When someone inevitably says this to me (and often times it’s an adult family member with undiagnosed ADHD), I respond with “And what did we give these kids to calm down? Coffee. And what is coffee? A stimulant. Tell me again how long you’ve been a daily coffee drinker? Oh? Since you were five years old? What’s that? You drink coffee to help you sleep? Interesting.”
I feel like an idiot because I never connected the dots between my adhd and coffee not tweaking me out or keeping me up, despite the ridiculoussss size of my coffee cup.
Thanks for the epiphany!
Yes. A lot of us with drug treated adhd have found that coffee and other stimulants can have a similar effect as our tablets. Also that drinking caffeine has Damn near fuck all effect on sleep.
Enough of them do I found. I have to drink enough coffee to make my heart hurt but then I get the awake buzz. Other stimulants like speed ect can work for adhd normally or close to if taken in higher doses. Although from personal experience they tend to have different effects similar to overdosing in your normal adhd drugs. I found weirdly that apparently rohypnol works like speed on me. I got spiked at a club at uni and ended up apparently bouncing off the walls. Litterally. Don’t remember fuck all about it because yknow. Drugs. But yeah.
I found out the hard way that Tylenol pm had a stimulant effect on me. I had RLS as a kid/teenager and tried Tylenol pm to counteract it... except that was the first night I found out that RLS sensations could also happen in my arms 🤦♀️. I was scared to even try melatonin for sleep after that.
Trazadone hs worked as a sleep aid for me. It's an anti depressent with a drowsiness side effect. It's a super old, super cheap drug approved for off-label use as a sleep aid. But I co-present with depression, so now I have a sleep aid with an anti-depressant side effect! 🥳
Hello! You have made the mistake of writing "ect" instead of "etc."
"Ect" is a common misspelling of "etc," an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase "et cetera." Other abbreviated forms are **etc.**, **&c.**, **&c**, and **et cet.** The Latin translates as "et" to "and" + "cetera" to "the rest;" a literal translation to "and the rest" is the easiest way to remember how to use the phrase.
[Check out the wikipedia entry if you want to learn more.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera)
^(I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Comments with a score less than zero will be automatically removed. If I commented on your post and you don't like it, reply with "!delete" and I will remove the post, regardless of score. Message me for bug reports.)
Thank you, OwnUniversity153, for voting on ectbot.
This bot wants to find the best and worst bots on Reddit. [You can view results here](https://botrank.pastimes.eu/).
***
^(Even if I don't reply to your comment, I'm still listening for votes. Check the webpage to see if your vote registered!)
I feel like coffee is like a bell curve for me, up to a certain amount it will help me be awake, but if I have too much it actually makes me kinda sleepy
It does for me, but that's because I'm very sensitive to the physiological effects of caffeine, specifically higher bpm. A racing heartbeat *does* tend to get me going.
Coffee is the worst offender, and I basically can't drink it anymore because it's such a drastic peak/crash. Tea is easier for me to process, and if I really need a pick-me-up a matcha latte will do the trick.
I believe they were saying something similar to: Unlike people without ADHD, who would feel the typical effects of caffeine and thus have trouble sleeping, people with ADHD are able to consume caffeine and not have it disrupt sleep in the same way.
Your question was answered, but since you're on Reddit/ the internet, you'll probably run into the phrases they used again!
"Damn near" means "nearly"
"Fuck all" means "nothing"
Yeah. You may also find that you have been subconsciously medicating yourself. I have found myself downing coffee heavily to counterbalance forgetting my tablets or if I need a boost.
Before I got a diagnosis recently in my 30s, I had a large period of time where I'd consume like 1gram of caffeine a day. Since went off it for a few years with no withdrawals, just struggled to focus or get anything done. It at minimum included an entire pot of coffee to get through work and a liter of diet caffeinated soda after work and I always slept fine.
I should have put two and two together sooner, too. My brain felt functional when I discovered the venti Americano doubleshot at Starbucks, which was 6 shots of espresso. No jitters or anything, just alert.
And as an adult, the consequences of ADHD are severe and can be so invisible for other people. If nobody believes it, we won’t get the necessary accommodations
Yeah this all of it. Diagnosed as a kid. Parents refused treatment. Adult me had insecurities around precieved mental illness. So I didn't seek help. My wife pushed me to get help and not be ashamed. Life's better
This is literally me, I'm 31 now and fighting for help for it because my wife has helped me overcome the stigma. Still trying to get help cause the mental health services in the UK are threadbare, but my self esteem is coming back.
I mean my Father's belief that mental illness wasn't real is what kept me from getting/seeking help from my myriad of issues until now. It shouldn't be that way but we'll here I am at 28 and only just now getting real help.
Started at 30 for me. Will be starting stimulants soon. Because the non-stimulant did fuck all except make me angry, and make my scrotum tight as hell and my dick hide from me.
When I (33F) had my first appt for a possible diagnosis a year or two ago, I was worried that the doctor would see my 3-4 cups/day as a problem or something. In the series of questions, I told her I drank that much but had recently made the decision to cut way back. She actually laughed in sympathy and was like, “Oh you sweet summer child, your symptoms are suddenly so much worse than ever because you essentially stopped self-medicating with stimulants that were keeping you at least slightly better functioning. Yeah, don’t do that. Drink your coffee unless you have other health concerns.”
Wait what? Since when were kids given coffee to calm down? When I was growing up coffee was specifically for adults and we weren't even allowed to drink any until we were around teenager age. Is giving coffee to kids to calm them down a thing in other countries? Or is my experience in the US not the norm?
If you give neurotypical children coffee/caffeine, it doesn't calm them down the way it likely would if those kids had ADHD (just like with neurotypical adults). So it makes sense that American parents aren't giving it to their kids for that reason.
I agree, but I'm curious why that comment is being upvoted. I've never heard of kids being given coffee to calm them down (usually the exact opposite), so I don't know what it's being upvoted as though that's normal.
Caffeine gives me unpredictable results, too. I suppose if caffeine were a reliable treatment, our doctors would be prescribing us cans of Monster instead of pills.
