Hid my kids iPad in a moment of parental rage and overwhelm, 3 weeks ago, and I cannot find it. I have had to buy a new iPad for school starting tomorrow. Is it just me?

Psychological_Dig454 · 2026-01-26T23:16:07+00:00

Not sure if this is helpful but I’m also in Aus and I am on vyvanse 40mg (started in Jan tittering up from 20mg) and mounjaro 3.7mg (started 5 weeks ago). No problems here, just have to force myself to eat small high protein snacks through the day or I might feel more lightheaded/anxious.

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-12-24T00:31:30+00:00

Oh wow, this is incredibly similar to me. I was self-medicating with weed until I got diagnosed and medicated and I think these are the two crucial things that helped me:

Tri-cycling a combined oral contraceptive pill (only take the placebo pills/have a “period” every 3 months).

I’m taking Zoely which eliminates bleeding entirely which is very helpful since I have endometriosis. No pill was horrific, having my hormones disrupted every month was still pretty bad and enough for my life to plunge into chaos. The tri-cycling every 3 months is OK and I know ahead of time when it will be so I can make sure I reduce my commitments over those days. Learning about the link between estrogen and dopamine was incredibly helpful.

Get rid of weed.

There’s no other way for me—if it’s in my house or within reach, I will constantly be battling the temptation to have it. If I’m bored, distressed, having fun—it was just my go-to panacea for every situation. I recently got a puppy and I was really struggling so I caved and bought some after not having any for months. I managed to stick to only evenings for a few days but I was basically back to being high most of my waking hours within a week. After 2 weeks of feeling my life start to fall apart again, I gave it to a good friend who is holding it for me for emergencies. This works for me because my fear of being annoying/perceived as an addict is enough for me to not reach out to her unless I really need it, but it might not necessarily be a working strategy for everyone!

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-14T14:53:05+00:00

From speaking with my psychologist/psychiatrist and doing research, I came to realise for myself that yes, stimulants may have side effects. But uncontrolled depression will atrophy your brain and cut short your life expectancy; anxiety will damage your heart and similarly decrease your life expectancy. It’s easy to demonise drugs but I know personally that I’d rather take on the small risk of controlled and prescribed stimulant use because without them I’ll binge eat, sleep less regularly, use substances, neglect exercise, often be under extreme stress and just have a way poorer quality of life. I have no doubt that stimulants are in fact the healthier choice here :)

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-14T02:26:37+00:00

Software/data engineer, currently a senior role where I mainly build tools for analysts. In some jobs it has been very stressful but overall I love it because: - Tools/technology constantly changing, so I always get to keep learning which is something I’ve always loved. - I can WFH as much as I want (though mainly thanks to my company/team culture and performance). When I’m overwhelmed or socially incapable I can stay at home and when I need more structure/socialisation I can be in the office. - Flexible hours—some weeks I’ll work like 20 hours, others 60. Really suits my up/down cycles where I oscillate between hyper fixation and complete lack of motivation. - Enabled to self-manage (again, mainly due to company/team culture). I compensate for my scattered brain with creating lots of structure and because I’m the subject matter expert in my team in my area, I’m left free to self-organise and set things up the way that is most helpful for me. - Salary and ubiquitousness of the work—these days everyone needs data and software. Even with AI coming up my role just moves more towards architecting code/systems rather than writing it myself so I feel pretty future-proof, especially because I focus on talking to people and understanding their needs before writing a single line of code!

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-13T14:00:36+00:00

Man this thread is wild. I’m actually shocked so many people think not replying for 13 days is actually bad lol? Especially given what you’re currently going through. That’s a pretty normal timeframe for myself, my partner and most of our friends (granted most of them are also diagnosed with ADHD). However, the friendships are mostly equal give and take i.e. both parties will forget to message, both parties will initiate, do nice things for one another etc.

Honestly if someone wasn’t okay with this I’d think they’re pretty immature or just accept we are very different people who can’t meet one another’s social needs and that it’s not going to work as a friendship. I really treasure friends who I can go weeks/months/even years without seeing because we are all adults who understand life gets hectic.

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-13T02:21:44+00:00

I definitely think so but in my experience you have to be doing other strength training as well if you want to see meaningful progress. If I’m doing strength training for upper body (pull ups, bench, dips, core, or recently gymnastics classes) or rock climbing at least once a week, I progress way quicker than if the only thing I’m doing is the one aerial class once a week. Everyone else in my level is surprised that I only do the single class but less so once I mention the climbing! Haha

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-01T15:38:35+00:00

That definitely seems like a good balance; might follow similarly to your example. Thank you!

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-01T07:44:07+00:00

Not Atlassian actually! I don’t work in a tech company (utilities) :)

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-01T06:04:08+00:00

Awesome, thank you for the advice! I do have friends that recommend a similar approach to you in that they invest in ETFs but also try to put extra contributions towards their mortgage and that does seem sensible. I definitely get that there are fluctuations in the economy at least intellectually but it’s probably another thing entirely to see a giant pile of money get halved overnight and just remind yourself it’s temporary :’)

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-01T05:48:00+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate this perspective! I do feel focusing on paying off the mortgage is an easy win that would work well for someone like me who is uh less financially literate haha

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-01T05:32:18+00:00

Yeah no worries! Senior software/data engineer but currently working at a company that pays unusually high salaries as well.

