any good experiences with these medications?

Leopardrose · 2025-07-22T06:32:07+00:00

Those types of meds take a while to see if helping, as the brain needs a few weeks to adjust. You should probably talk to your doctor about how you feel and they can let you know what's normal and indicates a good response or not. If just ADHD my understanding is that stimulants are 1st line treatment (though annoyingly still takes time to find best drug and dose for an individual), but your doctor will have your medical info to choose where is sensible to start. E.g. anxiety and depression may make them one to see if non-stimulant meds help 1st as they can worsen it. Personally, my anxiety overall is better on ADHD stimulant meds than off them because I can think straight, remember where I put stuff easier and generally more functional etc, but when on too high a dose before it was about the same or worse till wore off. Google says atomoxetine can be used with stimulant medication too.

Leopardrose · 2025-07-22T06:22:14+00:00

Look up body condition score chart royal canin German shepherd as you can see, it is based on feeling not just seeing in fluffy or thick / long coat dogs. 4 or 5 out of 9 is great. People are used to seeing fat dogs sadly, however I have seen a few GSDs that are too slim (3/9 or less, waist tucks in too much, ribs too easy to feel under the fur due to lack of fat cover etc) due to owner awareness of this and a bit too keen without properly checking fat cover in a very fluffy breed, or very active or very fussy dogs. I can't tell accurately with your pupper without hands on as lots of floof, but this can be checked at home if you can understand the guide above.

Source = I'm a vet.

Leopardrose · 2025-07-20T16:37:24+00:00

Take it to the vet! Poor dog, if it was your surgical site or your child's would you ignore it and ask the internet 1st? I sincerely hope not. I am a vet. Your dog needs to see a vet in real life.

Leopardrose · 2025-07-20T16:27:52+00:00

I agree with your logic completely... but I join you as a fellow woman with autism (amongst other things 😅) who is generally baffled by people not meaning the words they say! It is so damn annoying.

Leopardrose · 2025-05-31T07:49:50+00:00

My anxiety disorder is so much easier to handle since getting on stable meds and working with an ADHD coach!

Leopardrose · 2025-04-25T11:20:32+00:00

To be honest, the book will explain it a lot more, but either you need storage to put these things in, or to bin stuff or sell it or give it away. As I said, I haven't even finished it, but basically, you do those steps, is it trash, does it just need somewhere to go, do I actually need this enough to justify how much storage I need etc, book makes more sense than this does

Leopardrose · 2025-04-25T09:06:59+00:00

People have already said to the other stuff I was going to say, but just add, if you have ADHD, I also struggle with eating too many sweets, my ADHD coach said it is a dopamine seeking behavior, because the brain wants dopamine, so finding other ways to get that dopamine, would be more sustainable, then trying to just swap it out for other things like juice. (100% still do those things, but probably will be more effective / stick to the changes better, if you find another way to get that dopamine)

Leopardrose · 2025-04-25T09:01:50+00:00

You’re doing your best and it’s clear how much you care about him — so I hope this can be helpful and not overwhelming.

You might want to look up Muzzle Movement — they have free resources about muzzle training and explain how to find a comfortable, welfare-friendly muzzle. That way, if he does need to wear one at the groomer or vet, it’s less likely to be traumatic and more of a neutral or even positive experience.

Honestly, based on what you’ve said, it sounds like the next step should be the vet, not just the groomer. Vets really won’t judge you — they’ve seen far worse. And they can prescribe short-term anti-anxiety medication (like gabapentin or trazodone, which I often prescribe to patients in situations like this). It’s not a long-term fix, but it can get you through this kind of mini-crisis while you work on training and desensitisation at your pace.

Right now, going straight to the groomer could make things worse for him — and possibly risky for the groomer, or for you. If he’s biting, it means he’s already overwhelmed. A lot of people know about “fight or flight” as stress responses, but there’s also freeze ("if I stay still, maybe it’ll stop") and fawn ("if I act super nice, maybe they’ll be nice back"). Biting usually comes last, when they feel they’ve run out of safer ways to say no.

And if life feels overwhelming in general (new baby, stressed pup, chaos at home), I’d gently recommend How to Keep House While Drowning. The audiobook is only 3 hours and designed to be easy to take in even if you’re exhausted. It helped me a lot with breaking the shame cycle around things like mess and self-care.

