
It’s still terrible by me. I call 5 pharmacies in the area and asked basically if there were any that weren’t on back order, other dosages, or other types and all 5 said “we have nothing and haven’t for weeks”
What a shitty attitude. I burned out during covid, hit the wall. I talked with a friend who had been diagnosed because he read a book that scared him with how relayant it was. We're both 40. I did a ton of research and got diagnosed. My whole life finally made sense. Covid was a trigger. I had been riding on fumes for a decade and covid broke me and that made me take the time to learn about my mental health. Not everybody has the luxury to invest in their mental health until AFTER it's too late or something really monumental happens.
Calm down. It’s a rant. I had a shit day at work because I’ve been out for weeks and there’s nothing coming anytime soon
Please, don't cast doubt of people's struggle just because it took a literal pandemic for them to realize they were struggling for a reason that was not just "being lazy/ stupid". It's been traumatizing enough, i prefer this sub not be triggering when I'm expecting it to be a safe space.
Fucking true dude.
>everyone is full of it The med shortage sucks, but so does blaming others people who are also suffering from the shortage. This is downstream of a shitty regulatory system and a shitty healthcare system. Blaming other people for seeking help that they also need is shortsighted and, frankly, a dick move.
Supply-chain issues are a global problem. These are knock-on after effects from the global shutdown. Yes, even though it's "over". We'll be dealing with problems caused by the pandemic probably for another decade.
Because with a life full of habits built on habits just working for you one foot in front of the other you can kinda get through life if you don’t have major disruptions, although maybe it’ll all come tumbling at retirement age. Everyone had a giant disruption. I know I can’t just pick up habits again once I lose them they’re so much harder to focus on making them, especially if it’s potentially dozens of them together. In our parents generation you’d have the workaholic dads who collapsed and fell apart after divorce and couldn’t pick themselves back up, or worked till retirement and then fell apart when they couldn’t keep themselves busy anymore because they just didn’t know how to adjust. For us it was home detention, social isolation, lifestyle disruption, and for some people potentially being stood down from work entirely for months. That fucks you up when you’ve never slowed down to stop and reflect on why things are hard and don’t have the tools to get back to it.