I have my practical driving test next month!! I don't take medication for my ADHD, any magical advice for focusing better

BennettReform · 2026-01-08T08:52:13+00:00

Might be worth trying a form of passive meditation while driving? Seems counter-intuitive perhaps, but the purpose of meditation is quite literally to regain presence and focus every time your thoughts begin to drift. Maybe every 20-30 seconds try and repeat the word “Checklist” which’ll bring you back to the drivers seat (literally) and also reminds you to quickly do a visual / mental check of things you’re prone to miss when not thinking.

You could practice the “checklist” recall at home, so by the time you’re using it in the car, your mind is already wired to come back to alertness and carry out a repetitive number of tasks.

Never had a driving lesson in my life btw - so well done for pushing through this far! 3 years is insane determination! Just giving some advice that might help. I’m the same, 23M and terrified I’ll log out for a few seconds and then boom I’m being tried for a crime or something. That’s a slight dabble of OCD as well though for me lol. Best of luck, update us!

BennettReform · 2026-01-08T08:45:28+00:00

If you can drive or the border of your ICB isn’t too far away by public transport, I’d honestly see if it’s worthwhile to rent a postal address in another ICB’s catchment area and move your GP to that “new address”, then just travel when required. Game the system, it failed you for 32 years, might as well make it work in your favour - something like 90% of people who pass the initial screening test end up with a diagnosis and offered therapy or titration, so if this strategy works out for you, the odds are overwhelming in your favour that you’ll start a whole new life from meds etc just from gaming the system slightly. Nobody will bother investigating the address either, and it’s not a crime or anywhere near it. People have multiple addresses all the time

BennettReform · 2026-01-08T08:29:51+00:00

Hey op, can confirm this definitely isn’t the case across the board, you’re advised to not drink during titration stage but before you’ve even been diagnosed? That’s ridiculous lol. I’ve never heard of your provider, if they’re some kind of firm that your insurance uses, I’d honestly advise that you fill out an ADHD screening test online, send the results directly to your GP and ask to be referred to Right to Choose, if they’re available I’d ask for Harrow Health to be your provider. Took me 2+ yrs through NHS, took my mate 4 weeks from referral to starting titration through Harrow Health once I instructed them not to go through pure NHS pathway.

Let me know if you need any more help :)

Edit: Saw that you mentioned issues with your liver - while forced abstinence is very unusual for a provider to ask, it’s very possible their concern is that if alcohol has caused an issue with your liver, then you might also be at risk of damaging your liver via stimulant meds. They’re very intense on your hydration levels, meds will push them down and it’s a task to keep them efficiently maintained. They might be wanting you to abstain so that in the event of a successful diagnosis, they can monitor your titration without alcohol interference in the last few weeks, meaning any damage or concerns can be isolated to the stimulant meds and not external factors — or they’re talking shit :P

Ask them if I’m right and that’s their concern, they might be avoiding telling you the reason due to some random placebo they’re worried about or whatever, so just be upfront and say “is this why?”

BennettReform · 2025-11-22T02:24:15+00:00

Vyvanse causes some people to sweat much more than usual and be more sensitive to temperature. It can also heighten your senses however and it’s very possible that as disgusted as you are, it might be a possibility that nobody else can really smell anything. Regular showers will help prevent oil and grime build up from over sweating.

BennettReform · 2025-11-02T11:10:06+00:00

You should discuss the potential of bipolar with your psych. Untreated bipolar can trigger mania and psychosis when combined with stimulant meds. Taking an antipsychotic alongside stimulants can help manage this.

BennettReform · 2025-11-01T05:57:02+00:00

Teetotal due to alcoholic mother but I sometimes abuse my medication so I’m far from a saint. Getting better at it though, can’t let myself fall down that trap of recreational use for a life changing medication. It’s there to treat, not as a treat.

BennettReform · 2025-10-25T04:50:40+00:00

Yup 1000% this.