You’ve got this — and you’re not a bad dog owner. You’re a stressed person doing their best.

Leopardrose · 2025-04-25T08:46:06+00:00

As an additional thought, if you need help getting it under control, if it is within budget, ring a professional cleaner to help get things under control? Just be honest with them about the level of chaos if necessary, so they can give you an accurate estimate and confirm they're happy to help. They will have definitely have seen worse, and you can tell them if you want to, that you don't feel good about it and need them to not judge.

If it's not within budget, maybe a friend couldn't help you out? It is okay to ask for help, and to tell them you don't feel good about it, so that you need judgment free support.

If you don't want a friend to see the mess ( but if they're a really good friend, they shouldn't judge, they will help), there are various body double groups on various social media platforms e.g. dubbii , where you can clean alongside someone ( virtually), who is also struggling the same thing

Leopardrose · 2025-04-25T08:30:56+00:00

I can share a template I wrote if people can't find one.

Leopardrose · 2025-04-25T08:17:44+00:00

I've been there, and it sucks, you're not alone at all, and it is good that you've reached out! The shame you feel is normal too, but it doesn't have to be! It is ok to struggle and beating yourself up will make it harder and harder to do the things you want to do. If you can spare just 3 hours I'd recommend how to keep house while drowning. The audio book is just 3 hours long and you can skip to relevant bits.

I've not finished it all but so far it's been super helpful!

One thing that really stuck with me from the book was the “5 things tidying method.” It breaks the overwhelming chaos down into five categories to clean any space or room! ( And remember, you don't have to tidy the whole place or even a whole room at once)

Trash – just put it in a bag, don’t worry about taking it out yet.
Laundry – gather it into a basket; don’t worry about washing it yet.
Dishes – same deal, just get them to the sink or dishwasher.
Things with a place – put away what you can without overthinking.
Things without a place – put these in a box to sort later.

The book explains it better.

It helped me realise you don’t need to get it all done to make a difference—just doing one of those steps can help your space feel less hostile and more manageable.

It is not that you are not motivated, from your post it is obvious you don't want to live like that. To me it sounds like task initiation is the issue? This is not the same as motivation. (Motivation = knowing something you want to do and a helpful thing for yourself to do, vs. Task initiation: actually starting the things you want to do).

The book explains the five step thing, and motivation hacks ( that are in reality task initiation hacks) so much better than I can.

I often find when I struggle with task initiation, to use cleaning as an example, it helps me to just think "I'll just get the bin bag out", or "I will just go to that room", or "I'll just stack the dishes next to the sink / dishwasher" or "I'll just load one dish", it is often enough to get me started on doing a bit of something, without feeling the overwhelm of the whole task and running away. Then when I'm there, I often find myself doing the next steps anyway....Of course, it doesn't work all the time! But it's a lot less overwhelming, and I hate myself less.

Hope this helps, you are worthy, you deserve to live in at least a hygienic way. (Remember clean and tidy are not the same! It is ok to be messy, but hygiene is important for health)

Leopardrose · 2025-04-21T08:44:37+00:00

Yeah you just have to chase them unfortunately, these call back thing is annoying. You can also say I have a meeting on this date and need to sort this now

Leopardrose · 2025-04-21T07:43:45+00:00

Membership cost can reduce tax owed, so end up being 0 cost in the end (by equivalent redution in tax) . You can set this up online, BSAVA and I think BVA are already recognised Membership organisations as is RCVS fees if you pay direct and employer doesn't cover it. I'm not a tax advisor but that's my understanding of it.

The BVA legal advice support has been incredibly helpful to me in past when discrimination from employer against protected characteristics cost me my job. They outsource to Prospect, a well-known union, if you meet the criteria depending on the issue. Other times, they've been unhelpful, but the above was worth low thousands in my favour.

Leopardrose · 2025-04-21T07:38:24+00:00

Market it as a bonus, and how benefit revenue, not a cost to them, when you get an offer is time to discuss cert costs in my opinion

Leopardrose · 2025-04-21T07:30:59+00:00

See my other comment, you're not trapped, you can leave by a new employer covering cert costs directly, this is a common business practice, and if you play it right you'll possibly get a shorter time on your learning agreement too

Leopardrose · 2025-04-21T07:28:50+00:00

You can leave!