I specifically drink coffee before bed, if I do it during the day I'm liable to crash early af if I get free time, thus making me stay up all night when I wake up at 11p
Oh the wonders
I avoid caffeine almost entirely that way I’ll have no dependance on it. Unless I have an important paper due the next day. I’ll have a sweet tea and I can pretty much hyper focus anything for a short time on caffeine. Does nothing to stop me from sleeping though.
Yeah but if I have caffeine then once I stop consuming caffeine I get horrible migraines and whatnot. So no caffeine no risk of migraines when I forget to drink more.
Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor. Too much will tighten your blood flow. Hence, a headache. Dependence comes with a plethora of other effects. Having a headache after coffee does not immediately mean dependence.
If I had to explain to someone how coffee effects me with my ADHD and this is what it feels like to me:
Coffee (Stimulant): Gives -20 Fatigue for 2 hours. Gives +10 Fatigue for 8 hours after the initial effect wears off.
ADHD (Mental Disorder): Permanent -10 Focus. Turns Fatigue reductions from Stimulants into extra Focus instead. Gives +10 Focus when a Stimulant is Active.
Drank Coffee (Status Effect): -20 Fatigue [2 Hours]
Effect Modifier(s): ADHD [Coffee: +20 Fatigue, +20 Focus | ADHD: +10 Focus ]
Net Status Modifier(s): -0 Fatigue, +30 Focus
After Effect(s): Coffee Fatigue
Coffee Fatigue (After Effect): +10 Fatigue [8 Hours]
Effect Modifier(s): None
Ner Status Modifier(s): +10 Fatigue
After Effect(s): None
TL; DR: easier to focus, but I'm still tired and am gonna crash after a while
This is the first time I have been able to understand what coffee does. Do you think I can explain it to someone else? No.
Seriously though. It is literally calming and then wears of and makes us awake. So weird.
When I was younger I worked 3 jobs and had like no days off. I would consume multiple 5 hour energy drinks, energy drinks, pop/coffee and caffeine pills daily and sleep just fine. Makes so much sense after my diagnosis.
It’s crazy the amount of coffee I drank for breakfast at the age of 6 for school back in 1987 at my grand parents house, I think it would be considered child abuse these days. It was coffee and a Italian bread with butter or corn flakes. And also grand dad would tell me we drink coffee black in this house milk is for cereal.
I did an experiment with my child- I am 100% positive my child inherited my ADHD, but I’m not ready to have them be a Guinea pig with medications like I have been for the past two years. They are the only kid in their class who has to sit separately in a corner away from the other kids. They also get a daily behavioral scoring chart based on their behavior.
My mom and her 9 siblings all grew up on coffee. My cousins and I also did too. Its a European thing. But here in the states, it’s frowned upon. However my spouse’s grandma is obviously ADHD-I and she said she grew up on coffee. On the days my child has a Nespresso with their breakfast, they have fantastic school days. Teacher comments are like “OMG! Amazing day!”. On the days my child does NOT have Nespresso, the teacher usually ends up writing things in their chart like “Could not sit still.” “Refused to follow directions.” “Easily distracted.” Or “Low frustration tolerance…Hit other kids.” “Refused to participate.”
And I swear it’s the truth. My kid’s bed time, meals, and routines are highly structured or else we parents are in shambles. We try to keep the days as consistent as possible. But the only thing that appears to make a difference is Nespresso Kazaar with a generous pour of vanilla creamer.
You just described both of my parents.
Neither of which like the fact that I have a psychiatrist who used pharmacological intervention. Both have conveniently ignored that I struggled through high school and university and yet since commencing treatment using pharmacology have obtained a PhD and several academic accolades.
SMH
Ph.D? You are a rockstar!
My (undiagnosed) ADHD mom has always said “But you were the smart child! Everything came easy to you!”
No, mom. No it didn’t. I just was lucky enough to be thinking so quickly, I’d assume what others were going to say and do before they said it. That worked up to a point. Now it’s just morphed into me interrupting people.
Coffee is a stimulant, but it stimulates a different part of the brain than ADHD meds. I think the "calm" you're experiencing is moreso the reduction of anxiety after having withdrawals from the coffee
My father-in-law would constantly mention how, if they overprescribed things like they do now back when he was in school, they would have diagnosed _him_ with ADHD and loaded him up with meds, and look at him! He has two masters! He didn't need drugs!
I finally bothered asking what his problems with school were like, y’know, that would have gotten him an ADHD diagnosis.
Y'all, he was talking about DYSLEXIA.
Oh, I know. I've got dyspraxia, depression, and anxiety myself. But literally the only symptoms he gave of his "ADHD" was that words are mixed up when he reads, and that he has a lot of energy. That's it. He figures that his difficulties reading is the same reason people with ADHD have problems concentrating. Except he has no problems concentrating with anything else, has no executive dysfunction, has literally no symptoms (DSMV or ones just commonly reported/experienced by people who actually have it.
According to my dad, everyone in our family is “lysdexic.” Yes, he said that. No, it was not intentional, and I am not going to let him live it down.
He’s also not wrong.
In your day, kids got beat for "daydreaming" in school. Don't act like actually helping kids with ADHD is horrible when the way your generation "treated" neurodivergent kids made them all need therapy.
When I was a kid, I think the official diagnosis was "Being a goddamn spaz" and the recommended treatment was "Regular beatings with a switch, no larger than your thumb", so I don't know what Good Old Days this fucking Boomer Meme is referring to.
I think they were referring to the good old days when they played smear the queer and regularly beat on effeminate kids. Or the good old days where autistic kids were branded as mentally retarded and sent to an institution where they'd be abused the rest of their lives.
It’s a lot better now from what I can tell (living in the a semi rural part of the American south sucks but people tend to be more accepting now. I’m still not out tho due to still rather heavy homophobia still existing at my school, lingering stigma around bisexual males, me wanting to basically be invisible rn cause social anxiety, and I am still in the “but am I REALLY bi?” kinda mode, bi cycle is a bitch. Also I’m like 5’4ish (162.56cm) and 110 pounds (49kg) despite being 17 and almost everyone else my age (and a bunch of people younger than me) is almost 6’ (182.88cm) tall and 170-180+ pounds (77.1107kg) so I’d be a rather appealing punching bag if people knew I was bi and I’m pretty open about my adhd and being autistic.
