Posted by Lindenblüte on October 15, 2006, at 17:28:28
In reply to Re: Inattentive ADD meds...., posted by jealibeanz on October 15, 2006, at 15:38:27
Hi Jealibeanz,
I don't have ADD or ADHD. I probably have some kind of anxiety disorder at the moment. I have found a few things that help.1) my mind is a blooming buzzing confusion (to quote James) and I have found a small dose of seroquel at night to help that. It's also sedating, so it helps me sleep better. (currently I'm at a high dose of seroquel, but for many months a small dose 12.5-50mg was quite sufficient to keep me sleeping well, and keep the anxious ruminations undercontrol
2) I take provigil 200mg am and it's great. I have enough energy to do stuff. I don't feel a crash from it, typically, but I try to have some caffeine with breakfast and some with lunch. On days when I have no caffiene at lunch, I might feel a little sluggish. Certainly haven't experienced roller coaster high, or those panicky high feelings that I got when I took ephedra in college to stay up. (ugh) In fact, it's even less "jittery" than high doses of caffeine, in my experience.
3) once you have energy- you need to know what to do with it, otherwise you're just going to procrastinate and feel more and more anxious. I just finished reading "Eat that frog" which has a lot of very simple ideas to make your day more productive and end the cycle of procrastination. For inattentive folks, the chapters are short- about 5 or so pages, and organized around a central topic. Because the book is well-organized and written in a fairly simple style, it's not THAT awful to read. The things that have helped me the most is the idea to do the biggest most important most consequential thing FIRST, and THEN worry about the small stuff. Another idea that I've adopted with good success is a to-do list system. I write down everything I must do, I want to do, and I could do on a given day (after assessing my energy/stress/mentalhealth/physicalhealth level. Then I can cross things off of it. I can write down: coffee with creamer. And cross it off after breakfast. Read chapters 23 and 27 of biology book. cross it off. do first 3 questions of physics problems set. cross it off. meet with Abe and Mary for Lunch. cross it off. Stay awake in physics lecture. cross it off. do a load of laundry. uh oh! ran out of time, or something else came up. Move it to tomorrow's list. or the day after tomorrow... you get the picture.
I hope it helps you.
I did the first 5 chapters with exercises in July. Then I finished the rest of the book this morning while I was moaning and lying about in bed.
good luck!
-Li
poster:Lindenblüte
thread:694123
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061011/msgs/695077.html