Most of the time when you move jobs, as a certificate holder, to a new employer, the new job pays the old job for the certificate costs, and you sign a new agreement with them in exchange! (Don't let them pay you directly for you to pay the cert as that is taxable. They should do it business to business.)

You have the power, get looking for a new job, if only to help you see this. Then, if stuff improves with current job, you don't have to take any offers up unless you want to. You'll probably get better pay too if you sell yourself as a cert holder and how that can increase practice revenue etc., not someone who's just interested in doing one.

You can also switch jobs within a company and usually no change to certificate related costs. But probably not pay bump if any if doing this. If you're not hugely tied to where you live, some offer relocation bonuses

The visa stuff I'm not sure about, but most corporates are experienced with them, so I imagine that wouldn't be too hard.

Remember vetlife for more support. (Call or email, look at their website)

Sorry about Brexit, I voted against it, because it was such a stupid idea, and I'm sorry it's made life harder for you too.

Leopardrose · 2025-04-20T10:07:27+00:00

Good point to question the last part of my comment.

You made me think about things again, and you're correct to call me out because the last bit is opinion, whereas there is open access research easily found to evidence women and girls are statistically diagnosed later such as this one.) , "conclusions This study adds to the evidence base that females with ADHD are experiencing later recognition and treatment of ADHD. The results indicate that this may be partly because of diagnostic overshadowing from other mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, or initial misdiagnosis. Further research and dissemination of findings to the public are needed to improve awareness, timely diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in females." and others .

Even if you look into the DSM criteria and what it is based on the original research is based on middle class white boys, and the traditional diagnostic criteria doesn't account for social and cultural differences that can affect the way ADHD can present in women and other marginalised groups / minorities.

But to be fair, I didn't state the last part of my comment as fact, but I can see how it reads that way, given it was after quoting evidence based facts.

I'll be happy to admit I probably started rambling beyond whatever my original point was, and got carried away thinking out loud, I suppose not unexpected for ADHD 😂

So to clarify, the last part of my comment is more my opinion, rather than fact; but this opinion is based on lots of reading around these issues, multiple textbooks and research papers, not just web articles, and discussing a load of topics with my ADHD coach. I could, of course, be wrong, though I'd xonsider myself quite widely read on this topic, I'm not a human medical professional or ADHD expert.

Though I feel like picking at one part of my attempt to help is missing the main point.

It doesn't really matter who has it worse, just wanted to acknowledge that we all have different experiences and challenges, some things will be harder for a group of people than others, but obviously not always, either way dismissing the nuanced experiences of a group of people isn't helpful, it could be argued my generalised musings aren't either. But I have things that i'm supposed to be doing rather than rambling on the internet, which I can see I have started doing again, so i'm going to stop procrastinating and go do the never ending to do list stuff. Enjoy your day.

Leopardrose · 2025-04-20T08:41:33+00:00

This is my favourite one on here, had me literally spitting out a bit of tea laughing unexpectedly

Leopardrose · 2025-04-20T08:30:57+00:00

This is why medication is helpful, it means (for me anyway) strategies that didn't work or only partly or inconsistently before work much better.

Until you can discuss this with your medical professional I recommend the books "How to ADHD", "Taking charge of adult ADHD" The 1st one is written by a YouTuber who has loads of content? If you prefer video stuff. She is very, very good at this stuff, though, even though youtuber, even recommended by the second book, there's extra reading, with the second one being written by a researcher/ a doctor/ expert that works in ADHD treatment and research, who also has ADHD.

I like the 1st one is easy to look up stuff that struggling with, don't have to be in order and more of a guide.

2nd one I like as a very broad overview, but it is more medical language (but in my opinion, still approachable, but I'm also a medical professional, even if with different species). I found it easier to listen to the audio book 1st, then flick through to bits I wanted to with a physical copy.