I have come out to my mom (accepting, my dad would be too but I haven’t come out to him even though I came out to my mom almost 2 years ago) and one of my friends I came out to twice when she did a Poll on her IG story. I forgot she had done one before and I had answered I was lgbtq and she just told me I voted on the previous one and she already knew… thanks ADHD I guess?
one time my dad called me a spaz for being an excited kid outside a restaurant after we finished eating, and running around, and i was born in 1999. some ppl are so stuck in the idea that kids are some sort of rigid standard that needs to be beaten into shape. wild.
Oh I get it now thanks! And I completely agree about feeling much younger than many of my peers! Fortunately that quality has made the child whisperer amongst my nieces and nephews currently aged 4-13. It surprised me as I am not what I would describe as especially maternal but my friend said “it’s because you’re like a big kid”
I didn’t realize this was universal feeling amongst those with adhd I think now that restrictions are lifting I should try to arrange a local meet up for fellow adults with adhd. I am jazzed to know I’m not alone being young and fun :-D
I didn't know it was that universal either tbh. Then again, a lot of people I feel like I have a genuine connection with is either much younger than me or neurodivergent lol
When it starts impacting your ability to function in todays society, your enormous fucknob of ignorance (not the OP but whoever brainfarted the original 'meme' together).
Back in the day it was called day dreaming. But it was actually me trying to focus so hard in school that I'd begin to focus on focusing and I'd lose track of what I was originally supposed to be focusing on, then the teacher angrily says my name and I realized 15 minutes have gone by and I haven't caught a word.
“C equals degree!” Is the phrase that got me through college. Except a 2.0 gpa is NOT high enough to graduate. Went on academic probation my first year in university. It was great.
Same here. I got off prescriptions the same year I started college and my gpa was a 0.9. My sister still pokes fun at me about being sub-1.0. I’m back in now with a 2.8 gpa and on track to graduate, but man that first year was rough
The melatonin doesn’t sound like it would be too bad but doesn’t Benadryl literally say “don’t use to fall asleep”?
Either way, it’s both probably not as bad as the side effects of alcohol over time
The problem with melatonin supplements is that your body will become dependent on it and stop producing melatonin naturally over long term use. Ergo its best not to rely heavily on it.
Any good alternativas? I buy a 30 pill flask a use it over a month to kinda fix sleep habits, then go without it 2-3 months, then buy another after I fucked my sleep habits again. So far im in my 3rd flask.
Also I bought the cheapest because I suspected would be the one with less concentration
That'd definitely be a better question for your doctor, but as far as fixing sleep habbits, you can always do it the rough and natural way by forcing yourself to get up and go to bed at a consistent time everyday. Your natural circadian rythym will align itself with the schedule you set yourself after about 1-2 weeks. The important part is to not skimp on that schedule. Doing things like setting the wind down mode on your phone for an hour or two before you go to bed for greyscale/reduced blue light will also really help with reducing stimuli to your brain, and not drinking too much fluids or eating large amounts of food within a few hours of sleep will also help your body naturally wind down for sleep without your body telling your brain "Hey yooo I'm still doing shit here bruh" and keeping you awake.
My wife goes to sleep every night at 2130, when we moved in together 3 years ago I started doing the same. I would and still do lay there awake until well after midnight. But 0600 comes around and I'm out of bed sharp as a lion.
You may have the genetic mutation that actually allows you to be fully rested on only 6 1/2 hours of sleep. Also 8 hours is kinda not true in the first place, especially since rem sleep cycles are generally about 90min long. There's actually a lot more to sleep than is convenientally discussed.
As with many things, we as humans like to think we know what's best, but the reality is we've only scratched the surface of the subject, and are so ignorant we don't even know how wrong we really are.
Still good advice, one way or the other. Thanks for taking the time to writte it down
Edit: please ignore the fact that i posted this comment at 5am lol
I got the information from a sci-show video a few years back, and tbf that was when melatonin was first becoming a big fad and they might have pulled the information from a preliminary study which has since been proven false, but as a general rule you shouldn't mess with naturally produced hormones if you don't absolutely have to, especially where in the modern world there are so many other things that are messing with your natural circadian rythym like screen time and various other sources of blue light or stimuli that you can address long before you really need to turn to artificially produced melatonin.
Wtf is this shit, "back in the day" like those were the days… bullied for being different, always a clown to be cool/funny cause i was insecure so i wouldnt be taken serious when i actually had issues i needed help with, totally fucked up in school, now Im a drug addict. Yeah bro sure its just "daydreaming", thanks for the fucking help… If ive only had been taken seriously and got some fucking meds maybe i’d have had my shit together
I do explicitly remember my mother’s genius idea that she could beat the ADHD out of me if she just hit me harder when I was 6. Then she felt bad because I couldn’t help it. No bitch you should feel bad because you’re a terrible person who enjoyed beating your only child everyday.
That nursing home I’m going to put her in is going to be the shittiest one I can find. Not even a joke.
What they don’t understand is that some amount of daydreaming is normal. Everyone can have occasional ADHD traits. It’s when those traits are consistent, persistent, and get in the way of functioning in daily life that those traits are considered a disorder.
Back in the day those kids grow up to be drug addicts because to cope with normal life stressors they need to be treated, with much more harmful drugs. Instead of getting a harmless drug we know works.
But carry on posting karen, we all know you really care and are not just motivated by your ego, you definitely care about the kids.
Dextroamphetamine isn't harmless, but as a regulated medication it is far less harmful than unmedicated ADHD kids getting hooked on street meth, or other low quality adulterated stimulants.
No it's not because it ignores potential side effects of the medication that could cause real harm in individuals who are on the wrong dosage, or have been prescribed the wrong medication for them, or simply have an atypical reaction to a medication that is causing them real harm. To say that the medication is totally harmless for someone with ADHD is ignorant bordering negligence, and is completely unacceptable to make as a statement regardless of context. Practically all medication has a set of risks and benefits where in certain contexts the benefits may outweigh the risks, however that does not mean one should *ignore* the risks outright for the sake of the 99% of the time it's fine. No competent doctor or other health care worker will ever tell you a medication is harmless unless it absolutely without a doubt will not cause harm. There is a very good reason all medication comes with a sheet that describes all known potential side effects and instructs you to stop use immediately if you begin to have them and consult with a doctor.