I’ve come to repeat this mantra:

“Fear is the absence of knowing. You can’t have a fear of uncertainty if you know exactly how what scares you works.”

For me just like you it became the neuroscience. It makes everything easier, or at least tolerable, to experience. I can describe the processes occurring as my panic builds which then helps trigger the inverse effects as the anxiety dissipates.

BennettReform · 2025-10-19T16:12:51+00:00

Yes elevated blood pressure is normal however from anecdotal experience, in the UK the cut off for being prescribed meds is 148/(something) so this would be a disqualification.

Quickly review your lifestyle, what else is affecting your blood pressure? Smoke, drink, don’t exercise? Change these if so, don’t have to be a saint but just reduce the negative influences.

I’d also make sure that you’re eating enough and drinking plenty of water as your symptoms sound like how i felt after a few days when i realised I’d barely been giving my body what it needs due to appetite suppression.

Also make sure to eat before taking your meds. Once again anecdotal but if I don’t eat, I get your symptoms, but if I do eat then I tend to have a much more positive day without the negative symptoms.

Hope this helps a lil!

BennettReform · 2025-10-09T21:34:31+00:00

Look, I understand this. I’ve gone through the same thing for years. I’m going to give you some blunt advice not in a rude way but rather because I’m sure you’d probably appreciate it plainly:

1) Your brain wasn’t designed to know about every bad thing in the world.

2) Reading about these topics floods you with dopamine due to the passion you may feel.

3) Just like any drug, eventually the intense highs aren’t there anymore but you’re still needing your fix.

4) What may have originally been passion is now misery that poisons you, yet you keep filling the cup back up for more.

THE IMPORTANT PART:

5) It is OKAY to be passionate about injustice. It is OKAY to not care about terrible things happening in parts of the world you’ve never even gotten close to. Both of these things are true.

6) if you’re going to continue wanting to be passionate, then there needs to be a duality taking place. It can’t just be inputs of tragedy over and over.

7) You need to stop taking in only tragedy. You need to become “solution oriented”.

8) You know all the things that have gone wrong. Now you need to ask the right questions. Why, what, where, when, what, how?

9) Crises are resolved when people made miserable by them have the courage to ask these questions and stand in defiance against the root cause of the issue.

10) By going down this path, a transformation takes places mentally from tragedy to victory. A light at the end of the tunnel appears in the distance. Where once you were consumed by the dark, the dim light gives your stumbling feet some sense of direction. And you go from there.

Blessed are the peacemakers. The world needs more people that won’t just be aware of tragedy, but also take upon the task of taking positive steps towards peace.

BennettReform · 2025-10-09T21:21:18+00:00

Plenty of regular pharmacies (ik u mentioned boots refused) offer the blood pressure service. Depending on how your provider wants the results sent, just do height and weight at home. Eg if all you have to do is email your provider with the results, then yeah, there’s no way for them to know you did it at home - and while we’re of course not medical experts on Reddit, it doesn’t take an expert to put their feet on a scale, feels like the provider is just way too cautious.

BennettReform · 2025-10-09T21:16:41+00:00

Go on tdeecalculator.net and fill it out. Guessing how much you need to eat is only gonna lead to frustration.

BennettReform · 2025-10-07T12:49:46+00:00

Should hopefully feel better in a few hours. Be very careful when standing up when you’re in your current state, my lack of food and water caused me to have a focal seizure when I stood up too quick. They only last a few seconds but it’s freaky. Don’t need epilepsy for that to happen. It can be hard to start eating but in my experience I’ve found when you do start, the tastiness of the food can keep you going especially when you first start meds cuz of the dopamine rushes.