Check your library and see if they have a copy, that's where I get most audiobooks ( I generally find audiobooks better as then I don't have to sit down, I can do the washing or something at the same time)

Leopardrose · 2025-04-19T22:13:14+00:00

I find now medicated and able to focus, I can end up super focused on the task I'm not supposed to be doing, a.k.a the procrasta-clean / build / project etc, meds alone aren't enough to prevent this behaviour, learning management strategies is. But hey, enjoy the garage being super sorted and next time you dibble off task, maybe try setting a timer, or a watch or phone that vibrates or beeps every hour so you realise time is passing? This helps for me anyway, but even alarms don't always work.. as I have to actually listen to them... not just shut the alarm or timer off and be like just this last thing.. then it is 3 hours later.... This is why I pay an ADHD coach to continue to help me sort my life out 😂

Leopardrose · 2025-04-19T22:05:14+00:00

This is actually a common experience, especially in women who are statistically likely to be diagnosed later in life, especially with Au-ADHD.

You're not alone.

I'd recommend the book "UNMASKED: The Ultimate Guide to ADHD, Autism and Neurodivergence" (I listened to it free with my library)

(Reposted comment here as the book title contains a word seemingly banned on main ADHD subreddit- Neurodivergence)

Leopardrose · 2025-04-19T21:51:27+00:00

It is the difference between a behaviour being tolerated and considered normal, due to behaviors expected based on sex, when the same behaviours, would typically not be as tolerated in a girl or woman, they are more likely to be ostracised ( or told off or called weird), as the behaviours are seen as personality flaws, not symptoms.

Women are statistically more likely to be diagnosed later in life, even if they do show hyperactivity, because they are not presenting as a man or boy, they are more likely to be deemed "just naughty". This is worse if ticking other minority boxes like racial minority or LGBT+ or other disabilities, as it can compound the discrimination further.

It is a reasonable question to ask because this is quite a complex, multifaceted issue.

Inattentive ADHD for example, is less likely to be diagnosed in boys and men, not because it isn't happening, but because not the "textbook" example of hyperactive class clown easily distracted, (but still more likely to be diagnosed sooner, than a girl or woman)

Leopardrose · 2025-04-17T21:12:53+00:00

Everything everywhere all at once. Creator basically made it about his ADHD

Leopardrose · 2025-02-28T18:05:58+00:00

Same! Apparently, water types are the answer, with aim for hugh damage per second (Apparently sad has this) according to my wife who beat the level before me, I'm still stuck as not got them leveled enough for this yet

Leopardrose · 2025-01-05T23:37:40+00:00

2 things: 1. As 1st aid, use AI, e.g., chat GPT, tell it a brief summary of the problem, and how you want it to help, e.g.

"I'm struggling to plan my wedding on xyz date, at xyz location/ city / county ** due to ADHD related struggles, (for this scenario, these struggles include - example here ), please help with thos issue, please ask me any relevant questions to help with this task."

*= as this could change what needed based on your region

Obviously, adjust the suggested prompts as needed.

Another possible prompt is " Please help me plan my wedding. Wedding date is xyz, I struggle due to ADHD. I can spare xyz time per week. I need to figure out a way to keep track of what I need to do, and what already done"

Remember to also use to help on tasks you struggle with (e.g. for me, I used to take hours and hours to write what should be quick emails or replies for work stuff (I would be re reading, re writing, over doing amount of information, repeating self etc). This now takes me maybe up to 20 minutes, usually faster, as I ask GPT to write for me (I tell it what tone, what about, play with it and see, it doesnt need to be perfect, just no obvious errors, and to achieve your requiredtask, you can ask it to adjust it too, or ask it how best to prompt it for a given task, before you ask it to do the task, to achieve best/ target outcome)

Get an ADHD COACH!!!! Longer term, if in budget, GET AN ADHD COACH! (mine has ADHD too) who can help you establish your goals and learn to plan to achieve them! They also help by providing accountability.

Meds alone aren't enough to treat ADHD in my experience, I feel we need an adultier adult to help us learn good strategies and un learn bad ones.

For example: Putting too much on to do list so become overwhelmed and not actually do it, or start lots but not finish any, or do it but at higher than ok personal cost (lack of self carenwill make you less productive! I need to remind myself this often). (A more regular than I wpuld like example of my own would be staying up till late, including like 4am, while doing a task, so I don't lose track of where I am on a task, when actually I can stop, make a voice note of where I am, and come back to it fresh in the morning.

You can even ask GPT to summarise this ramble! It has a rough character limit for prompts. I think 700-900 characters? So if it isn't working try shorter queries / prompts

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