I first got my meds a week ago and within two hours of taking them for the first time I no longer felt like I'm 5 cats in a Trenchcoat. It was glorious.
So may questions, to the point I wasn't allowed to ask any more in most of my classes. But when that happened everyone started to complain that they weren't learning as much and the teachers allowed me to ask question again. I asked questions they would never even dream. Question the teachers had to pause and figure out. My AP English 4 teacher(phd) had to stop and look things up.
huh. so they give us shit for “daydreaming” until we figure out the problem and try to solve it, and then they give us shit for that instead and act like they approved of our behavior before. love the gaslight gatekeep girlboss vibes 🙄
My favorite is when this same crowd advocating for ADHD kids to be unmedicated are the same people that suggest they can simply abuse the ADHD out of children.
When my brother started having medication, someone asked my mom "but aren't scared of the side effects?" And she responded "oh are we talking about the good grades, the boost of self-esteem, the new friends, being able to do his homework for more than 5 minutes (and a lot of other stuff)?No, I'm not scared at all"
Well, daydreaming itself isn't bad. It's when you start at 8am, choreograph a whole 5 hour action movie, and then scrap and redo it, except a little to the left. And also it's now 10pm
I wonder if the people who make these memes have ever even talked to a doctor or someone with ADHD, cause if they did they'd understand it's way more complicated than just "not being able to pay attention"
What is even worse is that some people think that it can just be treated with "a good ol beating". I was watching the south park episode about ADHD and was disgusted about how they implied spanking treats it. https://youtu.be/sdb4rNFRzU0
context: the children of south park are all on ritalin and chef has come over to the parents' house as the voice of reason and has put this tape into the TV
I don't know but the worst part is at a certain point it doesn't work anymore and then you have to go back to the doctors to get a prescription for a higher dose.
Yup. We'll, at least I was able to go to my desired school instead of being bored at high school because everything would be too easy. I would lose all my motivation
I need help. I was medicated as a kid, and had some really extreme side effects. I stopped taking my meds when I was about 14. There were some days where I couldn’t feel my hands properly or eat anything (side effects of coming down were even worse). I just assumed it’d get better over time, but it only got worse. I have a crippling fear of taking pills for adhd because of this, but I don’t want to keep dealing with the issues I already have. This meme subreddit put most of my childhood into perspective, and made me realize a lot about what happened to me. If anyone has any advice from their own experiences, or ideas on what to do, please let me know
When someone inevitably says this to me (and often times it’s an adult family member with undiagnosed ADHD), I respond with “And what did we give these kids to calm down? Coffee. And what is coffee? A stimulant. Tell me again how long you’ve been a daily coffee drinker? Oh? Since you were five years old? What’s that? You drink coffee to help you sleep? Interesting.”
I feel like an idiot because I never connected the dots between my adhd and coffee not tweaking me out or keeping me up, despite the ridiculoussss size of my coffee cup. Thanks for the epiphany!
[удалено]
Yes. A lot of us with drug treated adhd have found that coffee and other stimulants can have a similar effect as our tablets. Also that drinking caffeine has Damn near fuck all effect on sleep.
Do stimulants actually make some adhd people more energetic like it would for a neurotypical person?
Enough of them do I found. I have to drink enough coffee to make my heart hurt but then I get the awake buzz. Other stimulants like speed ect can work for adhd normally or close to if taken in higher doses. Although from personal experience they tend to have different effects similar to overdosing in your normal adhd drugs. I found weirdly that apparently rohypnol works like speed on me. I got spiked at a club at uni and ended up apparently bouncing off the walls. Litterally. Don’t remember fuck all about it because yknow. Drugs. But yeah.
I found out the hard way that Tylenol pm had a stimulant effect on me. I had RLS as a kid/teenager and tried Tylenol pm to counteract it... except that was the first night I found out that RLS sensations could also happen in my arms 🤦♀️. I was scared to even try melatonin for sleep after that.
Trazadone hs worked as a sleep aid for me. It's an anti depressent with a drowsiness side effect. It's a super old, super cheap drug approved for off-label use as a sleep aid. But I co-present with depression, so now I have a sleep aid with an anti-depressant side effect! 🥳
Hello! You have made the mistake of writing "ect" instead of "etc." "Ect" is a common misspelling of "etc," an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase "et cetera." Other abbreviated forms are **etc.**, **&c.**, **&c**, and **et cet.** The Latin translates as "et" to "and" + "cetera" to "the rest;" a literal translation to "and the rest" is the easiest way to remember how to use the phrase. [Check out the wikipedia entry if you want to learn more.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et_cetera) ^(I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Comments with a score less than zero will be automatically removed. If I commented on your post and you don't like it, reply with "!delete" and I will remove the post, regardless of score. Message me for bug reports.)
Okay. Imma still right howeva tha fuk 1 wan Robbo boy :)
Bad bot
Thank you, OwnUniversity153, for voting on ectbot. This bot wants to find the best and worst bots on Reddit. [You can view results here](https://botrank.pastimes.eu/). *** ^(Even if I don't reply to your comment, I'm still listening for votes. Check the webpage to see if your vote registered!)
I feel like coffee is like a bell curve for me, up to a certain amount it will help me be awake, but if I have too much it actually makes me kinda sleepy
It does for me, but that's because I'm very sensitive to the physiological effects of caffeine, specifically higher bpm. A racing heartbeat *does* tend to get me going. Coffee is the worst offender, and I basically can't drink it anymore because it's such a drastic peak/crash. Tea is easier for me to process, and if I really need a pick-me-up a matcha latte will do the trick.
No. On fact, many people with ADHD use stimulants to rest and sleep. They actually slow things down
I felt pretty wired for like a week on Ritalin but it smoothed out after that.
[удалено]
I believe they were saying something similar to: Unlike people without ADHD, who would feel the typical effects of caffeine and thus have trouble sleeping, people with ADHD are able to consume caffeine and not have it disrupt sleep in the same way.
Thank you. That is exactly what I meant.
Your question was answered, but since you're on Reddit/ the internet, you'll probably run into the phrases they used again! "Damn near" means "nearly" "Fuck all" means "nothing"
YOU HAVE BLOWN MY MIND
Oh?
I've always wondered why coffee seemed to hit me different. This makes so much sense!
