Women with ADHD - diagnosis in adulthood

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I'm overcommitting myself to work so I don't have to think about Christmas. Husband wants me to have a massive clear out of the house over the holidays and I know I can't do it effectively without being what looks like 'untidy' as I go. Which will attract comments, and sap my motivation halfway through.
 
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A big positive for me is everyone wants me on their quiz team. Related to that, I'm great at small talk even though I hate it because I know about lots of things in superficial detail but love finding out more. I'm also good at customer service/complaints because I can read micro expressions and defuse situations before anyone else even thinks they are situations in need of careful handling.
Thank you for summing up the three things I am really good at as well! :ROFLMAO:
 
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I'm overcommitting myself to work so I don't have to think about Christmas. Husband wants me to have a massive clear out of the house over the holidays and I know I can't do it effectively without being what looks like 'untidy' as I go. Which will attract comments, and sap my motivation halfway through.
I get it. Take it steady thought. Like I always say to mine, The untidy does eventually lead to tidy though!!
 
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I am massively struggling to control my spending atm, alternating between designer purchases and discounters, and the house is a hoarders paradise 😩 I don’t know how to switch it off, I can’t tolerate stimulants so can’t medicate, but my husband is miserable, this can’t go on
 
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I am massively struggling to control my spending atm, alternating between designer purchases and discounters, and the house is a hoarders paradise 😩 I don’t know how to switch it off, I can’t tolerate stimulants so can’t medicate, but my husband is miserable, this can’t go on
I was stupidly going to say could you not turn it into like business and sell stuff on vinted etc if you need to buy. But then I remember where I am posting and what I would do in that scenario.
It sounds daft but could you take anything like anti depressants, I’m not medicated yet with stimulants but fluoxetine has calmed down some of my compulsive/addictive behaviours
 
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Just thinking out loud about overlaps between adhd and autism. I‘ve looked into the definition and diagnostic criteria for autism, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t apply to me.

But, I’m really starting to realise how sensitive I am with sensory issues. I’ve been doing some work in a different place recently and honestly feel like I’m going crazy because the lights are too bright, its too warm, and there’s no fresh air, and it’s impossible to change any of these things. Oh and there‘s too much noise.

It makes it so hard for me to focus on anything, and it just leaves me feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.


ETA. And I hate being like this, it makes me feel like I’m being a princess, or can’t just pull myself together, but it really does affect me in such a debilitating way.
 
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I was stupidly going to say could you not turn it into like business and sell stuff on vinted etc if you need to buy. But then I remember where I am posting and what I would do in that scenario.
It sounds daft but could you take anything like anti depressants, I’m not medicated yet with stimulants but fluoxetine has calmed down some of my compulsive/addictive behaviours
I was on an SSRI for about 6 years, it didn’t help with these behaviours sadly, I was living a cluttered life back then too ☹
 
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Just thinking out loud about overlaps between adhd and autism. I‘ve looked into the definition and diagnostic criteria for autism, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t apply to me.

But, I’m really starting to realise how sensitive I am with sensory issues. I’ve been doing some work in a different place recently and honestly feel like I’m going crazy because the lights are too bright, its too warm, and there’s no fresh air, and it’s impossible to change any of these things. Oh and there‘s too much noise.

It makes it so hard for me to focus on anything, and it just leaves me feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.


ETA. And I hate being like this, it makes me feel like I’m being a princess, or can’t just pull myself together, but it really does affect me in such a debilitating way.
My personal hunch with this, as someone with ASD and ADHD, is that anyone's brain gets overstimulated eventually and it happens far faster for autistic people because there are processing issues, but with ADHD it's more about the executive functioning and our wildly out of calibration attention (it's not attention deficit is it really, it's more inappropriate, locked on attention?!) soooo if you are attempting to focus on doing the thing whilst there are other things screaming for your attention like bright lights, feeling physically uncomfortable, intermittent noise then you're basically wrangling a puppy in street food market.

Not sure if you're really after advice but I've found ear defenders, tinted glasses and layering clothes helpful for open plan office situations. The ear defenders keep people away, the yellow/orange specs look a little strange over my regular glasses but with all the kerfuffle over blue light you can just blame that and no one is looking at your clothes closely enough to read anything into your body temperature!
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Secondly I know he’s quite private but is usually pretty open with me, or seems to be.
a family member of his has told me some quite serious stuff that’s been happening and he hasn’t told me at all.

I don’t know if it’s an oversight as he’s busy and maybe stressed or he just wants to be private but I think with the stupid fb rsd and then this , it’s really triggered me today.
Single most useful piece of relationship advice I've ever been given is a reworking of Hanlon's razor:

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

EXCEPT: Replace stupidity with "their own stuff" or even, in close relationships, "their desire to keep you safe, unstressed and unworried"

Maybe he doesn't want to think about it in his happy place with you, perhaps he doesn't want you to deal with negativity (especially true if you're going through anything yourself!) and it could be that he's just waiting for the right time to discuss it.

It's easier said than done but try to train your brain to be kind in its conclusion jumping; if someone is rude to you or pushes you out the way on the tube, they're having a bad day, it's not about you.

If you get a dirty look from a coworker it's more likely they were staring into space and thinking about having to eat sprouts at Christmas than they intentionally gave you fleeting stinkeye for no reason.

As I said, not easy, takes time and practice, but so worth it for your peace of mind if you can manage to block even ten percent of the "oh it's my fault xyz" RSD reactions that pop up from what turns out to be utterly inconsequential.

It's almost never about you <3
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I am massively struggling to control my spending atm, alternating between designer purchases and discounters, and the house is a hoarders paradise 😩 I don’t know how to switch it off, I can’t tolerate stimulants so can’t medicate, but my husband is miserable, this can’t go on
Try removing all of your autofill, PayPal, Google and Apple wallets etc so that you have to find your card and input the whole number/expiry date etc every single time you buy something online.

Depending on your relationship with your husband you could make an accountability agreement of some kind maybe? I went through a phase where I had to show my purchases spreadsheet to my sister, that really killed the frivolous spending because having to fill in the why I needed it section was... Challenging.

Some people swear by the "keep it in your basket for 24 hours" rule but that didn't work for me because impulsive is impulsive!

Finally, if the hoarding is an issue, draft in some mates and have a multistage clear out. Thanks to our total lack of object permanence it's essentially the same as going shopping because you'll have forgotten most of what you've bought, and the right friends can tough love you out of unnecessary items to then maybe sell online?
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I think I made an acceptable new thread?

 
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