arcane potato (she/they)

For the first 37 years of my life I was way too early for everything. Now I’m late, because I decided to stop stressing about it. Not sure which is worse lol

I don’t know what you are studying so I can’t promise this is true for you, but I did my first 2 years of uni “on time”, took 2 years off to do internships, a semester off for a wee mental break down and then did my last 2 years over a 3 year period. I got the equivalent of a B- average. Overall pretty mediocre.

But I’m very externally successful despite the non linear path through school. Don’t fret if you need to take some time off, it’s not the end of the world 💖 I think what would have helped me a lot was understanding that I’m not actually bad at engineering, just very good at a very specific subset lol.

P.S. You can remain silly!

How were your first moments/days/weeks with medication? (I you don’t mind sharing).

I am twice your age so my life looks a lot different that yours does right now, but I was only diagnosed a year ago, so I will share anyways!

I was diagnosed by my GP, after discussions with my therapist so my titration on to drugs was not ideal. I am waiting on a referral for a psych, who I am hoping will help dial the meds in better. They are not doing as much as I think they could, but they are honestly a lifesaver.

Initially, I was given 5 mg dexamphetamine to try out. This drug behaves a lot differently than Lisdex, and I could feel it kicking in on my drive into work because I could feel the road rage melt away in real time, lol. It also wore off very quickly, and I started with lisdex shortly thereafter. The biggest change I noticed was that I wasn’t crying every day. I don’t think I was depressed, just distressed and it really helped with the emotional regulation. I still have my bad days, but they are far less frequent.

Other than that, I’m not sure I could really tell you what changed, because like many with ADHD I have awful metacognition. I sometimes forget to take them and I think I notice because I become unable to complete a task, I just jump between one thing to another and completely forget what I was doing. I think I also notice them wearing off in the evenings because I feel the same way there too.

ETA: I also lose my appetite, and it comes roaring back in the evenings so this is another way I can tell if I’ve forgotten to take them!

I am taking 40 mg right now. I feel extremely high strung but I feel that way if I take them or not so I no longer think it might be on the edge of too high a dose, which I did initially. In fact, I feel like it might not be working so well any more right now.

I would encourage you to try and take notes if at all possible. There are templates out there to make it a guided exercise. You could also ask those close to you if they notice a difference.

Good luck and it’s amazing you are getting diagnosed in university! I think my biggest struggle with adult ADHD is that I don’t know how to exist in the adult world in a healthy way, so learning and accepting my limitations (My whole body tenses when I write that) is extremely hard. I hope this helps your transition into the adult world as smooth as possible 💖