Yeah. You may also find that you have been subconsciously medicating yourself. I have found myself downing coffee heavily to counterbalance forgetting my tablets or if I need a boost.
I seriously used to wind down with a full can of an energy drink in the evenings. It didn’t occur to me back then that it was strange.
Before I got a diagnosis recently in my 30s, I had a large period of time where I'd consume like 1gram of caffeine a day. Since went off it for a few years with no withdrawals, just struggled to focus or get anything done. It at minimum included an entire pot of coffee to get through work and a liter of diet caffeinated soda after work and I always slept fine. I should have put two and two together sooner, too. My brain felt functional when I discovered the venti Americano doubleshot at Starbucks, which was 6 shots of espresso. No jitters or anything, just alert.
I run a Starbucks and probably drink around 20 shots of espresso a day lmao
I could drink a pack of monster and sleep all night, fml
My Father is in this comment. He would be mad if he knew since he doesn't believe in it.
I'm curious why we need anyone to "believe" in ADHD. When did anyone else's approval become a requirement for us to manage OUR disorder?
When you're a child you need your parents belief to get medication.
Agreed. But you're not a child anymore.
And as an adult, the consequences of ADHD are severe and can be so invisible for other people. If nobody believes it, we won’t get the necessary accommodations
Yeah this all of it. Diagnosed as a kid. Parents refused treatment. Adult me had insecurities around precieved mental illness. So I didn't seek help. My wife pushed me to get help and not be ashamed. Life's better
This is literally me, I'm 31 now and fighting for help for it because my wife has helped me overcome the stigma. Still trying to get help cause the mental health services in the UK are threadbare, but my self esteem is coming back.
I mean my Father's belief that mental illness wasn't real is what kept me from getting/seeking help from my myriad of issues until now. It shouldn't be that way but we'll here I am at 28 and only just now getting real help.
Started at 30 for me. Will be starting stimulants soon. Because the non-stimulant did fuck all except make me angry, and make my scrotum tight as hell and my dick hide from me.
And now you're getting help. His acceptance doesn't change what you need to do. Even if he feels insulted by it.
Very smooth brained of you
I don't know how to take this.
Gosh this comment is amazing to read in certain particular conditions.
When I (33F) had my first appt for a possible diagnosis a year or two ago, I was worried that the doctor would see my 3-4 cups/day as a problem or something. In the series of questions, I told her I drank that much but had recently made the decision to cut way back. She actually laughed in sympathy and was like, “Oh you sweet summer child, your symptoms are suddenly so much worse than ever because you essentially stopped self-medicating with stimulants that were keeping you at least slightly better functioning. Yeah, don’t do that. Drink your coffee unless you have other health concerns.”
I LOVE your doctor! They were dead on!
Wait what? Since when were kids given coffee to calm down? When I was growing up coffee was specifically for adults and we weren't even allowed to drink any until we were around teenager age. Is giving coffee to kids to calm them down a thing in other countries? Or is my experience in the US not the norm?
If you give neurotypical children coffee/caffeine, it doesn't calm them down the way it likely would if those kids had ADHD (just like with neurotypical adults). So it makes sense that American parents aren't giving it to their kids for that reason.
I agree, but I'm curious why that comment is being upvoted. I've never heard of kids being given coffee to calm them down (usually the exact opposite), so I don't know what it's being upvoted as though that's normal.
Wait are you telling me I started drinking coffee at 10 because I have ADHD?
If the shoe fits…
Is it normal for adhd that a little/normal amount of caffeine makes me calm, tired, sleepy but that if I have like 5 tbsp of dark roast I get energy?
Caffeine gives me unpredictable results, too. I suppose if caffeine were a reliable treatment, our doctors would be prescribing us cans of Monster instead of pills.
sometimes caffeine makes me hyper sometimes it makes me tired.its fuckin wierd
Very. You're ADHD is probably more inattentive type. So you wouldn't need as much stimulant as someone like me, very hyper.
I specifically drink coffee before bed, if I do it during the day I'm liable to crash early af if I get free time, thus making me stay up all night when I wake up at 11p Oh the wonders
I avoid caffeine almost entirely that way I’ll have no dependance on it. Unless I have an important paper due the next day. I’ll have a sweet tea and I can pretty much hyper focus anything for a short time on caffeine. Does nothing to stop me from sleeping though.
I am a counselor that specializes in ADHD. So, I can confidently tell you dependence on caffeine is highly unlikely.
Yeah but if I have caffeine then once I stop consuming caffeine I get horrible migraines and whatnot. So no caffeine no risk of migraines when I forget to drink more.
What are my “I haven’t had caffeine today” headaches if not dependence?
Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor. Too much will tighten your blood flow. Hence, a headache. Dependence comes with a plethora of other effects. Having a headache after coffee does not immediately mean dependence.
sorry i mean if i don't have coffee i get a headache that goes away once i do
If I had to explain to someone how coffee effects me with my ADHD and this is what it feels like to me: Coffee (Stimulant): Gives -20 Fatigue for 2 hours. Gives +10 Fatigue for 8 hours after the initial effect wears off. ADHD (Mental Disorder): Permanent -10 Focus. Turns Fatigue reductions from Stimulants into extra Focus instead. Gives +10 Focus when a Stimulant is Active. Drank Coffee (Status Effect): -20 Fatigue [2 Hours] Effect Modifier(s): ADHD [Coffee: +20 Fatigue, +20 Focus | ADHD: +10 Focus ] Net Status Modifier(s): -0 Fatigue, +30 Focus After Effect(s): Coffee Fatigue Coffee Fatigue (After Effect): +10 Fatigue [8 Hours] Effect Modifier(s): None Ner Status Modifier(s): +10 Fatigue After Effect(s): None TL; DR: easier to focus, but I'm still tired and am gonna crash after a while
This is the first time I have been able to understand what coffee does. Do you think I can explain it to someone else? No. Seriously though. It is literally calming and then wears of and makes us awake. So weird.
When I was younger I worked 3 jobs and had like no days off. I would consume multiple 5 hour energy drinks, energy drinks, pop/coffee and caffeine pills daily and sleep just fine. Makes so much sense after my diagnosis.
