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Starting My Day the ADHD Way

ADHD is not only a daily struggle, it’s a morning fight.
ADHD College Blog | Thursday July 24th - 10:41am | More July 2008 Blogs
 
The ADDitude college blogger writes about surviving college and succeeding in school with ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is not only a daily struggle, it’s a morning struggle. Especially for me, because I wait to take my meds until just before I leave for work so I can get the most use out of them during my nine-hour day. Getting out of bed, showered, dressed, and making it to work without forgetting something at home is almost a superhuman feat… more like a super-ADHD feat.

I have a lot of alarm-related problems. When I finally get up, it feels like my body is twice as heavy; it takes physical effort to drag myself down the hall and into the shower. As soon as I get out of the shower, I want to check my email, or listen to music, but what I really need to be doing is drying my hair, so I don’t look like a crazy person all day.

Deciding on an outfit is hard for me too; I can never seem to leave the first thing on. Needless to say, my room’s pretty messy when I leave. The flat iron and blow-dryer are usually on the floor, waiting for anyone who dares to come in and burn their foot at 7am.

Almost every day I leave something at home. The most common item? My phone. Of course I don’t realize it’s missing until I’m already at work and it’s too late to go back. I’ve found it in some pretty strange places too (hamper anyone?).

Sometimes, I leave my house without shoes on, and when my feet hit the pavement, I think, "Wait, where are my shoes?" I’ve left my calculator or highlighters at home just because I was sick of lugging them around in my purse all the time and I took them out. Now, everything stays in there, because I know I’ll forget.

The worst thing to forget? MY PILLS! When I’m in a rush to get out the door I don’t stop to get my meds before I leave the house. I’ve learned to keep some in my purse for this reason, but let me tell you, I learned this the hard way -- through nine hours of torture!

Next Blog » Chewing on My ADHD Habits

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2 Comments:

  • Posted by Bekah - Jul 24 2008 @ 11:17 PM
    i'm going to try that!
    Thanks for the advice! I have read about taking meds before you actually need to wake up, and your post just brought it back to my mind that I wanted to try that. I like taking my long acting stimulants, but I have some short acting ritalin too, that was prescribed for doing homework at night. I almost never take it now, because I don't take it at 3 at work because my coworkers don't know about my ADHD, and I wouldn't be hungry for dinner until 7 or 8 anyways. But I never thought of taking it FIRST and then letting the long acting get me through the rest of the day... So, if I take the short acting at 5:30, get up at 6:30, i could probably sneak off to the bathroom around 10 to take my long acting which would last me until 6, just about the time I get home. That might be perfect! I'm going to try it tomorrow. I'll be sure to blog about it over the weekend, and I'll let you know how it works. THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION!!!!
  • Posted by texpat - Jul 24 2008 @ 11:53 AM
    long-acting stimulants vs regular
    Have you tried taking the short-acting stimulants? I know for me, a recent discovery that has made a huge difference in my ability to get up is to take my first dosage an hour before I want to get up. The alarm next my bed goes off one hour before I'd like to get up and right next to it is my medication and a glass of water. All I have to do is down the pills and then I go back to sleep (this has the added benefit of making me feel like I've already done something productive rather than starting off the day with a feeling of defeat which is what usually happens). I have another alarm across the room that goes off at the time I want to get up. This system has made a huge difference. Making myself get up used to be my biggest struggle of the day and when I couldn't do it I felt bad the rest of the day. With the short acting medicine you could take another dose at noon and that might even help with your 3 pm problem.
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