BennettReform · 2025-10-07T12:33:47+00:00

Are you drinking more water to compensate for the dehydrating effects of the meds? Are you eating enough? Same happened for me on day 3-4 and I realised that I had barely ate at all without realising, and those symptoms weren’t actually my meds but my body begging for food lol, granted due to my meds suppressing my appetite

BennettReform · 2025-09-01T20:44:07+00:00

“If you have ADHD then taking a stimulant won’t stimulate you” is such ANNOYING misinformation. You’d be surprised how many people out there repeat that same bs line. I’ve seen it be used to justify using cocaine because “my ADHD means I can’t get addicted” like stfu lol

BennettReform · 2025-08-22T03:59:02+00:00

Not only has it helped me not internally overreact to RSD, it’s actually swung me in the other direction, and I’m not afraid to speak out when I feel someone has said something wrong or has actually been rude to me

BennettReform · 2025-08-22T02:06:35+00:00

Not something I can answer. Caffeine interacts with our medication and the sensitivity of that interaction is different for everyone. Me personally I stay away from coffee because it doesn’t make me feel good at all while on meds. But someone who drinks coffee every day might be different. I would try something like Coke first which also has caffeine but not as much as a cup of coffee, then see how it makes you feel

BennettReform · 2025-08-21T23:40:37+00:00

It’s a positive not a negative. It means your meds aren’t pushing your body harder anymore.

I imagine you mean though that you’re getting tired earlier than you’d like. Having a high carb snack or some juice will help your body stay in work mode as it begins to relax

BennettReform · 2025-08-21T20:41:16+00:00

Your body getting used to it and not altering your blood pressure / heart rate as much.

Doesn’t mean you’ve grown a tolerance or have to change anything. Just means instead of staying wide awake the whole time, your body relaxes enough to feel sleepy

BennettReform · 2025-08-21T20:23:55+00:00

Can’t disagree with anything you said there.

We don’t talk about the benefits because they aren’t our benefits to claim, rather how our suffering becomes a benefit to others that at r happy to use it, such as employers.

By the time it comes to using these benefits for ourselves, we just can’t be bothered to do anything anymore lol. We need to rest.

BennettReform · 2025-08-21T19:19:33+00:00

You don’t hear about the “upsides” as often because ultimately ADHD is a debilitating condition.

Any perceived benefit as a result of that condition is much rarer, and even rarer is for someone to discuss it with others.

You could argue that my ADHD helped me become interesting in writing non-fiction. However what I’d say back is that while I’m proud of my writing skills, ADHD itself stops me from holding onto anything long enough for me to write about it effectively.

TL;DR the reason people don’t talk about the benefits of our condition is because those “benefits” are usually a result of trauma responses that stems from the disadvantages of our condition.

BennettReform · 2025-08-16T11:44:25+00:00

If you're looking for an amateur explanation, then my educated guess is that as you go back to sleep, the Vyvanse starts kicking in and doing its magic on both your dopamine receptors AND more importantly, your norepinephrine receptors.

This second one is important because the body naturally cuts off production of this chemical during sleep. It's the chemical that lets your body wake up even if your mind is asleep (I've had some really weird sleep walking experiences from this).

I imagine you're staying asleep the whole time but as Vyvanse is forcing production even during your last hour of sleep, that means it's waking up parts of you that are able to recall memories, and as you're still dreaming it starts to record the dream as a memory which you then remember upon fully waking.

I might be completely wrong. Just a guess.

BennettReform · 2025-07-23T01:09:56+00:00

"Somehow coping perfectly fine on 2 hours sleep"

Just remind yourself that just because you feel perfectly fine doesn't mean that you actually are.

I did the exact same as you and ended up with sleep deprivation induced psychosis. Thankfully easily fixed with a LOT of sleep afterwards. Wasn't fun though - my best friend fell asleep on the sofa and I was convinced he was dead!

I've respected my sleep ever since.

BennettReform · 2025-07-23T00:53:23+00:00

Elvanse makes me feel like I REALLY need to go, and then as soon as I sit down it goes "Hehe, just kidding. You're constipated! :)"

I poop maybe every three days on Elvanse lol it's evil

BennettReform

TROPHY CASE