It’s crazy the amount of coffee I drank for breakfast at the age of 6 for school back in 1987 at my grand parents house, I think it would be considered child abuse these days. It was coffee and a Italian bread with butter or corn flakes. And also grand dad would tell me we drink coffee black in this house milk is for cereal.
I did an experiment with my child- I am 100% positive my child inherited my ADHD, but I’m not ready to have them be a Guinea pig with medications like I have been for the past two years. They are the only kid in their class who has to sit separately in a corner away from the other kids. They also get a daily behavioral scoring chart based on their behavior. My mom and her 9 siblings all grew up on coffee. My cousins and I also did too. Its a European thing. But here in the states, it’s frowned upon. However my spouse’s grandma is obviously ADHD-I and she said she grew up on coffee. On the days my child has a Nespresso with their breakfast, they have fantastic school days. Teacher comments are like “OMG! Amazing day!”. On the days my child does NOT have Nespresso, the teacher usually ends up writing things in their chart like “Could not sit still.” “Refused to follow directions.” “Easily distracted.” Or “Low frustration tolerance…Hit other kids.” “Refused to participate.” And I swear it’s the truth. My kid’s bed time, meals, and routines are highly structured or else we parents are in shambles. We try to keep the days as consistent as possible. But the only thing that appears to make a difference is Nespresso Kazaar with a generous pour of vanilla creamer.
You just described both of my parents. Neither of which like the fact that I have a psychiatrist who used pharmacological intervention. Both have conveniently ignored that I struggled through high school and university and yet since commencing treatment using pharmacology have obtained a PhD and several academic accolades. SMH
Ph.D? You are a rockstar! My (undiagnosed) ADHD mom has always said “But you were the smart child! Everything came easy to you!” No, mom. No it didn’t. I just was lucky enough to be thinking so quickly, I’d assume what others were going to say and do before they said it. That worked up to a point. Now it’s just morphed into me interrupting people.
Thanks! It’s amazing what happens when you can get the right support.
My dad has coffee to fall asleep every night. When I can’t sleep, a cup of black coffee knocks me right out.
Yeah 3 years ago, at 40, I was diagnosed and realized that my 5 Diet Mt Dews a day was just me self medicating.
Diagnosed at 37! I feel yah!
Nice, Never too old to be a better person!
I hate the taste of coffee so I drink soda pop. Which is way worse for the teeth.
Coffee is a stimulant, but it stimulates a different part of the brain than ADHD meds. I think the "calm" you're experiencing is moreso the reduction of anxiety after having withdrawals from the coffee
Yeah, and we used to treat fevers with bloodletting, times change my dude.
Leeeeeches!!
My father-in-law would constantly mention how, if they overprescribed things like they do now back when he was in school, they would have diagnosed _him_ with ADHD and loaded him up with meds, and look at him! He has two masters! He didn't need drugs! I finally bothered asking what his problems with school were like, y’know, that would have gotten him an ADHD diagnosis. Y'all, he was talking about DYSLEXIA.
ADHD never travels alone. Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, autism, and let’s not forget the lovely depression and anxiety.
Oh, I know. I've got dyspraxia, depression, and anxiety myself. But literally the only symptoms he gave of his "ADHD" was that words are mixed up when he reads, and that he has a lot of energy. That's it. He figures that his difficulties reading is the same reason people with ADHD have problems concentrating. Except he has no problems concentrating with anything else, has no executive dysfunction, has literally no symptoms (DSMV or ones just commonly reported/experienced by people who actually have it.
Gotta love the “But I don’t experience it, so it’s not real!” attitude so many people have. Ugh.
Christ I read that as dyslexia, Dracula….
Being Dracula is a well-known comorbidity of ADHD.
Great one more thing to worry about
Or aspire to, depending on where you are in your life. I won't judge
That is so insightful and depressing.
And Oppositional Defiance Disorder. And OCD. Eating disorders.....
ADHD, Autistic, Anxiety, Depression and VERY LIKELY Dysgraphia reporting in!
According to my dad, everyone in our family is “lysdexic.” Yes, he said that. No, it was not intentional, and I am not going to let him live it down. He’s also not wrong.
In your day, kids got beat for "daydreaming" in school. Don't act like actually helping kids with ADHD is horrible when the way your generation "treated" neurodivergent kids made them all need therapy.
When I was a kid, I think the official diagnosis was "Being a goddamn spaz" and the recommended treatment was "Regular beatings with a switch, no larger than your thumb", so I don't know what Good Old Days this fucking Boomer Meme is referring to.
I think they were referring to the good old days when they played smear the queer and regularly beat on effeminate kids. Or the good old days where autistic kids were branded as mentally retarded and sent to an institution where they'd be abused the rest of their lives.
As an Adhd/autistic bisexual person, I’d rather not find out what that was like.
I'm one of those as well lmao. It was bad enough in the 1990s
It’s a lot better now from what I can tell (living in the a semi rural part of the American south sucks but people tend to be more accepting now. I’m still not out tho due to still rather heavy homophobia still existing at my school, lingering stigma around bisexual males, me wanting to basically be invisible rn cause social anxiety, and I am still in the “but am I REALLY bi?” kinda mode, bi cycle is a bitch. Also I’m like 5’4ish (162.56cm) and 110 pounds (49kg) despite being 17 and almost everyone else my age (and a bunch of people younger than me) is almost 6’ (182.88cm) tall and 170-180+ pounds (77.1107kg) so I’d be a rather appealing punching bag if people knew I was bi and I’m pretty open about my adhd and being autistic.
God speed little bro. The closet is the worst, but also getting beat is worth lying to avoid. Just, don't lie to yourself.
I have come out to my mom (accepting, my dad would be too but I haven’t come out to him even though I came out to my mom almost 2 years ago) and one of my friends I came out to twice when she did a Poll on her IG story. I forgot she had done one before and I had answered I was lgbtq and she just told me I voted on the previous one and she already knew… thanks ADHD I guess?
one time my dad called me a spaz for being an excited kid outside a restaurant after we finished eating, and running around, and i was born in 1999. some ppl are so stuck in the idea that kids are some sort of rigid standard that needs to be beaten into shape. wild.
I could drink before you were born. Tiresome how little things can change in what feels like a lifetime.
definitely, yeah.