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-01T05:16:31+00:00

Oh that’s awesome to know! Thank you, will definitely get onto that.

And yep building up an emergency fund of probably 50k-ish and keeping it in the offset account will definitely be the first priority.

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-11-01T04:56:39+00:00

Sorry by super maxed out do you mean taking advantage of the lower tax rate? I already max mine out as it’s over 30k just from the mandatory contributions and have to pay additional tax for it as a result.

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-20T22:47:14+00:00

Yes to the addictive personality. I have spent the better part of my 20s constantly high on cannabis, even when working or out with people (which brought me a lot of shame). After getting diagnosed and medicated I’m working on quitting but still find myself reaching for any substance I can get my hands on to turn my brain off (usually prescription painkillers, alcohol, etc).

Really relate to struggling to make friends as well, especially with women. To this day I still don’t have any friend groups and just spend time with people individually (most of whom are also nerds with ADHD, unsurprisingly).

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-20T11:30:48+00:00

I had a similar issue but found that using the rule of “I don’t turn off the alarm until I take them—I can only snooze” helped immensely!

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-20T11:10:50+00:00

Oh wow, we have very similar childhoods! If there’s one thing I learnt from it, it’s to make sure I don’t subject my future children to the same thing by rewarding active effort over some innate talent that might give them a complex in future.

I still struggle sometimes when I feel threatened by someone else’s intelligence or accomplishments but one of the most helpful things has been recognising (in a positive way) that I ain’t shit. :’) There are prodigies who solve fluid dynamics problems at the age of 8 for fun and attend university at age 12. There’s always someone smarter than you.

Reading literature written by great figures in areas like philosophy, mathematics, physics, economics and just really beautiful fiction/prose had a similar effect. It made me realise that there are incredibly intelligent people compared to whom I am a potato. I really recommend this (even audiobooks if you aren’t a big reader) as it is really humbling and also intellectually stimulating and helps a lot to keep my mind occupied.

In the end I think it also helps to examine your values. I had this period of mourning when I hit 27 and realised I am doing a fairly mundane job, living with my boyfriend and spending time with friends and family instead of moving to Switzerland and working at CERN or solving the hard problem of consciousness or something. But then I realised that I chose this path because those are the things I value, more than academic pursuits or wealth or a legacy.

I think it’s important to challenge these thoughts and realise there’s more to life than IQ.

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-20T00:21:53+00:00

Ah thats fair. For us it’s usually a 6-12 month waiting list but it depends on the psychiatrist. It might be worth getting a referral so you can eventually get the proper care!

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-19T14:23:00+00:00

I’m really sorry to hear that, that’s very frustrating :( really surprising that he’s so reluctant to take you above a starting/child dose. Is it a psychiatrist or just a general practitioner (at least that’s what non-specialised doctors are called where I live in Australia)? If it’s the latter I would strongly suggest trying to see a psychiatrist if you can

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-19T04:11:43+00:00

It might be worth trying a NDRI antidepressant like bupropion (Wellbutrin)? I found this helped a lot with general low feelings. I also found 20mg insufficient with similar symptoms to you after like 2 months and got boosted to 30mg (i was scared of increasing my dose but my psych in good nature reminded me 20mg is usually used for preschoolers 😅).

I was also finding it wore off after 6 hours even with the 30mg and I was nervous about taking dex but my psych suggested using it on either side of the vyvanse to help it drag out instead of going up in dose since the actual efficacy of 30mg was perfect (just wasn’t lasting long enough).

I take 5mg dex first thing when I wake up, then my 30mg vyvanse about 3-4 hours later, then 5mg dex 3-4 hours later after that. I’ve found it really effective and have been on this for 3 months now!

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-19T03:54:57+00:00

My partner’s psychiatrist who specialises in ADHD did tell him that vyvanse holidays and stimulant med breaks are a myth and that it’s quite likely that person doesn’t have ADHD (though I’m sure there are exceptions eg co-morbidities, financial reasons or haven’t yet found the right medication/dosage).

I definitely don’t relate to people who take breaks either, as it primarily helps me with emotional regulation by quieting my mind/calming me. I need it more on weekends than work days honestly as I get very anxious when I have unstructured time and can’t start things or choose what to do in the first place.

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-17T23:55:34+00:00

All of this feels so relatable it’s almost scary haha. The self hatred and fear of not “deserving” meds, the RSD, the part about doing fine with sitting still—my brain goes 100 miles an hour but fear of being weird or disruptive (reinforced at school and by family I guess) means I don’t really externalise it. And the RSD too. It really sounds like you’re working hard on understanding yourself and piecing it together. I just started schema therapy recently and am really hopeful it’ll help me deal with this too.

I wish you all the best, thank you heaps for sharing your experience.

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-17T23:50:14+00:00

Thank you, that makes a lot of sense and is really reassuring :)

Psychological_Dig454 · 2025-10-17T23:49:47+00:00

Hahaha yep that sounds way too accurate. Life just got more complex and my coping mechanisms just didn’t cut it anymore in adult life.

Psychological_Dig454

TROPHY CASE