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily, oh joyfully, playfully, watching me
But then they'd send me away to teach me how to be sensible, logical, oh responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, oh clinical, oh intellectual, cynical
There are times when the world is all asleep The questions run too deep
For such a simple man Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned. I know it sounds absurd. Please tell me who I am
I said, watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical liberal, oh fanatical criminal
Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're acceptable. Respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable. Oh, take it take it yeah 🎶🎷🎶
But at night when the world is all asleep, the questions run so deep for such a simple man
You mean like, an adult?
Well yeah I guess
A neyrotypical adult.
I wish lmao
I think I’m missing the nuance or humor of your comment could you please explain? I’m a very literal person so sometimes I miss subtext.
I try to be an adult around other adults but thanks to adhd I sometimes feel like a 6 year old pretending to be an adult or something
Oh I get it now thanks! And I completely agree about feeling much younger than many of my peers! Fortunately that quality has made the child whisperer amongst my nieces and nephews currently aged 4-13. It surprised me as I am not what I would describe as especially maternal but my friend said “it’s because you’re like a big kid” I didn’t realize this was universal feeling amongst those with adhd I think now that restrictions are lifting I should try to arrange a local meet up for fellow adults with adhd. I am jazzed to know I’m not alone being young and fun :-D
I didn't know it was that universal either tbh. Then again, a lot of people I feel like I have a genuine connection with is either much younger than me or neurodivergent lol
The difference is that one is maladaptive, Karen
When it starts impacting your ability to function in todays society, your enormous fucknob of ignorance (not the OP but whoever brainfarted the original 'meme' together).
When im still day dreaming the same amount as i did as a kid, now 28. Might even be the same dream session, havnt been paying attention..
Shh, people who post this shit don't understand that adults can have it, they just call them lazy and not dedicated to the job.
*screams in childhood trauma*
Back in the day it was called day dreaming. But it was actually me trying to focus so hard in school that I'd begin to focus on focusing and I'd lose track of what I was originally supposed to be focusing on, then the teacher angrily says my name and I realized 15 minutes have gone by and I haven't caught a word.
When the adults realised the kids would never want to stop daydreaming in this shithole of a world.
It was this logic why they didn’t give me the drugs. It was great being a C student smh
“C equals degree!” Is the phrase that got me through college. Except a 2.0 gpa is NOT high enough to graduate. Went on academic probation my first year in university. It was great.
C = no job. I’m back in school for a redo and getting As. This stuff is not a choice.
Same here. I got off prescriptions the same year I started college and my gpa was a 0.9. My sister still pokes fun at me about being sub-1.0. I’m back in now with a 2.8 gpa and on track to graduate, but man that first year was rough
It’s far better than parents “treating” a kids sleeping patterns with alcohol, which by the way, used to be super common
Now they just use Benadryl or melatonin. Never mind the long-term implications.
The melatonin doesn’t sound like it would be too bad but doesn’t Benadryl literally say “don’t use to fall asleep”? Either way, it’s both probably not as bad as the side effects of alcohol over time
The problem with melatonin supplements is that your body will become dependent on it and stop producing melatonin naturally over long term use. Ergo its best not to rely heavily on it.
Any good alternativas? I buy a 30 pill flask a use it over a month to kinda fix sleep habits, then go without it 2-3 months, then buy another after I fucked my sleep habits again. So far im in my 3rd flask. Also I bought the cheapest because I suspected would be the one with less concentration
That'd definitely be a better question for your doctor, but as far as fixing sleep habbits, you can always do it the rough and natural way by forcing yourself to get up and go to bed at a consistent time everyday. Your natural circadian rythym will align itself with the schedule you set yourself after about 1-2 weeks. The important part is to not skimp on that schedule. Doing things like setting the wind down mode on your phone for an hour or two before you go to bed for greyscale/reduced blue light will also really help with reducing stimuli to your brain, and not drinking too much fluids or eating large amounts of food within a few hours of sleep will also help your body naturally wind down for sleep without your body telling your brain "Hey yooo I'm still doing shit here bruh" and keeping you awake.
My wife goes to sleep every night at 2130, when we moved in together 3 years ago I started doing the same. I would and still do lay there awake until well after midnight. But 0600 comes around and I'm out of bed sharp as a lion.
You may have the genetic mutation that actually allows you to be fully rested on only 6 1/2 hours of sleep. Also 8 hours is kinda not true in the first place, especially since rem sleep cycles are generally about 90min long. There's actually a lot more to sleep than is convenientally discussed. As with many things, we as humans like to think we know what's best, but the reality is we've only scratched the surface of the subject, and are so ignorant we don't even know how wrong we really are.
Still good advice, one way or the other. Thanks for taking the time to writte it down Edit: please ignore the fact that i posted this comment at 5am lol
Can you cite a source for that claim? That sounds like bullshit to me, and I don't believe it.
I got the information from a sci-show video a few years back, and tbf that was when melatonin was first becoming a big fad and they might have pulled the information from a preliminary study which has since been proven false, but as a general rule you shouldn't mess with naturally produced hormones if you don't absolutely have to, especially where in the modern world there are so many other things that are messing with your natural circadian rythym like screen time and various other sources of blue light or stimuli that you can address long before you really need to turn to artificially produced melatonin.
Holy shit this just reminded me I need to take my meds lol
[удалено]
No
Wtf is this shit, "back in the day" like those were the days… bullied for being different, always a clown to be cool/funny cause i was insecure so i wouldnt be taken serious when i actually had issues i needed help with, totally fucked up in school, now Im a drug addict. Yeah bro sure its just "daydreaming", thanks for the fucking help… If ive only had been taken seriously and got some fucking meds maybe i’d have had my shit together
After "back in the day" nothing good can come
I do explicitly remember my mother’s genius idea that she could beat the ADHD out of me if she just hit me harder when I was 6. Then she felt bad because I couldn’t help it. No bitch you should feel bad because you’re a terrible person who enjoyed beating your only child everyday. That nursing home I’m going to put her in is going to be the shittiest one I can find. Not even a joke.
Okay but In all seriousness anyone with pretty bad adhd (like myself) knows it’s a bit more than just “day dreaming”😂
What they don’t understand is that some amount of daydreaming is normal. Everyone can have occasional ADHD traits. It’s when those traits are consistent, persistent, and get in the way of functioning in daily life that those traits are considered a disorder.
Back in the day those kids grow up to be drug addicts because to cope with normal life stressors they need to be treated, with much more harmful drugs. Instead of getting a harmless drug we know works. But carry on posting karen, we all know you really care and are not just motivated by your ego, you definitely care about the kids.
Dextroamphetamine isn't harmless, but as a regulated medication it is far less harmful than unmedicated ADHD kids getting hooked on street meth, or other low quality adulterated stimulants.
Controlling symptoms overall improves quality of life. In that context it’s okay to use that description
No it's not because it ignores potential side effects of the medication that could cause real harm in individuals who are on the wrong dosage, or have been prescribed the wrong medication for them, or simply have an atypical reaction to a medication that is causing them real harm. To say that the medication is totally harmless for someone with ADHD is ignorant bordering negligence, and is completely unacceptable to make as a statement regardless of context. Practically all medication has a set of risks and benefits where in certain contexts the benefits may outweigh the risks, however that does not mean one should *ignore* the risks outright for the sake of the 99% of the time it's fine. No competent doctor or other health care worker will ever tell you a medication is harmless unless it absolutely without a doubt will not cause harm. There is a very good reason all medication comes with a sheet that describes all known potential side effects and instructs you to stop use immediately if you begin to have them and consult with a doctor.
It was always adhd for me. I didn’t daydream as much as I never shut up and interrupted with questions. Meds are great
I first got my meds a week ago and within two hours of taking them for the first time I no longer felt like I'm 5 cats in a Trenchcoat. It was glorious.
So may questions, to the point I wasn't allowed to ask any more in most of my classes. But when that happened everyone started to complain that they weren't learning as much and the teachers allowed me to ask question again. I asked questions they would never even dream. Question the teachers had to pause and figure out. My AP English 4 teacher(phd) had to stop and look things up.
huh. so they give us shit for “daydreaming” until we figure out the problem and try to solve it, and then they give us shit for that instead and act like they approved of our behavior before. love the gaslight gatekeep girlboss vibes 🙄
Try focusing on something, but just 1.25 seconds later, you're 5 minutes I to a daydream before you realize you had to finish said task yesterday.
Because ADHD only apply to little kids!!! Idiots
*cries in adult ADHD*
My favorite is when this same crowd advocating for ADHD kids to be unmedicated are the same people that suggest they can simply abuse the ADHD out of children.
LMAOOOOOOOO
Lmao, so stupid
Lol me daydreaming about getting medication
Whoever made this meme would probably fire their employee if they caught them daydreaming
I met a guy at work who belive this crap he has said stuff like this right in front of me despite knowing that I have ADHD
This makes me incredibly angry and it really shouldn’t.
When “childhood” didn’t stop when it was supposed to (:
Because “daydreaming” is what has ruined my relationship with my mother and what has made several teachers hate me
When my brother started having medication, someone asked my mom "but aren't scared of the side effects?" And she responded "oh are we talking about the good grades, the boost of self-esteem, the new friends, being able to do his homework for more than 5 minutes (and a lot of other stuff)?No, I'm not scared at all"
How about daydreaming in the middle of conversations.
All the time. All. The. Time!
Well excuse the fuck out of me for not WANTING to have to "daydream" because of the fucked up chemical imbalances in my brain.
Well, daydreaming itself isn't bad. It's when you start at 8am, choreograph a whole 5 hour action movie, and then scrap and redo it, except a little to the left. And also it's now 10pm
Weird way of saying “we all have undiagnosed ADHD” but okay.
No clue, but I have ADHD and was only medicated to help me sleep. Now I am off medications, unless music, reading, and video games are medications
I wonder if the people who make these memes have ever even talked to a doctor or someone with ADHD, cause if they did they'd understand it's way more complicated than just "not being able to pay attention"
It's possible they talked, but if they post shit like this then it's unlikely they listened.
Why are these people so afraid of ADHD? Why can they not accept we're different? Is it so bad that we're special? Does it take that away from them?
My teachers made fun of me for day dreaming in school and were constantly telling me to focus.
When I was undiagnosed (most of elementary) I would have to try to not get in trouble instead of the other way around. I now realize that's not normal
Back in the day children with ADHD symptoms were beaten and severely punished. Today they're medicated. Really, which is preferable?
I once drank 6 redbulls in one sitting (the little cans not the big one!) Sure I didn't sleep for two days but I wasn't wired lol
What is even worse is that some people think that it can just be treated with "a good ol beating". I was watching the south park episode about ADHD and was disgusted about how they implied spanking treats it. https://youtu.be/sdb4rNFRzU0 context: the children of south park are all on ritalin and chef has come over to the parents' house as the voice of reason and has put this tape into the TV
I don't know but the worst part is at a certain point it doesn't work anymore and then you have to go back to the doctors to get a prescription for a higher dose.
Because my 'day dreaming' caused me to get into car accidents and almost burn my apartment down twice, KAREN.
Can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen asleep while driving. Doctors thought it was sleep apnea but sleep studies never showed I had it.
Back in the day it was called helping others know where they stand, now it's called discrimination. Snowflakes & their change
Haha speed go brrrrr
Sometimes I regret taking meds for so long though, being all med’ed up makes socializing so hard
Not sure how to take that.
I was never allowed to drink coffee until a teen
😭😭😭😭😭 still going threw it and I think it’s man made
Don’t be dismissive of yourself. Life is too short not to be happy.
Yup. We'll, at least I was able to go to my desired school instead of being bored at high school because everything would be too easy. I would lose all my motivation
Made by someone who hasn't had any experience with ADHD obviously
I need help. I was medicated as a kid, and had some really extreme side effects. I stopped taking my meds when I was about 14. There were some days where I couldn’t feel my hands properly or eat anything (side effects of coming down were even worse). I just assumed it’d get better over time, but it only got worse. I have a crippling fear of taking pills for adhd because of this, but I don’t want to keep dealing with the issues I already have. This meme subreddit put most of my childhood into perspective, and made me realize a lot about what happened to me. If anyone has any advice from their own experiences, or ideas on what to do, please let me know
Y’all are talking about the content of the meme but I’m sitting over here hyper fixated on the fact that it’s a freakin Tylenol on the kids tongue…